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Here we are, a few weeks after one of the strangest Major League Baseball seasons in history, and bettors are already looking towards 2021.

The Los Angeles Dodgers won their first title since 1988, after winning a third National League Pennant in four seasons. They were the slight favorite coming into the shortened 2020 campaign, and will head into 2021 as the favorites with almost every sports book in America.

Maybe the biggest surprise (although not to me, if you read any of the preseason predictions for 2020) came from the American League, where the Tampa Bay Rays dominated the A.L. East all season, then easily dispatched the favored New York Yankees on the way to their second American League Pennant in team history. Tampa gave the Dodgers a run in the World Series, too, before they ultimately fell four games to two.

So, tell me, why are the Rays only the sixth pick to win the World Series in 2021?

They actually have worse odds to win the World Series than three other American League teams (Yankees, Chicago White Sox, and Minnesota Twins), but somehow are the second choice to go back to back in the American League, behind the Yankees.

As someone who covered the Yankees’ Double A team in Trenton for five years before the pandemic in 2020 and now the relocation of the franchise for next season, I can tell you that New York is loaded at the major league level once again for 2021. The Yankees will also go out and get a pitcher (probably) and maybe a few other pieces.

So why can’t they win anything?

Last season, New York entered the campaign just behind the Dodgers in the betting odds to win its first World Series since 2009, after going a whole decade without an appearance in the Fall Classic for the first time since 1910-1919. We are now even with the 11-year drought from 1965-1975, and closing in on the one from 1982-1995.

The more worrying problem now comes from the rise of other teams in the American League. Houston was under .500 in the regular season, but made its fourth straight ALCS appearance. The Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox are on the rise. But for the Yankees, the main problem could come in the division.

Tampa dominated the Bronx Bombers, winning eight of 10 in the regular season, and winning the division by seven games in a 60-game season (which works out to almost a 19-game advantage over 162 games, but whether it would work like that is another story). Baltimore has some talent coming through the pipeline, as does Toronto.

The main question is, how much longer are the Yankees going to be the bookies’ preseason favorite, before they move on to the next team? Check out William Hill USA odds and promotional offers to learn more.

This could all be a moot point, if New York goes out and improves the team dramatically. But the drought could go on for a while if they are not careful.

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