Baseball is Almost Back!

So, the first Vegas lines for the baseball season are out, from the Atlantis.  Obviously, it's a long season and probably the hardest sport to predict in terms of wins losses, but here are some obvious stand-outs at this point (wins over/under):

Nationals: 90 wins.  I would take the over, hard.  This team won 98 last year and improved, and while the Braves should be better, the rest of that division stood still or got worse.  Leading to...

Marlins: 64 wins.  It might be close, but under is a better bet.  They won 69 last year, and while bad chemistry might have hurt them, that team had a half year of Reyes, Hanley, Buehrle, and Johnson.  Now they have Stanton and...  Seriously, name other players on this team.

Red Sox: 79.5 wins.  I admit to being biased, but I say over.  Now, I know this team was awful last year, but that was a perfect storm of such epic proportions that I don't think that the 10-win bump this opening line is giving them is enough.  This should be at least a .500 team on paper, so you are basically getting 3 wins on the house here.

Royals and Pirates: 79 wins.  Tempted by the over?  People have been predicting youth movements on both of these teams to propel them to big leaps forward for several years now, only to see them disappoint each year.  This could be the year, right?  Eventually, it has to be for one of them.  The AL central, outside of Detroit, is going to have a lot of winnable games with Cleveland, and the White Sox in limbo, and the Twins in full rebuilding mode.  The NL Central will be more competitive, with the Cubs improved and no more Astros to beat up on, but Pittsburgh can't fade so badly in the second half again, can they?