We’re exactly one week away from the start of spring training games, with the Baltimore Orioles hosting the New York Yankees in the very first exhibition game on February 20th. First pitch for that one is 12:05 CST, with the Chicago Cubs hosting the second earliest practice game, a “crosstown” affair against the White Sox, at Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona with a start time of 2:05.
In addition to the Cactus League opener, the Cubs and White Sox will play twice more this exhibition season: March 1 at Sloan Park and March 13 at Camelback Ranch in Glendale.
And while none of those games count, once they actually do, big things are expected of the Chicago Cubs. When you look at the odds for the upcoming MLB season, you’ll see that the bookies are bullish, not bearish, on the North-Siders.
They are consensus strong favorites to win the NL Central division, usually being backed at a price that ranges from +105 to +120.
The closest competitor to the Cubs is the team that won the division last season, and knocked them out of the playoffs in the divisional round, the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Brew Crew are priced from in the range of +220 to +265. This season, it looks like the Cubs are set to end their division title drought (last one was during that quasi-season of 2020, which was greatly abbreviated, due to covid-19.
Led by superstar-in-the-making Pete Crow-Armstrong, RBI machine Seiya Suzuki and big time splash signing Alex Bregman, the Cubs look poised to run the central this season.
Getting past the Los Angeles Dodgers to take the National League pennant? Well, that’s a different story entirely.
Given how egregious the L.A. Dodgers spending is, ridiculously beyond the score of everyone else in baseball, it’s going to be very hard for anyone to capture the flag, in the NL, other than L.A.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, RG.org and Ratings.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.