Sleeper playoff odds

The Pittsburgh Steelers are facing a crucial match against the Indianapolis Colts, wherein a victory can significantly boost Pittsburgh's playoff odds from. College Football Sleeper playoff odds National Championship Odds - Favorites, Sleepers, Longshots For CFB · Top Departure: Jaylen Wright, RB. Fantasy Football Power Rankings and Playoff Odds. by rodger yuan. Eligible League Settings: Playoffs based on league record with points scored tiebreaker. NFC Projected Bracket · The Lions will end up as the No. 3 seed unless the the Cowboys and Eagles both lose. · The Eagles can clinch the No. 2.

MLB Playoff Odds

Leagues without divisions

Their bullpen remains sketchy at best. Yeah, the Braves are ridiculous. Their offense is ludicrous, of course. They lit the majors on fire in But their pitching should be better this year with a full season of Max Fried and some valuable innings from Chris Sale. They even shored up their bullpen, which now ranks among the best in baseball.

Last year was no fluke; this team is just stacked across the board. No one else is realistically playing for first in the NL East. You can tell that the Braves agree; their offseason was built around addressing their lack of dominant postseason pitching. The Brewers are trying to thread a delicate needle by trading Corbin Burnes while bringing up Jackson Chourio. That position falls to the Cardinals, who finished last in the division in But they were much worse than that last year, and their offense is loaded.

In , Milwaukee easily walked away with this division. Okay, fine, the Dodgers are really great. The down-ballot portion of the division is considerably more intriguing to me. The Diamondbacks unquestionably overperformed expectations last year; they got outscored on the season and made the World Series anyway. They lost a ton of contributors from that team via free agency and trade, and spent the offseason reducing payroll instead of reloading.

The list of their offseason moves mostly reads like a minor league waiver wire. We still like them more than the Giants, who are spinning their wheels without accomplishing much of anything. They have a below-average infield and a league average outfield, even with the addition of Jung Hoo Lee. Sleeper playoff odds Right now, though, this team looks lost at sea. A sub-Padres projection is a fitting indictment — even the team purposefully trading off its best players to shrink the budget looks better on paper.

The San Francisco doom loop narrative irks me to no end as a resident; I think the city is great and that reports of its decline are a ridiculous culture war talking point. But on the baseball field. Now there, I have to admit it looks pretty doom-y. Trevino, Wells, Rortvedt.

The rotation is set assuming everyone is healthy. A couple mediocre fill-ins Weaver, Poteet , and a few prospects very close to the majors. Really the infield is the only place where they could use a little more depth. Heh heh. Yep, definitely better when the teams in the flyover states are better than the teams where everyone actually lives.

For me the Mariners and Twins rank high in the underrated class. Orioles very good but slightly overrated. Who knows. Certainly not me. They were 15th youngest team last year and are younger this year. They have 3 older bats in DJ, Rizzo, Stanton. The rest of the lineup is very young.

No starter over Young pen outside of Kahnle. Because almost none of the young guys are contributing anything at all. Obviously Soto and Torres will. The rest. Surely based entirely on minor league performance that evaporated on arrival last season. Plus a wildcard in Peraza some systems project him for another win.

Then WAR for Dominguez depending on when he comes back. Oh, and then they have this guy Aaron Judge. Jealousy against the Yankees is always high. The truth hurts. They are a very good team that if they added Snell would be American League favourites….. Almost any projection system ranks them ahead of Baltimore.

Anti Yankee fans abound because they are jealous. As if it matters. Now if both Rizzo and DJ slump they have a problem. Jakob Junis Joins the Brewers as a Starter. Ben is a writer at FanGraphs. Oldest Newest Most Voted. Inline Feedbacks. There are certainly still reasons to worry — depth and aging being the top two heard that one before.

He also wins his first batting title with a. The Twins, on paper, are not as good as last season, largely because they lost Cy Young runner-up Sonny Gray to free agency and didn't replace him with another front-line starter. Rotation addition Anthony DeSclafani has made just 23 starts over the last two years.

They said they would cut payroll, and they weren't lying. What hasn't changed is that the AL Central isn't very good, and Minnesota is projected to win it. Most likely award winner: Pablo Lopez was everything the Twins could have hoped for during his first season in Minnesota. He's become one of the rare starters you can pencil in for to innings. Do the afc and nfc play each other If he gets a little lucky with balls in play and on deep fly balls, we're talking a sub How they can become true contenders : Royce Lewis reminded us all why he was the No.

Carlos Correa , though, slashed just. And Byron Buxton had just five at-bats after the start of August. The Twins' chances of emerging as legitimate contenders will rest squarely on the shoulders of those three players. If they're all healthy, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said, "the possibilities are almost endless.

One realistic bold prediction: Edouard Julien hits 30 home runs with a. In fact, only two second baseman have done it: Rogers Hornsby who did it three times and Jeff Kent. A year after winning the offseason, reversed from their high-spending ways. Juan Soto is arguably the best hitter in the world.

Trading him means the Padres' offense won't be as good. But Soto wasn't San Diego's only loss. The Padres are less talented than the version, even after their recent addition of Dylan Cease. But they still might do something last season's team didn't: Reach the postseason. Most likely award winner: Mike Shildt, the NL Manager of the Year, has a lot to work with in building a candidacy in He has a talented team in the Padres, first and foremost.

But that team grossly underachieved in and then proceeded to cut payroll. Nevertheless, Shildt still has plenty to win with, and if he can get the Pads into a wild-card slot, that might be enough for a second go-round in the MOY winner's circle. That's pretty good, but they're each capable of more. And with Soto, Snell, Hader and others gone, they'll need to produce.

More needs to happen, of course. Cease needs to pitch more like the version of himself, Jake Cronenworth needs to bounce back, Michael King needs to take the next step in his development, and Jackson Merrill needs to prove himself as a big league regular, but nothing is more important than the Padres' five stars acting like it. One realistic bold prediction: Michael King will be the Padres' best starter.

After finishing with nine excellent starts in the Yankees' rotation, King jumps from innings to in and finishes with a 2. Mike Trout says he is loyal to his contract with the Angels and asking for a trade would be the easy way out. The Cubs surpassed expectations only to fall just short of the postseason. This year, they're favorites to win the NL Central.

They're counting on an influx of top prospects to help out. The Cubs boast the best farm system in the National League , and 11 of the organization's top prospects, according to ESPN's Kiley McDaniel, could realistically make their debuts in That list is topped by Pete Crow-Armstrong, who was the favorite to open the season as the Cubs' starting center fielder until they re-signed Cody Bellinger last month.

Crow-Armstrong will make his way to Chicago at some point this season. Sleeper playoff odds He won't be alone. He's never won. His reputation could hardly be more sparkling and in the managing game, reputation matters. That's how you become the highest-paid field general in history. So if the Cubs break out as NL Central champs and it doesn't feel like a default win because of a bad division, Counsell is going to end his MOY drought.

How they can become true contenders : Justin Steele emerged in his age season last year, going with a 3. Behind him there are questions -- about Shota Imanaga 's transition from Japan, how Jordan Wicks performs in his first full season in the major leagues, how Jameson Taillon bounces back and whether hyped pitching prospect Cade Horton emerges.

The Cubs will have a solid offense and a good defense. If the rotation steps up, they'll run away from a crowded NL Central. One realistic bold prediction: Seiya Suzuki put it all together in the second half of his second season with the Cubs, hitting. Let's say he comes close to that over an entire season:. San Francisco needed an infusion of talent. They used the entire offseason, and most of spring training, to complete a significant one.

That didn't happen, giving credence to the idea that the club can't land premier free agents. Add Robbie Ray's expected summer return and the Giants are legitimate postseason contenders. Most likely award winner: The somewhat beleaguered Farhan Zaidi had himself a strong hot stove season. Despite that narrative dominated by the Giants whiffing on elite free agents, he managed to ink Snell, Lee, Chapman, Soler and Hicks.

He nabbed Nick Ahmed on a minor league deal. His trade for Ray could pay off big later in the season. If the Giants bust out, Zaidi is going to be a leading contender for Executive of the Year. Only two pitchers went more than innings: Logan Webb and Alex Cobb , who underwent hip surgery in October. That will have to change. Adding Snell will certainly help matters, even though he also isn't known for going deep in games.

But Hicks' transition to the rotation and Ray's emergence in the second half will be critical here. Just as important: Kyle Harrison 's development in his age season. They will: He hits. For 17 years, Joey Votto was Reds baseball. But the Reds have flipped the page, going all-in on a promising youth movement while Votto tries to make an impact on his hometown Blue Jays.

It'll be strange not seeing Votto in a Reds uniform. But let's dream a little and point to the immense potential of Elly De La Cruz. Yeah, it's unlikely. He's only 22 and has less than MLB games under his belt. He swings at everything and misses a lot of the time. In the field, despite De La Cruz's athleticism, his metrics have been negative because you never know where he's going to chuck the ball.

But let's say he pulls it all together. We're talking 30 homers, 40 steals, highlight reel defense. It's probably too soon for this conversation, but the potential is there for something really special. How they can become true contenders : We know all about the head-turning crop of young position-player talent, but it'd be really nice if Cincinnati could get something similar on the starting pitching front to complement Greene.

At least one of them should graduate to the majors this season. One realistic bold prediction: We'd love to proclaim a breakout season for De La Cruz The Cardinals did not waste time addressing their most pressing need over the offseason: starting pitching.

They ended the offseason by signing Brandon Crawford -- another something-year-old -- to be a backup infielder. The Cardinals filled their biggest need. Time will tell if they got better. The oddsmakers actually give manager Oliver Marmol the team's best probability, likely because if St. Louis snaps back to form, he'll get a lot of the credit. He's never won it, making him one of the best active players without an MVP trophy.

He's got a lot to prove after having his Gold Glove streak snapped. Arenado turns 33 soon and this may be his last, best chance to an MVP run. How they can become true contenders : The Cardinals' vaunted development pipeline has stalled, forcing the front office to plug several rotation holes from the outside this offseason. If not, it will be another grueling summer in St. Cardinals starters finished last season with a 5.

Only the Royals, Reds, A's and Rockies were worse. One realistic bold prediction: Nolan Gorman cracks 40 home runs and Jordan Walker hits 30 -- but the Cardinals still miss the playoffs with 80 wins, recording their first back-to-back losing seasons since David Stearns tinkered with the roster in his first offseason leading the Mets' front office, signing nine free agents to one-year contracts, highlighted by the addition of J.

Martinez just a week before Opening Day. Sean Manaea received a two-year deal -- with an opt-out after this season -- as part of the Mets' mini rotation overhaul. Starters Luis Severino one-year deal and Adrian Houser trade were also added to the mix. But the most significant change will be deploying Edwin Diaz for the ninth inning again.

The All-Star closer is back after missing last season with a knee injury that launched a disappointing season in Queens. Most likely award winner: Carlos Mendoza is a little under the radar but first-time managers have a built-in leg up in manager of the year consideration. That's mostly because they are invariably taking over disappointing teams.

The Mets didn't make any major splashes during the winter, instead opting to build up roster depth. You can win that way if the manager leverages the depth in the right way. So if the Mets exceed their middling expectations, Mendoza could become the real king of Queens. How they can become 's big surprise: In a year's time, the Mets have gone from a popular World Series pick to a team that needs a lot to go right just to stay in a playoff race.

Diaz and Jose Quintana need to stay healthy. Martinez needs to keep mashing at age Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty need to take the next step in their development. Just as important: Kodai Senga , who is nursing a strain in his shoulder capsule, needs to make meaningful contributions.

This is very much a transition year for the Mets. Those aforementioned players need to keep it from getting ugly. One realistic bold prediction: With Pete Alonso on his way to a third straight homer season but the Mets playing under. What was supposed to be a "full-throttle" offseason was a whimper of a winter.

They traded Alex Verdugo to the Yankees. Their biggest free agent signings were Tyler O'Neill and Liam Hendriks , who won't pitch until around the trade deadline. The offseason further angered a fan base still reeling from the Mookie Betts trade four years ago. Apathy could be next in Boston.

Most likely award winner: Rafael Devers ' plate discipline numbers have inched gradually forward throughout his career. Last season he became more of a take-and-rake pull hitter, but one who retained enough aggression to keep his strikeout rate well above average for a legit power hitter.

The season will be Devers' age campaign and, good as he's been, it doesn't feel like we've seen his career season. If is it, his numbers will be MVP-esque. He has yet to finish in the top 10 in the annual balloting, so he has a lot of voters to win over. How they can become 's big surprise : The Red Sox have abstained from big signings in recent years, much to their fans' chagrin.

Their success in , then, will be largely defined by the development of their young players. Triston Casas 24 years old , Grissom 23 and Ceddanne Rafaela 23 could play a major role in bolstering the offense this season. Yeah, the Red Sox still have to get something from their starting rotation and must navigate the monster that is the American League East, but they have to take it one small step at a time right now.

One realistic bold prediction: Casas picks up where he left off over the final three-plus months last season. While he doesn't post a 1. Now here's the really bold part: He leads the Red Sox to a wild-card spot. It's more of the same for the Guardians, an organization that pumps out quality starting pitching every year but didn't make any prominent offseason moves.

Offensively, the lineup could use more punch in the outfield, but there's promise with Jose Ramirez , the sport's most overlooked star, as the engine. Standing pat coming off a win season usually isn't enough to win a division. But this is the AL Central. The Guardians are a contender.

Most likely award winner: The Guardians don't have any preseason awards front-runners, but it doesn't take much imagination to picture someone from Cleveland taking any of the major honors. Jose Ramirez is the obvious pick. Working against Ramirez is that, at 31, it's hard to imagine the kind of production spike that would steal the spotlight.

But Ramirez does so many things well you can't count him out, especially if he posts an upper-end for him season in the context of a team breakout. How they can become 's big surprise : The Guardians are still really good at developing starting pitchers. What they don't have, once again, is much punch in their lineup. The Guardians finished last season with a. They accumulated only home runs from to , less than every team except the Tigers.

It's hard to compete in this era without the benefit of the home run. Because the front office didn't do much of anything to address that this offseason, the likes of Jose Ramirez, Josh Naylor and Bo Naylor will carry a heavy burden. One realistic bold prediction: The Naylor brothers combine for 51 home runs -- 27 from Josh and 24 from Bo.

That puts them in the top 15 all time for brothers in a season the Giambi brothers hold the record with 61 in The star power in Milwaukee will be dimmer on Opening Day. Craig Counsell bolted to a rival for the most money ever given to a manager. All-Star closer Devin Williams will miss the season's first three months with a back injury. Expectations, consequently, have fallen in Wisconsin.

But the Brewers expect to continue competing in the NL Central. Having Jackson Chourio , one of baseball's top prospects, star as a rookie would help. Most likely award winner: In recent years, you've had your pick of the major categories. But is a season of change in Milwaukee.

In a strange way that makes new manager Pat Murphy, who has the rare opportunity of replacing his own protege in Counsell, a viable candidate. If Murphy wins as much as Counsell did with what looks like more of a transitional roster, he'll get support. How they can become 's big surprise : If the Brewers are going to overcome a diluted roster and make a run in what remains a wide-open NL Central, they'll need some unexpected star-level performances.

That alone wouldn't be enough to win a division, but it would set Milwaukee up to be truly competitive again as early as That's it. That's our bold pick. Nobody is picking them. The Cubs are the popular choice, the cool kids are going with the Reds, the Cardinals have their believers. Let's go with the Brewers, taking a tight four-team race with 86 wins.

And don't sleep on Joey Ortiz, who will outperform Jackson Chourio as the best rookie in the lineup. The Tigers won't have Miguel Cabrera on their roster for the first time since after the future Hall of Famer retired following last season. Now it's about the Tigers' youth movement. The Tigers added several veterans to the mix including pitchers Kenta Maeda and Jack Flaherty , but the focus remains on the future.

A strong No. The kid can hit and has the ability to light up all three columns of the slash categories. The Rookie of the Year race is often a product of talent plus opportunity. That bodes well for Keith, even as the competition for rookie honors in both leagues figures to be fierce in How they can become 's big surprise : Yes, it's all about the future in Detroit.

But if they really want to be a surprise, then the veterans need to augment them with bounce-back performances. We're talking about Flaherty 4. How about Skubal. Just doubling his stats from last season makes him a strong contender: 30 starts, 2. He wins the award. The Marlins reached the postseason for just the second time since winning the World Series, but they ended up with a front office overhaul anyway.

Kim Ng, the highest-ranking woman in a major North American professional sports front office, declined to return as general manager after she learned the team wanted to hire a president of baseball operations over her. The franchise chose Peter Bendix, another branch on the Rays' front office tree.

His first offseason was uneventful. Miami, again, will depend on its pitching to carry a faulty offense. Most likely award winner: It's hard to imagine Skip Schumaker winning Manager of the Year a second straight time. Where does that leave us. How about Jesus Luzardo for Cy Young. He put up his first full season in , starting 32 games. His K-rate is a dead certainty and his walk rate has continued to trend downward.

Add in some balls-in-play luck and a ramp up to innings and you've got a Cy Young candidate. The baseline talent is there. How they can become 's big surprise : It needs to start with none other than Jazz Chisholm Jr. Chisholm was limited to 97 games in -- one year after playing in just 60 of them -- because of turf toe and an oblique strain.

He still managed to accumulate 19 home runs and 22 stolen bases. A full season of Jazz could provide the Marlins with the type of offensive catalyst they so desperately need. One realistic bold prediction: With the help of his new split change, A. Puk 's transition to the rotation is a success. He wins 12 games and posts a 3. The Angels' inability to reach a postseason -- just once -- in six years with Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout on the same roster at the peak of their powers will boggle minds forever.

Ohtani wasn't just a two-way star in Anaheim -- he was a jaw-dropping sensation, a reason for people to show up to the ballpark despite all the losing. Now Ohtani is up the 5, sandwiched between Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in that stacked Dodgers lineup -- at least for now.

And the Angels are left trying to make the playoffs for the first time in a decade without him. Most likely award winner: Mike-freakin'-Trout. Have we forgotten how good this guy is. OK, he's missed so many games that you have to bake his absences into the Angels' team projection. Over the past three seasons, he's played in of a possible games.

But let's consider his pergames numbers during that span:. Keep this guy on the field and he is -- still -- an MVP front-runner. How they can become 's big surprise : The Angels' defense against the bevy of criticism levied their way -- for spoiling the careers of two generational talents, for not doing enough to bring back Ohtani, for going more than a decade with a decrepit farm system -- is that they've actually built a solid young core.

If the Angels are going to survive the post-Ohtani era, that young core will have to emerge as early as this season. Their bullpen should be better and their offense will at least be decent if Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon are healthy, but their young players hold the key. One realistic bold prediction: Only one qualified player since not including has reached a.

Rookie first baseman Schanuel posts that old-school line, as he posts a. Pittsburgh's offseason plan appears to have been to acquire veterans on short-term deals with hopes of flipping them at the trade deadline. In other words, a way to indirectly buy prospects. They traded for Marco Gonzales , who has a club option for next season.

Most, if not all, of them could be on other teams by August. Most likely award winner: The Pirates sent Paul Skenes to the minors because of reasons and even if they hadn't, he would have had to go against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the NL Rookie of the Year race. So instead let's dream a little based on what is very likely just a spring mirage: After missing most of with a leg fracture, Cruz is back and bashing.

This spring, he has clubbed seven homers, and most of them were highlight-reel stuff. His OPS was almost dystopian. Cruz's ceiling is prodigious but so too are his flaws. But if we're talking about MVP upside, let's do it now. Of them, Jared Jones is the closest to the majors, Thomas Harrington has the highest floor and Paul Skenes, of course, has the most talent.

They need some pitchers to emerge -- because we all know they won't spend on them in free agency. One realistic bold prediction: Hayes proves his final two months of weren't a fluke as he hits. It adds up to a top MVP finish. The Royals are Kansas City was unexpectedly one of the busiest teams over the offseason, improving their roster with several veteran additions.

Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha are in the rotation. Most likely award winner: Yeah, it's Witt, even though pitcher Cole Ragans has generated so much buzz of late. Witt has played two seasons for the Royals, a franchise that dates back to and has had a lot of success. And a lot of not success, but still. He is arguably already the best shortstop in Royals history.

He can be that, too, and he can do that this season. Repeating some numbers expressed previously: Over his last 56 games last year, Witt hit. How they can become 's big surprise : Witt is really good, and adding some established veteran pieces -- something out-of-contention teams are increasingly abstaining from -- was nice to see. Ragans, acquired in the trade that sent Aroldis Chapman to the Rangers last summer, was really good down the stretch, with a 2.

But Singer and Marsh combined for a 5. Tier 5: Already playing for next season. If all goes as planned, this season will be one final forgettable last-place finish before a talented young core takes hold and reverses the organization's fortunes in James Wood, Dylan Crews, and Cade Cavalli highlight the rebuild's next wave of talent set to make an impact in