May 10, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Brandon Marsh (16) hits a single during the sixth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images | John Jones-Imagn Images
Is Cristopher Sanchez at the beginning of a Cy Young run? He’s got his ERA down to 2.11 and has looked dominant the past two outings. There’s this guy in Los Angeles is having an arguably better season, but Sanchez has put himself back into the conversation.
Happy birthday to Milt Pappas, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1955, Ernie Banks hits a grand slam — the first of five on the year — to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 10-8 victory that snaps the Brooklyn Dodgers‘ 11-game winning streakand other stories as well.
1946 – The New York Giants defeat the Boston Braves, 5-1, in the first night game played at Braves Field. The 37,407 fans are surprised as their hometown heroes enter the field wearing shiny satin uniforms designed to reflect the light generated by the electricity used for the evening contest.
1957 – Even though the game is practically over before the Pirates come to bat, having given up six runs to the Phillies in the top of the 1st inning, the first Pirate at-bat provides the most memorable moment of the game, Roberto Clemente‘s 440-plus-foot inside-the-park home run. The Phils win the game, 7-2.
1990 – Dave Winfield rejects a trade that would have sent him from the New York Yankees to the California Angels in exchange for pitcher Mike Witt. A no-trade clause in Winfield’s contract gives him the right to turn down the deal. Five days later, Winfield will reach an agreement with the Yankees and give his permission for the trade to take place.
2000 – The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs, 14-8, in the longest nine-inning game in National League history: 4 hours, 22 minutes. The game features one of the longest home runs in the history of Wrigley Field. A picture circulated by the Associated Press puts it this way: “Rick Frohock celebrates on the rooftop of a three-story building on Waveland Ave. behind the left-field bleachers of Wrigley Field after catching a home run hit by Chicago’s Glenallen Hill against the Brewers. It was believed to be the first time a ball landed on top of the apartment building.” Hill’s shot is estimated at 490 feet by the next day’s press accounts and eventually measured at 500 feet.
2009 – Ryan Zimmerman goes 4 for 5 with two home runs to extend his hitting streak to 29 games, but San Francisco beats Washington, 11 – 7. Randy Johnson strikes out nine for career win number 298. The game features the tallest pitching match-up in history, with the 6′ 10″ Johnson facing Daniel Cabrera, who stands 6′ 9″.
2012 – Brandon Inge drives in four runs as the A’s romp past the Tigers, 11-4. Detroit released Inge earlier this season, but he is now on a tear, becoming the first major leaguer since Lou Gehrig in 1931 to drive in four or more runs four times in a five-game span.
1931 – “M” Fritz Lang’s first sound film starring Peter Lorre premieres in Berlin.
1947 – BF Goodrich announced the development of tubeless tire.
1959 – “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb” by Edd Byrnes & Connie Stevens hits #4.
1965 – Ellis Island added to Statue of Liberty National monument.
1969 – British comedy troupe Monty Python forms, made up of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.
Special Music Segment! Since you probably didn’t know all the words to “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb,” here are several that you should know:
1963 – “Puff (The Magic Dragon)” single by Peter, Paul & Mary hits #2; Peter Yarrow adapted a poem that college classmate Lenny Lipton had left behind after borrowing Yarrow’s typewriter.
1968 – Irish actor Richard Harris releases single “MacArthur Park”; it becomes a million-seller topping the charts in Canada and Australia, and peaking at #2 in US and #4 in UK.
1970 – “The Long and Winding Road” becomes Beatles’ last American single release.
1974 – ABC Records releases Steely Dan single “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” from the “Pretzel Logic “album; it peaks at #4 in the US, making it their biggest hit.
1975 – Capitol Records releases Natalie Cole‘s debut album “Inseparable”; it features two hits “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)” and the title track.
1981 – Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical “Cats” (based on poetry by T. S. Eliot) directed by Trevor Nunn, opens at the New London Theatre in the West End, London; runs for 8,949 performances.
Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Brice Turang (2) is swarmed by his teammates after hiting a walk off home run during the ninth inning of their game against the New York Yankees Sunday, May 10, 2026 at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the New York Yankees 4-3. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Last Week’s Results
Monday: Cardinals 6, Brewers 3
Tuesday: Postponed (rescheduled for July 7)
Wednesday: Brewers 6, Cardinals 2
Thursday: Off Day
Friday: Brewers 6, Yankees 0
Saturday: Brewers 4, Yankees 3
Sunday: Brewers 4, Yankees 3
Division Standings
Cubs 27-14
Brewers 22-16
Cardinals 23-17
Pirates 22-19
Reds 22-19
Last Week
Cubs: 5-2
Brewers: 4-1
Cardinals: 3-3
Pirates: 3-3
Reds: 2-5
Top Pitching Performance of the Week
Just like last week, our selection here goes to Jacob Misiorowski. Miz made all sorts of history on Friday night when he threw the seven fastest pitches ever thrown by a starting pitcher, but it wasn’t just that he was throwing hard: the Yankees couldn’t hit him, either. Misiorowski threw six shutout innings, struck out 11 batters, and allowed just two hits and two walks while outdueling Max Fried.
As for honorable mentions, there were good pitching performances up and down the roster this week, but I’d like to single out Aaron Ashby, who picked up two more wins this week and threw five scoreless innings across three outings.
Top Hitting Performance of the Week
There are several players worthy of this honor this week, but I’m going to go with Sunday’s walkoff hero, Brice Turang. He hit two of the team’s four homers this week, including Sunday’s winner, and compiled an OPS over 1.000. Sure, Tchaikovsky seems appropriate for the occasion.
Honorable mentions to Jake Bauers, who was 4-for-9 with a homer, a double, and two walks, plus the two “we’re back” guys: Andrew Vaughn, who homered and had a .982 OPS over his first five games back, and Jackson Chourio, who sparked the offense in St. Louis and picked up a team-high eight hits (three of which were doubles) this week.
Injury Notes & Roster Moves
The biggest news this week was on Monday, when Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn were both, finally, activated from the injured list. In corresponding moves, Blake Perkins was optioned to Triple-A Nashville and Greg Jones was designated for assignment. Jones cleared waivers and was outrighted to Nashville four days later.
Perkins, though, did not stay in the minors for long. Brandon Lockridge suffered a scary, but ultimately hopefully relatively minor, injury when when he crashed into the wall going after a foul ball on Friday night. On Saturday, Lockridge was placed on the injured list, and Perkins was back with the Brewers after just two games with the Sounds.
We got a positive update Friday on Christian Yelich, who has been out since April 13th. He has been swinging and running the bases, and the team mentioned that he could be back with the Brewers as soon as the next series.
Brandon Woodruff was scheduled to begin throwing again on Saturday. We’ll see how he responds, but given that there’s supposedly nothing structurally wrong, he could rejoin the team soon.
Ángel Zerpa, who was placed on the injured list last week, needs Tommy John surgery and will miss the rest of the season. That surgery is scheduled for Monday.
Akil Baddoo is getting close, and should go out on a minor-league rehab assignment this week.
The recently signed Xzarion Curry made his first start as a member of the organization and the right-hander was alright, allowing a pair of runs over five innings. The bullpen took over in the top of the sixth with the score tied 2-2, and that’s where things went downhill. Joey Gerber allowed three runs in the sixth, the recently signed Cionel Perez allowed a run in the seventh, and Anderson Severino allowed two runs in the ninth. Syracuse went down fighting, at least, scoring a run in the sixth and two in the seventh; in that seventh inning, they had the opportunity to mount a true comeback, loading up the bases, but Christian Arroyo struck out to end the inning.
Irving Kota was quite hittable in his four-plus innings of work, allowing five runs on nine hits. The Rumble Pony bats kept them in the game early, with Eli Serrano driving in a run on a double and a second run scoring during the sequence on a fielding error, but that ended up being the totality of their offense for the contest.
At least they weren’t no-hit? It’s been a few weeks since I wrote a report where Binghamton got no-hit, so I feel like we’re due. Outside of R.J. Gordon allowing five runs in the top of the second, Binghamton’s pitching was solid. The bats, on the other hand? Not so much. With two hits in this contest, Wyatt Young boosted his team-leading batting average to .225. That about says it all.
With the score tied 4-4 going into the bottom of the ninth, Joe Charles was summoned from the bullpen. The right-hander walked the first batter he faced and then allowed a double, putting the winning run 90 feet away. After escaping leaving a meatball right down Broadway, he got burned by throwing a hanger down and in to centerfielder Theo Gillen, who laced a line drive down the first base line to win it for the Hot Rods.
Daviel Hurtado and Nicolas Carreno combined to throw six solid innings, with the former allowing a run on 2 hits over 2.0 innings while striking out 4 and the latter allowing a run on 2 hits and 3 walks over 4.0 innings while striking out 7. Elwis Mijares replaced Carreno in the bottom of the seventh and let the game get away from St. Lucie after allowing five runs to score. The bats were sluggish to start things off, but came alive in the later innings, scoring a run apiece in the sixth, seventh, and ninth innings.
May 10, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Detroit Tigers Gage Workman hugs Detroit Tigers first baseman Spencer Torkelson (20) after hitting a home run during the sixth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images | William Purnell-Imagn Images
On Sunday night in Kansas City, Detroit Tigers infielder and longtime farm hand Gage Workman, launched a two-run homer in his first major league at-bat with the Tigers. He’s already contributed, but whether he can continue to help the Tigers is a pretty big question mark. For years, Workman has been a talented minor league player whose weaknesses at the plate were too exploitable by upper level pitching. He’s still only 26 years old and the Tigers could certainly use an injection of power and better defense. Workman may be able to provide that in Kerry Carpenter’s stead, at least in the short term.
Gage Tater Workman played with Spencer Torkelson at Arizona State and was the guy who bumped Tork from third base over to first base, his more natural position. The Tigers drafted Workman in the fourth round in the shortened 2020 draft, the same year Torkelson went first overall. In our early prospect coverage after the draft, we preached patience with Workman, as he was both a little young for his draft class and pretty raw as a switch-hitter with power but plenty of swing and miss in his game. But at the same time, he had speed, defensive ability, a pretty good idea of the strike zone, and power. He was a high risk, high reward prospect from the beginning.
Workman struck out 30.6 percent of the time in A-ball in 2021, and there aren’t many college hitters who start out with that many strikeouts and go on to significant major league success. On the other hand, he cracked 12 home runs and stole 31 bases as a strong-armed shortstop. The biggest issue for him was a right-handed swing that just wasn’t getting it done. For a couple of seasons, the Tigers worked with him on it, but eventually were able to convince him to abandon switch-hitting in 2024.
By then, he was also starting to transition to playing third base in the upper minors while still sidelining at shortstop and sometimes in the outfield. Even in 2026 with the Toledo Mud Hens, Workman has started 15 games at shortstop, though that’s partly due to Trei Cruz getting injured early on. He can handle the position decently well, but has always been a little mistake prone making more subtle plays around second base. Third base allows him to pick balls and let his arm eat, and that’s really where he’s best suited. He also has enough speed to play anywhere in the outfield. He just doesn’t have as much experience with it.
Workman reached Double-A in 2022, but he struck out 40 percent of the time with the Erie SeaWolves. 206 strikeouts in 515 plate appearances is a wild amount of strikeouts, and there probably aren’t too many successful major league hitters who ever struck out 200 times in a minor league season. Things went no better in a little extra work in the Arizona Fall League that October. He struck out 38.8 percent of the time with Erie in 2023, and by that point prospect watchers were cutting bait on him.
Workman’s transition to hitting left-handed full-time really helped him. His cut his strikeout rate with Erie to 27.5 percent hitting only left-handed in 2024, and he hit 18 homers and stole 30 bags along the way. That was progress in terms of trimming the strikeouts, and to his credit, Workman has always drawn his share of walks. He wasn’t doing any better against left-handed pitching than he had when he switch-hit, and he still was highly vulnerable to good breaking stuff, but he was hammering right-handers with much better consistency. There was, and is, still a lot of swing and miss, but those improvements finally got him within striking distance of the major leagues.
At that point, with the 2024 Double-A season behind him, Workman turning 25 years old, and he was exposed to the Rule 5 draft. The Tigers elected not to protect him or catching prospect Liam Hicks, and it was suspected that Workman might well be picked up by another team. That team was the Chicago Cubs, and they took Workman on their Opening Day roster last year. The Miami Marlins took Hicks, and that has gone much better for them.
It was a short struggle for Workman in his few weeks on the north side, and he was quickly designated for assignment and then traded to the Chicago White Sox. That didn’t go very well either, and when he suffered a minor hip injury, the White Sox designated him as well, and he returned to the Tigers in May of 2025. All tolled, he only got 17 major league plate appearances combined between the Chicago clubs. He’d made his major league debut, but otherwise wasn’t in any better position than he started, and didn’t get much of a chance either. Things didn’t improve with the Tigers, as Workman struck out nearly 40 percent of the time with the Toledo Mud Hens over the rest of the season.
All of this is to say, don’t go getting too excited just yet. Workman has power, zone recognition, speed, and pretty good defensive ability at third base. There’s plenty to like, but he’s always been really poor against breaking stuff and will strike out quite a bit. Workman isn’t an unknown around the league. He has huge potential, because if he could hit even decently against right-handed pitching, you’d have a pretty valuable strong-side platoon player who does a lot of things to help you win in all phases of the game. If there was real confidence league wide that he’d figure it out at the plate, the Tigers may never have gotten him back.
There is one key sign to watch this spring that might indicate that Workman is starting to find his way against upper level pitching. Workman batted a grisly .146 against breaking stuff in his combined time at the Triple-A level last year, with a horrendous whiff rate of 49.6 percent. Every once in a while he’d run into a hanger, but for the most part pitchers who could command a breaking ball could get ahead and then spam breaking balls down without throwing another strike and pretty easily get Workman out.
Against fastballs he was still quite good. Against offspeed stuff he was at least okay. But breaking balls, and not even good quality ones, were his kryponite, and most prospects who flame out against upper level breaking stuff never break through.
However, the worm turned a bit this spring. He’s still whiffed at breaking pitches 41.3 percent of the time in Toledo this season, so he hasn’t suddenly turned into a low risk contact hitter. But, he also hit .324 against breaking balls over the first five weeks of the Triple-A season, with a whopping .265 isolated power mark. His expected batting average is just .240 and his expected slugging percentage is just .408 compared to actual results of .588 slug, so he’s certainly had plenty of good fortune, but he is also clearly doing better at avoiding chasing so much, and hammering some mistakes up in the zone.
Overall, he’s cut his strikeout rate down to 23.7 percent in Toledo this spring, so while that’s not the kind of sample you want to bet the house on, he’s never put up numbers this good either. Possibly, he’s figured it out just enough that he’s no longer easy prey for breaking stuff, and if he can at least keep pitchers honest and not chase sliders and curveballs in the dirt constantly, they’ll have to feed him more fastballs and try to spot some sliders and curveballs in the zone. Workman is a solid fastball hitter who will do some damage and always has been. It’s partly a question of patience, partly a matter of breaking ball recognition.
So, expect plenty of swing and miss from Gage Workman, and know that this may just be a case of catching a hot hitter and riding him until major league pitching figures him out. It’s at least possible that some growth last year may have been masked by the chaos of getting picked by the Cubs, making his major league debut, struggling, bouncing through the White Sox organization briefly, rehabbing a minor injury, and then ending up right back in Toledo after a whirlwind ride to the places with the tall buildings, as Jim Price would say. He still did plenty of damage against right-handed pitching, and he’s a versatile defender who can steal you a base.
Gage Workman doesn’t have to become a good pure hitter to help the Tigers. He just has to avoid slipping back into old bad habits that made him an easy mark for upper level pitchers with good command of their breaking stuff. If he’s just disciplined enough to get pitchers up in the zone, Workman might do enough damage to let his secondary skills play up and find a sustainable role in Detroit. For now, any contributions are much appreciated.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - MAY 10: Rico Garcia #50 of the Baltimore Orioles celebrates after defeating the Athletics at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on May 10, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
Good news: the Orioles do, indeed, love their mothers. They made it a happy Mother’s Day with a 2-1 win over the Athletics that averted a three-game sweep. While the O’s offense again didn’t inspire much confidence, they delivered one of their best-pitched games of the season, holding their opponent to one run for just the third time in 2026. They even made a legitimately good defensive play — who knew it was possible? — with Leody Taveras and Samuel Basallo joining forces to cut down the potential tying run at the plate in the seventh. Check out Mark Brown’s recap of the much-needed victory.
With the win, the Orioles (18-23) have climbed out of the basement of the AL East, pulling a half-game ahead of the Red Sox (17-23). It’s wild to think that the O’s, as horrific as they’ve looked this year, still have a better record than three AL teams and are within a game and a half of six others. The American League is well and truly dreadful so far. Only three of the 15 teams have winning records. Three! The Yankees and Rays have been great, the Athletics have been good, and everyone else is .500 or worse. At this rate it’s going to be hard to scrounge up six legitimate AL teams to make the playoffs. In that sense, the Orioles’ hopes of remaining relevant in 2026 are far from over.
Still, it stands to reason that the entire league isn’t going to stay bad for four more months. A few teams will stabilize and will separate themselves from the pack. In all likelihood, all six AL playoff teams will finish the year with a winning record. So the Orioles are going to have to do some real work if they want to be part of that group. Moseying around mediocrity isn’t going to cut it in the long run.
These next three games against the Yankees are going to be an enormous test. Frankly, we’re all kind of expecting the Yanks to mop the floor with the Birds like they did last weekend in New York, when the O’s were humiliated in all four games, getting outscored 39-10. And that may well happen again. But if the Orioles can show some semblance of fight and urgency, and maybe steal a game or two in this series, perhaps the outlook for the rest of 2026 won’t look so bleak.
We can only hope this matchup against the Yankees goes better than the last, or the Orioles’ escape from the AL East cellar will prove to be short-lived.
This is a pretty cool way to do a gender reveal. Way better than those people who, like, set off fireworks and accidentally start a forest fire or something.
I feel like the O’s have been so terrible that we haven’t gotten to see much of Alby’s personality, so it’s good to see that the manager is trying to keep things loose. Whether it will make any kind of difference is another question.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Four ex-Orioles were born on this day, most notably the late right-hander Milt Pappas (b. 1939, d. 2016). Pappas pitched in the majors for 17 years and won 209 games, and he spent the half of his career in Baltimore, where he was a two-time All-Star and a steady presence in the Orioles’ rotation for nearly a decade. But he’s best known for being the main piece of the three-player package sent to the Reds for Frank Robinson, which turned into the best trade in Orioles history.
Other former Orioles with May 11 birthdays are right-handers Kerry Ligtenberg (55) and Mark Huismann (68) and outfielder Trenidad Hubbard (62).
On this day last year, the Orioles beat the Angels in Los Angeles, 7-3. Zach Eflin pitched five solid innings, Gunnar Henderson bashed a two-run homer, and #9 hitter Maverick Handley drove in two runs without a hit thanks to a sac fly and a squeeze bunt. It was the 421st — and final — win of Brandon Hyde’s Orioles managerial career. The O’s followed with four straight losses and Hyde was fired later that week.
Random Orioles game of the day
On May 11, 1999, the Orioles suffered an 11-6 loss in Cleveland. An early 2-0 O’s lead evaporated when Cleveland scored six runs in the fourth, with the first six batters of the inning all reaching base against Sidney Ponson, capped by a Richie Sexson three-run homer. Ponson was tagged for eight runs in 4.2 innings and wasted an 11-hit effort by the O’s offense. Cleveland starter Bartolo Colón, in the third season of his eventual 21-year career, earned the win.
The Montreal Canadiens took to the Bell Centre ice for the first time since eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night when they hosted the Buffalo Sabres for Game 3 of their second-round series. While each team had won a game in Buffalo, the momentum was definitely with the Canadiens, given how dominant they were in their 5-1 win on Friday night, and they picked up right where they left off with a 6-2 win on Sunday night.
With 50 minutes to go before puck drop, the seats were already filling up nicely, and fans were warming up with “Go Habs Go” chants, a prelude to how electric the building would be. With a building packed to the rafters, it was former captain Kirk Muller who carried the torch in the Bell Center to thunderous applause.
Despite the noisy crowd, it was the Sabres who drew first blood with Tage Thompson finding the back of the net off a missed Cole Caufield clearance. While that would have quieted down a lot of building around the league, it wasn’t the case on Sunday night, and the Habs faithful remained just as noisy.
From then on, the Canadiens forechecked relentlessly and took over the first frame. They had several great opportunities alone and up close with Alex Lyon. The Sabres goalie, who wasn’t very proactive in Game 2, cut a dangerous feed that was going straight to Nick Suzuki, who was alone in acres of space. The puck still got to him, but he had to take some time to steady it before taking a shot that Lyon saved.
The captain got another chance on the power play. He got the puck in the bumper position but couldn’t unleash a shot. Caufield also got a chance in close, just like Veleno did. Lyon had an answer to everything until Alex Newhook scored on a rebound, his fourth goal in as many games. He would also go on to add another one, in an empty net in the dying minutes.
No Love Lost
Unsurprisingly, the game started just like Game 2 ended with plenty of hits, slashes and other shenanigans. Some calls were missed on both sides, including an elbow to Lane Hutson’s head, but the most worrying came when Zach Benson sent Juraj Slafkovsky headfirst into the boards.
Both goalies also saw some action they would rather not have seen. Beck Malenstyn was sent to the box for two minutes for goaltender interference after literally flying into Jakub Dobes, while Joe Veleno avoided a penalty call when he landed skates-first into Lyon.
Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of scrums in the dying minutes, and chances are we’ll see more rough stuff in Game 4.
Caufield Finally Found The Back Of The Net Again
After missing multiple golden chances, including one where he was in the blue paint with an open net, the Canadiens’ sniper finally got his second goal of the playoffs. It came on the power play, but the diminutive winger won’t complain about that; the relief in his face spoke for itself. Speaking after the game, Martin St-Louis said:
It’s not down to luck that Cole is a 50-goal scorer. If he had scored on more chances this season, he could have scored 60. He’s going to get his scoring chances, and he’ll miss some, but I’m not worried about Cole Caufield scoring goals in the playoffs.
Later in the second frame, Juraj Slafkovsky also found the back of the net on the power play by deflecting a Lane Hutson shot. That was the big Slovak’s fourth postseason power play goal; he now only needs two more to tie Jacques Lemaire’s franchise record. The goal came after a high-sticking call on Alex Tuch, which Slafkovsky drew himself, before heading to the Sabres bench to do a bit of chirping.
After the game, Lindy Ruff was asked what his team had to do to get better results, and he replied:
We have to be smarter. You know, we took five offensive zone penalties. Our discipline for that wasn’t good enough.
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Even though his goaltender allowed five goals, the coach refused to hang anything on his door:
He was very good all night. I’ll stop you right there. He was very good all night; there was nothing about Alex Lyon in this game.
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Game 4 is scheduled for 7:00 PM on Tuesday, and the Sabres will be desperate to bounce back; another loss would give the Canadiens a commanding lead in the series. After three games, Montreal has outscored Buffalo 13-7, and Ruff’s men will have to find a way to stop the hemorrhage if they want to have a chance to come back into this series.
May 10, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) reacts after game four of the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images | Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
The New York Knicks are headed back to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second consecutive season after completing a dominating sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday afternoon.
After falling behind 2-1 against the Atlanta Hawks in the Quarterfinals, there were questions to if this current Knicks nucleus could win in the postseason and make a realistic push for the NBA Finals to contend for a title.
New York answered those questions by becoming one of the hottest teams in all of basketball, and in large part due to the offensive play of Karl-Anthony Towns, who put on an absolute clinic over the last four games.
In Sunday’s series clincher, KAT put up 17 points, 10 assists, four rebounds, and two blocks in just 20 minutes.
The former Kentucky Wildcat averaged 15 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists over the four-game sweep in just 23 minutes of action. He’s completely taken control of facilitating the offense and has the Knicks as the favorite to represent their conference in the NBA championship.
One flaw for Towns, though, has been his play on the defensive end, and that could become a problem as the postseason continues. Towns committed four or more fouls in each game of the semis, leading to fewer minutes on the court and leading to inconsistencies with the Knicks’ lineups.
He has four or more fouls in seven of the 10 playoff games so far, so it’s a consistent issue that he’s going to have to fix if the Knicks hope to win another series — or two — over the next month.
The 2026 NBA Draft lottery is in the books. Every NBA team knows when it's drafting in the 2026 NBA Draft, and so now the evaluation process begins in full. Front office personnel from around the league, top prospects and their agents have all convened in Chicago this week for the annual NBA draft combine.
The entire draft class typically goes through medical examinations, as well as agility and shooting drills, at Wintrust Arena with private workouts conducted through agents during the week-long event. There are also live-action scrimmages the top of the draft class usually decline to play in, but the right performance in front of so many influential eyes can often propel a fringe prospect.
Here's a look at a group of players, as well as two potential college basketball national championship contenders, with the most at stake as the 2026 NBA Scouting Combine gets underway in Chicago:
When is the 2026 NBA Draft Combine?
The 2026 NBA Draft Combine officially began on Sunday, May 10 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago and runs through Sunday, May 17. It is not open to the public.
2026 NBA Draft Combine: Prospects with most at stake
Darryn Peterson, Kansas
The Kansas star doesn't have to show NBA teams he might be the best prospect in this draft class based on talent. They know that. But if he's to be the No. 1 pick, Peterson will have to prove to the Washington Wizards front office that the mysterious health issues surrounding his availability with the Jayhawks were indeed just a one-off due to the introduction of creatine into his workout regimen. Peterson's medical evaluation with the NBA at the scouting combine is likely to be scrutinized as much as any prospect.
Ament began this season at Tennessee rated as a potential top-10 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. An intriguing but inconsistent freshman year has him hovering with a group of prospects who could go in the lottery or fall to late in the first round. Ament is perhaps the most intriguing because of his length as a wing and long-term development possibilities. He could benefit from the measurement portion of the combine. Ament nearly returned to the Vols for a lucrative NIL offer, according to multiple reports, so his draft position will determine whether he made the right decision.
Koa Peat, Arizona
Peat, like Ament, watched his draft stock slide a bit despite a relatively successful freshman season at Arizona. There are concerns about Peat's lack of perimeter shooting and whether his physical style can translate to the NBA. What his measurements are at the combine, as well as how we he does in shooting drills, will help dictate if he's closer to a potential lottery pick or more like a fringe first-round pick.
Jayden Quaintance, Kentucky
The 6-foot-10 center played just four games at Kentucky this past season after spending his first year of college at Arizona State and suffering a torn ACL. The former five-star recruit has been pegged as a potential lottery pick for years and showed flashes of becoming a defensive force as Arizona State. He can show NBA evaluators in Chicago that he has put the knee injury behind him and cement his status as a lottery pick and possible steal in this deep class.
Allen Graves, Santa Clara
Graves blossomed into a 6-foot-9 two-way playmaker as a redshirt freshman while helping Santa Clara make the NCAA tournament. He has to decide whether to stay in the NBA draft or return to college as one of the most coveted players in the transfer portal. As a 19-year-old who was an under-the-radar recruit out of high school in Louisiana, Graves fits the mold of a player whose stock could improve with a strong showing at the combine. Former Santa Clara standout and current Oklahoma City Thunder star Jalen Williams did just that in 2022 when he became a first-round draft pick.
2026 NBA Draft Combine: College teams with most at stake
Michigan Wolverines
The defending national champions have three players invited to the NBA combine and two have left open the possibility of returning to the Wolverines. Aday Mara seems more likely stay in the draft than Morez Johnson, Jr., but there's a possibility both go pro. Michigan coach Dusty May has replenished the Wolverines' roster through the transfer portal, but bringing back either one of these two impact players would place Michigan squarely in the national championship hunt again.
Arkansas Razorbacks
Perhaps no school could benefit more from a poor showing at the combine than the Razorbacks (even though coach John Calipari would never say that out loud). Guards Meleek Thomas and Billy Richmond III have both declared for the draft while maintaining their college eligibility to return to Arkansas. Both could be late first-round picks or even second-round picks, and therefore have the potential to earn more money next season staying in college. If both are back at Arkansas, or maybe even just one, the Razorbacks will be a national title contender despite losing likely top-10 pick Darius Acuff, Jr.
TAMPA, FL - FEBRUARY 19: Cam Schlittler #31, Ryan Weathers #40 and Max Fried #54 of the New York Yankees talk during spring training at George M. Steinbrenner Field on February 19, 2026 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by New York Yankees/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The rise of Cam Schlittler has not just been one of the most thrilling Yankees stories to watch over the last year, but one of the best stories in all of baseball. Once a mid-rotation starter with modest fastball velocity in college, Schlittler has transformed into a monster, a fire-breathing dragon of a pitcher that mows you down with pure gas every fifth day. It’s still a bit shocking to say, given he was a relative unknown as recently as a year ago, but he’s on the short list of AL Cy Young contenders right now.
But there’s another Yankee pitcher that will make a case for the league’s highest pitching honor. Max Fried hasn’t gone through any kind of meteoric rise over the last year or two, instead steadily continuing to ply his trade as one of the best left-handed hurlers in the sport.
If you had to choose, which pitcher do you think is more likely to actually take home Cy Young hardware this year? Betting markets peg Schlittler as a narrow favorite, but he and Fried are neck-and-neck at the top, and they each look they have a real chance to end up in first.
Schlittler’s bona fides require little introduction. He has been, by most measures, the best pitcher in baseball in 2026, leading the league by distance in both fWAR and RA-9 WAR, unsurprising given he leads the majors in both FIP and ERA. There is no one who seems more likely on a given night to fire seven shutout innings.
Fried, for his part, has not been quite as dominant but has still been excellent. Though he lags a bit in ERA (12th in the AL at the moment), he’s sixth FIP and actually leads the Junior Circuit in expected ERA per Statcast, even outstripping Schlittler himself.
Schlittler’s resume so far is more impressive, and if you’re to base your choice on who has performed best in 2026, there is no comparison. But where Fried has an argument is in his reliability. There are few better bets to reach the 200-inning threshold this year than Fried, who FanGraphs projects to finish the year with 202 frames to his name. Schlittler might have more upside this season, and in any given start, than anyone on the planet, but Fried has the track record and is seemingly the safer bet to complete a full season’s workload.
Ultimately, it’ll be a delight if either Yankee secures the award, and all we’ll have to do here is root for them to finish 1-2 in some order. But if you had to handicap it now, who do you think has the better chance?
On the site today, Sam helps us turn the page on a dreadful series in Milwaukee by previewing the three-game set in Baltimore. Also, John profiles Walt Terrell as part of our Yankee Birthday series, and Kevin recaps a busy Sunday around the American League. And later, Josh wonders what’s gotten into the Tampa Bay Rays, while Madison puts out the call for this week’s mailbag.
Get well soon, and properly. | NHLI via Getty Images
We’re still in the quiet, other-teams-are-competing part of the offseason, but there was one bit of news on an Islanders player who was grinding through some injuries during the final third.
Meanwhile, among those still-competing teams, Minnesota has restored possibility in its series with the Avalanche, the Canadiens have taken the lead on Buffalo, and the Ducks pulled level with Vegas.
Islanders News
Turns out Ryan Pulock did need shoulder surgery. Here’s hoping he comes back at 100%. [Post]
Elsewhere
The Canadiens returned home and thrilled their fans in Game 3. [NHL]
After many years of having his playoff credentials questioned, Frederik Andersen is “locked in” for the 8-0 Hurricanes. [NHL]
Scott Wedgewood has had a looooong journey toward NHL regular and he’s happy to talk about it. [Sportsnet]
BUT, he was pulled in Game 3 and isn’t guaranteed the start in Game 4 for Colorado. [NHL]
After a hat trick, John Tortorella took the opportunity to lay into Mitch Marner’s critics. [Sportsnet]
Should the Leafs shop the #1 pick? Is Tampa in trouble? etc. [Sportsnet]
Kirk Muller leads the…whatever, go take a long walk on a short pier. [NHL]
PITTSBURGH, PA - NOVEMBER 21: Bryan Rust #17 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates during the game against the Minnesota Wild at PPG PAINTS Arena on November 21, 2025 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
Vitals
Player: Bryan Rust Born: May 11, 1992 (Age 33 season) Height: 5’ 11” Weight: 202 pounds Hometown: Pontiac, Michigan Shoots: Right Draft: 2010 third round (80th overall) by the Pittsburgh Penguins 2025-26 Statistics: 72 games played, 29 goals, 36 assists = 65 points; 6 games played, 1 goal, 1 assist in playoffs. Contract Status: Rust has two seasons remaining on a six year deal signed back in 2022 with an AAV of $5.125 per season. History: 2024-25; 2023-24(58% A, 40% B);2022-23 (65% C, 23% D); 2021-22(80% A, 20% B); 2020-21 (61% A, 37% B); 2019-20 (91% A, 9% B); 2018-19 (60% B, 27% C); 2017-18 (40% A, 52% B).
What jumps out here when looking at Rust’s monthly splits for the season is March. Without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for extended stretches during this time and with a heavy schedule to boot, Rust stepped up his game to post 20 points in 16 games to help the Penguins through their toughest stretch of the season and put a firm grip on a playoff spot down the stretch run. Rust was exceptional as well in the month of December when the team was struggling, but his play was enough to help them keep treading water until they found their game again.
The sample wasn’t as big as it could have been after the NHL suspended Rust for three games due to an illegal check to Brock Boeser on January 27th. It was Rust’s first career NHL suspension.
Story of the Season
In 2024-25, Bryan Rust posted a career year and many believed he was going to be a prime trade candidate last offseason as the Penguins entered another year of a rebuild. No one figured he could ever repeat the production from that season and his value on the market was never going to be higher. Everything pointed towards Rust being shipped out once his no trade clause expired and the Penguins stocking up more assets for their path back to contention.
The summer came and went, and no trade involving Rust ever materialized, and the fourth longest tenured Penguins returned to Pittsburgh for a 12th season. Still, matching his career numbers from the season prior seemed like a stretch as he entered his age 33 season and the Penguins expectations were closer to bottom-five team in the league than a playoff contender.
Of course, the story of Rust’s entire career has been proving people wrong and 2025-26 was the perfect microcosm of just that. Back alongside Sidney Crosby on the top line, Rust didn’t quite hit the 30-goal mark for a second straight season, falling just shy with 29, but that mark was still good enough to make it seven straight seasons with at least 20 goals scored. On top of the goal scoring, Rust did set a new career high in assists with 36 and was able to replicate his career best point total of 65 points, set in 2024-25, good for third best on the team.
In the playoffs, Rust struggled to find his scoring touch like much of the rest of the team, registering just one goal and one assist in the six game loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Regular season 5v5 advanced stats
Data via Natural Stat Trick. Ranking is out of 18 forwards on the team who qualified by playing a minimum of 150 minutes.
Not a great season analytically from Rust, but his scoring rates were still solid and shooting percentage remains near the very top of the Penguins lineup. His play driving numbers have dipped in recent years and the Penguins top line continues to be all gas, no breaks which leaves them exposed on the defensive end. On the whole, the entire team’s analytics improved the season which was evident from their place in the standings. Rust’ numbers did improve individually in several areas but not at the same rate as others so he was pushed down the rankings a bit.
Rust has never been higher in EV Offense than he has been in the past two seasons, and interestingly his EV Defense impacts have noticeably dropped away recently too. In some ways Rust is putting up the EV Offense/Defense impacts of Jake Guentzel on the high-flying first line as the new winger focal point with Crosby. The Crosby line statistically is one not always covering things up defensively but leaning hard towards generating offense, which they still do just about as good as anyone in the NHL.
The microstats show why Rust is one of the top offensive performers in the game today. He scores a ton of goals, his in-zone shooting and creating shot assists is impressive. He gets a lot of shots from high danger passes (no doubt heavily influenced by the number of chances his superstar center creates for him). Unlike members of the second line, the damage is not coming off the rush. These guys are getting on the forecheck, grinding along the walls and driving to the net. Also impressive (and relevant) is his skating speed at age-33 hasn’t much faded to make him among the faster players on the ice.
The NHL Edge data plays into the picture painted above in this section. Rust is a very active player in terms of staying busy and keeping his legs moving. He shoots a lot, and from all over the ice – with an emphasis on trying to get to the front of the net. Unlocking the simple secret that players talented enough to convert from in close are going to feast by getting there is how he’s averaged almost 30 goals in the last three seasons. Missing 10+ games in each year could also be seen as a possible byproduct of paying the price by dealing with damage to do so.
The zone time splits are interesting too, one doesn’t have to be a defensive wizard if they are spending as much time as possible in the offensive zone. Thanks in part to generous zone starts, Rust and the Pens’ first line excel at keeping the play alive and thinking offense.
Rust plays a lot of minutes to give a lot of opportunities to pile up more speed bursts than most forwards in the NHL, and he did just that despite only playing 72 total regular season games. The wheels still look pretty good, and at this point, age is nothing but a number for how Rust can use his legs to get around the ice in order to do what he’s trying to do.
Highlights
Bryan Rust snipes it to give the Pens a 2-0 lead 🎯
As another major offseason awaits the Penguins, fans may wonder if Rust could be a trade candidate once again. If it were up to Rust, a trade will never be in the cards as he has stated his desire to be a Penguin for life, a sentiment shared by many in the fan base as well.
As the fourth longest tenured player in the organization, Rust has all the makings of a future captain should he remain in a Penguins jersey once Crosby, Malkin, and Letang hang up the skates.
Unfortunately that is not how is always plays out of course, and with his trade protection expired, there could once again be questions surrounding his future with the franchise, unless of course Dubas has already determined his value to the team outweighs anything he could return in assets from being dealt away.
Ideal 2026-27
If Bryan Rust can keep copying and pasting seasons like he posted the last two years, then it’s an easy success for the Penguins. Rust turns 34 today and 2026-27 will be his 13th season in the league. Being on the wrong side of 30 is typically when players start to slow down, but Rust has posted the three best seasons of his career all after that mark. He may have failed just shy of reaching 30 goals again this past season, but he bumped his assist total just enough to post consecutive 65 point seasons.
When the puck drops in the fall, you can expect to see Rust back on the top line alongside Sidney Crosby, a place he has called home for the better part of his career. As long as Crosby is on the ice and scoring at his regular pace, Rust will stack points simply by being a direct beneficiary of playing on his right wing. For a third round lottery ticket in the draft, it’s hard to ask for much more than Rust continues to give the Penguins year after year.
Bottom line
Death. Taxes. Bryan Rust producing.
That’s been to story of Rust’s entire career and he somehow keeps posting more productive seasons the older he gets, bucking the conventional aging curve. From a bottom-six role player when he first broke into the league, to making his name with clutch playoff moments, all the way to being a staple on the Penguins first line with Sidney Crosby, Rust has paved quite the career path for himself.
Now, as he inches into his mid-30s, Rust remains a constant with the Penguins and developed not just as a hockey player, but also a leader in the locker room. When one of the alternate captains is out, the “A” gets moved to his chest with little thought. Facing a daunting March schedule and missing Crosby and Malkin, Rust posted his best month of hockey all season when the team needed him most. That’s just simply the player he has become and continues to be 12 years into his career.
Final Grade
A.
Rust just does what he does and it works. 2025-26 saw another 65 point season and a new career high in assists. His play helped carry the Penguins through March when Crosby and Malkin missed significant time. He wasn’t great in the playoff series against the Flyers but neither was most of the team. He still has two years left on his contract and hasn’t showed many signs of slowing down.
Leave your grades for Rust in the comments and feel free to agree or disagree with our analysis of his season there as well.
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos right-handed pitcher Jackson Flora (2) pitches during the game against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Miss., on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. | Matt Bush/Special to the Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The first official mock draft has been released by MLB.com and reporter Jim Callis is predicting that the Pittsburgh Pirates will select the best pitcher in the class.
With the fifth overall pick, the Pirates are projected to draft right handed pitcher Jackson Flora out of UC Santa Barbara. This year Flora has been looked at as the consensus best pitcher in the class. The Junior righty has a 9-0 record in 2026 and leads NCAA Division I in earned run average with a 0.73 ERA this year.
Flora is ranked as the fourth overall prospect in this year’s class and has clearly separated himself from the rest of the arms that will be featured during the draft. At 6’5” Flora possesses an athletic build that helps him pack a punch with his fastballs. His heaters are on average in the mid-90’s range and regularly touch triple digits. His mid-80’s slider has developed as another strong pitch in his repertoire, while his changeup has become a solid second pitch in his arsenal.
Jackson Flora lowers his ERA to 0.73 during an 8-strikeout performance 💥
Scouting grades and more on the top-ranked pitching prospect in the 2026 Draft class: https://t.co/ywDpwUKk26
The California native has enjoyed a solid three-year career at UC Santa Barbara. Flora’s freshman season saw him used mostly as a relief pitcher out of the pen, but he exploded onto the scene as a sophomore in 2025. As a second year player, Flora helped lead the Gauchos to a 36-18 record, and compiled 86 strikeouts with a 3.60 ERA and a 6-3 record as a starter. As the top pitcher in the country Flora and the Gauchos currently have a 32-15 record.
Flora fits the mold of pitchers that the Pirates have liked to bring in over the past couple of years. The tall athletic build coupled with a strong fastball first approach is the blueprint used for most of Pittsburgh’s starters, and Flora could be a great addition to that group if he’s still available fifth overall.
The MLB Draft starts on July 11 during the All-Star break in Philadelphia.
BALTIMORE – There are still a few maxims about playing for the Athletics – late of Oakland, currently of West Sacramento, perhaps soon of Las Vegas – that remain true in this period of franchise limbo.
Best to rent, not buy, as owner John Fisher’s cozy luxury-geared dream ballpark goes up in Las Vegas and the club makes do in what should be the second of three seasons in Yolo County.
Life remains more luxe on the road, with 10,000-seat Sutter Health Park still geared for a Class AAA ballclub despite upgrades to satisfy the big league squatters. And while the roster is no longer an homage to the major league minimum salary, the club’s $91.8 million opening-day payroll still ranks 25th out of 30 teams.
Yet it’s undeniable that something has changed as a core of largely homegrown players coalesces. Players can glance around the clubhouse and see not a stopgap or trade fodder, but rather a dude they came up with.
And in some cases, envision playing alongside for many more years.
“When there’s a level of comfort, a level of familiarity with each other, and camaraderie and a good culture in the clubhouse, it makes it easy to go out and have fun and perform at a high level on the field,” All-Star DH and veteran sage Brent Rooker tells USA TODAY Sports.
“We’ve got all those things.”
Forty games into the season, they’ve got something else: The third-best record in the American League and a tenuous hold on first place in the AL West.
At 21-19, the A’s are by no means popping bottles. After all, they reached the one-quarter mark last season with an identical record – and proceeded to lose 19 of their next 21 games on the way to a 76-86 finish.
As if on cue, the club lost All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson to a sprained left shoulder on Sunday, May 11; initial imaging was not definitive but Wilson figures to go on the injured list before the club takes on St. Louis at home Tuesday.
Still, the team at large has an extra year under its belt, a greater familiarity with its temporary home and a stronger conviction in doing its job.
“I feel like last year, all the guys were feeling everything – getting their feet wet in Sacramento, seeing how the ball flies, all that stuff,” says right-hander Luis Severino, whose $67 million contract signed before 2025 marked a capital investment unforeseen when the roster went to pot in the club’s dying days in Oakland. “Now we have a different mentality to go out there and compete.
“We showed the world last year what we can do and this year we just continue to do that.”
'The belief in myself is truly there'
Indeed, certain metrics show a level of confidence perhaps unseen in past years. The team is 13-11 on the road, splitting six games in Philadelphia and Baltimore last week. They’re 8-5 in one-run games, which shows either resolve or unsustainability, depending on how you view it.
Regardless of how the next quarter plays out, there’s an undeniable not-our-first-rodeo vibe with the squad.
“Once you’ve established yourself and have multiple years in the big leagues, there’s a feeling that you belong,” manager Mark Kotsay tells USA TODAY Sports, “and a feeling that, even if you’re off to a rough start, you’ve had enough time here, with enough at-bats and enough history, to know you’ll get to where you need to be.
“I think that’s the biggest contributing factor to lasting success.”
Shea Langeliers has certainly seen it. Now the longest-tenured Athletic, he was acquired from Atlanta for All-Star catcher Sean Murphy and tossed into the mix in 2022, Kotsay’s first season, a 102-loss campaign.
They’d lose 112 games a year later, say goodbye to Oakland, decamp to Gold Country and stack top 10 draft picks. Those turned into Wilson and first baseman Nick Kurtz in 2023 and 2024.
And in 2025, Kurtz, the 6-foot-5 power-hitting savant, socked 36 home runs in 117 games, while Wilson banged out 151 hits in 125 games; they finished 1-2 in AL Rookie of the Year voting.
Suddenly, Langeliers felt surrounded.
“These young kinds now – they don’t spend much time in the minors,” says Langeliers, 28, a first-round pick of Atlanta in 2019. “They get up here and it’s like getting thrown to the wolves, but you get guys like Kurtz and Willy who immediately have success. Up until this point, nobody really did that.
“To be 1-2 in Rookie of the Year voting, to see (Zack) Gelof back and doing his thing, it’s been awesome to watch them grow as men and as players.”
Perhaps no one’s grown as much as Langeliers, whose progress has been steady and almost linear. He struck out 29% of the time and batted .215 over his first three seasons, yet upped his average to .276 while hitting 31 homers and 32 doubles in 2025.
This year, he is leading the AL in batting (.336) and has a 1.017 OPS, his 11 homers putting him on a 40-homer pace.
“The trust in myself and belief in myself now is truly there,” says Langeliers.
Should he remain healthy, Langeliers will be an All-Star this season, his stock steadily going up, to his mates’ delight.
“Every day, week, month, year it seems like he’s making improvements to get where he is now – which is one of the premier hitters in baseball,” says Rooker. “And he has been for a while.
“It’s been a blast to watch.”
Langeliers and Kurtz – currently on a 34-game on-base streak - are among the A’s few premier talents who aren’t bolted down.
With pressure from Major League Baseball to spend its revenue-sharing money and internal desires to present a serviceable product to Las Vegas, the A’s went on a commitment spree from December 2024 – when they committed to Severino for three seasons – to February 2026.
Rooker: Signed in January 2025 to a $60 million deal through 2029.
Center fielder Lawrence Butler: Signed in March 2025 to a $65.5 million deal through 2031.
Slugger Tyler Soderstrom: Signed in December 2025 to an $86 million deal through 2032.
Wilson: Signed in February to a $70 million deal through 2032.
Langeliers missed the long-term extension train in one sense: He was stacking up service time while figuring things out at the big league level. Now, he’ll have four years of service and be just two seasons from hitting the market, his near-league minimum years long since past.
“I love this organization. I love this staff. I love my teammates. I love playing here,” says Langeliers. “Stuff like that, I know it will work out the way it’s supposed to so I’m not really worried about it.”
Athletics 'journey' continues
If nothing else, the A’s are assured of having Kurtz, Wilson and others around well into their projected time in Las Vegas. The club is gradually trying to get one foot firmly down in the desert, holding Wilson’s contract extension press conference there in February and sharing frequent updates on the ballpark’s construction.
While Fisher has pledged $1 billion to the ballpark project and said in March the stadium is “on time and on budget,” it remains to be seen whether he will tap new investors or a grander portion of his family’s fortune to fund that portion of the $2 billion project.
Skeptics have seen the club’s vision of the stadium change right in front of their eyes.
When the club released initial renderings of their 33,000-seat Strip ballpark in 2024, the message board displayed Gelof’s very encouraging batting average on the screen.
Injuries and ineffectiveness limited Gelof, then a second baseman, to 30 big league games in 2025. When the most recent renderings were released that year, the video board had a new player to tout: Rooker.
Now, in a full circle kind of moment, Gelof is back in the majors, recast as a highly useful utility guy who can play second, third and center field – nearly robbing Bryce Harper of a home run despite not possessing an outfielder’s glove until days earlier.
“It’s been a journey,” says Gelof. “I feel like I’m still on it and my best baseball is ahead of me. Coming up and having success and battling through life – it’s been a lot of learning experiences.
“I’m going to try and continue to learn and be the best person and player I can be.”
Not unlike their Oakland predecessors, the A’s have their share of scrap heap success stories. Outfielder Carlos Cortes’s career was revived after he left the Mets as a seven-year free agent in 2024.
Now, he’s batting .355 with a .978 OPS in 103 plate appearances.
“Carlos didn’t get an opportunity with the Mets,” says Kotsay of Cortes’s last days with New York in which he averaged 325 at-bats his past two minor league seasons. “He’s always been a professional hitter.”
Says Cortes, who signed a minor league contract with the A’s the first day he was a free agent in 2024: “It was really refreshing to go somewhere and almost feel like you’re valued. It kind of felt like at the end I wasn’t valued there.”
The A’s are hoping this year brings more mutual appreciation in West Sacramento. The region has just enough to keep the big leaguer happy; as one veteran put it, there are two Ruth’s Chris steakhouses and a handful of excellent breakfast venues, which is a significant part of the battle.
For what it’s worth, crowds are up at Sutter Health Park. This weekend, the club can paint a stark difference between their success and the failings of their former Bay Area neighbors when the San Francisco Giants visit the 916.
More reinforcements may be coming. Outfielder Henry Bolte went on a batting rampage for their Class AAA team this past weekend, recording hits in 12 consecutive at-bats; he had back-to-back 5-for-5 nights that included eight extra-base hits.
Whenever Bolte or top prospect Leo De Vries reach the majors, a nucleus will await to greet them.
“More and more guys are getting to be a part of it,” says Langeliers. “It feels like we’ve been building toward this for a couple of years now. We’re starting to put it all together – one unit, one big family.”
Says Rooker: “We’ve got a lot of talent. And we’re playing our hearts out.”
NBA fans often want their general managers to make decisions that, if they were in the same shoes, they may not make themselves.
It’s human nature. If you’d been there, he wouldn’t have gotten away with it. You’d have done the brave thing. If I were in charge, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Until you’re there, and you don’t, or you are, and we are. For example, NBA fans love the idea of “selling high”. If you were the general manager of an NBA team, you may not be willing to specifically move a player because he’s playing well. When your job is on the line, high-risk profiles lose some appeal.
So I wrote that if I were Rafael Stone, I’d split Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson up this summer. That would mean either moving Sengun for pieces or Thompson for a high-volume three-point shooting star. I will not lose my The Dream Shake position if the Rockets do that and it goes poorly.
Stone probably won’t trade either of his two highest-performing young draftees to date. That’s defensible. That doesn’t mean he should sit on his hands this summer.
So, once again, as someone with minimal skin in the game, as a guy whose life is not affected by the Houston Rockets to any more than the extent to which I allow it to be, I have a plan. If Stone isn’t going to make franchise-altering moves, he still has to tinker on the margins.
He has to do the bare minimum. Here’s a two-step plan for him to do exactly that.
1. Trade Clint Capela for a combo guard
Were you expecting Dorian Finney-Smith?
Again – bare minimum. During the Rockets’ exit presser, there seemed to be a sentiment that Finney-Smith will have a chance to bounce back from an abysmal season with a summer to rehabilitate. To paraphrase 90s Australian pop sensations Savage Garden:
“Oh, I want (him), I don’t know if I need (him), but, oh, I’m (probably going to) find out”.
Yet, there is no reason to keep Capela. He was Steven Adams’ insurance. Adams got hurt, the playoffs came, and Ime Udoka didn’t trust Capela to get on the floor anyway. If nothing else, it was a realistic facsimile of how insurance typically actually does shake out.
As such, Capela will have minimal trade value. Still, the Rockets should be able to fetch someone with his modest contract and some second-round draft capital.
Leading candidates include Tre Mann (who, as an aside, always makes me think of a superhero whose superpower is cashing treys), D”Angelo Russell, Cam Spencer, and Bradley Beal.
Decidedly unsexy names. Still, each would bolster the Rockets’ ball-handling and floor spacing without stepping too firmly on the toes of Reed Sheppard and Amen Thompson with a returning Fred VanVleet in the fold. Flipping Capela for a guard would balance the roster:
But we still need that Adams insurance.
2. Sign Andre Drummond
Not a player like Andre Drummond. Not a player with a comparable skillset:
Very specifically, Andre Drummond.
Drummond’s development as a floor spacer has quietly been a watershed moment in the development of the center position. This was one of those guys who was just never going to shoot the three-ball.
How about 35.6% on 1.4 attempts per game? Nobody is mistaking Drummond for the omnipresent Myles Turner, but those are solid apples. He’s a floor spacer now.
He also remains one of the single best rebounders in the history of the NBA. He didn’t play enough minutes to qualify for leader boards, but his 17.5% Offensive Rebounding Percentage would have ranked second in the league, his his 29.8 Defensive Rebounding % fourth, and his overall Rebounding Percentage first in the entire league.
On a related note: Ime Udoka.
If you hadn’t heard, he likes rebounding. Moreover, Drummond’s newfound floor spacing ability should make him a more viable dual big pairing with Sengun. The Rockets need to trade Capela, and then, they need to sign Drummond in free agency to replace him.
