The Cleveland Indians were the cream of the crop in the AL Central – as well as the AL – last season, and were even one win away from winning the World Series. They came up just short, though, and will have to try again this year. But with a strong team couple with relatively weak competition, the Tribe have a great chance to make it back-to-back division titles. Read on below for our complete preview of the AL Central.
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2017 MLB American League Central Preview
Favorite: Cleveland Indians (-450)
Unfortunately for the Indians, the universe was only going to allow one Cleveland team a championship in 2016. But with the Cavs hardly looking like they’re capable of defending their title, this might be the Tribe’s year to make amends for blowing their 3-1 lead in the World Series to the Cubs.
The Indians are priced at +600 to take the title this season, tied for the best odds in the AL along with the Boston Red Sox. But unlike the Sox, the Indians are massive favorites to win their division, the AL Central.
The pennant-winning team of last year remains mostly the same save for swapping Mike Napoli’s bat with Edwin Encarnacion. Their stellar rotation anchored by ace Corey Kluber (a +500 favorite to win the Cy Young) will get Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar back. And their excellent bullpen will also have Andrew Miller for an entire season.
All in all, it’s shaping up to be another great season in the Land.
Second Tier: Detroit Tigers (+425); Kansas City Royals (+650)
The Tigers are tipped to give the Indians the most trouble in the race for the division. Like the Indians, the Tigers are set to run basically the entire team back, and will be hoping stars Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander – with the help of J.D. and Victor Martinez and Ian Kinsler – have enough left in the tank to carry an aging team back to the playoffs.
The Kansas City Royals experienced a more significant shake-up to the team, which included the tragic passing of young starter Yordano Ventura. His loss, along with that of Edinson Volquez, Wade Davis, and Kendrys Morales, will be a big blow to the 2015 World Series champs, who don’t appear to have the weapons to go toe-to-toe with the Indians and Tigers.
Long Shots: Minnesota Twins (+2,800); Chicago White Sox (+4,000)
The two worst teams in the AL could very well come from the Central. The Twins took home the unenviable title last year with just 59 wins, and haven’t made any significant moves over the summer. In fact, they may be making moves during the season… to make their team worse. Second-base slugger Brian Dozier will almost definitely be shopped. So unless their young stars – Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano – finally make their much-anticipated leap, they will be stuck near the bottom of the league standings for most of the year.
However, it’ll take some doing for them to sink below the Chicago White Sox, who have hit the reset button on the entire franchise. After jettisoning ace Chris Sale and Adam Eaton for elite prospects like Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, and Yoan Moncada, the Sox are expected to hold fire sales for their remaining assets (David Robertson, Jose Quintana, Jose Abreu) during the season. This team has no interest in winning this season, and might even struggle reaching its over/under regular season win total of 69.5, which is the lowest in the AL.
Writer’s Prediction
The Indians (-450) once again stamp their class on the division as they win back-to-back AL Central titles.
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