2016 MLB Season Specials Odds

The baseball season is a long, grueling one. It is going to take a while to see if those futures bets you made are going to cash, so if you are looking to spice up your MLB betting in 2016, why not take a look at season specials?

Online shop Sportsbook has introduced a comprehensive season specials board with lots of interesting baseball wagers to make that will keep you glued to some of the potential headline-grabbing events throughout the 2016 season.

There have been an average of 3.9 players hitting for the cycle over the past 10 seasons but just 2.8 over the previous five. Last season, four players accomplished the feat (Adrian Beltre, Shin-Soo Choo, Brock Holt, Matt Kemp) and a whopping eight did it back in 2009.

No hitters have seemingly become commonplace around the bigs. There were seven tossed last season with Max Scherzer dealing two of his own. Over the last 10 seasons, there have been an average of 3.9 no-nos per season but 5.0 over the past five seasons.

Is the complete game going the way of the dodo? Probably not, but there was a 10-year low of four complete games shared by six different hurlers in 2016. The complete games leader has averaged 7.2 over the past 10 seasons, but that has dipped to 6.4 over the last five.

Michael Brantley’s MLB-leading 45 doubles last season was the first where the league leader dipped below 50 since 2011. The leader has averaged 51.8 doubles over the last 10 seasons but that is down slightly to 50.4 over the previous five.

Remember when Ichiro was routinely recording 220-plus hit seasons? Well, those days are gone now. Alex Gordon led the bigs with 205 hits in 2015 and the 2016 mark is tabbed at 205.5. Jose Altuve did tally 225 hits in 2014, however.

Chris Davis slugged 47 home runs in 2015 but he was the only player to eclipse the 2016 mark of 44.5 There has only been one player to swat over 50 in the past five seasons (Davis, 2013) but considering the power possessed by players like Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, we could potentially be returning to those numbers.

Seventeen is the perfect number for most losses for a hurler. Five times in the previous 10 seasons has a pitcher led the league with 17 losses with Shelby Miller leading the way in 2015. Four times over the past 10 has a pitcher led the league with 18 with A.J. Burnett the most recent in 2014.

No club had OVER 99.5 losses last season, but some of them really tried for it. The Philadelphia Phillies led the way with 99 while the Cincinnati Reds were right on their heels at 98. Throw the Atlanta Braves (95), Milwaukee Brewers (94) and Colorado Rockies (94) in the mix and you could see that surpassed this year.

Nolan Arenado led the bigs with 130 RBI in 2015 making it the seventh time in the past 10 seasons that the league’s RBI leader surpassed the posted number of 126.5. We are not seeing the 140-plus guy any longer, but this seems to be a manageable number.

Last season’s league leader was Josh Donaldson at 122 and the posted number has been eclipsed in eight of the previous 10 seasons. Much like most offensive numbers, it’s been trending down from the gaudy numbers we saw in the previous decade.

This is a number that has been eclipsed just three times in the previous seven seasons, but was surpassed by last year’s leader Mark Melancon. Melancon saved 51 games for the Pirates, but the American League’s leader, Brad Boxberger, mustered a paltry 41 in comparison.

With speedsters like Dee Gordon and Billy Hamilton out there, this number looks ripe for the picking. Gordon led the majors with just 58 last season, however, and that posted number has been surpassed just once in the past five seasons when Gordon swiped 64 bags in 2014.

Last season, Clayton Kershaw became the first pitcher to fan 300 batters since Randy Johnson in 2002. Can that happen again? Well, if so, Kershaw is certainly one candidate, but the only other hurler to K more than 276.5 since 2004 was Yu Darvish (277) in 2013.

Eddie Rosario of the Minnesota Twins led baseball with 15 triples last season as he was the first to reach that number since Angel Pagan in 2012. The leader has averaged 15.5 triples over the last 10 seasons, but just 11.6 in the last five.

Jake Arrieta was the first pitcher to have more than 21 wins since Justin Verlander recorded 24 in 2011. Arrieta led the majors with 22 victories while Dallas Keuchel paced the AL with 20. Only three seasons in the last 10 have seen a pitcher win more than 21 games (2015, 2011, 2008).

Though a few teams flirted with the above number, only the St. Louis Cardinals eclipsed it with their 100 wins last season. It was the first season since 2011 that a club has won 100 or more games.

Max Scherzer was awfully close to throwing a perfect game in 2015 and if he had, he’d have been the first since that magical 2012 where three hurlers (Phillip Humber, Matt Cain, Felix Hernandez) threw perfect games. There have just been seven since the turn of the century but maybe, just maybe, we’re due.