Let’s face it, though, chicks have always dug the long shot.

So, without having to worry about congressional steroid hearings a decade from now, leave WHIP for the whipped and try swinging for the fences with Major League Baseball futures.

As much fun as it might be for Boston fans to gloat to fellow-Roto geeks that you’ve got Red Sox rookie pitcher Clay Buchholz for $5, wouldn’t it be better to let every fan of New York’s Evil Empire know you’ve got Red Sox Nation to repeat as champions at 9-2 odds?

If you really need to rub it in long before October, take the Bo Sox to beat the Yankees in the regular season series, and to win the American League East. Or better yet parlay all three for a bigger payout (don’t forget winning the American League Championship Series, a must just to get to the World Series anyways).

The Boston Red Sox X 2?

Of course, the bigger question is whether the perennially favored Sox and Yankees remain good bets to still be playing in October. For the defending-champion Red Sox, the answer is still yes.

Top to bottom, in the batter’s box and on the pitching mound, the boys from Beantown remain one of the most balanced collections of talent and big-game experience in the Big Leagues, making up for potential geriatrics Curt Schilling and Mike Lowell by infusing talented youth like Buchholz and outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury.

The New York Yankees, Of Course

Down the coast, the hated Yankees are much the same, a collection of offensive talent that could be undone – but don’t count on it and consider Alex Rodriguez an MVP bargain at 4-to-1 – only if talented young arms Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes Chien-Ming Wang and Ian Kennedy can’t bail out aging starters Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina. A safer bet is the Yankees making the playoffs for a 14th-straight season, but it’s a crapshoot whether they or the Red Sox do so as American League East champions or wild-card entries.

If, however, you’re looking for a little “Kirk Gibson limping around the bases” kind of magic from your World Series picks, consider Magnum PI’s Detroit Tigers. Okay at 11-2, that’s not the thinnest moustache to climb out on, but they do have to worry about that curse put on them by Sports Illustrated picking them to do the same thing.

It’s also true they still have to overcome Cleveland to even get out of the AL Central, but Detroit’s offense – seen by many as one of the greatest baseball has seen in a decade after adding potential MVP Miguel Cabrera to a murderer’s row that already included AL batting champion Magglio Ordonez, Placido Polanco, Gary Sheffield and Curtis Granderson – should be enough to batter Indian ace C.C. Sabathia, whose innings may finally catch up to him. As for the very real concerns about their pitching, manager Jim Leyland handles a bullpen almost as well as he does his Marlboro Reds.

Los Angeles Angels

There’s more value in the AL West, where the Los Angeles Angels are favored to repeat, but may be in early trouble with 18-game winner Kelvim Escobar facing possible season – and career – ending surgery to repair a tear in his shoulder, and 19-game winner John Lackey, who led the AL with a 3.01 ERA last season, out with a strained right triceps.

An early schedule softer than David Wells’ belly – only 15 of their first 43 games are against teams with winning records last season – should help the Angels, as will a dynamic attack and an outfield that is MLB’s deepest after adding Torii Hunter. They may be too deep, though, with talk already there’s not enough playing time to go around and rumblings Vladimir Guerrero and Garret Anderson are not happy about having to DH at times.

Seattle Mariners

With the door open, Seattle, with Felix Hernandez and Erik Bedard providing the best young 1-2 pitching punch in the league (and both are decent Cy Young bets, Bedard this season and Hernandez for years to come) are a good dark horse bet to stick their foot in for the AL West, despite a woeful offense that prevents the Mariners from challenging their Eastern counterparts once the playoffs arrive.

MLB Long Shots

Speaking of teams with playoff aspirations, but little real chance of winning the World Series, look at the National League, where, in the ultimate tribute to long shots, the loveable losers from Chicago are only 12-to-1 to overcome more curses than a Cameron Diaz encounter with the paparazzi and win their first World Series since 1908. Only the New York Mets, with new ace Johan Santana, offer better NL odds to win it all at 9-to-2. All of which makes the NL a great place for long shots. The longer-odds Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies should both prove that the glass slipper still fits, and last season’s playoff runs were no fluke, and Cincinnati is a trendy pick as this season’s Cinderella.