Updated AL West Futures

The Texas Rangers maintain the AL West lead, in the eyes of the bookmakers if not the standings.

The Texas Rangers remain favorites to win the AL West, according to leading bookmaker, Bovada.

The Rangers continue to narrowly edge out the Oakland Athletics, a team that spent much of the month of June at the top of the division standings.

The A’s returned to the AL West summit again Tuesday, rallying against the Chicago Cubs to take an 8-7 victory while the Rangers fell 9-2 at home to division rivals, the Seattle Mariners. The two clubs look to be locked in to a battle that could go down all the way to the wire, as it did last year.

Bovada updated its Major League Baseball Futures this past week, providing the latest odds for clubs to win the World Series, league pennants, and division titles.

BettingSports.com has taken a look at the odds supplied by the sportsbook relating to the AL West.

Note: all odds quoted are supplied by Bovada and can be found on its MLB Futures list.

Odds to Win 2013 AL West

Odds of the Texas Rangers (48-35) winning the AL West title currently stand at 4/5, the shortest those odds have been all season.

Oakland (49-35) – currently one-game ahead of the Rangers in the win column – has been assigned even odds in this latest round of updates, again the shortest the club has experienced this season.

The Oakland A’s are hot on the heels of the Rangers.

The race between the two sides continues to take on intrigue as they trade top-spot in the division. Both are playing good baseball, especially at home, while the A’s are No. 3 in the league in run differential (+56), a category Texas (+26) ranks sixth in.

The Rangers currently own a 6-4 advantage in the season head-to-head, by way of a 3-1 series win in Arlington two weeks ago.

Preseason favorites to win the division, the Los Angeles Angels (40-43) are playing much better baseball of late, winning seven straight and 13-of-18. Still, with both the Rangers and A’s playing well and with a big hill to overcome – created by a 11-22 start to the season – bookmakers don’t expect the Angels to leapfrog both clubs for the division title.

Odds of the Angels winning the division currently stand at 9/1, down on the 7/1 odds one month ago – a result of the Rangers and A’s play more than anything – and well down on those 5/7 preseason odds.

Seattle (36-47) continues to see its odds of winning the AL West plummet as the team struggles to pick up wins. The Mariners currently have lengthy 150/1 odds of taking the division.

The Houston Astros (30-54) remain light years behind the rest of the division, sporting odds of 1000/1.

Odds to Win 2013 AL Pennant

Texas and Oakland have impressed the bookmakers beyond the division standings. The two clubs currently rank No. 2 and 3 respectively on the AL Pennant Futures list, behind only the Detroit Tigers.

Texas has odds of 11/2 to win the pennant, while Oakland’s odds stand marginally behind at 6/1.

It may be too late for the Angels to catch up.

Both clubs could make the argument that they should be above Detroit – and its 7/2 odds – thanks to a superior regular season record, but it’s likely that bookmakers have taken into account that Detroit plays in a weaker division – marking an easier path to the postseason – and gets bonus points for being the defending AL champion.

That being said, the Cleveland Indians have prized the AL Central lead away from the Tigers and could be about to make the division race a very interesting one.

Odds of the Angels winning the AL pennant remain at 14/1, ranking the club at No. 8, tied with the Tampa Bay Rays and behind the rest of the AL East, Detroit, Oakland, and Texas.

Seattle and Houston are currently propping up the rest of the league with odds of 150/1 and 1000/1 respectively. It’s safe to say neither is likely to see much action from bettors for the rest of the season.

Odds to Win 2013 World Series

With 11/1 odds to win the 2013 World Series, the Texas Rangers are tied for fourth-place with the Boston Red Sox on the MLB Futures list. Those odds have taken a slight hit in the last month though, as Boston and Oakland have both improved. Still, the Rangers remain a smart bet as they look to reach their third World Series in four years.

In addition to AL favorites Detroit (13/2) being ranked higher than the Rangers, the NL pairing of the St. Louis Cardinals (15/2) and Atlanta Braves (8/1) are also preferred over Ron Washington’s side.

The Mariners and Astros are already well out of contention.

Again, Oakland is right on the heels of the Rangers having been assigned odds of 12/1, enough to share sixth-place on the Futures list with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Just one month ago the A’s were assigned odds of 22/1 enough for 13th in the majors. Despite going 14-11 since those odds were released, bookmakers have really turned in favor of the club. These odds are only going to drop if the A’s continue to push the Rangers in the AL West.

Having opened the season with 15/2 odds of winning the World Series, behind only the Toronto Blue Jays and Washington Nationals, the Angels plummeted to 28/1 (and 16th place) at the beginning of June. The club’s record of late has seen those odds shorten slightly to 25/1, and could drop further. Of course, winning in the very tough AL West is going to be a tough challenge.

Far behind and well and truly out of the picture, Seattle has odds of 300/1 to win the World Series, ranking the club at No. 26.

Predicted to be the worst team in baseball this year, the Houston Astros have benefited from the Miami Marlins’ horrendous season. Current odds have the Astros at 2500/1 to win the World Series, good enough for 29th in the majors, ahead of the Marlins (3000/1). Still, Miami has been playing better baseball of late so don’t be surprised if the Astros are again propping up all 29 other teams next time the Futures are released.