Will Rogers Handicapper Reviews & Picks

The Blues and Avalanche move to St Louis, with the series split. Binnington was solid again in game 2 as the Blues rebounded with a solid and deserving win. They shut down the Av’s dynamic offense, limiting them to just 31 shots-for after the 54 shots allowed in game one. The Blues are a good home team and the Av’s are much less dominating on the road. The Avs are still favored, and with that round two monkey on their back are expected to respond in a big way. Binnington seems to have found that “lights out” form, and the Blues’ size and structure make them a tough play-off match up. The Blues limited a very good Wild offense to just 5 goals in the last three games of the first round. Now with that critical Blues road win, this is a very different series.

Tonight’s game could be tighter than expected. I think St Louis can keep this game close but the odds on the puck line are very high.  Today's best bet is on the total.  Take the Blues and Avs to go under today.

Off a win last night, he Twins meet the Royals for the second game of the KC series. The Twins are just over .500 on the road, but the Royals have struggled at home this season. Joe Ryan (4-2, 2.39 ERA), the Twins starter today, has been a bright light this season, and shutout the Royals in April. With just one sub-par start in 7 appearances, he has also been good on the road.

Royals’ starter Brad Keller was terrific in April, but things have gone somewhat south in his two recent starts. The Twins have had previous success vs. Keller.  Keller has seen opposing batters' average rise by 100 points in May, and given up 3 home runs in his last two starts.

The Twins have the edge in relief pitching for the season and in recent games. The Royals have shown a bit more offense recently, but the Twins are a better offensive team as well.

I am on Ryan and the Twins today. Watch the Royals continue to struggle at home and take the Twins to win again.

The Jays bats have been a big disappointment lately. Thought to possess a formidable offense this year, they are hitting just .215 vs right-handers, and have sunk to 27th in the league in OPS. To put this in perspective, the lowly Reds have climbed from near worst to 7th, with a .755 OPS in their last two weeks. The Jays are getting good results from starting pitching but have squandered some very fine outings. Manoah (1.71 ERA), who has arguably been their best starter was the victim of a poor effort from the offense plus questionable play in the field last time out. He has not given up more than 2 runs in 7 starts to date.

The Reds have also getting good starting pitching, including rookie Hunter Greene’s first quality start of his career. Greene has monster stuff but has not been able to harness it until his last start. The result was a 7+inning no hit shutout. Just about anything is possible from Greene on Saturday, but the way the Jays have been hitting, another fine outing is a possibility.

The Jays are a huge favorite against the Reds, an unwarranted favorite considering the two teams’ recent action. Friday’s game ended in a 2-1 final score. Greene is just the kind of pitcher the Jays have struggled with in the past.  Take Saturday's total to go under.

It’s been a surprisingly high-scoring first two games in the Eastern Conference Finals with 225 and 229 total points scored. Each team won once in Miami and neither game was all that close. With each game going Over by more than 20 points, I’ve got a feeling the public will look at this number being too low. I think it’s too high.

I had the Under in Game 1, which was a mistake. But banking on a Boston shooting resurgence for Game 2, I took the Over. That resurgence is exactly what took place Thursday night. The Celtics not only made 51.2 percent of all shots, they were also 20 of 40 from three. 

Even at home, they won’t match that kind of three-point output. The Celtics are only averaging 13 made threes per game for the year, same as Miami, who led the league in 3ptFG%. 

Boston started fast in the two games at Miami. They averaged 66 points in the first half. Look for Miami, who is allowing only 100.5 points per game in the playoffs, to slow them down. The Under is 5-1 the last six times the Heat have been coming off a game where they gave up 125 or more points.

The Celtics are of course also an elite defensive team. They led the league in scoring defense in the regular season. The Under was 3-1 in their home games in Round 2 vs. Milwaukee. All three Unders saw less than 200 total points scored. Take the Under here.