The National League Championship Series is very straightforward, as the Los Angeles Dodgers are clearly the better team. It is not so cut and dry in the ALCS, though.
The Astros may be the better team, but the Red Sox are also exceptional. It's odd that Vegas is giving the Astros an implied chance of winning this series (58 percent) nearly equal to what they're giving the Dodgers (60 percent) when the talent gap is so much slimmer. Here are my best bets for the series:
Game 1 odds: Astros (Justin Verlander) +110 at Red Sox (Chris Sale) -120
Game 1 over/under: 8 (U -120)
In my Dodgers-Brewers preview, I noted that if you were to judge the teams by their regular-season run differential, you'd expect the Dodgers to have won at least 10 more games than the Brewers.