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at 8:57 PM 0
(C)cbssports
The MLB All-Star Game is less than a week away and all 30 teams in Major League Baseball have crossed the halfway point of their seasons. Fantasy baseball owners have meaningful samples to judge the talent pool on for the 2019 season and are entering the stretch run thinking about how to better their roster for the postseason. It's probably too late to nab breakout stars like Pirates first baseman Josh Bell or White Sox starter Lucas Giolito for a reasonable price on the trade market, but there are plenty of other exciting possibilities out there just waiting to climb the 2019 Fantasy baseball rankings in the second half. Of course, identifying those players you want to target via trade in the second half can be an enormous challenge, which is why Ariel Cohen's 2019 Fantasy baseball trade chart and evaluator is here to help. Its Fantasy baseball rankings 2019 help you understand how to value potential trade prospects and makes sure you come out on the winning end of any deal you make.


Cohen is the creator of the ATC (Average Total Cost) Projection System. He was a finalist for two FSWA Awards in 2018 -- Baseball Article of the Year and Baseball Writer of the Year. Cohen and his Fantasy partner, Reuven Guy, have used the ATC system projections to finish in the money in NFBC, RTSports, Tout Wars and other national leagues, racking up plenty of division titles.
This trade evaluator tool is extremely user-friendly. You simply download an Excel file and input the players you are giving away and receiving. The tool will then give you a value. "C" is an even deal; anything above is a win for you, and anything below is a loss. You can only access this must-have tool at SportsLine. 
In this week's 2019 Fantasy baseball rankings and trade chart, we can tell you that Cohen's MLB projections are fading Indians closer Brad Hand. The 29-year-old left-hander owns a solid 2.23 ERA with 23 saves and 54 strikeouts over 36.1 innings for the year, but he's had issues in recent outings.
Hand got lit up for five earned runs against the Royals and took a loss last week. He has now given up multiple hits in four of his last six outings after giving up multiple hits in just two of his first 32 appearances. That one battering at the hands of the Royals took his ERA from 1.05 all the way to 2.36 and it might be time to sell high on Hand.
Another player on the move this week: Nationals starting pitcher Patrick Corbin. The 29-year-old lefty signed a massive six-year, $140 million contract in free agency to form a dynamic one-two punch with Max Scherzer, and they've finally been living up to that in June.
Corbin is 7-5 on the season with a 3.55 ERA that is down from 4.11 after three straight starts where he gave up one earned run over seven innings while striking out seven or more. He's moved up from No. 50 to inside the top 15 in the latest head-to-head rankings.
The evaluator is also fading a starting pitcher who fell from inside the top 10 to outside of the top 20 in the last week. Additionally, it has updated the value of players dealing with injuries like Noah Syndergaard (hamstring) and Cole Hamels(oblique). Getting the right value for players like these could be the difference between winning a title or going home with nothing.
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at 3:40 PM 0
(C)newsweek
wo years after beating Jamaica in the Gold Cup final, the U.S. men's national team (USMNT) and the Reggae Boyz cross paths once more. This time, however, the only prize at stake is the right to face Mexico in the final at Soldiers Field in Chicago on Sunday.
The defending champions were efficient but unspectacular during the group stages, but were nowhere near their best against minnows Curacao.

Weston McKennie's goal separated the two sides but USMNT will have to be a lot better against Jamaica, a team that has largely flown under the radar so far in the tournament and is looking to reach a third consecutive Gold Cup final.
The pre-tournament favorite alongside Mexico, USMNT lost its last meeting against Jamaica just before the start of the tournament and coach Gregg Berhalter emphasized his team was aware of the dangers posed by Jamaica.
"We've said all along the success of this team will be measured by if we're going to win this tournament or not," he said at a pre-match press conference. "We want to get to the final. We want to win the final. If you asked me a month ago, the answer would be the same.
"We think Mexico is the favorite for this tournament. We think it's a very strong team. We have a lot of respect for Jamaica, that's something we highlighted before this tournament as well."
USMNT has scored 12 goals in four games and is yet to concede, while Jamaica has just five goals to its name and has conceded three. Nevertheless, Berhalter insisted his men will not underestimate their opponents' attacking threat and singled out Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Leon Bailey as the man to watch.
"I don't think we've seen his best yet," he told ESPN. "I think he's got another gear. I've seen another gear in Germany, and it's just him getting integrated into the team, him feeling comfortable and being used in the right way. But I really like watching him play."
Here's everything you need to know ahead of the game.

When and where is the game?
The second semifinal is scheduled to kick off at 9:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 3 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.
It's the only game the home of the Tennessee Titans and of the Tennessee State Tigers will host in the tournament.
TV channel
The game will be broadcast live on FOX Sports 1 in English and on Univision Deportes Network in Spanish.
Live stream
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at 3:10 PM 0

(C)autoblog

LONDON — Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya is to lead the judging panel for season two of World's Fastest Gamer, a competition aiming to take a virtual racer to the real track for a season with an Aston Martin sports car team.
Season one winner Rudy Van Buren, previously a sales manager in the Netherlands, won a year as simulator driver with the McLarenFormula One team.




Competition founder Darren Cox said the message coming through from the esports world was that gamers wanted more.
"These gamers at the end of the day want to go racing," he said on Wednesday. "So we thought, let's not go against what everyone wants, let's push it and have the real racing as the prize."
Cox has plenty of experience of that, having created the GT Academy program that took 23 people from gaming to racetrack with Nissan:

"The big prize for the gamers in GT Academy was one race ... this time we're saying we're confident we'll find someone who's good enough and who will do a full season in Aston Martins at the biggest tracks in the world."

The winner from 10 finalists — eight of them champions from top motor racing esports series and two separate qualifiers — will become a professional racing driver with Swiss-based R Motorsport, who work closely with Aston Martin.

Van Buren will also be racing a full season as teammate to the winner. Cox said the prize of a full season was worth more than $1 million.
The circuits will include Monza, Le Castellet, Brands Hatch, Nürburgring, as well as 24-Hour endurance races at Spa-Francorchamps and Daytona.

Montoya, who won seven Formula One grands prix with Williams and McLaren, is also a keen online racer and still practices on simulators.

Cox said he had started talking to the outspoken Colombian about gaming when they met at Daytona a year ago and he was "fully up for it."

"I know the skills between real and virtual are completely transferable, so my job on WFG is to make sure these gamers are hungry and perform under the pressure I intend to put them under," Montoya said.
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at 2:40 PM 0
(C)sun-sentinel

The beach volleyball scene is alive and well in the Cooper City Optimist Crush summer league that offers recreational play for adults and children. What was once an outdoor hockey rink now serves as four beach volleyball courts at the Cooper City Sports Complex.


The league was the brainchild of Robbie Johnson who was the driving force in getting the program initiated back in 2017. The process took three years to complete, but under commissioner Johnson’s guidance the league has flourished with 350 players registered this summer. Jill Smitherman is the assistant commissioner and clinic supervisor Michael Hartman provides free clinics for the players and coaches to bring up the skill and knowledge levels.
The Crush offer five coed age divisions: 10U, 12U, 14U, seniors and adults.
In the six-team senior division comprising high school players, the FSU squad coached by Yvonne Johnson improved to 9-0 with a 25-13, 25-6 victory over UF. The beach competition features four-on-four play. The FSU team was led by the strong play of Jack Smitherman and Kristen Hernandez.
The 6-foot-4-inch Smitherman comes from a volleyball family and has been playing the indoor and beach game since age 6. The 16-year-old rising junior is also a quarterback for American Senior High School. In a sign of solidarity, his wide receiver Council Allen also joined the FSU team for fun and conditioning purposes.
“I love playing out here and it’s a great way to work out and stay in shape,” Smitherman said. “I’ve been in this league for all three years and the first year there weren’t many teams, but this year you see the explosion in popularity. It’s important to teach the younger players in order for the game and league to move forward. It feels great to help out when I can.”
Other members of the FSU club are Sara Wolf and Kaylee Rizzi.z
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at 2:10 PM 0
(C)cbssports
Not even two rounds through the 2019 Wimbledon Championships, Grand Slam projections took a dramatic turn thanks to the upsets of big-name veterans like Venus Williams and highly ranked contenders like Alexander Zverev and Naomi Osaka.

That means this year's action at All England Club is all the more intense, what with prestigious icons like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty, the current world-ranked women's No. 1, vying for glory against an early trend of unpredictability -- headlined by historic wins for 15-year-old Cori "Coco" Gauff and America's Reilly Opelka.
As the rest of the Wimbledon Championships unfold, keep it locked right here at CBS Sports for notable results across both men's and women's singles, as well as prominent upcoming matches on the schedule:

Notable upcoming matches

Third round
  • No. 11 Daniil Medvedev vs. No. 21 David Goffin (July 5, TBA)
  • No. 3 Karolina Pliskova vs. No. 28 Hsieh Su-wei (July 5, TBA)
  • No. 8 Elina Svitolina vs. No. 31 Maria Sakkari (July 5, TBA)

Notable men's singles results

Second round
  • Reilly Opelka defeats No. 22 Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 8-6
  • No. 11 Daniil Medvedev defeats Alexei Popyrin 6-7, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4
First round
  • Jiri Vesely defeats No. 6 Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5
  • Thomas Fabbiano defeats No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3

Notable women's singles results

Second round
  • No. 3 Karolina Pliskova defeats Monica Puig 6-0, 6-4
First round
  • Cori Gauff defeats Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4
  • Yulia Putintseva defeats No. 2 Naomi Osaka 7-6, 6-2
  • Magdalena Rybarikova defeats No. 10 Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 6-4
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at 1:10 PM 0
(C)nhl
Legendary hockey reporter and analyst Stan Fischler is writing a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com this season. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," will share his knowledge, humor and insight with readers each Wednesday. Once a month, he will let a picture from his vast collection do the talking in his "Picture is Worth 100 Words" feature.
On the eve of July 4, he writes about Ken Morrow, a defenseman who helped the United States win Olympic gold and sparked the New York Islanders to their first Stanley Cup championship three months apart in 1980.


Ken Morrow will always have a special place in the history of hockey in the United States.
The defenseman, a native of Davison, Michigan, excelled for the U.S. "Miracle On Ice" team that upset the Soviet Union and won the gold medal at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. Morrow then went from Lake Placid to Long Island, where he stepped into a regular role with the New York Islanders. His solid play in his own zone turned out to be a perfect complement for future Hockey Hall of Famer Denis Potvin.
Morrow was a prototype defensive defenseman, but he also had a knack for scoring big goals. During the Preliminary Round of the 1980 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Morrow scored in overtime against the Los Angeles Kings to win Game 3 of the best-of-5 series -- the first of three OT goals he scored in the postseason.
The Islanders won the next game to advance to the Quarterfinals, then eliminated the Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres before defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup Final by winning Game 6 in overtime on May 24 -- three months to the day after the U.S. took home the gold medal at Lake Placid. Morrow became the first player to win an Olympic gold medal and skate for a Stanley Cup champion in the same season.
Morrow was a member of each of New York's four consecutive Stanley Cup-winning teams from 1980-83, and was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995.
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at 12:40 PM 0
(C)golfweek
Phil Mickelson is an early fan of the revised TPC Twin Cities course as PGA Tour returns to Minnesota this weekend with the inaugural 3M Open in Blaine.
The bomb-dropping Lefty knows TPC Twin Cities was considered a hitter’s paradise during its run as PGA Tour Champions stop. It ranked among the three easiest Champions courses eight times in the past 10 seasons.
Mickelson played the back nine Wednesday morning and likes what he saw at TPC Twin Cities, calling the course “spectacular” and adding that it is in “phenomenal shape.”

“It’s fun to play. A lot of water but a lot of birdie opportunities and some really tough holes to play. It’s got really nice mixture,” Mickelson said. “The greens are receptive, so it should be pretty good-scoring.”
Under the guise of Tom Lehman, this Arnold Palmer track once considered an everyman’s paradise was expanded and toughened for its PGA Tour premiere.
First, let’s do the math. TPC Twin Cities is now a 7,450-yard par 71 course. It used to be a 7,000-yard par 72.
Hole No. 3 now plays as a 501-yard par 4. It used to be a par-5.
“The green is generous, so the tee shot is the key shot here. Put it in the fairway and you can score. Drive it in the rough or the bunker and it becomes much more difficult to make a par, much less a birdie,” Lehman said.
The par-5 sixth measures 594 yards, 30 yards longer than before. Big-hitters can reach the green in two, but they have to be wary of water and waste area on both shots.
The par-3, 229-yard 17th hole includes a carryover over a big body of water. “Birdies will be made here, but there can also be some train-wrecks,” Lehman added.
Lehman and company saved the biggest changes for 18.
What was once a 500-yard par-5 hole with a 100-yard wide fairway now plays at 596 yards with a 35-yard fairway buffeted by a body of water that has roughly doubled in size during the course redesign.
Mickelson said all the changes make it hard to determine how low scores could go this weekend.
“They do have a converted par-5 into a par-4. There have been a lot of holes lengthened. But because the greens are receptive, I think that’s going to allow you to attack some pins and be a little big aggressive. And make some birdies. But it’s not an easy course by any means.”
Mickelson is part of a Round 2 afternoon featured grouping with Tony Finau and Rocket City Classic winner Nate Lashley. They will begin from No. 1 at 1:30 p.m. ET Friday and from No. 10 at 8:20 a.m. Thursday.



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at 12:10 PM 0
(C)cleveland
CANTON, Ohio - Combo tickets are available for the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic over Labor Day weekend.
The inaugural game, which pits Alabama A&M University and Morehouse College, will be played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1.


The combo ticket is $55 and includes admission into a dance and drumline competition, which is noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, at Canton Memorial Field House, plus a Green Zone ticket - between the 10-yard line back to the end zone - for the game.
Game-only tickets range from $30 to $125. Drumline tickets are $20 (advance), $25 (day of).
The dance and drumline competition will feature groups from Ohio and surrounding states from historically black colleges and universities.
The schools’ renowned bands will perform at halftime, and a special concert from Morris Day & The Time will follow the season opener for the two colleges. A pre-game tailgate party and player-autograph sessions are scheduled, with entertainment, food court, beer garden and interactive sponsor booths.
Proceeds from the game will support a permanent home for the Black College Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is at 2121 George Halas Dr. NW, Canton.

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at 11:40 AM 0
(C)india
Former Australia bowler Brad Hogg blamed England captain Eoin Morgan for the failure of Ben Stokes, who was on a three-match half-century streak, in the ongoing World Cup match against New Zealand at Riverside Ground in Durham on Wednesday. “Morgan slow run rate has caused Buttler’s false shot. Stokes should have come in at 5. Moment for New Zealand to get on top. #NZvENG #CWC19,” Hogg tweeted. Ben Stokes scored 11 runs off 27 balls before he was dismissed by Mitchell Santner. However, prior to this, the all-rounder has delivered an astounding performance for the team.


Stokes scored 79 runs against India while racked up 89 runs against Australia and played an unbeaten knock of 82 runs against Sri Lanka. England got an impeccable start as the openers Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy formed a 123-run partnership. However, 36th over onwards, there was a lack of aggression by the English players. Both Stokes and Morgan played slowly which built pressure and as a result, Stokes gave away an easy catch in the 42nd over. Morgan scored 42 runs from 40 balls.
With the help of Bairstow’s 104-run inning, England managed to put up a target of 306 runs for the Kiwis. England need to win this match to confirm their semi-final spot.
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at 11:10 AM 0
(C)mcal

Darrun Hilliard, the former basketball star at Liberty High and Villanova, has signed his second European contract. Hilliard will join CSKA Moscow, the most dominant team in Russian basketball and the 2019 EuroLeague champ.
CSKA Moscow signed Hilliard to a one-year contract, according to a news release. Hilliard played last season with Baskonia of Liga ACB, Spain’s top level for professional basketball. He averaged 9.4 points and 2.9 rebounds in 34 games with Baskonia.
“From the first moment we contacted him, Darrun was very thrilled and enthusiastic about the opportunity to play for CSKA,” Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA Moscow’s head coach, said in a news release. “In his first year in Europe, he showed that he is a good creator, executor, defender, a team player. Now I don’t need to say much. The rest should be proven on the court. We are happy to have him on the team.”
With CSKA Moscow, Hilliard is joining Russia’s most successful franchise. The team has won 25 consecutive Russian championships and four EuroLeague titles, including two in the past four years.
"When the opportunity to play for one of the most prestigious clubs in the history of Europe was presented to me, I felt like this was just too good of an opportunity for me to pass up,” Hilliard said in a team statement. “It’s an honor to play for Coach Itoudis, and I can’t wait to get to Moscow to experience the incredible tradition of CSKA basketball. My only agenda coming in is to help CSKA win games and win more titles. I will give my heart and soul in every practice and game to do what I can to contribute to that winning.”
Hilliard, 26, played in Spain last season after spending three NBA seasons with Detroit and San Antonio. Before leaving for Europe in 2018, he helped lead Austin to the NBA G League title. Austin is the Spurs’ affiliate in the NBA’s minor-league organization.
“You’ve got to love the game,” Hilliard said during a 2018 visit to the Boys and Girls Club of Bethlehem. “If you don’t truly love the game, it’s going to eat you up. Some things are going to be thrown at you, some things are going to happen. You’re going to bounce around the league, you’re not going to play, and this and that. But you must stay true to the game.”
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at 9:41 AM 0

(c)cbssports

If you play in a dynasty league, you know all trades must be made with great care. A wrong decision now could change the course of your team for years to come.

So generally, it's wise to reserve judgment when a player is doing something vastly out of the ordinary. That's true for any format, of course, but the stakes are much lower when you can fall back on "better luck next year."
By now, though, I'm willing to assume a degree of permanence for these changes and would be open to making bold moves considering. 


In case you missed the dynasty update for the quarter-way point in the season, you can find it here. Now for how things stand midway through 2019 ...

Players who have gained the most value in dynasty

Ketel Marte, 2B/SS/OF, Diamondbacks


Marte was billed as more of an Ender Inciarte type coming up through the Mariners system, and even those who noticed his power increase over the final four months of last season couldn't have imagined he'd be on a near 40-homer pace midway through 2019. He may well be the top second baseman in Fantasy now, particularly with Jose Altuve continuing to flounder, and if you need another reminder of just how far he's come, allow me to point out that I passed him over for Andrelton Simmonslate in my Tout Wars draft this spring. Sweet.

Lucas Giolito, SP, White Sox


Lucas Giolito has stumbled a bit recently, but my conviction here comes with a recognition that his breakthrough goes beyond just the numbers. His stuff is genuinely better this year — the fastball harder and the slider and changeup more effective — which has him nestled among the elite in terms of swinging strike rate. It shouldn't be so surprising given his former status as the game's top pitching prospect, but boy did his career begin poorly — to the point he could have been one of the biggest dynasty fallers at this time a year ago.

Brandon Woodruff, SP/RP, Brewers


A former minor-league strikeout leader (2016), Woodruff was always thought to have upside, but the fact the Brewers, a team whose biggest need over the past couple years has been pitching, couldn't find a rotation spot for him until his age-26 season had many a Fantasy player jumping ship well beforehand. Not only has Woodruff been dominant the past two months — particularly with regard to his fastball, a genuine bat-misser that sits around 97 mph and touches triple-digits — but also efficient, rarely logging 100 pitches despite regularly throwing seven-plus innings. After facing him, Bryce Harper said Woodruff resembled an early-on Matt Harvey, and the comparison seems apt.

Rafael Devers, 3B, Red Sox


After he failed to live up to the considerable hype last year, believers in Devers could only point to his elite pedigree as reason for hope this year, which might have been concerning if not for the fact player development often works that way. Simply because he debuted at such a young age, Devers saw his stock fall in dynasty leagues, and in retrospect, we should all be ashamed of ourselves for doubting a hitter once billed as the next Adrian Beltre just because he didn't deliver on it at age 21.

Max Kepler, OF, Twins


Kepler was a contact-over-power guy, sort of like Nick Markakis, when he first broke into the league and could have carved out a fine career for himself that way. But he didn't want to get left behind in an era when everybody who's anybody hits home runs and, to that end, made changes to his swing to elevate the ball more last year. Sort of like Josh Bell, though, it took a year for him to get comfortable enough with the changes to see an effect, and as with Bell, the Statcast data mostly supports the production.

Prospects who have gained the most value in dynasty

Cristian Pache, OF, Braves

Double-A: .297 BA (290 AB), 11 HR, 6 3B, 21 2B, .878 OPS, 25 BB, 71 K
Prospect publications that tend to emphasize skills over results already rated Pache fairly high, trusting that his athleticism so evident on the defensive end would eventually translate to the dish. It seems to be happening now — and in a way that's reminiscent of Ronald Acuna. By that, I mean it's applied across the board, his jump in power over the past month coinciding with a drop in strikeout rate and accelerating the 20-year-old's path to the majors.

Grayson Rodriguez, SP, Orioles

A-: 7-2, 2.18 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 62 IP, 16 BB, 84 K
Though obviously still a long way from the majors, Rodriguez has distinguished himself from other projectable teenage arms by overpowering hitters with an impressive fastball-curveball combo. He's still learning to maximize his 6-foot-5 frame in terms of getting better extension and making more efficient use of his lower half, but if he's already this dominant this early in his development, it's an encouraging indicator of what his ceiling might be.

Deivi Garcia, SP, Yankees

A+/AA: 4-5, 3.01 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 68 2/3 IP, 33 BB, 114 K
Any discussion of Garcia has to begin with his minor league-leading 14.9 K/9, which he owes both to his high-rpm curveball and his conviction to using it to its full effect. He recently had a two-start stretch in which he allowed one hit and recorded 24 strikeouts, so the biggest concern for him now might be if his 5-foot-9 frame will allow him to start over the long haul.

Isan Diaz, 2B, Marlins

Triple-A: .295 BA (281 AB), 18 HR, .951 OPS, 32 BB, 69 K
Though considered a prospect of some note when he went from Brewers to the Diamondbacks in a Jean Segura trade a few years back, Diaz had lost much of his luster by the time the Brewers tossed him in the Christian Yelich deal. Clearly, though, he's tapping into that forgotten potential now, and while you might attribute the power boost to the new baseballs being used at Triple-A, the improved contact rate is the bigger development for what now looks to be the Marlins second baseman of the (very near) future

Logan Gilbert, SP, Mariners

A-/A+: 5-2, 1.97 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 73 IP, 15 BB, 94 K
A bout with mono last summer kept the Mariners' first-round pick from debuting until this year, but Gilbert is off and running now, propelled by a lively fastball, plus control and two developing breaking balls. He's a bit like Trevor Bauer in that he constantly strives to improve himself through better understanding biomechanics, technology and data — a trait that prompted Mariners pitching coordinator Max Weiner to tell The Athletic, "You would be a fool to bet against him."


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