June 2025

There were 1,837 posts published in June 2025 (this is page 166 of 184).

NBA announces 12 officials selected for Thunder-Pacers Finals series

The NBA announced the pool of 12 referees selected for the 2025 NBA Finals series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers. 

On Tuesday, the association revealed that Scott Foster will return to officiate his 18th championship series. Marc Davis and Tony Brothers will be making their 14th Finals appearances while James Capers and Zach Zabra will make their 13th and 12th, respectively. 

Other experienced Finals referees include John Globe (ninth), David Guthrie (eighth), Josh Tiven (sixth) and James Williams (fifth). Sean Wright will be returning to the NBA Finals for the second time while Tylor Ford and Ben Taylor will be working their first Finals assignments. 

“We are grateful for these 12 individuals and their dedication to serving the game at the highest levels throughout the season,” NBA president of league operations Byron Spruell said. “Being selected to work the NBA Finals is the top honor as an NBA official, and I congratulate this exceptional group on a worthy achievement.”

Foster leads the pack in Finals experience with 25 games, followed by Davis’ 21 and Brothers’ 17. Referees Courtney Kirkland and Kevin Scott have also been named as alternate referees. 

The officials assigned to each game will be announced around 9 a.m. ET each game day, starting with Thursday’s series opener. 

Oklahoma City is making its first Finals appearance as the Thunder since 2012, when a young Kevin Durant-led squad fell to LeBron James and the Miami Heat. With league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the forefront, the Thunder secured the top seed in the Western Conference with a 68-14 record. 

The Thunder swept the Memphis Grizzlies, went seven games with the Denver Nuggets and bested the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games to make the Finals. 

Indiana came out of the East as the fourth-seeded team with a 50-32 record. The Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks and upset the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in five games each before taking care of the New York Knicks in six. 

Tyrese Halliburton and Co. look to secure Indiana’s first title in their first Finals berth since 2000.

The NBA Finals begin at 8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday from the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. 

NBA announces 12 officials selected for Thunder-Pacers Finals series

The NBA announced the pool of 12 referees selected for the 2025 NBA Finals series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers. 

On Tuesday, the association revealed that Scott Foster will return to officiate his 18th championship series. Marc Davis and Tony Brothers will be making their 14th Finals appearances while James Capers and Zach Zabra will make their 13th and 12th, respectively. 

Other experienced Finals referees include John Globe (ninth), David Guthrie (eighth), Josh Tiven (sixth) and James Williams (fifth). Sean Wright will be returning to the NBA Finals for the second time while Tylor Ford and Ben Taylor will be working their first Finals assignments. 

“We are grateful for these 12 individuals and their dedication to serving the game at the highest levels throughout the season,” NBA president of league operations Byron Spruell said. “Being selected to work the NBA Finals is the top honor as an NBA official, and I congratulate this exceptional group on a worthy achievement.”

Foster leads the pack in Finals experience with 25 games, followed by Davis’ 21 and Brothers’ 17. Referees Courtney Kirkland and Kevin Scott have also been named as alternate referees. 

The officials assigned to each game will be announced around 9 a.m. ET each game day, starting with Thursday’s series opener. 

Oklahoma City is making its first Finals appearance as the Thunder since 2012, when a young Kevin Durant-led squad fell to LeBron James and the Miami Heat. With league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the forefront, the Thunder secured the top seed in the Western Conference with a 68-14 record. 

The Thunder swept the Memphis Grizzlies, went seven games with the Denver Nuggets and bested the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games to make the Finals. 

Indiana came out of the East as the fourth-seeded team with a 50-32 record. The Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks and upset the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in five games each before taking care of the New York Knicks in six. 

Tyrese Halliburton and Co. look to secure Indiana’s first title in their first Finals berth since 2000.

The NBA Finals begin at 8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday from the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. 

Thibs out, Cal in? 4 Knicks coaching candidates to watch, and the perils of the college-to-pro route

Kenny Atkinson and Mark Daigneault have to feel a little uneasy on Tuesday afternoon. News of Tom Thibodeau’s firing in New York will raise lots of questions about the future of the Knicks. But it also underlines the fungible nature of the coaching business in the NBA.

Thibodeau, the NBA Coach of the Year in 2021, becomes the latest top-coach recipient to be fired within four years of winning the award. Actually, of the seven winners between 2016-17 and 2022-23, Thibodeau lasted the longest, getting four seasons worth of grace period before he was removed from his position. It’s the same short runway Mike Budenholzer enjoyed after winning the award with the Bucks in 2019 — and winning a title in 2021.

The Coach of the Year curse is very much alive. Thibodeau, Budenholzer, Mike D’Antoni, Nick Nurse, Monty Williams and Mike Brown never saw as much as a fifth season with their teams after winning the award. Some, like Brown and Williams, were axed before seeing even a third.

When Thibodeau took over a 21-45 team in 2019-2020, a deliriously optimistic Knicks fan (and there are many) would have been laughed at if he or she envisioned a pathway to getting two wins away from the NBA Finals in less than a five-year span. But Thibodeau helped do just that. Along with the acquisitions by president of basketball operations Leon Rose, Thibodeau led the Knicks to back-to-back 50-win seasons, the first time since 1994-95 the organization has accomplished that feat.

Despite the ending, Tom Thibodeau had a good run with the Knicks. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
Dustin Satloff via Getty Images

Those who believe Thibodeau deserved better can’t be dismissed outright. Thibodeau’s well-chronicled reliance on structure and discipline were some of the very reasons why the Knicks were able to get to title contention quickly. But accelerating a timeline can create an own-goal of raised expectations. This preseason, oddsmakers set the over/under on the Knicks’ regular-season win count to 53.5, and the Knicks won “only” 51 games in the East. It’s hard to see how this season could be viewed as a disappointment, considering they reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000.

But star newcomer Karl-Anthony Towns never quite gelled with OG Anunoby, who signed the largest contract in Knicks history, along with Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart. Thibodeau played that lineup to an extreme degree, but most of the time couldn’t get the results he wanted.

For the season, that five-man group played 940 minutes, more than twice as many as any other Eastern Conference lineup per NBA.com data, but it never quite clicked. After a hot start, the offense fizzled and too often got bogged down into Brunson dribble fests. The defense routinely provided little resistance. Despite all the extreme minutes, the starting lineup ranked in the 51st percentile in point differential this season, according to Cleaning The Glass tracking.

From that standpoint, the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts. It’s understandable why Thibodeau was let go. Thibodeau waited until Game 3 of the East finals before he bailed on the underwhelming starting lineup and waited too long to lengthen his bench to more than two guys. Remarkably, the Knicks’ top seven players played 93% of the team’s minutes in the postseason, far more than the conference champs OKC (82%) and Indiana (80%).

Given Bridges’ chatter about too many minutes and the lack of Towns’ defensive impact, I’d be surprised if we didn’t hear more about certain college coaches who have experience leading some of these men to championships.

Where do the Knicks go from here? Here are four candidates to watch:

There’s a man who knows how to win with Karl-Anthony Towns. This man also won an NBA Coach of the Year award and also happens to know what it’s like to hold an NBA coaching job in the Tri-State area. Step right up, John Calipari!

It’s also true that over the years no coach has been closer to Rose and his No. 2 in the Knicks front office, William Wesley, than the Arkansas coach who coached Towns with both the University of Kentucky and the Dominican Republic national team. Calipari was the head coach for the New Jersey Nets for two and a half seasons, earning one playoff appearance in 1997-98 (he was swept). When Rose got the job to run the Knicks, Calipari spoke glowingly about Rose and his future in New York. (He was right that Rose would turn it around.)

Calipari reportedly has four years remaining on his five-year pact with the Razorbacks, who gave him an annual pay cut from his gig at Kentucky. If the Knicks came calling and offered him a job with a competitive salary, I’m sure he’d pick up the phone. As for college coaches in the NBA, the track record hasn’t been overwhelmingly strong. Of the 13 coaches that made the jump, none has made it to the NBA Finals — something that eluded both Billy Donovan and Brad Stevens despite their successes.

A Calipari hire would indicate the Knicks believe in Towns’ long-term viability in New York. It also wouldn’t be the only high-profile college legend who might be in the running.

Calipari was two wins away from a championship with a current Knick, but Wright has cut down the net multiple times with future Knicks. Wright stepped away from Villanova in 2022 after an immensely successful run with the Wildcats, winning the 2016 and 2018 NCAA tournaments with Brunson, Hart and Bridges helping along the way.

At 63 years old, Wright would find himself on the older end of the NBA coaching ranks, but he wouldn’t be an outlier. Heck, Rick Carlisle is two years older than Wright and he’s coaching one of the NBA’s youngest teams in the NBA Finals. Unlike Calipari, Wright has never been on an NBA bench, and it’s unclear if he’d have any interest in a pro gig. But having already coached Brunson, Bridges and Hart — all of whom are under contract next season — and taken them all the way, it isn’t far-fetched to imagine he might consider the job.

As Rick Pitino found out the hard way in Boston, though, coaching former college players isn’t as easy as it looks.

Watching ESPN broadcasts during the playoffs, I felt like Malone was a natural on TV. But I don’t think he wants to be there long.

The coaching lifer is the son of former longtime Knicks assistant head coach Brendan Malone. He also has one bullet on his résumé that Thibodeau and the rest of the names on this list do not: head coach of an NBA champion.

Even though he lost the locker room in Denver, which eventually cost him his job, I’d be shocked if Malone isn’t coaching somewhere next season. Considering Thibodeau was ousted just days after losing Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, it seems like the Knicks already have a coach in mind. Malone could be that target now that he’s a free agent. Also working in Malone’s favor is that he’s a CAA client, which bodes well considering the Rose-led Knicks are already so intertwined with that agency.

I would make the call. Who knows if Van Gundy would entertain a reunion with Knicks owner James Dolan and the Knicks. But he’s the last coach who took the Knicks to the NBA Finals and few names garner as much respect around the league as JVG.

As Tyronn Lue’s lead assistant this season, Van Gundy helped turn the Los Angeles Clippers into a top-three defense even without Kawhi Leonard for half the season. He knows what it takes to win in New York and still has a firm grasp on the modern NBA. Though the Clippers stumbled to the finish line this season, Van Gundy could be rejuvenated by a much younger roster in New York than the one that starred in the Intuit Dome.

Thibs out, Cal in? 4 Knicks coaching candidates to watch, and the perils of the college-to-pro route

Kenny Atkinson and Mark Daigneault have to feel a little uneasy on Tuesday afternoon. News of Tom Thibodeau’s firing in New York will raise lots of questions about the future of the Knicks. But it also underlines the fungible nature of the coaching business in the NBA.

Thibodeau, the NBA Coach of the Year in 2021, becomes the latest top-coach recipient to be fired within four years of winning the award. Actually, of the seven winners between 2016-17 and 2022-23, Thibodeau lasted the longest, getting four seasons worth of grace period before he was removed from his position. It’s the same short runway Mike Budenholzer enjoyed after winning the award with the Bucks in 2019 — and winning a title in 2021.

The Coach of the Year curse is very much alive. Thibodeau, Budenholzer, Mike D’Antoni, Nick Nurse, Monty Williams and Mike Brown never saw as much as a fifth season with their teams after winning the award. Some, like Brown and Williams, were axed before seeing even a third.

When Thibodeau took over a 21-45 team in 2019-2020, a deliriously optimistic Knicks fan (and there are many) would have been laughed at if he or she envisioned a pathway to getting two wins away from the NBA Finals in less than a five-year span. But Thibodeau helped do just that. Along with the acquisitions by president of basketball operations Leon Rose, Thibodeau led the Knicks to back-to-back 50-win seasons, the first time since 1994-95 the organization has accomplished that feat.

Despite the ending, Tom Thibodeau had a good run with the Knicks. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
Dustin Satloff via Getty Images

Those who believe Thibodeau deserved better can’t be dismissed outright. Thibodeau’s well-chronicled reliance on structure and discipline were some of the very reasons why the Knicks were able to get to title contention quickly. But accelerating a timeline can create an own-goal of raised expectations. This preseason, oddsmakers set the over/under on the Knicks’ regular-season win count to 53.5, and the Knicks won “only” 51 games in the East. It’s hard to see how this season could be viewed as a disappointment, considering they reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000.

But star newcomer Karl-Anthony Towns never quite gelled with OG Anunoby, who signed the largest contract in Knicks history, along with Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart. Thibodeau played that lineup to an extreme degree, but most of the time couldn’t get the results he wanted.

For the season, that five-man group played 940 minutes, more than twice as many as any other Eastern Conference lineup per NBA.com data, but it never quite clicked. After a hot start, the offense fizzled and too often got bogged down into Brunson dribble fests. The defense routinely provided little resistance. Despite all the extreme minutes, the starting lineup ranked in the 51st percentile in point differential this season, according to Cleaning The Glass tracking.

From that standpoint, the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts. It’s understandable why Thibodeau was let go. Thibodeau waited until Game 3 of the East finals before he bailed on the underwhelming starting lineup and waited too long to lengthen his bench to more than two guys. Remarkably, the Knicks’ top seven players played 93% of the team’s minutes in the postseason, far more than the conference champs OKC (82%) and Indiana (80%).

Given Bridges’ chatter about too many minutes and the lack of Towns’ defensive impact, I’d be surprised if we didn’t hear more about certain college coaches who have experience leading some of these men to championships.

Where do the Knicks go from here? Here are four candidates to watch:

There’s a man who knows how to win with Karl-Anthony Towns. This man also won an NBA Coach of the Year award and also happens to know what it’s like to hold an NBA coaching job in the Tri-State area. Step right up, John Calipari!

It’s also true that over the years no coach has been closer to Rose and his No. 2 in the Knicks front office, William Wesley, than the Arkansas coach who coached Towns with both the University of Kentucky and the Dominican Republic national team. Calipari was the head coach for the New Jersey Nets for two and a half seasons, earning one playoff appearance in 1997-98 (he was swept). When Rose got the job to run the Knicks, Calipari spoke glowingly about Rose and his future in New York. (He was right that Rose would turn it around.)

Calipari reportedly has four years remaining on his five-year pact with the Razorbacks, who gave him an annual pay cut from his gig at Kentucky. If the Knicks came calling and offered him a job with a competitive salary, I’m sure he’d pick up the phone. As for college coaches in the NBA, the track record hasn’t been overwhelmingly strong. Of the 13 coaches that made the jump, none has made it to the NBA Finals — something that eluded both Billy Donovan and Brad Stevens despite their successes.

A Calipari hire would indicate the Knicks believe in Towns’ long-term viability in New York. It also wouldn’t be the only high-profile college legend who might be in the running.

Calipari was two wins away from a championship with a current Knick, but Wright has cut down the net multiple times with future Knicks. Wright stepped away from Villanova in 2022 after an immensely successful run with the Wildcats, winning the 2016 and 2018 NCAA tournaments with Brunson, Hart and Bridges helping along the way.

At 63 years old, Wright would find himself on the older end of the NBA coaching ranks, but he wouldn’t be an outlier. Heck, Rick Carlisle is two years older than Wright and he’s coaching one of the NBA’s youngest teams in the NBA Finals. Unlike Calipari, Wright has never been on an NBA bench, and it’s unclear if he’d have any interest in a pro gig. But having already coached Brunson, Bridges and Hart — all of whom are under contract next season — and taken them all the way, it isn’t far-fetched to imagine he might consider the job.

As Rick Pitino found out the hard way in Boston, though, coaching former college players isn’t as easy as it looks.

Watching ESPN broadcasts during the playoffs, I felt like Malone was a natural on TV. But I don’t think he wants to be there long.

The coaching lifer is the son of former longtime Knicks assistant head coach Brendan Malone. He also has one bullet on his résumé that Thibodeau and the rest of the names on this list do not: head coach of an NBA champion.

Even though he lost the locker room in Denver, which eventually cost him his job, I’d be shocked if Malone isn’t coaching somewhere next season. Considering Thibodeau was ousted just days after losing Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, it seems like the Knicks already have a coach in mind. Malone could be that target now that he’s a free agent. Also working in Malone’s favor is that he’s a CAA client, which bodes well considering the Rose-led Knicks are already so intertwined with that agency.

I would make the call. Who knows if Van Gundy would entertain a reunion with Knicks owner James Dolan and the Knicks. But he’s the last coach who took the Knicks to the NBA Finals and few names garner as much respect around the league as JVG.

As Tyronn Lue’s lead assistant this season, Van Gundy helped turn the Los Angeles Clippers into a top-three defense even without Kawhi Leonard for half the season. He knows what it takes to win in New York and still has a firm grasp on the modern NBA. Though the Clippers stumbled to the finish line this season, Van Gundy could be rejuvenated by a much younger roster in New York than the one that starred in the Intuit Dome.

Yankees’ Aaron Judge named AL Player of the Month for May

Yankees captain Aaron Judge remains the runaway favorite to be named AL MVP for a second straight season, and he just added yet another accolade to his esteemed ledger.

MLB announced on Tuesday that Judge received AL Player of the Month honors for May, capping off what was a stellar spring for the superstar slugger. As the reigning recipient for March/April, he slashed a laudable .364/.453/.798 with 11 home runs, eight doubles, and 18 RBI across 117 plate appearances.

Judge’s season average sits just nine points below the awestruck .400 mark as the Yankees gear up for a warmer June, and all signs point toward him maintaining a historic pace. He enters Tuesday’s series against the Guardians ranked atop several major hitting categories, including hits (86), OPS (1.248), and WAR (4.7).

While he’s facing legitimate competition for MLB’s home run crown — his 21 longshots place third — he could potentially break another legend’s record by season’s end. Judge currently leads the league with 168 total bases, and he still has roughly two-thirds of the regular season slate to pursue and possibly surpass Babe Ruth‘s mark of 457, set back in 1921.

The month of May has long been kind to Judge, as he’s now earned this particular award in four consecutive seasons.

Rotoworld Roundtable: What’s next for the Knicks after firing Tom Thibodeau?

New York hired Tom Thibodeau to take over as the team’s head coach ahead of the 2020-21 season. Things went well early on; he won Coach of the Year in his first season at the helm and helped the Knicks return to the postseason. Year two was a down year, but New York advanced past the first round each of the last three seasons and made the Eastern Conference Finals this season. During his five years leading the team, Thibodeau led the Knicks to a 226-174 record in the regular season and a 24-23 playoff record, which included four series wins. Thibs’ 226 wins are the second most by a head coach in franchise history.

On Tuesday, his time leading the franchise came to an end. ESPN’s Shams Charania was the first to report on the situation, but the Knicks also released a statement that they had moved on from Thibodeau.

So, where do the Knicks go from here? The last head coach to lead the Knicks to the playoffs before Thibodeau was Mike Woodson, and the coaches after him weren’t the most inspiring bunch. From Derek Fisher to Jeff Hornacek to David Fizdale, New York would like to avoid a repeat of one of the darker eras in the history of the franchise.

With the talent currently on the roster and a few draft picks to work with over the next few seasons, this should be an enticing spot for potential coaching candidates. Of course, that will come with plenty of expectations, especially with the Eastern Conference set up to be weaker than ever next season.

Raphielle Johnson: Well, here we are. While the Knicks’ decision to fire Thibodeau is surprising on the surface level, especially with the team reaching the conference finals for the first time since 2000, how stunning is it? Thibodeau leaned on his starting lineup to the point where there was no experimentation until desperate times arose, with the Knicks headed to Indiana in a 0-2 hole. There’s no question that he did an excellent job in turning around a franchise that was the laughing stock of the NBA when he took over.

Multiple playoff appearances, a trip to the conference finals, and consecutive 50-win seasons for the first time in 30 years are nothing to scoff at. However, while he undoubtedly raised the Knicks’ floor, it’s fair to question the team’s ceiling with Thibodeau in charge. Sometimes, the person best equipped to begin the climb isn’t the one who should get you to the summit of the proverbial mountain.

As for where the Knicks go from here, Leon Rose will have to find someone willing to expand their rotation, especially early in the season. That’s where a team can experiment with different looks and combinations, while also keeping the key players somewhat fresh for the stretch run. And what can the new coach and their staff do defensively? If the roster remains intact at the top, you’re talking about a defensive system that will have to compensate for the presence of two “minus” defenders in Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. Lastly, the culture built by Thibodeau can’t be overlooked. But this move is a sign that the Knicks will rely even more on Brunson, the team captain, to maintain it.

Noah Rubin: At the end of the day, this is a league that is based on results. Every team has a different definition of what that looks like every season, and team president Leon Rose obviously felt that, regardless of what Thibs has accomplished, he wasn’t the right man to lead this team to a championship next season. It’s that simple. Only time will tell if it was the right decision.

This team could benefit from some offensive creativity from their next coach. In the playoffs, the Knicks had the worst assist percentage in the league. Nearly half of the team’s made shots in the playoffs were unassisted. In contrast, the Pacers have had the best assist percentage in the postseason. The Knicks also averaged 10.9 isolation possessions per game in the playoffs. Aside from the Celtics, every team that spent more time in isolation than New York lost in the first round, and most lost in four or five games. They have two players who have averaged more than 25 points per game in a season, and two more talented wings who have come close to averaging 20 points per game. As tremendous as Jalen Brunson is when playing hero ball, it isn’t the most sustainable style of play for the entirety of a playoff run.

Thibs was known for relying heavily on his starters. This past season, Mikal Bridges made it known that he talked to Thibodeau about lightening the load on the starters. During the regular season, all five starters for the Knicks averaged at least 35 minutes per game, and both Bridges and Josh Hart were over 37 minutes per game. New York was blessed with health on their side, with all five starters playing at least 65 games, but that is a lot of miles to put on their knees, especially if they want to be able to win 16 playoff games.

Though it’s unclear how drastic a change would be, the next head coach will likely use a more balanced rotation. That means that the production of the starters will likely take at least a slight hit, while Miles McBride, Mitchell Robinson and Precious Achiuwa could spend more time on the floor. Of course, New York could make roster changes this offseason that also alter the rotation. Still, whoever ends up as the Knicks’ primary reserve options will likely see more opportunity than they did during the Thibodeau era.

Kurt Helin: Who are you going to get that’s better?

Firing Thibodeau is a massive gamble by team president Leon Rose and owner James Dolan. Thibs, for all his flaws as a coach, built a culture of winning, brought stability, and earned buy-in from the players. Sources have talked to me about how Thibs’ messaging was unclear and didn’t get through to Karl-Anthony Towns, and that his old-school, grinding style turned off some potential free agents/trade targets, but at the end of the day the Knicks made the playoffs as many times in Thibodeau’s five years as coach as they had the previous 20 years.

So, who are the Knicks getting that’s better?

Fired Denver coach Michael Malone is the first name to come up in conversations, and he brought the Nuggets their first title ever (with a little help from Nikola Jokic). That said, he is similar in style to Thibodeau, albeit a little more flexible in using his bench. Both coaches tend to wear on players over time.

One name to watch: Jonnie Bryant. He was a Knicks assistant coach under Thibodeau who joined Kenny Atkinson’s staff in Cleveland last season and helped that franchise take a leap to the next level. However, hiring a first-time head coach to take over a win-now team, in the nation’s toughest media market, is a significant risk.

Former Villanova coach Jay Wright comes up and would be popular with the ‘Nova Knicks players (including Brunson), but does he want to take on this NBA job (or any NBA job)? UConn coach Dan Hurley’s name also will come up, although some front office executives around the league question if his coaching style would translate to the next level.

There are long-shot possibilities — former Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins, Heat assistant Chris Quinn — but if you really want to watch your Knicks fan friends’ heads explode, bring up Doc Rivers. (There is no way Rivers gets this job, but the reaction is priceless.)

Whoever the Knicks hire, the bigger question may be, does it matter if 40% of your core starting five are negative defenders?

Six Rumored iOS 26 Features I’m Actually Excited About

I didn’t think I’d be talking about iOS 26 before the year 2032, but here we are. At WWDC 2025, Apple will likely announce the latest update for iPhones, complete with new features and a fresh naming scheme.

We won’t know for sure what Apple is planning until they officially announce it, but there’s reason to believe some leaks and rumors are accurate. I’ve been following those leaks and rumors closely as they’ve trickled in, and have a good sense of what to expect with iOS 26. Not all of the rumored features are winners—cough cough, Apple Intelligence—but there are others I’m genuinely excited for. Here are six of the features I hope really do make it to iOS 26.

RCS End-to-end encryption

RCS support was probably my favorite new feature of the iOS 18 era. For the first time since iMessage launched in 2011, iPhones and Android could text each other natively without resorting to SMS. The bubbles might still be green, but at least group chats are intact.

One major RCS perk has been missing since it launched on iOS, however: encryption. While RCS currently supports high-quality images and videos, your messages sent with this protocol are as unprotected as they are over SMS. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) guarantees that only the devices involved in the chat can decrypt and read the messages that are sent. No one else, not even Apple, can read E2EE. It’s a bummer, because RCS does support encryption (though even Android devices need to deal with some quirks here, as well).

Luckily, we know that E2EE is coming to RCS on iPhone—we just don’t know exactly when. Apple confirmed back in March that RCS encryption is on its way “in future software updates,” which could mean iOS 26, but also iOS 26.1 or any other number of updates. Personally, I hope it’s sooner rather than later.

Live Translate for AirPods

Picture this: You’re talking to someone who speaks a language you don’t. But as they speak, you hear their words translated to your language in your ear. It sounds like the future, but it’s very much the present—and it might be coming to AirPods.

That’s according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who reported in March that certain AirPods models would be getting this “live translate” feature. While Apple is apparently trying to keep this feature as secret as possible, Gurman says that AirPods will translate your conversationalist’s words in your ears, while your iPhone will translate your words in the other person’s language.

And actually, the feature is nothing new: Google’s Pixel Buds have had live translation for years at this point, via Conversation mode in the Translate app. It works the same way as Gurman describes Apple’s vision, so there is a clear precedent here. Still, I’d love if this feature really did ship with iOS 26.

A new look for iOS

If you know anything about iOS 26, you might know that Apple is planning a visual overhaul for the iPhone. If the rumors are true, the changes go beyond the mobile device: Apple is reportedly working on a design change across all of its products, to unify the look of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS.

The main UI inspiration seems to come from Apple’s newest product of the bunch, Apple Vision Pro: Icons and elements are rounded, windows and menu bars are floating and translucent, and there are fresh animations.

You can see an example of what this might look like from this Jon Prosser video, which showcases an iOS 26 mock-up based on leaked designs:

It’s not necessarily the design itself I’m excited about, but the change in general. While Apple has mixed up its UI a bit over the years, the general design language has been building off iOS 7, which dropped over a decade ago. While my nostalgic side would love to see Apple bring back the skeuomorphic design of iOS 6 and earlier, I welcome any new UI that looks good. And if I get a similar experience across my iPhone, Mac, and iPad, all the better.

A Stage Manager-like interface

If you have a compatible iPad, you can plug it into an external monitor, and extend your display like you would with a laptop. It’s part of a feature Apple calls Stage Manager, and it’s a cool way to make your iPad a bit more useful for serious computing tasks.

Rumor has it Apple is working on something similar for the iPhone. Should the leaks be true, you’ll be able to plug your USB-C iPhone into a monitor, and while you won’t be able to use it like a computer, you’ll be able to extend your screen space to match the display.

This is a great idea, and something that would make the iPhone a portable presentation station. If you have a slideshow, a video, or any type of demonstration on your iPhone, you could share it full-screen on any connected monitor. It’d pale in comparison to something like Samsung DeX, which turns your Galaxy phone into a true desktop experience, but I feel this could be the start of something similar on iOS.

Fewer glitches

I don’t need much from Apple when it comes to the iPhone, but if I had a single request, I’d ask for a more stable experience. In general, thing are good, but I do run into a lot of small issues day to day, and I’m willing to bet you do too if you have an iPhone.

According to Mark Gurman, reducing glitches is a high priority for Apple. He says the company is “pushing engineers to ensure that this year’s releases are more functional and less glitchy. Past upgrades were criticized for bugs and features that sometimes didn’t work properly.”

Sounds good to me, Apple.

AI-powered battery life enhancements

I might not be excited for any of Apple’s new generative AI features, but I’d be lying if battery life improvements powered by AI didn’t pique my interest. We all want our iPhones to last longer between charges, after all.

In the same report that spilled the beans on the “less glichy” goal, Gurman says Apple is working on a feature that will analyze your iPhone usage, and make changes to conserve battery life when possible. Maybe the AI notices that you don’t take advantage of intensive features in certain apps, and as such, reduces the performance of those apps to prioritize energy conservation.

What I like even better, though, is that Apple is reportedly working on a Lock Screen utility that tells you how long it’ll take to finish charging your iPhone. These are the small yet mighty changes I want to see from Apple.

Fantasy Baseball Power Rankings: Biggest risers and fallers just past one-third mark of MLB season

We’ve pushed past the one-third mark of the season; to be exact, 37% of the schedule has been played. The days are long, but the seasons are short. It’s a good time to look around the league and try to figure out what’s what.

The goal with these power rankings is to consider how fantasy-friendly every MLB team is. Simple as that. It’s certainly not a mere reflection of won-loss record, though it’s inevitable that good teams will likely help us more and bad teams will help us less.

[Smarter waivers, better trades, optimized lineups — Yahoo Fantasy Plus unlocks it all]

We last did this just ahead of the season, so let’s have some fun with the updates, and as always I welcome your intelligent and respectful disagreement.

When a team doesn’t win its 10th game until the first week of June, things have bottomed out. Only two Colorado batters are above code, and at least they were waiver finds — catcher Hunter Goodman and outfielder Jordan Beck. Michael Toglia’s demotion to the minors was merited, with a batting average under the Mendoza Line and a league-worst 81 strikeouts.

Luis Robert Jr. is the only Chicago player rostered in more than half of Yahoo leagues, with 21 steals partially offsetting that horrid .177 average. Chase Meidroth is a solid player, despite little pop. Starting pitcher Shane Smith deserves some respect, carrying a 2.68 ERA and 1.16 WHIP. Chicago’s six saves belong to six different relievers, so there’s nothing to see there.

Very little power, as expected. I thought they’d run more. I didn’t know what to expect from Sandy Alcántara but he’s been a nightmare. At least everyone in the everyday lineup is under 30. Catcher/DH Agustín Ramírez is a right answer. Only the Rockies have a worse ERA in the National League.

Oneil Cruz seems to get better every day and Paul Skenes is still dominating, even with a notable drop in his strikeout rate. Alas, nothing else has gone right in Pittsburgh, outside of Andrew Heaney and Bailey Falter offering some occasional streamer value. Bryan Reynolds perked up a bit last week, but he’s still having his worst season in five years.

It’s about what we expected, a credible offense and a look-out-below pitching staff (5.78 ERA). The Sutter Health Park situation doesn’t help these pitchers, but they’re 29th in road ERA, too. Jacob Wilson is a little fortunate to be carrying that .355 average, but he rarely swings at a bad pitch and he’s elite in squaring the ball. He’s a plus defender at shortstop, too.

Modern baseball is often smothered by the three true outcomes, but don’t blame Kansas City. The Royals rank last in walks and last in homers, and they’re the third-hardest team to strike out. All that contact hasn’t led to much — these guys are 28th in runs. Maikel Garcia is having a stunning breakthrough, with the best OPS+ on the club and a major jump in all three slash stats. All of the pitching is above code, with the third-best starting rotation (by ERA) and the seventh-best bullpen.

America’s crash-landing team, the most frustrating club for fantasy purposes. The Orioles were coming off two playoff berths and brought back most of the roster; to see them 14 games under .500 is shocking. Adley Rutschman looks like Matt Wieters 2.0, a touted prospect who arrives in The Show more ready than expected but perhaps with less down-the-road ceiling than expected. Baltimore likely will be sellers when the trade season opens.

What happened to Running Ron Washington? The Angels are 29th in stolen bases. It’s nice to see Mike Trout back on the field but it’s foolish to ever project him for 500 at-bats again. Zach Neto and Logan O’Hoppe are rising talents, and although first baseman Nolan Schanuel hasn’t shown much pop, a .269 average and .372 OBP will play. Tyler Anderson might be an interesting pitcher for a contender, six weeks from now.

Cleveland ranks 24th in runs and 21st in ERA and has a negative run differential, and yet somehow these guys are 32-26. Steven Kwan is symbolic of the team’s success, a backwards-approach player who succeeds on high contact and rare line drives (somehow, he’s still slugging .438). José Ramírez has a Hall of Fame career just about built.

This was a destination offense for so long, but the Astros are tracking for their worst scoring output in 11 years. Yordan Alvarez never looked right this season (he’s now on the IL) and Christian Walker might have hit the wall in his mid-30s. Jose Altuve already had a solid Hall of Fame foundation, but he’s merely an eyelash above a league average this year. At least Hunter Brown has popped on the mound, the biggest challenger to Tarik Skubal for the AL’s Cy Young Award.

Tampa Bay has the most steals in baseball, although 19 of them just went back to the minors — Chandler Simpson was sent to Triple-A to make room for Jake Magnum off the injured list. Simpson’s .285 average was better than expected, but he carries a modest .315 OBP and a puny .317 slugging — there’s work to be done here.

Somehow they’re 12th in runs despite below-average power and speed, bully for them. Nobody on this roster is on pace to hit 25 home runs. The staff has a similar ethos, with no All-Star candidate but four starters who are better than league average. St. Louis has the look of a playoff team that gets eliminated in 15 seconds. Victor Scott II is 16-for-17 on steals and might have the OBP skills to eventually bat first.

San Francisco recently removed Ryan Walker from the ninth inning, but the rest of the bullpen has been unreal — with a 2.39 ERA and 1.04 WHIP, this is easily the best relief staff in the majors. Keep an eye on Randy Rodríguez, who has been almost perfect: 0.68 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, 38 strikeouts against just three walks. He’s not closing right now, but if Camilo Doval has a misstep, Rodríguez might get a look. Rodríguez did work Monday in the ninth in a tie game at home, which shows how his importance has grown. The San Francisco offense hasn’t been as much fun; average in runs scored, below average in category juice.

Somehow Washington sits 11th in runs scored despite most of the batters being under league average in OPS+. This speaks to how well the team’s two signature hitters have played — James Wood is a monster (16 homers, nine steals) and CJ Abrams has his swag and focus back. Lefty ace MacKenzie Gore leads the majors in strikeouts and has also trimmed his walk rate; all of his starts are appointment viewing.

It’s been a trick or treat season for the Arlington boys, ranking 26th in runs scored but first in starting pitcher ERA. Jacob deGrom’s reinvention (pitch to contact, less max-out effort) seems to be working (2.34 ERA, 0.98 WHIP), even as he’s outpacing the ERA estimators. I almost had a heart attack when deGrom had a zero-strikeout game two turns ago, but heck, watching any ace pitcher can be an invitation for stress. Home cooking matters to the Rangers; they have 20 wins at home, just nine on the road.

Somehow they’re still sixth in runs scored but it feels tenuous, with the infield falling apart (Triston Casas is out for the year, Alex Bregman hurt, Kristian Campbell and Trevor Story slumping). Roman Anthony is percolating in the minors and likely comes up this month, though the Red Sox have no opening in the outfield (Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu are hitting, and the Sox love Ceddanne Rafaela for his defense). Carlos Narváez looks like a long-term solution behind the plate. Maybe Garrett Crochet is Chris Sale 2.0 after all.

A plus bullpen has allowed Toronto to overcome a mediocre offense and average starting staff. Maybe Bo Bichette is never going to be the star we all expected — his 46-game rookie debut is still the best baseball he’s ever played — but the Jays would probably take this year’s .277/.325/.430 slash in perpetuity. The Jays have stuck with closer Jeff Hoffman (13 saves) despite his 5.81 ERA.

An offense that’s outkicked the metrics — despite ranking 21st in average, 16th in OBP and 25th in slugging, Milwaukee sits eighth in runs scored. Brice Turang has been better than expected, Jackson Chourio a slight disappointment (but I’m not fading him in any way). Christian Yelich started to hit over the last couple of weeks.

Everyone knows Andrew Abbott isn’t as good as that 1.51 ERA, but just how good is he? Probably better than you think. His expected ERA is a solid 3.05 and his expected average against is a slight .202. And his extreme fly-ball rate is not a detriment, either; the great Gene McCaffrey taught us many moons ago, whenever a pitcher shows a major bias in either direction with fly balls or ground balls, it represents a good thing, control over his outcomes.

The .237 average is garish but the OBP and slugging are both above code, so the offense has more octane than expected. Cal Raleigh would be a top 5 MVP pick today. George Kirby needs monitoring after two messy starts in his return. Bryan Woo has done a nifty Kirby imitation in the meantime — pound the strike zone, don’t give anything away.

To rank them this high is a vote for speculation and a nod to the name-brand value. They’ve been disappointments: 22nd in runs scored, 16th in OPS. Maybe Ozzie Albies has leveled off. But you wonder if a healthy Ronald Acuña Jr. could light this offense on fire.

I’d love to see what a healthy Byron Buxton could do with 140 games; he’s one of the 10 best players in the American League. The Twins need the thumping Buxton in the lineup; it hurts to have two non-power guys (Ty France, Brooks Lee) manning the infield corners. The staff of all-underrated guys is fifth in starter ERA, to be expected. This is an eat-your-veggies kind of team, drink the milk to the bottom of the glass.

We don’t talk about Chase Field that much as an offensive environment, but if you consider the three-year rolling averages on Baseball Savant, this ballpark is tied for third for the biggest scoring boost (even with Great American Ball Park; trailing just Coors Field and Fenway Park). Seven of the Arizona regulars have an OPS+ better than league average, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is just an eyelash below. Arizona needs to figure out the bullpen, with a messy 5.28 ERA there.

The offense has been less than expected, the pitching better than expected. Jackson Merrill has a 20-point jump in OPS+, but he hasn’t shown interest in running since his hamstring injury. The Xander Bogaerts contract was a bad one the day it was signed — he’s been under code for OPS+ the last two years — but at least he’s 11-for-11 on steals. Michael King had Cy Young vibes before his shoulder injury.

The favorite David Bowie record in Detroit? Station to station. The Tigers have just 21 steals and 27 steal attempts, the fewest in baseball for both columns. Comerica Park is a perfect place if you want to see a triple, but it ranks below average in most of the offensive stats. Gleyber Torres was an underrated pickup; his 128 OPS+ is his best showing in six years, and he has more walks than strikeouts.

Juan Soto has yet to detonate, but a sneaky-good pitching staff (second in both starter and relief ERA) has pushed the Mets to the top of the NL East. Pete Alonso has the best batting average and OPS+ of his career, along with an NL-best 18 doubles. Walks are up, strikeouts down. Will the league view Alonso differently this winter if he goes back on the market?

Things usually start well in Philadelphia (seventh-best rotation ERA) but it gets dark in the later innings (25th in bullpen ERA). The offense is fine (seventh in scoring, 11th in homers, fifth in steals), even with a Wheeze Kids shape to the roster (six lineup regulars are in their 30s). Kyle Schwarber is having a glorious season, with a .266/.398/.584 slash and a personal-best 170 OPS+.

Luke Weaver was pitching too well to cede the closer role, but now that a hamstring injury has entered the chat, Devin Williams gets his chance to shine again. The Yankees will use Williams in the ninth inning while Weaver rehabs, and Williams has been much better in recent work (2.08 ERA, 0.69 WHIP, 1 BB, 12 K over 8.2 innings). Aaron Judge’s supporting cast has been better than expected — nine of the 10 primary hitters here have an OPS+ better than the mean. It’s a group that tilts younger, too — only Judge and Paul Goldschmidt are in their 30s.

Second in runs, fourth in homers, third in steals, this has been a carnival offense all year. Pete Crow-Armstrong has the worst K/BB ratio among the regulars, but everything else he does is plated in gold — 15 homers, 19 steals in 22 attempts. He’s third on the Yahoo list of MVPs (most commonly-posted players on the best public teams), slightly behind Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge.

They turned up the juice in May, conking 44 homers (Shohei Ohtani had 15 of them) and slashing .283/.357/.482. For the year, the Dodgers rank first in average, runs, homers and slugging (they’re second in OBP). They’re not the defending champs for nothing. The pitching has been below average, but elite offense is a lovely deodorant.

Fantasy Baseball Power Rankings: Biggest risers and fallers just past one-third mark of MLB season

We’ve pushed past the one-third mark of the season; to be exact, 37% of the schedule has been played. The days are long, but the seasons are short. It’s a good time to look around the league and try to figure out what’s what.

The goal with these power rankings is to consider how fantasy-friendly every MLB team is. Simple as that. It’s certainly not a mere reflection of won-loss record, though it’s inevitable that good teams will likely help us more and bad teams will help us less.

[Smarter waivers, better trades, optimized lineups — Yahoo Fantasy Plus unlocks it all]

We last did this just ahead of the season, so let’s have some fun with the updates, and as always I welcome your intelligent and respectful disagreement.

When a team doesn’t win its 10th game until the first week of June, things have bottomed out. Only two Colorado batters are above code, and at least they were waiver finds — catcher Hunter Goodman and outfielder Jordan Beck. Michael Toglia’s demotion to the minors was merited, with a batting average under the Mendoza Line and a league-worst 81 strikeouts.

Luis Robert Jr. is the only Chicago player rostered in more than half of Yahoo leagues, with 21 steals partially offsetting that horrid .177 average. Chase Meidroth is a solid player, despite little pop. Starting pitcher Shane Smith deserves some respect, carrying a 2.68 ERA and 1.16 WHIP. Chicago’s six saves belong to six different relievers, so there’s nothing to see there.

Very little power, as expected. I thought they’d run more. I didn’t know what to expect from Sandy Alcántara but he’s been a nightmare. At least everyone in the everyday lineup is under 30. Catcher/DH Agustín Ramírez is a right answer. Only the Rockies have a worse ERA in the National League.

Oneil Cruz seems to get better every day and Paul Skenes is still dominating, even with a notable drop in his strikeout rate. Alas, nothing else has gone right in Pittsburgh, outside of Andrew Heaney and Bailey Falter offering some occasional streamer value. Bryan Reynolds perked up a bit last week, but he’s still having his worst season in five years.

It’s about what we expected, a credible offense and a look-out-below pitching staff (5.78 ERA). The Sutter Health Park situation doesn’t help these pitchers, but they’re 29th in road ERA, too. Jacob Wilson is a little fortunate to be carrying that .355 average, but he rarely swings at a bad pitch and he’s elite in squaring the ball. He’s a plus defender at shortstop, too.

Modern baseball is often smothered by the three true outcomes, but don’t blame Kansas City. The Royals rank last in walks and last in homers, and they’re the third-hardest team to strike out. All that contact hasn’t led to much — these guys are 28th in runs. Maikel Garcia is having a stunning breakthrough, with the best OPS+ on the club and a major jump in all three slash stats. All of the pitching is above code, with the third-best starting rotation (by ERA) and the seventh-best bullpen.

America’s crash-landing team, the most frustrating club for fantasy purposes. The Orioles were coming off two playoff berths and brought back most of the roster; to see them 14 games under .500 is shocking. Adley Rutschman looks like Matt Wieters 2.0, a touted prospect who arrives in The Show more ready than expected but perhaps with less down-the-road ceiling than expected. Baltimore likely will be sellers when the trade season opens.

What happened to Running Ron Washington? The Angels are 29th in stolen bases. It’s nice to see Mike Trout back on the field but it’s foolish to ever project him for 500 at-bats again. Zach Neto and Logan O’Hoppe are rising talents, and although first baseman Nolan Schanuel hasn’t shown much pop, a .269 average and .372 OBP will play. Tyler Anderson might be an interesting pitcher for a contender, six weeks from now.

Cleveland ranks 24th in runs and 21st in ERA and has a negative run differential, and yet somehow these guys are 32-26. Steven Kwan is symbolic of the team’s success, a backwards-approach player who succeeds on high contact and rare line drives (somehow, he’s still slugging .438). José Ramírez has a Hall of Fame career just about built.

This was a destination offense for so long, but the Astros are tracking for their worst scoring output in 11 years. Yordan Alvarez never looked right this season (he’s now on the IL) and Christian Walker might have hit the wall in his mid-30s. Jose Altuve already had a solid Hall of Fame foundation, but he’s merely an eyelash above a league average this year. At least Hunter Brown has popped on the mound, the biggest challenger to Tarik Skubal for the AL’s Cy Young Award.

Tampa Bay has the most steals in baseball, although 19 of them just went back to the minors — Chandler Simpson was sent to Triple-A to make room for Jake Magnum off the injured list. Simpson’s .285 average was better than expected, but he carries a modest .315 OBP and a puny .317 slugging — there’s work to be done here.

Somehow they’re 12th in runs despite below-average power and speed, bully for them. Nobody on this roster is on pace to hit 25 home runs. The staff has a similar ethos, with no All-Star candidate but four starters who are better than league average. St. Louis has the look of a playoff team that gets eliminated in 15 seconds. Victor Scott II is 16-for-17 on steals and might have the OBP skills to eventually bat first.

San Francisco recently removed Ryan Walker from the ninth inning, but the rest of the bullpen has been unreal — with a 2.39 ERA and 1.04 WHIP, this is easily the best relief staff in the majors. Keep an eye on Randy Rodríguez, who has been almost perfect: 0.68 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, 38 strikeouts against just three walks. He’s not closing right now, but if Camilo Doval has a misstep, Rodríguez might get a look. Rodríguez did work Monday in the ninth in a tie game at home, which shows how his importance has grown. The San Francisco offense hasn’t been as much fun; average in runs scored, below average in category juice.

Somehow Washington sits 11th in runs scored despite most of the batters being under league average in OPS+. This speaks to how well the team’s two signature hitters have played — James Wood is a monster (16 homers, nine steals) and CJ Abrams has his swag and focus back. Lefty ace MacKenzie Gore leads the majors in strikeouts and has also trimmed his walk rate; all of his starts are appointment viewing.

It’s been a trick or treat season for the Arlington boys, ranking 26th in runs scored but first in starting pitcher ERA. Jacob deGrom’s reinvention (pitch to contact, less max-out effort) seems to be working (2.34 ERA, 0.98 WHIP), even as he’s outpacing the ERA estimators. I almost had a heart attack when deGrom had a zero-strikeout game two turns ago, but heck, watching any ace pitcher can be an invitation for stress. Home cooking matters to the Rangers; they have 20 wins at home, just nine on the road.

Somehow they’re still sixth in runs scored but it feels tenuous, with the infield falling apart (Triston Casas is out for the year, Alex Bregman hurt, Kristian Campbell and Trevor Story slumping). Roman Anthony is percolating in the minors and likely comes up this month, though the Red Sox have no opening in the outfield (Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu are hitting, and the Sox love Ceddanne Rafaela for his defense). Carlos Narváez looks like a long-term solution behind the plate. Maybe Garrett Crochet is Chris Sale 2.0 after all.

A plus bullpen has allowed Toronto to overcome a mediocre offense and average starting staff. Maybe Bo Bichette is never going to be the star we all expected — his 46-game rookie debut is still the best baseball he’s ever played — but the Jays would probably take this year’s .277/.325/.430 slash in perpetuity. The Jays have stuck with closer Jeff Hoffman (13 saves) despite his 5.81 ERA.

An offense that’s outkicked the metrics — despite ranking 21st in average, 16th in OBP and 25th in slugging, Milwaukee sits eighth in runs scored. Brice Turang has been better than expected, Jackson Chourio a slight disappointment (but I’m not fading him in any way). Christian Yelich started to hit over the last couple of weeks.

Everyone knows Andrew Abbott isn’t as good as that 1.51 ERA, but just how good is he? Probably better than you think. His expected ERA is a solid 3.05 and his expected average against is a slight .202. And his extreme fly-ball rate is not a detriment, either; the great Gene McCaffrey taught us many moons ago, whenever a pitcher shows a major bias in either direction with fly balls or ground balls, it represents a good thing, control over his outcomes.

The .237 average is garish but the OBP and slugging are both above code, so the offense has more octane than expected. Cal Raleigh would be a top 5 MVP pick today. George Kirby needs monitoring after two messy starts in his return. Bryan Woo has done a nifty Kirby imitation in the meantime — pound the strike zone, don’t give anything away.

To rank them this high is a vote for speculation and a nod to the name-brand value. They’ve been disappointments: 22nd in runs scored, 16th in OPS. Maybe Ozzie Albies has leveled off. But you wonder if a healthy Ronald Acuña Jr. could light this offense on fire.

I’d love to see what a healthy Byron Buxton could do with 140 games; he’s one of the 10 best players in the American League. The Twins need the thumping Buxton in the lineup; it hurts to have two non-power guys (Ty France, Brooks Lee) manning the infield corners. The staff of all-underrated guys is fifth in starter ERA, to be expected. This is an eat-your-veggies kind of team, drink the milk to the bottom of the glass.

We don’t talk about Chase Field that much as an offensive environment, but if you consider the three-year rolling averages on Baseball Savant, this ballpark is tied for third for the biggest scoring boost (even with Great American Ball Park; trailing just Coors Field and Fenway Park). Seven of the Arizona regulars have an OPS+ better than league average, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is just an eyelash below. Arizona needs to figure out the bullpen, with a messy 5.28 ERA there.

The offense has been less than expected, the pitching better than expected. Jackson Merrill has a 20-point jump in OPS+, but he hasn’t shown interest in running since his hamstring injury. The Xander Bogaerts contract was a bad one the day it was signed — he’s been under code for OPS+ the last two years — but at least he’s 11-for-11 on steals. Michael King had Cy Young vibes before his shoulder injury.

The favorite David Bowie record in Detroit? Station to station. The Tigers have just 21 steals and 27 steal attempts, the fewest in baseball for both columns. Comerica Park is a perfect place if you want to see a triple, but it ranks below average in most of the offensive stats. Gleyber Torres was an underrated pickup; his 128 OPS+ is his best showing in six years, and he has more walks than strikeouts.

Juan Soto has yet to detonate, but a sneaky-good pitching staff (second in both starter and relief ERA) has pushed the Mets to the top of the NL East. Pete Alonso has the best batting average and OPS+ of his career, along with an NL-best 18 doubles. Walks are up, strikeouts down. Will the league view Alonso differently this winter if he goes back on the market?

Things usually start well in Philadelphia (seventh-best rotation ERA) but it gets dark in the later innings (25th in bullpen ERA). The offense is fine (seventh in scoring, 11th in homers, fifth in steals), even with a Wheeze Kids shape to the roster (six lineup regulars are in their 30s). Kyle Schwarber is having a glorious season, with a .266/.398/.584 slash and a personal-best 170 OPS+.

Luke Weaver was pitching too well to cede the closer role, but now that a hamstring injury has entered the chat, Devin Williams gets his chance to shine again. The Yankees will use Williams in the ninth inning while Weaver rehabs, and Williams has been much better in recent work (2.08 ERA, 0.69 WHIP, 1 BB, 12 K over 8.2 innings). Aaron Judge’s supporting cast has been better than expected — nine of the 10 primary hitters here have an OPS+ better than the mean. It’s a group that tilts younger, too — only Judge and Paul Goldschmidt are in their 30s.

Second in runs, fourth in homers, third in steals, this has been a carnival offense all year. Pete Crow-Armstrong has the worst K/BB ratio among the regulars, but everything else he does is plated in gold — 15 homers, 19 steals in 22 attempts. He’s third on the Yahoo list of MVPs (most commonly-posted players on the best public teams), slightly behind Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge.

They turned up the juice in May, conking 44 homers (Shohei Ohtani had 15 of them) and slashing .283/.357/.482. For the year, the Dodgers rank first in average, runs, homers and slugging (they’re second in OBP). They’re not the defending champs for nothing. The pitching has been below average, but elite offense is a lovely deodorant.