MLB win totals: NL Central over or under according to Vegas

Caesars Sports Book has posted the 2020 MLB win totals. Today, we’ll analyze each NL Central team’s lean towards the over/under.

We’re down to two divisions for our MLB win totals analysis. Caesars Sports Book posted season win totals for all 30 teams; we’re going division by division, predicting over or under the number for each club. Right now, we’ll take a look at the always crowded NL Central.

St. Louis Cardinals

Win Total: 88.5

Prediction: Under

Among the teams accused of having disappointing offseasons, the Cardinals were mentioned the most. You would think a squad coming off a 91 win season and an NLCS appearance would proactively try to reach the next step. All the Cards did was watch the middle-of-the-order bat of Marcell Ozuna join the emerging Atlanta Braves this break.

Ozuna’s 29 home runs were third most for the Cardinals last year. Together, their offense ranked 24th in MLB with just 210 homers. Thus, a team already struggling in the long ball department chose not to re-sign one of their top power hitters this offseason. That’s a very questionable move. They didn’t take to replacing him, either.

St. Louis has become a club which relies immensely on starting pitching. Letting arms take them as far as possible has been the Cards’ mantra for some time, but they may be asking too much of their pitchers this time.

They do have Jake Flaherty, who finished 4th in Cy Young voting in 2019. And the St. Louis staff did settle with the 5th best ERA in baseball last season. They’ll definitely pitch well again this year, but can they hit well enough to notch over 89 wins?

My guess is no. Who protects Paul Goldschmidt in the lineup? Who will Goldschmidt drive in? The pressure in on Paul DeJong to repeat his power numbers from a season ago. Additionally, it’s bold to expect stellar seasons from 2B Kolten Wong and second-year player Tommy Edman. And what happened to Matt Carpenter last year? I’m selling on the St. Louis Cardinals in 2020.