April is the time for optimism, and Opening Day for MLB seems to be part of something bigger than opening day for any other sport. The excitement for the return of a full season of baseball with fans offers hope and much anticipation. Even without beer at the ballpark and hot-dog vendors roaming the stadium aisles.

“It’s definitely exciting,’’ New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom said of the team’s additions and getting the season started against fellow Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals on Thursday.

The Mets pitching is in place, and now they’ve added some stronger players to a potentially terrifying lineup. There may be a bit more excitment in New York for the fan bases of two teams expected to contend in both the American and National League. But the start of baseball also means more betting opportunities in a sport where stats are more extensive and analyzed than other sports.

A betting system to apply to opening day. Play on opening day home favorites of greater than -115, if it is also opening day for their opponent.

These home favorites have gone 93-41 to an average line of -164, according to a Sports Data Query Language (SDQL) Master Mr. East. Using this sample size of more than 130 games, this simple situation has produced a return on investment (ROI) of 12.2%.

That fits the Yankees, Red Sox, Royals and Padres.

New York opens at home as a heavy favorite (-185) with leading American League Cy Young candidate Gerrit Cole pitching against Hyun-Jin Ryu and the Toronto Blue Jays. FanDuel Sportsbook reports that more than 90% of the moneyline bets are on the Yankees, and New York is also a very popular Over season win total bet.

The New York Yankees are the favorite to win the American League, and FanDuel has a season win total of 95.5 for the Yankees. But the Los Angels Dodgers have a sky-high season win total of 103.5, and the Dodgers (+350) are the favorites to repeat as World Series champions.

But in talking with Las Vegas professional handicapper and bettor Anthony Taylor of PickProslv.com, he’s looking to bet on the LA Dodgers in Game 2 of their series Friday, April 2 at Colorado with last year’s National League Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer making his Dodgers debut. Run Line bettors can take note and lay a smaller price on the road favorite Dodgers, and Taylor offers a tip for early season MLB bettors.

“There is a lot of value in the second week of the season. Some teams may not play at home until the second week, and those teams can be good bets in their home opener, and especially if they return from a losing road trip.”

Taylor bet $20,000 on the Dodgers to win the World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays last October as seen on the PickProslv site and MLB page.

In looking at other projected contenders in each league, sports betting news and information site TheLines.com offered some insight on how sportsbooks compared MLB season win totals against projections from two highly-regarded analytical baseball sites. Three teams are projected by the sportsbooks to have much higher season wins than than FanGraphs and PECOTA from Baseball Prospectus project.

Both sites disagree significantly with the 2021 win totals posted by the sportsbooks of three teams - Chicago White Sox (90.5), Oakland A’s (86.5) and St. Louis Cardinals (86.5). You can review more, but both sites project at least four wins fewer than the posted season win totals on all three teams.

Pro handicapper Anthony Taylor agrees on the White Sox assessment, and believes “Chicago is probably a year away from a run at the ALCS.” He notes some of the young talent on the White Sox, and the popularity of Chicago in the betting market. FanDuel Sportsbook provided data that shows the White Sox are one of the two most popular teams to win the World Series in both bet count and money (handle). Chicago needs their top three starting pitchers to have strong seasons again, and Anthony adds, “potential injuries, age and projections don’t suggest they will all have great seasons.”

Regarding Oakland, Taylor adds, “The A’s overachieved last season, and I’m willing to fade them. I don’t believe the team’s production or bullpen’s success last season is sustainable.”

He’s also not as high on the American League overall, so bettors looking for a prop on the National League to win the World Series may want to get in the batters box and take a swing on the “senior circuit.” The Dodgers, Padres, Braves and Mets lead a stronger National League race with the Cardinals the top challenger from the NL Central.

You can bet on it.