A look at 2024 World Series odds and other notes

The Orioles are tied for the seventh-best betting favorite to win the 2024 World Series. That is a step up from last winter when they were tied for the 17^th in odds from betonline.ag.

7/1: Atlanta

8/1: Los Angeles Dodgers

9/1: Houston, Texas

12/1: New York Yankees, Philadelphia

16/1: Baltimore, San Diego

Toronto is listed at 18/1 with Tampa Bay at 20/1 and Boston 22/1. The longest bets on the board are Oakland and Kansas City at 100/1 and Colorado at 150/1.

The two teams that just played in the World Series were both long shots at this time last year, with Texas at 50/1 and Arizona at 100/1. The Orioles were 50/1 last winter. The Los Angeles Dodgers were the favorites then at 11/2.

The Fall Stars come out: The Orioles have two pitchers on the roster for the American League team in the Arizona Fall League’s Fall Stars game set for tonight. It will air live on MLB Network at 8 p.m.

Right-hander Carter Baumler is listed as on the roster but will not participate. Lefty Trey McGough is also on the AL team. He has allowed seven hits and three earned runs over nine innings for Mesa so far in the AFL.  

Pittsburgh selected McGough in round 24 of the 2019 MLB Draft out of Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg in Frederick County. He had a strong season in 2021, going 6-5 with a 3.19 ERA and 1.12 WHIP over 113 innings between High-A and Double-A. He got off to a good start at Triple-A in 2022, but in June of that year underwent Tommy John surgery. In the December 2022 Rule 5 draft the O's selected him in the Triple-A phase.

He returned from surgery to pitch for the Orioles late last season, pitching at four levels between the Florida Complex League and Double-A. He went 1-2 with a 3.05 ERA in seven games.

A player from the Baltimore area will also play in tonight’s game, and that is Tyler Locklear, a Mariners prospect. Drafted in 2022 in round two out of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he put up big power numbers, he is a corner infielder. Locklear is from Abingdon in Harford County and played his high school ball at Baltimore’s Archbishop Curley.

Baseball America looks at minor league batted ball data: Because, as they say, a batted ball hit at 110 mph that gets caught will show us more about a prospect than one with an exit velocity of 65 that falls for a base hit, Baseball America took a dive into minor league batted-ball data by organization.

Here is the article (subscription may be required).

The publication measured underlying numbers from Hawkeye data and tried to come up with a singular number to quantify it and thus enable it to compare organizations.

In what Baseball America calls "hit score+" Orioles hitters scored collectively a bit above the average for all 30 teams, ranking 12th. 

In 90th percentile exit velocity the Orioles were also just a tick above average. In miss rate or contact rate, the Orioles were again in the middle of the pack and just a tick below average. In chase rate the Orioles were again slightly above average.