The Daily Sweat: The Chicago Cubs are terrible. Bet accordingly
The post-trade deadline Chicago Cubs are the worst team in baseball. Though the Baltimore Orioles might argue with that.
The Cubs have been horrible since selling off Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Craig Kimbrel. They're 1-13 in August. The Miami Marlins also sold at the trade deadline, and the Marlins just swept the Cubs with little resistance. The Cubs' run differential this month, in just 14 games, is minus-56.
The oddsmakers haven't been that unkind to the Cubs, at least not as harsh as they should be. The Cubs have only been a +200 underdog once, and on Monday they're a +180 underdog at BetMGM against a Cincinnati Reds team that is nine games over .500 and hasn't been outscored by 56 runs this month. Bettors who took a look at the Cubs' roster after the deadline and have been fading them have made a nice profit.
The Cubs' fall started well before the trade deadline, and was a reason they were sellers. They were 42-33 after a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 24. Then the Dodgers swept the rest of the series, the Milwaukee Brewers swept the Cubs (including the finale, in which the Cubs lost 15-7 after leading 7-0) and the free fall began. The Cubs are 10-35 since.
The team the Cubs are putting on the field since the deadline is particularly odoriferous, however. Most nights the lineup has six or seven players most fans have never heard of and seem unlikely to be any part of the overall rebuild. The Cubs aren't even keeping games close; they're 1-9 on the run line in their last 10 games.
It's hard to take big favorites in MLB, and the Reds are -225 on Monday. The run line of -1.5 is just -115 though. It seems that more often than not the rest of the season, any tickets betting against this Cubs team will cash.
Here's the first look at the Monday betting slate:
No preseason football?
We do get a Monday night game in Week 2 of the preseason, but not this week. Apologies.
It's just baseball on Monday, unless you dig well into the board for some oddball sports.
OK, well what do we have in MLB then?
It's a 10-game slate and only two are between teams with winning records (and one includes the 59-58 New York Mets). The Oakland A's and Chicago White Sox start a series, with -110 odds for each. The Mets go to the San Francisco Giants, having flown through the night after being swept by the Dodgers. The Mets are +165 underdogs. I'd normally like to take the Mets, but there's not much reason to take them.
Who cashed tickets over the weekend?
If you bet all the unders for the preseason games, you might be retiring today. The unders for the 17 preseason games are 14-3. They were 14-2 before the Indianapolis Colts beat the Carolina Panthers 21-18 on Sunday.
There were some somewhat predictable results over the NFL weekend: The Las Vegas Raiders winning in front of a home crowd, the Houston Texans trying a little too hard and winning, the New York Jets beating a New York Giants team resting everyone. There are angles to preseason betting if you look hard enough.
In MLB, the Dodgers' sweep over the Mets reminded everyone their top gear is still the best in baseball. Meanwhile we have dueling 11-game losing streaks, between the Orioles and Cubs.
The English Premier League also kicked off, and it's not too late to read the EPL season betting preview from Yahoo Sportsbook's Nick Bromberg.
What's the best bet?
The A's look good. Frankie Montas, their starter on Monday, has been on a nice roll. The White Sox bullpen is struggling and they dropped a couple in a row at home to the New York Yankees after winning the "Field of Dreams" game. I like the White Sox in general, but the A's are the right side Monday.
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