How are MLB teams faring compared to their preseason projections?

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🚨 Headlines

🏀🏒 New York, Dallas on the brink: Tyrese Haliburton (triple-double) and the Pacers beat the Knicks, 130-121, and the Oilers cruised to a 4-1 win over the Stars as Indiana and Edmonton took commanding 3-1 leads in the conference finals.

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🏈 Cover athletes: Sophomore wideouts Ryan Williams (Alabama) and Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State) are featured on the cover of “EA Sports College Football 26,” which releases on July 10.

⚽️ Soccer moves: 17-year-old wunderkind Lamine Yamal has signed a six-year extension with Barcelona; Cristiano Ronaldo appears set to leave Al Nassr. “This chapter is over,” he wrote. “The story? Still being written. Grateful to all.”

⛳️ No more starting strokes: The PGA Tour is eliminating starting strokes from the FedEx Cup Championship starting this fall, meaning all 30 golfers will start from the same score rather than the leader starting at 10-under down to 30th place starting at even par.

🇷🇺 Still banned: The IOC confirmed that Russia will be banned from the 2026 Winter Olympics, though individual Russian athletes may still compete under a neutral flag.

⚾️ MLB projected wins: Now vs. preseason

One-third of the way through the MLB season, how have all 30 teams fared compared to their preseason projections?

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Overperformers: The first-place Tigers are projected to win nine more games now (92) than they were before the season began (83), the largest positive differential in the majors, per FanGraphs.*

• The Yankees (+8), Phillies (+6), Giants (+6) and Cubs (+6), all either division leaders or contenders, round out the top five.

• Nine other teams are in the black, led by the Mets (+5), Guardians (+5) and Cardinals (+5).

Underperformers: The 9-46 Rockies are trending an MLB-worst 12 wins below their preseason projection as they threaten to break the record for most losses in a season.

• The surprisingly punchless Orioles (-10) and perennially sub-.500 Pirates (-8) are the only other teams more than five games worse than their projection.

• 13 other teams are in the red, “led” by the Red Sox (-5), Rangers (-5) and Braves (-5), though it should be said that Atlanta is still projected to win 88 games and make the playoffs.

*Current win projections based on team records before play began on Tuesday, May 27. Preseason projections are from March 17, the day before the Tokyo Series began. All projected win totals are rounded to the nearest whole number.

🧀 Meanwhile, in England…

One of Britain’s zaniest traditions took place on Monday in Gloucestershire, England, where dozens of fearless competitors participated in the annual Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling.

The event features multiple races in which people chase a seven-pound wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down a steep, 200-yard hill. Injuries are so common (not hard to see why) that the officially sanctioned event stopped in 2008 before local volunteers picked it back up in 2010.

The race’s origins are unclear, but it has results dating back to 1948 and written records from 1826. Consensus is that it began long before then, though, with some believing it was about claiming grazing rights and others believing it was a fertility ritual.

Germany’s Tom Kopke, a popular YouTuber, won the first men’s race (of seven total races) for the second consecutive year. “All the people at the top said they were going to steal my title, but this is mine,” he said. “I risked my life for this. It’s my cheese. Back-to-back.”

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🎥 Watch: Highlights (YouTube)

🏀 NBA Final Four: Where were the starters drafted?

The NBA’s Final Four is proof that talent can come from anywhere in the draft.

By the numbers: The average draft pick of the 20 starters in the conference finals is 19th, with nearly as many players selected in the second round or undrafted (four) as in the top 10 (six).

Team by team:

• Timberwolves: Anthony Edwards (No. 1 in 2020), Mike Conley (No. 4 in 2007), Julius Randle (No. 7 in 2014), Rudy Gobert (No. 27 in 2013), Jaden McDaniels (No. 28 in 2020)

• Thunder: Chet Holmgren (No. 2 in 2022), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (No. 11 in 2018), Jalen Williams (No. 12 in 2022), Isaiah Hartenstein (No. 43 in 2017), Lu Dort (undrafted in 2019)

• Knicks: Karl-Anthony Towns (No. 1 in 2015), Mikal Bridges (No. 10 in 2018), OG Anunoby (No. 23 in 2017), Josh Hart (No. 30 in 2017), Jalen Brunson (No. 33 in 2018)

• Pacers: Myles Turner (No. 11 in 2015), Tyrese Haliburton (No. 12 in 2020), Aaron Nesmith (No. 14 in 2020), Pascal Siakam (No. 27 in 2016), Andrew Nembhard (No. 31 in 2022)

By the numbers: The top-seeded Thunder, who’ve spent years stockpiling draft capital, ironically have the lowest average pick among their starters, at 26th (counting Dort as pick No. 61). The Knicks and Pacers are tied at 19th, and the Timberwolves have the highest, at 13th.

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Roster construction: New York didn’t draft any of its starters, acquiring four via trade and one via free agency. Indiana, Oklahoma City and Minnesota each drafted two of their starters, with a majority of the rest coming via trade.

⚽️ The FIFA scandal, 10 years later

10 years after the U.S. rocked global soccer with its corruption takedown, some wonder if soccer’s governing body every really cleaned itself up.

From Yahoo Sports’ Henry Bushnell:

The “war room” inside the FBI field office at 26 Federal Plaza in New York filled on the evening of May 26, 2015, with nervous excitement. Attorneys and investigators waded through security, then up to the 23rd floor, to oversee a transatlantic takedown that would shake international soccer.

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Plainclothes police would pound on hotel doors in Zurich, and arrest prominent FIFA officials; and before long, an unprecedented U.S. probe of “rampant, systemic, deep-rooted” bribery plaguing the beautiful game would burst into public view.

So, after months of painstaking work, dozens of sleep-deprived prosecutors and special agents gathered for their seminal moment. And as they waited, with a 161-page indictment under seal, some pondered the magnitude of what they were about to unleash.

“This,” one remembers thinking, “is gonna change the history of global soccer.” But what, they wondered, would the full impact ultimately be? 10 years later, some are disappointed or bothered by the complicated answer.

“FIFA,” the non-profit FairSquare wrote in a recent report, “didn’t fix the structural flaws that ultimately led the U.S. authorities to intervene in the first place.”

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Their case quickly erupted into the biggest corruption scandal in modern sports history. It eventually led to 31 guilty pleas and multiple trial convictions. It recovered hundreds of millions of dollars. It triggered a reckoning at FIFA, the global soccer governing body at the center of the storm, and led to a raft of promised reforms.

But a decade later — according to interviews and conversations with dozens of current and former soccer officials, governance experts and attorneys, including some who investigated or prosecuted the U.S. Department of Justice case — some of those promises seem empty. Reforms have been rolled back. “It’s all window dressing,” says Joseph Weiler, a former member of FIFA’s governance committee.

Keep reading.

📺 Watchlist: Wednesday, May 28

🏀 Timberwolves at Thunder, Game 5 (8:30pm ET, ESPN)

OKC is a win away from reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 behind the youthful Big Three of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. They’re averaging a combined 71 points per game in this series, including 95 in Monday’s Game 4 victory.

🏒 Panthers at Hurricanes, Game 5 (8pm, TNT)

Florida is one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year, which would continue a remarkable run from the Sunshine State after the Lightning made the previous three Finals (2020-22).

🎾 French Open, Second Round (5am, TNT/truTV/Max)

No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz (7:25am), No. 5 Iga Świątek (9:05am) and No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka (10:20am) headline the start of the second round.

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Plus:

• ⚽️ MLS: 13 games (7:30-10:30pm, Apple) … Columbus vs. Nashville (8pm) is on FS1.

• 🚴 Cycling: Giro d’Italia (6:50am, Max) … Stage 17 of 21.

• ⛳️ NCAA Men’s Golf: Championship (6pm, Golf) … Oklahoma State vs. Virginia.

Today’s full slate.

🏀 NBA trivia

Tyrese Haliburton’s incredible Game 4 performance (32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, 4 steals, 0 turnovers) was his 11th career game with 15+ assists and 0 turnovers.

Question: Who are the only two players in NBA history with more such games?

Hint: One is still active.

Answer at the bottom.

📸 Photo finish

The Monaco Grand Prix was rather boring (one legal overtake in 78 laps!). But the photos? Spectacular.

Trivia answer: John Stockton (15 games) and Chris Paul (13)

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