Sports betting: Mike Trout has company in the American League MVP race

Mike Trout will set an American League record if he wins another MVP award. He’ll also further cement his resume’ for Cooperstown, and make some of the bookmakers pretty happy. Boooo.

Here we are about a third of the way through the season and three horses have pulled away from the field in the AL’s MVP race. Two of those thoroughbreds will be at Citizens Bank Park this weekend.

Trout, the Millville, N.J. native, and teammate Shohei Ohtani, the reigning MVP, are in for a rare Philadelphia visit starting Friday. Meanwhile, surging Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge heads to Toronto for a key series there that could give New York a stranglehold on the AL East and boost Judge’s own chances.

The MVP award “is a market decided by human voting. We have to think there will be some voter fatigue and Ohtani drops off, which will really open it up,” Eric Biggio, the lead baseball trader at Caesars, said before Ohtani’s shaky outing on the mound on Thursday. “[But also] is a player like him — a generational player — is he that much better than the field? It’s really an interesting philosophical debate. As far as the bookmaking side, we pretty much need anybody but Ohtani.”

» READ MORE: Mike Trout returns to Philly an MVP contender yet again and a big fan of the Eagles draft

Ohtani won last year’s MVP after hitting 46 home runs while going 9-2 as a starting pitcher. He was lit up by the Yankees on Thursday. Ohtani’s been favored all year, but his odds slipped from +180 to +225 after he gave four runs in three innings to the Yankees. Judge hit one of New York’s three homers. It was his league-leading 19th, a rocket line drive to left field.

“We’re actually a small winner on Ohtani and a sizable winner on Trout at this point,” said Sam Garriock, trading manager for PointsBet.

“Aaron Judge would be a poor result for us [after] staying top price all year. But we continue to be of the opinion that he’s less likely to win than both our clients and the rest of the market believe.”

Judge was 25-1 a little more than two weeks ago at the Westgate’s SuperBook. PointsBet had him at 7-2 on Thursday.

Barry Bonds won seven NL MVPs, a juicy record unlikely to be broken anytime soon. Trout, though, is one of six players to win the AL MVP Award three times. He’d break a tie with Alex Rodriguez, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, and Jimmie Foxx if he can get another. Trout was at 4-1 entering Thursday.

“I know Trout’s had some [injury] issues, but we handicap him as getting more at-bats and being in the lineup every day,” said Caesars’ Biggio. “We’re happier if Trout wins.”

Biggio said he opened up the Phillies at 85.5 wins before the season but has them down to 81.5 after they broke a five-game losing streak on Wednesday. At 22-29, they’re on pace for 70 wins. Yuck.

“That lineup is basically a softball lineup with so many power hitters‚” said Biggio, who is not related to Astros Hall of Famer Craig Biggio. “But with that, we knew there was going to be defensive liabilities and the same issues [as 2021] with the bullpen.

“I’m hesitant to go [too] low on them. I think they’ve got a good run in them. … We’re getting good two-way action from the sharps and the recreational players on the Phillies.”

NEWS: Longtime Vegas oddsmaker Nick Bogdanovich, whom we knew as the public face for William Hill when legalized gambling first came to New Jersey and Pennsylvania in 2018, is back in the game after being hired by Circa Casino. He’ll be the sportsbook manager and will officially start in a few weeks. It’s a move being applauded by a number of sharp bettors.

NHL: Tampa Bay was -180 at BetMGM to win the Eastern Conference finals before the Rangers rolled to a 6-2 win in Game 1 on Wednesday. The Lightning were +100 on Thursday. New York went from +150 to -120.

NHL: FanDuel’s three biggest remaining bets to win the Stanley Cup are the Rangers at 12-1 for $8,334 (would pay $100,008), the Rangers at 20-1 for $5k (would pay $100,000), and the Rangers at 55-1 for $1,000 (would pay $55,000).

NBA: As of early Thursday evening, DraftKings was seeing 84% of its handle for Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Golden State at -3.5. A hefty 71% of money-line wagers also was on the Warriors, who were at -165 as of 6 p.m.