Long-time hockey buff Stephen Nover is having a huge NHL season going 40-22-2 on his last 64 premium/free plays for 65 percent! Stephen has one of his strongest totals play of the entire Stanley Cup playoffs going in the Avalanche-Golden Knights Sunday matchup.
Member Notes
Today’s Free Picks
| Sport | Game Selection | Game Time |
|---|---|---|
| MLB | (965) Tampa Bay Rays at (966) New York Yankees | 1:35pm EDT - May 24/2026 |
The PLAY: Tampa Bay Rays 115 Action
Mystique? Payroll? Home field? I don't get how the Yankees are favored against the Rays today.
Tampa Bay is 22-4 in its last 26 games. The Rays have won five in a row. They are leading the AL East by 5 1/2 games over the Yankees.
Oh, yes, the Rays also are 4-0 against the Yankees this season and have Yankee killer Drew Rasmussen on the mound.
The Yankees have produced the grand total of three runs in their last three games, all losses. Aaron Judge is on a 3-for-27 skid and hasn't had an RBI in his last 11 games. When Judge goes cold like this, New York is in big trouble.
Rasmussen, like many Rays players, is underrated. He is 4-1 with a 3.19 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. He has been extremely tough on the Yankees with a 1.03 ERA in 51 career innings. He threw six scoreless innings against them last month.
Ryan Weathers is going for the Yankees. He is showing signs of being an elite strikeout pitcher, but he has a 3.58 ERA and didn't look good in his previous start, giving up five earned runs in 5 1/3 innings to the Blue Jays six days ago.
The Yankees have a $336 million payroll. Tampa Bay's payroll is $108 million, a difference of $228 million. Yet the Rays are the more balanced team and are better right now. They should not be underdogs here.
Consultant Bio
Stephen Nover is unique among professional handicappers. A multiple award-winning sportswriter for numerous newspapers, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nover has one the best combinations of gambling and media sources in the world.
The author of two sports gambling books, "Las Vegas Sports Beat" and "Sports Gaming Beat", along with a book on fantasy football titled, "Winning Fantasy Football", Nover is a former professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas having taught a football handicapping class there. He also was the co-host of the Sunday night sports betting radio show "The Stardust Line" during the 1990's.
Parlaying nearly 50 years worth of professional gambling experience with tremendous knowledge of the players through elite deep-roster Rotisserie leagues and building on copious gaming and media sources - having worked for newspapers in the Midwest, South and West and also for legendary Hall of Fame oddsmaker Roxy Roxborough - Nover is a true Las Vegas wise guy. He helped learn his craft from such masters as Roxborough, Dave Malinsky, Lem Banker and Russ Culver.
Part of what makes Nover so special is the pride he takes in writing his deep-dive analysis, which always is unique, well-researched and sometimes entails out-of-the-box thinking.