Vegas betting lines peg Brewers for 85 wins in 2020

We seem to be getting somewhat of a baseline of expectations for the 2020 Milwaukee Brewers, at least at the national level.

After ZiPS projections pegged the Brewers for somewhere between 85 and 89 wins in the upcoming season, updated betting lines among Vegas sports books seem to be falling in the same general area.

William Hill Betting is currently setting the line at 85 wins for the 2020 Brewers. That’s squarely in the middle of the league, ranking 15th in baseball and 7th in the National League, behind Los Angeles (98.5), Atlanta (92), Washington (90), St. Louis (88), Chicago (86.5) and New York (86.5).

That would put the Brewers outside of the playoffs for the first time since 2017, but still paints the picture of a very competitive division there for the taking. In terms of other NL Central rivals, the line for the very active Cincinnati Reds is currently at 84 wins, while Pittsburgh is being pegged for 71 wins — the second-lowest total in the NL, ahead of only Miami (64), and just behind San Francisco (71.5).

The line is being set high for the New York Yankees, with an over/under of 101.5 wins. Houston, despite the cheating scandal and not currently having a manager, still has one of the highest lines at 96.5.

While not the be-all, end-all, Vegas tends to know what they’re doing — those casinos in the desert didn’t build themselves — and this line would seem to reflect what we’re seeing out of various other projections this winter.