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In spring training, hope sprang eternal for all teams as well as season prop bettors. At the beginning of the 2012 season, we gave you a bet for every team with our world famous ball four-cast. With roughly 100 games left in the season, it’s time to check in on how those heavy hitting predictions are doing. In this segment, we look back on the AL Central preseason predictions.

Detroit Tigers Justin Verlander over 17.5 wins
Detroit has limped out of the gate this year and although Verlander picked up a few wins early, his overall success on the year has tapered to a 5-4 record. That means we need 13 wins the rest of the season to grab a victory in this prop bet. Verlander has started 13 games this season and his average the past 2 seasons has been 33 games started which means we’ll need a 13-7 record or better down the stretch…doable but asking for a lot.

Kansas City Royals under 80.5 wins
The Royals were once again supposed to contend this year with a roster stocked full of high draft picks ready to cash in on their potential. As it sits, K.C. is 26-34 and 7 games out of first place…on pace for 70 wins. After going 71-91 last year, I thought this total seemed high and as it stands it looks like history is repeating itself.

Cleveland Indians under 79 wins
Besides Baltimore, the Cleveland Indians have been the surprise success of the American League. The Tribe is currently 32-29 which has them 1.5 games out of first place and on pace for 85 wins. A nice losing streak would help our outlook on this particular bet.

Minnesota Twins over 72.5 wins
Much like the Twins, I whiffed on this one. I thought Minnesota would have a resurgence year with some superstars finally getting healthy. Those players are healthy…just bad. The Twins have been mired in not only last place in the AL Central, but the entire Major Leagues for most of the season. Their 25-36 record has them on pace for 66 wins on the season so we’ll keep a watchful eye on every Twins series from here on out…even though it qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment.

Chicago White Sox Paul Konerko over 25.5 Home Runs
The White Sox have come out of the gate roaring, even under a new manager in Robin Ventura. A big reason for that success has been Paul Konerko. Paulie has benefited from Adam Dunn’s 21HR, 47 RBI start to post numbers of a .366 batting average and 12 HR which puts him on pace for 31 dingers in 2012. Barring injury, a slump, or Adam Dunn having a freefall we should be alright on this one…that’s a lot of things to avoid though.

With about 100 games left, we might need some help to be profitable in our AL Central prop bets.