Heading into May 3rd, only five of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball have had more than half of their games go OVER the total in the 2022 season. With this low trend of OVERS, more than 57% of the games played so far have gone UNDER the total.

Here are the main reasons I believe we have seen so many UNDERS so far.

1) Humidors
I’m not a physics expert, so if you are looking for an in-depth tutorial on how humidors work, I suggest doing additional research on Google after reading this article. What I can tell you is that all 30 teams have humidors in their home stadium this season, as opposed to 2021, when only nine teams used humidors. Although the effects of humidors will differ day-to-day, there have been speculations and research suggesting that humidors can make baseballs easier for pitchers to grip while also making it more difficult for a hard hit ball to travel as far in humid weather.

2) Roster Expansion
The MLB rosters were expanded from 26 to 28 players this season. This change has helped most teams improve their pitching depth. Due to extra pitchers on the rosters, teams are less likely to go into a game with a worn-out and overworked bullpen. Managers also have more options when matching up against opposing hitters and less pressure to feel the need to stick with a starting pitcher who’s struggling.

3) The Lockout And Reduced Spring Training
In 2021 Spring Training games started on February 28th, but due to the lockout in 2022, Spring Training games did not begin until March 17th. Although this maynot seem like a huge deal, I believe the decrease in preseason preparation has made it more difficult for alot of hitters to get going early in the season.

4) Oddsmakers And The Habits of Bettors
Most fans enjoy offense, which means that betting on OVERS will be more fun to the average bettor than betting on the UNDERS. Although the humidors, roster expansion, and reduced Spring Training are all likely factors to the decrease in the offense- before the season started, it wasn’t as clear how significant those effects would be. Even still, it was in the best interest of the oddsmakers earlier to set the totals a little high, knowing that most bettors like to take the overs.