2057 CBA Season Odds and Preview
With the new season coming, gamblers across the nation are getting ready to place their bets on the CBA season. In this article we’ll cover the four main betting items – BL Champion, SL Champion, PL Champion, and TOC Champion – along with some potential sleepers that could win large returns.
Bronze League Odds
| Team | Odds |
|---|---|
| Houston | -200 |
| Vancouver | +300 |
| Charlotte | +350 |
| Miami | +700 |
| Boston | +850 |
| Atlanta | +900 |
| Minnesota | +1200 |
| Philadelphia | +1800 |
| Tampa Bay | +3000 |
| Seattle | +5000 |
It’s a fairly obvious selection for who will win the Bronze League this year – Houston remains our only heavy favorite, coming in at -200 favorites to win. It would have to take a season of underperforming and injuries to take Houston off the top – and even should those injuries happen, they have enough depth to take over without much of a performance drop off. This is likely the one category you should steer clear of taking the underdog in.
Should you want to take the underdog though, Vancouver’s additions of Tim Bernard and Zachary Schwer – two of the top hitters in the entire association – should propel the Vancouver offense to the top of the league (albeit second to Houston’s). Should they get pitching out of their young rotation, Vancouver could challenge Houston for the top spot. Vancouver also lacks in the bullpen selection that bench coach George Head can utilize, but that problem is relatively the cheapest to solve mid-season.
Charlotte doesn’t fall far behind Vancouver because of their pitching. Even after trading away former first overall pick J.J. O’Berry, their rotation still contains John Turnbull and Steve Alvarez. Should they decide to call up Jonathan Diaz mid season Charlotte would have their top three for a promotion series battle – and that rotation will be tough to match up against for any team. Their lineup also features a few notable names, most notably their outfield trio in Tatsumi Nishida, Bo Rafferty, and Tsuneo Koyama. While they may not have the lineup that Vancouver does, their pitching should be enough to put them in the spot to challenge for a promotion series against Vancouver.
Outside of the top three Miami is the sleeper pick you should be trying for. With one of the better lineups and pitching rotations in the Bronze League, Miami could surprise a few people and fight for that second or third spot. Boston, Atlanta, Minnesota, and Philadelphia all fall in similar brackets as they have a few good players, but also have some glaring holes that will hold them back. Out of those four, Minnesota has the fewest holes and might have enough break for them to challenge for the third place spot. Tampa Bay has a upper half rotation, but the lineup lags behind and could use another year of development before they start to challenge for promotion. Seattle rounds out the end of the league, being far behind everybody else in terms of pitching depth. They have made a few moves over this offseason, but need more time to develop their young players.
Bottom line in this category – bet Houston. Bet heavily on Houston.
Teams to bet on: Houston, Vancouver, Charlotte
Teams to avoid: Tampa Bay, Seattle
Our Favorite: Houston -200
Dark Horse: Miami +700
Silver League Champions
| Team | Odds |
|---|---|
| Salt Lake City | +100 |
| Indianapolis | +200 |
| Cleveland | +200 |
| Denver | +400 |
| Kentucky | +500 |
| San Diego | +700 |
| Austin | +1000 |
| Mexico City | +1600 |
| Los Angeles | +2500 |
| DC | +4000 |
Salt Lake City has shown they can win in the Silver League, losing out on promotion after finishing second last year. They have not lost any key pieces this offseason, showing them into the favorite spot to win the Silver League. With the best rotation and the best lineup in the league, Salt Lake City still has what it takes to win and has the best shot to get the outright promotion this season.
Indianapolis and Cleveland both come in at +200. Indianapolis has a young team that should provide enough talent to fight with Salt Lake City for the SL championship. With a balanced rotation and one of the best backsides of the bullpen, their pitching is a valuable asset to their success. Their lineup does have some weaknesses – notably the corner outfield and catcher spots – but with a star studded lineup and even more stars ready to be called up, a few moves should allow them to challenge SLC. Cleveland comes in at +200 as well, in large part due to a star outfield with Tony Trillo and Ben Ward, along with a great 1-2 rotation punch with Shuuhei Igawa and Francisco Lopez. Their back end of the bullpen has been outstanding in the Bronze League, though it will be interesting to see if Cees Van Den Berg can continue his success coming up to a higher league.
Denver comes in as the wild card – with the second best farm system in the SL, most of that coming from five starters who could all see the call up at any time, Denver’s pitching could carry the team in an upset. The lineup does not have as many stud pieces as SLC or Indianapolis, but Dietmar Goldstein and Javier Jimenez could provide the boom in the lineup that gives us our dark horse favorite.
Outside of the top four teams a few teams present some characteristics that might slide them into a promotion series. Kentucky has a few stud players in Joel Mackey and Angel Perez, and with the best backend of the bullpen in the SL, they might find a way to slide into that third place promotion series battle. San Diego has an extremely well balanced lineup, with no real weak spots from leadoff to the ninth spot. Their pitching, however, leaves something to be desired, moving them down to +700 odds. Austin lost a few players from demotion a year ago, but with the additions over the offseason of Zack Benson, Jesse Evans and Mike Strollo, they should stave off another demotion this year. Mexico City’s lineup could finish as the best in the league this year – Raul Villalba, Cesar Vasquez, and Keegan Shaheen provide an excellent 2-3-4 in the lineup and could propel the Chupacabras as a dark horse promotion series player, should they explode in production. Their pitching is what holds them back – with what might be the league worst rotation, they need pitching in order to be successful. Los Angeles has a bottom half pitching and bottom half lineup. They are not the worst in anything, but still need help to be good at something – which will not make the cut this year.
DC could contend with Seattle and Tampa Bay as the worst team in the league this year. When demotion allowed star shortstop Donny Buijs to opt out, they traded away anybody and everybody good this offseason. From the bottom three teams in the league, DC ranks second of three in both pitching and lineup – Seattle has the worst pitching group (by far), while Tampa has the worst lineup of the three. This is not the year to bet on any of those three teams.
Teams to bet on: Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Denver
Teams to avoid: Cleveland, Kentucky, San Diego
Our Favorite: Indianapolis +200
Dark Horse: Denver +400
Premier League Champions
| Team | Odds |
|---|---|
| Toronto | +150 |
| Galveston | +200 |
| Detroit | +300 |
| Las Vegas | +350 |
| Phoenix | +400 |
| Baltimore | +600 |
| New York | +800 |
| Bay Area | +900 |
| Chicago | +1200 |
| New Orleans | +1800 |
The Premier League takes the top four teams to the playoffs, so teams focus on being in the top four – winning the league does not translate to anything special, outside of seeding for the playoff tournament.
Toronto leads off with the best odds, with a star studded lineup led by youngsters Bruno Litchfield and Dustyn Buckley, and a rotation led by the youngest pitcher of the year in CBA history with Malcolm degruchy. The back of the bullpen is anchored by Xavier Owens, who, after figuring out his control problems from early in his career, has proven to be one of the top relief aces. Galveston’s revamped rotation adds Daniel Cordova and Jayden Foney, two of the top pitchers in the entire association, in the span of a day. While the bullpen and lineup are not at the top of the Premier League, the rotation will carry that team to many wins this year. Even after trading away Daniel Cordova, Detroit’s rotation still features Bob McCarthy and Jesus Guevara, and the newly signed Dennis Lesage should provide the back end piece for Detroit to compete this year. Their lineup, even after trading away Tony Trillo, still features three outfielders that could compete for the Coke Blak Surge Award. Las Vegas is weakened this year after the prior two TOC wins – trading away some key pieces in Zachary Schwer and losing valuable loaned pieces in Dietmar Goldstein, Erik Frank, and Benjamin Thrippleton. While they still have a good rotation and lineup, they will likely not be competing for PL championship at the end of the year. Phoenix follows closely behind in fifth, with a big upgrade to the rotation in starter Juan Chay and the additions of 1B Noah York and Noah Porter should allow them to compete for a top four spot.
Baltimore comes in as our dark horse candidate. With some big additions this offseason – including SS Donny Buijs and 1B Cort Hansen – their lineup could carry them to a top four position. Their rotation is where the question marks remain. Ivan Luna is a year older, and starters Sergio Lung, Jonathan Mazzone, and Jamie Bresett could all either perform at the top of the league or could drag down a team that desperately needs them to perform well. Even with Matt Bennett at the back end of the bullpen, the rotation needs to step up. If it does, Baltimore should be a top four team this year. If not, they may fall into the relegation series.
New York and Bay Area both come in with similar odds, as both have a few star players in the same positions – in New York’s case you have SP Dave Mesa, 1B Steve Bryan, and LF Mike Habermann. For Bay Area, you have SP Paul Franklin, 1B Travis Adams and LF Lawrence Abernathy. New York’s overall team is slightly better than Bay Area’s overall team, though both should wind up in similar spots in the league.
Chicago is the great wild card here – with a few starting pitching upgrades they have a team that could compete for a top four spot. Their lineup is one of the better lineups in the league, their relief corps is among the better of the PL, though the rotation – despite being led by potential pitcher of the year in Blaine Zajac – needs depth badly. New Orleans, after missing the relegation series by one game last year, finds itself in a worse spot with DC and Austin being replaced by New York and Chicago – both better teams than last year. Outside of star CF Elias Saucedo, this is a team that lacks star power and will likely find itself in last place by the time the season ends.
Teams to bet on: Toronto, Galveston, Phoenix
Teams to avoid: Detroit, Las Vegas, Bay Area
Our Favorite: Toronto +150
Dark Horse: Baltimore +600, Chicago +1200
CBA Champions
| Team | Odds |
|---|---|
| Toronto | +250 |
| Galveston | +300 |
| Detroit | +300 |
| Houston | +400 |
| Las Vegas | +400 |
| Phoenix | +500 |
| Salt Lake City | +800 |
| Indianapolis | +1000 |
| Cleveland | +1000 |
| Baltimore | +1200 |
| Vancouver | +1400 |
| Charlotte | +1500 |
| New York | +1800 |
| Bay Area | +2000 |
| Chicago | +2500 |
| Denver | +2500 |
| Miami | +3000 |
| Kentucky | +3000 |
| San Diego | +3500 |
| Boston | +4000 |
| New Orleans | +5000 |
| Austin | +5000 |
| Mexico City | +5000 |
| Atlanta | +7500 |
| Minnesota | +7500 |
| Los Angeles | +10000 |
| Philadelphia | +10000 |
| DC | +15000 |
| Tampa Bay | +15000 |
| Seattle | +25000 |
While we won’t cover every team, this tournament often sees only the top three or four starters for each team seeing significant time pitching – meaning that the bottom depth of the rotation does not matter as much. This helps teams like Galveston, Las Vegas, and Houston significantly as their top pitchers are the best in the league. Houston is of particular interest – while only once has a non PL team won the TOC since the association’s inception in 2021, Houston is poised to change that this year. With the top four in the rotation of Pavlushenka Aidak, Bubba Thacker, Sam Todd, and Cruz Martinez (of which one was picked first overall, one second overall, one third overall, and one traded for with the first overall pick), that rotation will carry them in the postseason and will make them a viable favorite once they get in the tournament.
Teams to bet on: Toronto, Galveston, Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, Salt Lake City, Indianapolis
Teams to avoid: Boston, Austin, Mexico City, Atlanta, Minnesota, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, DC, Tampa Bay, Seattle
Our Favorites: Toronto +250, Houston +400
Dark Horse: Indianapolis +1000, Chicago +2500