Phillies: Caesars Palace line suggests team should sign Machado or Harper
Based on the lines set by Caesars Palace on Tuesday, the Philadelphia Phillies should sign free agents Machado or Harper.
According to the over/under for wins set by Caesars Palace on Tuesday, the Philadelphia Phillies are the team that could benefit most from signing one of the big name free agents. Should the Phillies sign Manny Machado or Bryce Harper, they could expect a bump of three to five wins based on their current roster and the projections for those two high profile free agents.
Of course, these over/unders are set to encourage people to bet on both sides of the line. They aren’t specific win projections like you might see at FanGraphs. Also, these over/unders come well before the free agent season has played out so they shouldn’t be taken as gospel. There are still about five weeks before players start reporting to spring training and there are plenty of productive players still available to any team willing to open their checkbook. These over/unders will change as more information comes in, but for now, this is what we have.
When it comes to the National League, Caesars has the Dodgers head-and-shoulders above the rest, with 95 wins. They have the Cubs taking the NL Central with 89 wins and the Washington Nationals atop the NL East with an over/under of 88.5 wins. That leaves a collection of teams fighting for the two wild card spots, with the Phillies being among them. Here’s the list:
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88.5 wins—St. Louis Cardinals
84.0 wins—Atlanta Braves
83.5 wins—New York Mets
83.5 wins—Milwaukee Brewers
83.0 wins—Philadelphia Phillies
82.0 wins—Colorado Rockies
78.5 wins—Pittsburgh Pirates
77.5 wins—San Diego Padres
77.0 wins—Cincinnati Reds
77.0 wins—Arizona Diamondbacks
Using the Caesars over/unders as a guide, the teams in the low-80s are the teams that could most benefit from the immediate jump in wins from adding Machado or Harper. The bottom four teams on the list above (Pirates, Padres, Reds, Diamondbacks) still have a ways to go, but the Rockies and Phillies could leapfrog a few teams by signing Machado or Harper.
In the case of the Phillies, an increase in three to five wins would not only move them to the upper ranks of the wild card hopefuls, it would also move them much closer to the Nationals in the NL East. The Rockies could move up the wild card ranks, but the gap between them and Dodgers isn’t nearly as easy to close as the gap between the Phillies and Nationals.
Next. Phillies to finally meet with Harper. dark
This suggests the Phillies are the team that would most benefit from the wins that a player like Machado or Harper could provide.