MLB Baseball Betting – Worst Bets In 2022 Season

The Major League Baseball season has reached the All-Star break. It’s the perfect time of year to step back and see which bets have and haven’t worked out well in the first half of the MLB campaign. Will teams continue on their current trajectories, or perform very differently in the second half? Will teams display one particular profile or set of tendencies in late July and most of August and then change their ways in September, or will they remain consistent all the way through? Keep in mind that the MLB trade deadline is not that far away, but until then, how will teams as currently constructed fare in baseball betting? Through the first half of the season, these are the four worst teams in returning value for anyone who bet on them.

Los Angeles Angels

The 39-53 Angels are minus 2,076 in betting performance relative to the odds and prices of their games. Keep in mind that the Angels were 10 games over .500 in the final week of May. They were a good team at the time in prime playoff position, so naturally they were a moneyline favorite and a run line favorite in a lot of games. Then they lost 14 games in a row, which was the beginning of their significantly negative rate of return for baseball bettors. After that 14-game losing streak, the Angels continued to lose at a steady rate. They went 12-22 straight up after the 14-game losing streak, meaning that they are 12-36 straight up in their last 48 games. That’s a lot of losing and a lot of losses as a moneyline favorite, giving pro-Angel bettors a bloodbath on the ledger sheet.

Washington Nationals

The 31-63 Nationals are minus 1,768 in their results this season. One of the things which stands out the most about the Nationals and how little value they have returned to baseball bettors this year is that they are 1-12 straight up against the Miami Marlins. Miami has completely destroyed the Nats, and yet the Marlins are a sub-.500 team. No one expected this team to be good or even average, but few expected this team – with Juan Soto and Nelson Cruz – to fall to 32 games below .500 at the All-Star break. That’s a lot more defeats than the betting markets were expecting.

Oakland Athletics

The A’s are minus 1,853. They were stripped bare before the season began, and their results bear that out. They shipped Matt Chapman to the Blue Jays and Matt Olson to the Braves, and not much has been left behind. This is a team with very little quality in its batting order. It has actually gotten decent pitching, but the bats have been so dormant that it hasn’t mattered. A 32-61 record means a lot of losing and, beyond that, a lot of losing as a slight favorite against other bad teams in the American League.

Chicago Cubs

The 35-57 Cubs are minus 1,446 relative to the money. They actually put up a good fight this weekend against the New York Mets, but they allowed two extra-inning games to slip through their fingers. The Cubs compete hard but have been bad in close games. They make too many defensive mistakes in important moments, which has tipped the betting balance against them in 2022.