Sports Betting: Cubs Just Can’t Beat Bad Teams

The Chicago Cubs haven’t been kind to their finds or faithful bettors this season. With last night’s loss to the Houston Astros, the Cubs are now 10 games under .500. More importantly, the Cubs are down 21.4 betting units for the season. Sportsbook.com expects the Cubs to eat into that negative unit number a bit tonight as they are -240 home favorites versus the Astros.

Diehard Cubs' fan Jim Belushi once starred in a movie titled "Taking Care of Business". His team certainly hasn't done that, and bettors need look no further than trends for evidence of team’s performance tendencies and the following list from FoxSheets underscore the Cubs’ ineptitude this season:

·         CHICAGO CUBS are 18-31 (-24.8 Units) against the money line when playing against a team with a losing record this season. The average score was CHICAGO CUBS 3.9, OPPONENT 4.6 - (Rating = 3*)

Think about that for a second, if Chicago is 13-games below .500 against teams with losing records, it means they are 3-games over .500 against winning clubs. If the Cubs had simply only played 25-24 baseball against the league’s lesser teams, they would be only 3-1/2 games out of the Central lead right now and in contention.

·         CHICAGO CUBS are 8-18 (-19.1 Units) against the money line vs. an NL team with a team batting average of .245 or worse this season. The average score was CHICAGO CUBS 3.5, OPPONENT 4.3 - (Rating = 4*)

The Cubs are 19.1 units in the hole for bettors who have backed them against the league’s worst hitting clubs this season. Strangely, pitching isn’t the problem. As you can see, they are producing only 3.5 runs per game offensively themselves against these weak hitting foes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there…

·         CHICAGO CUBS are 17-29 (-23.6 Units) against the money line vs. a poor bullpen whose ERA is 4.50 or worse this season. The average score was CHICAGO CUBS 4.5, OPPONENT 5.1 - (Rating = 3*)

Typically, teams are able to mount come from behind rallies against poor bullpens. Such has not been the case for Chicago.

·         CHICAGO CUBS are 15-28 (-22.6 Units) against the money line vs. poor power teams - averaging 0.9 or less HR's/game this season. The average score was CHICAGO CUBS 3.2, OPPONENT 4.0 - (Rating = 3*)

The Cubs are 13-games below .500 against teams that don’t hit a lot of home runs, returning a negative 52.5% on investment.

·         CHICAGO CUBS are 7-22 (-25.2 Units) against the money line vs. NL teams scoring 4.3 or less runs/game on the season this season. The average score was CHICAGO CUBS 2.9, OPPONENT 4.4 - (Rating = 6*)

Perhaps the ugliest nugget of all, Chicago is not only allowing its run-starved opponents to outscore their normal averages, it’s own offense is producing just 2.9 runs per game on this trend. With an ROI of -86.9%, this trend gets a 6* rating from FoxSheets.

And finally…

·         CHICAGO CUBS are 6-15 (-19.7 Units) against the money line as a favorite of -150 or more this season. The average score was CHICAGO CUBS 3.7, OPPONENT 4.9 - (Rating = 5*)

Chicago is 9-games under .500 when playing to its biggest chalk lines this season. Of course, this will be put to test tonight, as the Cubs are hefty -240 favorites at Sportsbook.com against the Astros behind Ryan Dempster. The Cubs are just 9-16 (-11.9 units) over the last two years in divisional play behind Dempster, and 15-26 overall versus Central Division rivals in 2010.

Meanwhile, the Astros boast a 21-16 divisional record this season, producing 11.9 units of profit. They will turn the ball over to Wesley Wright, who after 126 MLB relief appearances and a recent stint in Triple-A, makes his first career start.

Now that you know some of the key numbers for tonight’s game, head over to Sportsbook.com and place your bets. With some of the most generous dime lines the industry has to offer, it is no wonder that everybody bets on baseball at Sportsbook.com.