2019 MLB All-Star Game Betting Preview

We’ve reached the unofficial midpoint of the MLB season, which mean baseball’s best will gather at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Tuesday night for the annual MLB All-Star Game.

If you’ve been betting on the all-star game in recent years, hopefully you’ve been betting big on the American League. The AL has won the last six games and is 13-3 in the last 16. Last year in Washington, the American League defeated the National League 8-6 in 10 innings.

At Bovada Sportsbook, the AL is a -115 favorite to make it seven straight, while the NL is a -105 underdog to win its first all-star game since 2012. If you think the AL is going to win by at least two runs, you can also get them on the runline (-1.5) at +165.

All-Star Game MVP has rarely been a pitcher

Trying to pick the All-Star Game MVP is usually a crapshoot. Should you go with a starter who will typically get two or three at-bats, or should you go with a reserve who has a better shot at coming in late in the game and driving in the winning run in a close game? In the last 10 all-star games, it’s been split evenly with five starters and five reserves winning the MVP.

Will this be one of the rare years where a pitcher does something great to win the award? Statistically speaking, taking a pitcher is a throwaway bet, as a pitcher has been selected as the MVP only three times in the last 33 games. Those three were Mariano Rivera, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens.

Last year the MVP went to Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman after he gave the AL the lead with a home run in the 10th inning. Bregman is a starter this year and has the chance to claim back-to-back MVP honors. The last to do that was Mike Trout in 2014-15 and the Angels superstar will be making his eighth all-star game appearance Tuesday night.

The last time the all-star game was held in Cleveland, in 1997, the AL won 3-1. Cleveland’s own Sandy Alomar Jr. won the MVP that year. If a hometown Indians player can do that again, there are four players on the roster who have the chance: starter Carlos Santana, and reserves Francisco Lindor, Shane Bieber and Brad Hand.