odds on baseball

The Game starts at 4:05 Pacific team. Most online sportsbooks use Eastern time, but this example is taken from Pinnacle Sportsbook and they use the Pacific time zone.
Team: The team on top is always the visitor and the bottom team is always the home team. In this case the New York Yankees are the away team and the Boston Red Sox are playing at home.
Pitcher: This column lists who the starting pitchers are for each team. Mike Mussina is starting for the Yanks and Pedro Martinez is Boston's starter. The starting pitcher plays a big role in setting the daily baseball game odds, but the public tends to over estimate just how valuable the starter is actually worth. Remember baseball is not a 1 man sports but a team sport.
Moneyline: The team that has the higher negative number is designated the favorite. Typically the team with the minus in front of their number is always the favorite but under rare circumstances both teams can have a minus in front of their number. An example would be 2 evenly matched teams where the baseball betting odds would be -105 for both team. In this example the Red Sox are a -145 favorite and the Yankees are a +135 underdog. For more information about how much you need to lay to place a bet with moneylines check out our baseball betting odds column.
Total: The oddsmaker set the total number of runs scored at 7.5. Because there are so few runs scored in baseball odds makers prefer to move the moneyline before they move the total. In this example the over 7.5 is the favorite and is listed at -115 where as the under 7.5 is the underdog and is listed at +105. If the public kept placing bets on the over they moneyline would keep increasing until ultimately they would move the total to 8.
Hopefully you now understand MLB baseball odds which is more than most beginning bettors can say. If your ready check out today's MLB game odds below. Thanks for stopping by and have a great season in 2005