We’re approaching the final weekend of the baseball season, and a lot remains up in the air, with several playoff spots still yet to be clinched. At an individual level, the awards races are plenty hot, too — so much so that with only a few days left in the season, these awards picks feel less than final. On most of them, there’s not going to be a clear-cut “right answer” for who wins, so it’ll be very interesting to see how it all plays out. For now, with the caveat in mind that someone can change things with a big final weekend, here are the choices for baseball’s 2020 awards. National League MVP The easiest way to start here is to look at the leaderboards for wins above replacement by the two major formulas for the stat — Baseball-Reference (bWAR) and Fangraphs (fWA…

There were 33 minutes on the clock at Wembley when Gareth Southgate decided that he had to do something before England descended into the kind of demented, frazzled state not seen in a major tournament since Brazil’s implosion in their World Cup semi-final against Germany seven years ago.

Southgate being Southgate, a rather restrained gesture followed. There was no bellowing, no flinging of the arms, no rage as he plotted a way back into the semi-final. After all, it was a time for composure. England were a goal down to a smart and dangerous Denmark, their run of clean sheets ended by Mikkel Damsgaard’s beautiful free-kick, and they were in danger of a total systems meltdown, especially with Jordan Pickford overly pumped and in too much …

Manchester City host Arsenal on Saturday with the teams level on points, City having played a game more. The chance to take the advantage in the race for Champions League qualification is on the line, with the Gunners third and City outside the UWCL places in fourth. Both clubs will also retain hope of winning the title. City still have to travel to Arsenal in the league and their 1-0 extra-time defeat at Arsenal in the Continental Cup semi-final on Wednesday showed the tightness of the margin between the teams. What did we learn from that encounter, what can we expect on Saturday and what could decide the outcome?

Chelsea land Lyon as Arsenal draw Bayern in Women’s Champions LeagueRead more

Nullifying City�…

Eddie and Paul are at war. Eddie may leave for England. But hold on a minute, Paul is close to walking out. No, scrub that, seems like they’ve called a truce and it will be all smiles at Wolves on Sunday.

Events at Newcastle have been nothing if not confusing lately but the latest twist, a rapprochement between the manager, Eddie Howe, and the sporting director, Paul Mitchell, appears genuine. For the moment at least everyone is on their best behaviour and fathoming out the best way of signing Marc Guéhi from Crystal Palace in January.

‘I’ve shown I can do it’: Carsley shrugs off talk of impossible job with EnglandRead more

Mitchell’s failure to buy the England centre-half became a running sore, scarring h…

We’ll get the “motherfuck” possibilities out of the way at the top, and perhaps immediately speaking to them will hold them off for a little while longer. But they will happen. 1. The NL Central is complete clown-shoes, and no matter how bad the St. Louis Cardinals play they’ll never be out of it. 2. We know they’re going to go on some ridiculous streak where they win 24 games in two weeks somehow and charge up the lifeless standings of the division. These are givens. Which is why it’s good to laugh at the Cards when you can, and we’re coming back for a second helping! St. Louis got caught up in the recent upward momentum of the Cincinnati Reds this weekend after the call-up of Elly De La Cruz and his ability to turn a baseball into putty, losing two of three at home. Tha…

The Indianapolis Colts are now Gardner Minshew's team for at least four games — and possibly longer. With No. 4 overall pick Anthony Richardson (throwing shoulder) placed on injured reserve, Minshew can remind his former team about his skills when the Colts visit the Jacksonville Jaguars in an AFC South battle on Sunday. Minshew spent two seasons (2019-20) with Jacksonville and passed for 37 touchdowns against only 11 interceptions in 23 games (20 starts) while producing outbreaks of "Minshew Mania." But the Jaguars weren't a good club, received the No. 1 overall pick of the 2021 draft and selected fellow quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Lawrence and Minshew spent a lot of time together in the offseason and training camp, but when it became clear Lawrence was read…

The Bulls managed to encapsulate their messy season rather beautifully in just 12 minutes of play today. Some illustrative figures on their first quarter against the Celtics, during which they scored just nine points: They used more players (10) than they scored points (nine), per K.C. Johnson of the . They didn’t make their first field goal until nearly halfway through the quarter. This is what their shot chart looked like before that point… …and it only got slightly less embarrassing by the end of the quarter, with 3-of-26 shooting including a 1-of-5 mark from beyond the arc: [object Object] Really, why use numbers or shot charts at all when Robin Lopez’s half-hearted defense here is perfectly indicative of the team’s overall output? The Bulls were slightly more resp…

Before we get to the second round of our tournament, I'd like to share a tip we received from a reader named Jeffrey. Jeffrey is not himself a Name of the Year nominee, but he is a Brandeis alum familiar with Mingus Mapps, the Bulltron Regional's 8-seed and a Brandeis poli-sci professor. We are, Jeffrey explained, "selling Mingus Mapps short" by not including his middle name, Ulysses. "Get his middle name involved!" Fear not, fair Judge; we are well aware of Mingus' middle name. And yes, Mingus Ulysses Mapps is an epic odyssey of a handle. Nonetheless, most of the onomasts involved in the creation of this bracket agree that middle names often have negative effects on cadence. In this case, we like Mingus Mapps' name more when his wonderful allite…

"Every tennis lover would like, someday, to play like Federer," Philippe Bouin tells Cynthia Gorney of The New York Times Magazine for this week's cover story. "But every man wants to be Rafael Nadal. Which is different." That's the backbone of Gorney's epic, sprawling profile of Nadal — which couldn't have hit newsstands at a better time, with his withdrawing from Wimbledon on Friday, even if it's actually just a big cover-up and he's already won it. But before you get all psyched out about reading many, many words, here's one thing to think about. With this story, The Times Magazine — and its Play, R.I.P. — has published two of the finest long-form profiles of Nadal and Roger Federer. What's more, the authors of th…

The Mighty MJD's Smorgasbord runs every Monday. Do enjoy. • I'm sitting at the bar, alone for the early games. It's just me and a guy who has never tended bar before in his life. Muff Stubble Girl walks by and I do an active search for downstairs stubble. None is found. She is a master with the razor.

• Most people I know are Steelers fans, except for Danks, who likes the Patriots … so none of them have spoken to each other for a few days. I'm left in the middle, hearing bullshit from both sides. Danks gets it started early with a text asking if Troy Polamalu's playing today, or if he's still out with a yeast infection. • Brian Westbrook takes a screen pass from Donovan McNabb, and the Giants line a path to the endzone for him like altar boys ma…