We’re through three months of the 2014 Major League Baseball season, so it’s time to do some reflecting. Here’s a list of the four most profitable teams so far.
1. Milwaukee Brewers (+1471)
The Brewers have remained steady while the other teams in the National League have not been able to be as consistent. The Brewers’ lineup is a balanced one, leading to a stream of productive games in support of a pitching staff that, while solid, has not been overpowering or dominant. The Brewers just have very few holes or weaknesses in their batting order. You won’t find many easy outs in their collection of bats. The Brewers are getting everything they could want from starter Wily Peralta, and other rotation guys such as Kyle Lohse and Yovani Gallardo are going to provide several innings on almost every game night when they get the ball. There’s so much to recommend about this team, which is staying a step ahead of the rest of the pack in the National League Central.
2. Oakland Athletics (+1053)
This team has the biggest run differential in baseball, and it’s the best team in baseball. The A’s were supposed to have struggled this season, at least at the beginning of the campaign in early April. Multiple pitchers were sidelined for the season with injuries, which was supposed to rob this pitching staff of the depth needed to compete for six months. However, pitchers such as Jesse Chavez and Scott Kazmir have been so much better than a lot of people were expecting. As for the batting order, it’s the same as what analysts have come to expect over the years. The A’s attack opposing pitchers and take big swings at the plate. They punish pitchers for bad pitches and do not let up.
3. Seattle Mariners (+887)
You would be hard-pressed to find a bigger surprise in baseball. The Mariners’ lineup has not looked very intimidating, but it has performed very well over the past month. One thing to note here is that the Mariners are benefiting from the fact that the Texas Rangers have been destroyed by injuries this season. This has affected the balance of power in the American League West. With the American League East and the A.L. Central-based Cleveland Indians also struggling, the Mariners have been able to step into the gap and become a team that, if the season ended today, would be in the one-game wild card playoff with the Los Angeles Angels.
4. San Francisco Giants (+769)
The Giants have been terrible over the past three weeks, as their nine-and-a-half-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers has turned into a half-game deficit when compared to their rivals in Dodger Blue. The Giants have lost hold of what they had for the first two months of the season. Yet, the Giants are still on this list in the fourth spot because for those first two months, they didn’t make any real misstep or perform below expectations. They made such gains at the betting window that they’re still an overperformer in the bigger scheme of things. Their hitting does have to get better if they’re going to return to a profitable period of time.
