Next Astros Manager Odds - Joe Espada Pays Out 2-1

A Twitter study conducted during the last four days shows that the majority of the U.S. is rooting for the Texas Rangers to be crowned World Series champions.

The entertainment and gaming website, BetOnline.ag, compiled and analyzed more than 100,000 tweets containing official fan hashtags over the past four days.

For example, #GoAndTakeIt (Rangers) or #EmbraceTheChaos (Diamondbacks) were used in the sampling. It ran all of those tweets through a geo-tracking program that showed which state each post came from. The team most associated with those keywords and phrases in each state then "won" that respective state.

As you can see from the map, the majority of the country is pulling for the Texas Rangers (32 states vs. 18 states). This is likely due to a couple of few reasons…the first being that the Rangers have never won a World Series. The second is that they just eliminated the Astros in dramatic fashion, and Houston is arguably the most hated team in baseball.

Speaking of the Astros, they are now in the market for a new manager after Dusty Baker said that he was retiring, again.

BetOnline made Joe Espada the favorite to fill that managerial role, with former Astros Brad Ausmus and Carlos Beltran carrying the second- and third-best odds.

Next Astros Manager

Joe Espada                    2-1

Brad Ausmus                4-1

Carlos Beltran               6-1

Will Venable                 9-1

Buck Showalter             10-1

A.J. Hinch                     11-1

Walt Weiss                   12-1

Craig Counsell               14-1

Joe Maddon                  16-1

Donnie Ecker                18-1

Don Mattingly               20-1

Omar Lopez                  22-1

Don Kelly                      25-1

Joe Girardi                    25-1

Rodney Linares             25-1

Ron Washington           28-1

Eric Young Sr.                33-1

Mark Kotsay                 33-1

- BetOnline Press