The college lacrosse season ended over Memorial Day Weekend with Maryland unsurprisingly walking away with the National Championship over a tough Cornell team. One week later, we quickly transition to the start of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) season, which kicks off in Albany, NY at 2:15 pm on Saturday. Today, we will take a look at Championship and MVP futures.
Team Futures
The PLL is a league of parity, where any team can win on any given weekend. Last year, the Chaos won the championship after finishing 6th in the regular season with a 4-5 record. The best regular season records in the league in 2021 were shared by the Waterdogs and Atlas at 6-3. Pair that balance with newly injected college talent, impactful retirements like Paul Rabil and Jordan Wolf, and massive roster turnover, picking the 2022 Champ is like blindly throwing a dart at a board.
Betting lines reflect this as the top 6 teams’ odds range from +450 to +600. The longest odds are the Cannons and Chrome at +1000, but I don’t see either winning. Hopefully, there is an upset or two early in the season
and we can find more value in a week or two; if I HAD to choose a team to win it all right now it would be the Atlas (+450) as they return a lot of pieces on a great roster.
Jim Brown MVP Award Futures
When looking at MVP futures, you obviously want to find the best player on the best team—but we also want to find value in those players as well. Jeff Teat (Atlas, +400), Lyle Thompson (Cannons, +450), and Grant Ament (Archers, +700) are the top 3 favorites to win the award. Teat is the best player on what I think is the best team, but I don’t love the value there enough to take it. Lyle is an incredible player and is now healthy, but I don’t think the Cannons will be contending just yet. I like Ament the best out of those three as he is an elite facilitator—if the Archers are the best team, he should win.
I think the best value offered is for Matt Rambo (Whipsnakes, +2200) and Michael Sowers (Waterdogs, +2500). After not being fully healthy last year, Rambo is back to full strength and is still one of the best players in the world; the 2019 MVP is the heart and soul of a Whipsnakes team that has been to 3 straight championships (winning two).
Michael Sowers was injured last year, which is probably why the books are not thinking highly of him to win MVP. The Waterdogs went 6-3 in the regular season without Sowers, and they should be even better with him back. He is the 3rd leading point scorer in D1 lacrosse history and is one of the best passers/playmakers in all of lacrosse. Being able to dish the ball to one of the league’s best shooters in Ryan Brown will make Sowers a prime MVP candidate.
Week 1 Plays:
Waterdogs ML -145 1u
Atlas ML -135 1u
Lyle Thompson o3.5 points -130 1u
Grant Ament o3.5 points -150 1u
- Written by BTB Contributor MCWiggle23
Follow the entire BTB team - @BeatinTheBookie, @BTBJesse, and @FuturePrez2024
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