The Washington Nationals/Montreal Expos franchise still has never appeared in the World Series. That didn’t stop the oddsmakers from giving them the #1 favorite status heading into the playoffs today. They are the deepest team on both offense and defense, and only lack postseason experience. The Stephen Strasburg ‘decision’ of a few years back, will never be put to rest until this club wins a title. Despite them being favored, I am not sure the ranking is justified, as the Dodgers reside in the same league.

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It is time to place your bets on the World Series. The Washington Nationals are your favorites to win the whole thing at +450.  The Tigers, Angels and Dodgers are both next at all tied for +500.

To round out the teams in sequence…5 –  Baltimore is at +700, 6 –  St. Louis at +900, 7 – Oakland at +1100, 8 – San Fran at +1400, and the Royals and the Bucs are the biggest odds on the board at +1600 for 9th.

At first glance I see the pattern.  The Nationals are the most deep team across the board, with having all 4 starters as potential aces in Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez and Doug Fister.

Each one of the players in the positional lineup, were over right near of plus.400 for Slugging Percentage, and this doesn’t even include Ryan Zimmerman – who will be an awesome bat off the bench at least to start. Read the rest of this entry →