Gambling is stupid. Don't gamble stupid.

 

Just to cut in again before the game thread, the New York Yankees, having lost 4 of their last 6, and far and away their greatest player of a generation, and quite possibly two of their leading starters to injury—don't look for Cam to get out of the third today, more's the pity—are now...once again heavy favorites to take the American League pennant.

The Yanks are rated a 40.2 percent chance to do just that; the next highest favorites are Seattle, 18.3; and the Cleveland Guardians of Traffic, recent vanquishers of our boys, at 14.9.

AND...the Yanks remain the no. 2 favorite in all of baseball to win the World Series, at 20.6, trailing only the surging Dodgers (28.2). Next up is Atlanta, at 12.4. 

The next highest Series pick in the AL is Seattle, at 7.6 percent. Tampa Bay, which still leads the Yanks by half-a-game in their division, is only a 2.2 percent pick.

As always, this has to do with the "Pythagorean record" of the Yankees...never mind that they are, for instance. 7-12 in one-run games.

The real bet to take? The Bronx Bombers are considered to have a 99.8 percent chance of making the playoffs. They will not. 

Run out and take that money, if you can find it. Do it now, before we learn today that Cam Schlittler is having, oh, a little bit of a muscle spasm in his shoulder. Nothing serious, maybe just some imaging this week, to be on the safe side...

You heard it here first.