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🚨 Headlines
🎾 Again-to-back champs: Defending champions Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori, the one conventional blended doubles staff in a area of singles stars, beat Iga Świątek and Casper Ruud to and declare its $1 million grand prize.
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🏈 Chiefs capturing scare: Somebody in 2024 whereas he was inside, the Kansas Metropolis Star studies. The Chiefs head coach was unhurt, however he now sits behind bulletproof glass.
⚾️ Epic LLWS comeback: South Carolina trailed South Dakota, 6-1, within the closing inning earlier than to maintain their title hopes alive.
🏀 Attendance file: The WNBA set again in 2002, with practically 2.5 million followers throughout 226 video games. And there are nonetheless three extra weeks so as to add to that tally.
🏈 CFP tweaks standards: The School Soccer Playoff Choice Committee “to use better weight to video games in opposition to sturdy opponents.” In different phrases: good wins will rely for extra and “good” losses will rely in opposition to you much less.
🏈 Fantasy Soccer is (nearly) right here!
(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports activities)
The NFL season kicks off two weeks from at this time (!!), which for the fantasy gamers amongst us means the draft is true across the nook. However what’s your technique? Who’re you avoiding early and focusing on late? For that and rather more, here is our .
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Participant rankings: Let’s begin with a fundamental lay of the land. Listed here are the based mostly on half-PPR scoring as ranked by Yahoo Sports activities’ Scott Pianowski, Justin Boone and Matt Harmon.
Ja’Marr Chase (WR, Bengals)
Bijan Robinson (RB, Falcons)
Saquon Barkley (RB, Eagles)
Justin Jefferson (WR, Vikings)
CeeDee Lamb (WR, Cowboys)
Christian McCaffrey (RB, 49ers)
Nico Collins (WR, Texans)
Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR, Lions)
Malik Nabers (WR, Giants)
Derrick Henry (RB, Ravens)
Brian Thomas Jr. (WR, Jaguars)
Drake London (WR, Falcons)
Ashton Jeanty (RB, Raiders)
Josh Jacobs (RB, Packers)
De’Von Achane (RB, Dolphins)
Jonathan Taylor (RB, Colts)
Chase Brown (RB, Bengals)
If solely fantasy have been so easy. You are not probably to have the ability to draft greater than two of these guys, so now it is time to discuss technique.
(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports activities)
How (and who) to draft: There’s quite a lot of “here is what the primary spherical of your draft ought to seem like” content material on the market, however these aren’t terribly useful. Leagues aren’t received within the first spherical; they’re received by snagging undervalued guys within the center rounds, figuring out sleepers within the late rounds, and hitting on a number of gut-instinct, “” guys.
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Sleepers: From Geno Smith and Jacory Croskey-Merritt to Keon Coleman and Chig Okonkwo, listed here are a few of our favourite sleepers at , , and .
Breakouts: Panthers QB Bryce Younger, Chiefs RB Isiah Pacheco and Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. headline our .
Regression candidates: Bear in mind, regression does not should be unfavourable; it is only a return — up or down — to the imply. Saquon Barkley , and Jordan Love ought to enhance drastically from his QB17 end final 12 months.
Place-by-position: Every season offers a special panorama in terms of positional depth and worth. What does this 12 months’s seem like?
QB: There are execs and cons to taking a signal-caller within the early, center or late rounds. Whether or not you are focusing on Lamar Jackson, deciding on Dak Prescott or hoping for a bounce-back from Justin Herbert, .
WR: The receiver revolution has reached one other gear, because the place this season. Pay notably shut consideration to whose conditions or roles have improved immensely.
RB: The hero-RB strategy — drafting a star early, then ready so as to add to your backfield — . Think about using two of your first 4-5 picks on RBs.
TE: In the event you do not land one of many “” (Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, George Kittle), you would be higher served throwing a dart at somebody within the later rounds than settling for one of many many low-ceiling guys within the center rounds.
Fantasy Soccer Draft Package:
⚾️ Batting common is making a comeback
Blue Jays SS Bo Bichette leads the majors in hits. Appears vital! (Nic Antaya/Getty Photographs)
Batting common has fallen out of favor in recent times because the rise of analytics has proven different stats are extra predictive of success. However a fast have a look at the leaderboard begs the query: Is it making a comeback?
Hits equal wins: 5 of the six division leaders are at the moment league-wide. And the sixth is not too far behind, nonetheless ranked within the high 12.
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Blue Jays (AL East): .267 (1st in MLB)
Brewers (NL Central): .258 (2nd)
Phillies (NL East): .257 (third)
Dodgers (NL West): .254 (t-4th)
Astros (AL West): .253 (sixth)
Tigers (AL Central): .249 (t-Twelfth)
Plus: 4 of the opposite six present playoff groups are additionally within the high 12: Pink Sox (.252, seventh); Padres (.251, t-Eighth); Yankees (.251, t-Eighth); Cubs (.249, t-Twelfth).
⚽️ The Marshall Islands are on the board
Their first official squad photograph. (Marshall Islands Soccer Federation)
The Marshall Islands, the final UN-recognized nation on earth and not using a soccer staff, has lastly shed itself of that ignominious title.
0-2, however on the board: The tiny Pacific nation final week on the in Springdale, Arkansas.*
That they misplaced each matches — 4-0 to the U.S. Virgin Islands and 3-2 to Turks and Caicos — was neither shocking nor vital within the grand scheme of issues.
“A few of our squad hadn’t performed 11v11 earlier than, some had by no means performed in an actual match earlier than,” the Marshall Islands Soccer Federation (MISF) after the match. “And but, in our second match ever, we went toe-to-toe with a full FIFA member for 90 minutes. Proud does not even start to explain it.”
A very long time coming: The small territory within the North Pacific, comprising 5 essential islands and 30 coral atolls between Hawaii and Australia, did not have a single full-size soccer pitch even 4 years in the past, notes The Athletic ().
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That modified in 2020 when the MISF was based with the twin aim of incomes FIFA recognition and elevating local weather change consciousness: 40% of Majuro, the capital island, is .
By 2022, the federation had employed a technical director: an Englishman named Lloyd Owers who can be now the supervisor. By 2023, soccer had been in colleges.
Enjoyable truth: The Marshall Islands will not be acknowledged by FIFA but, however they do have an , and it isn’t even in final place! The truth is, they’re ranked forward of six different nations and territories (out of 242): Kiribati, Tonga, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau and Jap Samoa.
*Why Arkansas? Attributable to a quirk of immigration, Northwest Arkansas has the (15,000) exterior of the nation itself (40,000).
📚 Good reads
(Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports activities)
🏀 Ben Rohrbach:
Utilizing baseball’s Sabermetrics, we categorized each commerce, draft choose and free agent signing as a strikeout, stroll, single, double, triple or residence run, making a score (or OPS) of every govt.
(Stefan Milic/Yahoo Sports activities)
🏈 Nick Bromberg:
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How will the upcoming season shake out? Here is our preseason Prime 25, with previews for each staff.
Rolapp speaks with the media on Wednesday. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photographs)
⛳️ Jay Busbee:
Brian Rolapp has solely been on the job for 18 days, however he is clearly targeted on a philosophy that change is important, and alter is coming.
📺 Watchlist: Thursday, Aug. 21
Can anybody catch Scottie? (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photographs)
⛳️ Tour Championship | 11am ET, ESPN+; 1pm, Golf
will tee it up at East Lake (Atlanta) for the season finale, which not like in recent times won’t function the maligned starting-strokes format. As a substitute, everybody begins at even par as they compete for a gargantuan , which features a whopping $10 million for the winner, at the least $1 million for the highest eight and $355,000 for ending in useless final.
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⚾️ Pink Sox at Yankees | 7:15pm, Fox
The AL East rivals start their third collection of the season tonight within the Bronx — a four-game set with doubtlessly enormous implications. New York (69-57) and Boston (68-59) are at the moment separated by 1.5 video games within the tight .
⚾️ LLWS | 3pm, ESPN
We have nearly reached the top of the 78th version of . Chinese language Taipei awaits the winner of Venezuela vs. Aruba (3pm) within the worldwide championship; Connecticut awaits the winner of Nevada vs. South Carolina (7pm) within the U.S. championship.
Extra to observe:
🏈 NFL Preseason: Steelers at Panthers (7pm, NFL); Patriots at Giants (8pm, Prime) … The ultimate week of preseason kicks off.
🏀 WNBA: Sky at Liberty (7pm, Prime); Mercury at Aces (10pm, Prime) … The Aces have received eight straight to climb right into a tie for fourth place.
⚽️ NWSL: Angel Metropolis vs. Orlando Delight (10:30pm, CBSSN) … Orlando’s Barbra Banda ranks third in objectives (8); Angel Metropolis’s Riley Tiernan (7) ranks fourth.
📺 ESPN trivia
(Mike Windle/Getty Photographs for ESPN)
ESPN debuts its at this time, as the corporate breaks away from its cable roots and goes direct-to-consumer.
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Query: What 12 months did ESPN launch as a cable channel?
Reply on the backside.
📈 Charted: The pickleball growth
(Derek Thompson)
In 2019, pickleball was half as widespread as badminton. Final 12 months, it was extra widespread than baseball. What does its rise inform us about fads, health and tradition?
Dive in: (Derek Thompson)
Trivia reply: 1979
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