INDIANAPOLIS — It’s the existential question: Play and take the risk, or play the long game even in the face of Finals elimination?
That’s what is facing Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton on the eve of Game 6 of the NBA Finals with his right calf strain, which he confirmed in his media session Wednesday. He wasn’t much help in the second half of Game 5, unable to contribute a field goal after injuring his calf on a turnover.
He went through the Pacers walkthrough, but coach Rick Carlisle said there wasn’t any real running involved. Sounds like he’ll be listed as a game-time decision.
“It’s a topic that people want to hear about and know about. There’s going to be a lot of questions about it,” Carlisle said. “We will not really know for sure until late tomorrow afternoon or early evening.”
Haliburton said “the plan” is for him to play, even though if this were a regular-season game he would be sitting.
“I want to be out there,” Haliburton said.
Kevin Durant’s Achilles popped in the 2019 Finals, two quarters into playing for the first time in a month for Golden State following a calf strain.
There is risk of a player missing a significant chunk of his prime, but the mindset of an athlete is to push even harder at this level. So sometimes, being smart goes out the window.
“I think it depends on who you ask,” Haliburton said. “You’re asking me. I think I have to be as smart as I want to be. Have to understand the risks, ask the right questions.
Tyrese Haliburton will likely be a game-time decision for Game 6. (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
NBAE via Getty Images
“I’m a competitor. I want to play. I’m going to do everything in my power to play. That’s just what it is.”
Haliburton missed time during the Pacers’ playoff run last year, the final two games of their conference finals loss to the Boston Celtics, and was limited in last summer’s Olympic Games with an injured hamstring. That seemed to hinder his start to the season in the first 25 games before he rebounded and the Pacers made their run to the Finals.
If he plays and is effective, perhaps the Pacers can extend the series and send it to a seventh game back in Oklahoma City. If he doesn’t, it’s hard to foresee a path for the Pacers to continue this improbable run.
“I practiced today, did what I could,” Haliburton said. “I know Coach told you guys what the process will be tomorrow for me to play. Yeah, we’re just taking it from there.”
He listed the treatments he’s received in the last two days, the extra days the Finals schedule provides, giving him a better chance at playing in Game 6. Massages, needles, hyperbaric chambers.
For the series, Haliburton is averaging 15 points, 7.2 assists and 6.2 rebounds on 45 percent shooting. If the Pacers’ medical staff has to save him from himself, even in this situation, it feels like something he will consider in real time.
“Yeah, I have a lot of trust in our medical staff. I have a lot of trust in our organization to make the right decision,” Haliburton said. “I think there’s been many situations through the course of my career where they’ve trusted me on my body.
“They trust me to make the right decision on my body when the power is in my hands. I’m trying to try my best to do that.”
After more than four decades under the Buss family, the Los Angeles Lakers are changing hands.
The Buss family is entering an agreement to sell majority ownership of the NBA franchise to Mark Walter, who is the CEO and chairman of TWG Global, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. Walter is also the primary owner and chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he owns stakes in Chelsea in the English Premier League, an F1 team and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, among other things. He currently holds a minority stake of 26% in the Lakers, too.
The deal is expected to have a valuation of approximately $10 billion, which makes it the largest sale of a professional sports franchise in the world.
The Buss family reportedly will keep a minority share of about 15% for at least some time. Jeanie Buss, who has been the team’s governor since 2013, will continue in that role for the foreseeable future after the sale.
Jerry Buss first purchased the Lakers in 1979 for $67.5 million in a deal that also included the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and The Forum in Inglewood, California. The franchise passed down to his children after he died in 2013. The Buss family has owned about two-thirds of the Lakers prior to this sale.
Walter first joined the Lakers’ ownership group in 2021. According to a CNBC report earlier this year, the Lakers were valued at about $7 billion, which made them the third-most valuable team in the league behind only the New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors.
The Boston Celtics were the last NBA team to be sold when they struck a deal with a group led by Bill Chisholm earlier this year. The group purchased the Celtics for $6.05 billion, which set an NBA record. Controlling ownership of both the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks were sold in recent years, too.
The Lakers have shined under the Buss family’s leadership and become one of the premier franchises in all of sports. They’ve won 11 NBA titles under the Buss family, most recently in 2020, including a rare three-peat from 2000-02 with head coach Phil Jackson and star Kobe Bryant. Most recently, the team stunned the NBA world with its trade to acquire Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Dončić this season.
Walters had the first right of refusal to purchase the Buss family’s 66% share after he bought Phil Anschutz’s stake of 26 percent in 2021.
Lakers Hall of Fame point guard Magic Johnson, who has played, coached and served as president under the Buss family — and is part of the Dodgers ownership group with Walter — congratulated both sides on the agreement.
“Laker fans should be estatic,” Johnson wrote on X. “A few things I can tell you about Mark – he is driven by winning, excellence, and doing everything the right way. AND he will put in the resources needed to win! I can understand why Jeanie sold the team to Mark Walter because they are just alike.”
Job well done to my sister Jeanie Buss for striking an incredible deal and picking the right person to carry on the @Lakers legacy and tradition of winning – Mark Walter, my business partner and friend! Mark Walter is the best choice and will be the best caretaker of the Laker…
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) June 18, 2025
Laker fans should be estatic. A few things I can tell you about Mark – he is driven by winning, excellence, and doing everything the right way. AND he will put in the resources needed to win! I can understand why Jeanie sold the team to Mark Walter because they are just alike -…
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) June 18, 2025
While Jeanie is still set to control the Lakers, the Buss family selling the franchise marks the end of an era for the team that has led the NBA in a number of ways for decades.
“What’s happening with the Red Sox, with Sam Kennedy, with Craig Breslow, with Alex Cora, is a state of organizational dysfunction,” Lee said, as seen in the video player above. “I heard last night about an interview with — the Red Sox were trying to recruit a new person for their baseball operations department, and during this interview process, the entire interview was conducted with an AI bot, where you would record the answers to the questions and then the Red Sox would then evaluate them.
“And this wasn’t just one round. It wasn’t just two rounds. It was five rounds of interviews where this person did not talk to another person in the Red Sox organization.”
On Wednesday, the Red Sox released the following statement addressing Lee’s report:
“We wanted to reach out to you because we are seeing unsubstantiated reports about the Red Sox using AI bots to hire candidates,” the statement reads, according to MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith. “Since 2012, the club has used a tool called HireVue to screen applicants for all roles across the organization. The Red Sox are one of several MLB clubs to use this tool, which asks candidates to answer a few questions in a recorded video for the hiring manager to get a sense of the person beyond their resume. This is one of several steps in the hiring process and is just one factor that helps determine which candidates should advance to an in-person interview.
“On average, the club receives over 500 applicants per position, and for some roles, as many as 3,000. This tool is in no way a replacement for in-person interviews, simply one of many steps that helps the club screen the many candidates who apply for each job posting.
“We wanted to ensure all of you had this information directly from us and would appreciate your partnership in helping clear up these unsupported claims.”
HireVue is an AI and human resources management company that allows clients to conduct interviews where the job candidate interacts with a computer instead of a human interviewer. Many companies utilize the technology to narrow down candidates early in the interview process, so it’s no surprise that the Red Sox use it with the number of applicants they receive. What stands out from Lee’s report is that the organization allegedly used it for five interview rounds.
“I think my short answer is, I’m not sure, because I know that I have had direct conversations with people,” Breslow said. “But like I said, if using this as kind of like a first filter, because the number of people who want to work with [the Red Sox] is so big, it makes sense. Now, I don’t think we can make hiring decisions without actually talking to someone.”
While the Red Sox have been somewhat of a mess off the field, they’ve been red-hot in recent weeks. After taking two out of three in their series against the Seattle Mariners, they’ve won nine of their last nine games and have sole possession of the third American League Wild Card spot at 39-37.
The intriguing Red Sox storylines will continue Friday when the club visits Devers’ new team, the San Francisco Giants.
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for us to visit the bump on Hump Day and discuss starting pitcher news. Each week in this article, I’ll be taking a deeper look at a few trending/surging starting pitchers to see what, if anything, is changing and whether or not we should be investing in this hot stretch for fantasy baseball.
The article will be similar to the series I ran for a few years called Mixing It Up (previously Pitchers With New Pitches and Should We Care?), where I broke down new pitches to see if there were truly meaningful additions that changed a pitcher’s outlook. Only now, I won’t just look at new pitches, I can also cover velocity bumps, new usage patterns, or new roles. However, the premise will remain the same: trying to determine if the recent results are connected to any meaningful changes that make them worth investing in or if they’re just mirages.
Each week, I’ll try to cover change for at least four starters and give my clear take on whether I would add them, trade for them, or invest fully in their success. Hopefully you’ll find it useful, so let’s get started.
Most of the charts you see below are courtesy of Kyle Bland over at Pitcher List. He created a great spring training app (which he’s now carried over into the regular season) that tracks changes in velocity, usage, and pitch movement. It also features a great strike zone plot, which allows you to see how the entire arsenal plays together.I’ll also use Alex Chamberlain’s awesome work with his Pitch Leaderboard.
Jacob Misiorowski – Milwaukee Brewers
(MLB Debut)
Brewers starting pitching prospect Jacob Misiorowski made one of the most anticipated MLB debuts of the season last week when he tossed five hitless innings against the Cardinals on Thursday. Part of the intrigue for Misiorowski is his 6-foot-7 frame and also the triple-digit fastball that he can still pump with high velocity deep into starts. His command had taken a step forward in the minors, and so there was a palpable feeling that we might be witnessing a true breakout. So, how did he look in that MLB debut?
Pitcher List
We’ll start with the fastball because he sat 99 mph with it last week with 7.5 feet of extension, and that’s just absurd. That kind of extension will make a 99 mph fastball look like a 102-103 mph pitch and comes with a 1.7 Height Adjusted Vertical Approach Angle, which means it’s a flat fastball that fights gravity and seems to rise as it approaches home plate. A pitch with that velocity that also seems to rise is incredibly hard to hit and immediately becomes one of the best fastballs in all of baseball.
However, this is where the command comes into play. A pitch that electric is often hard to control, and Misiorowski had just a 44% zone rate on it during his debut, which is well below the 52.4% mark that’s MLB league average for a starting pitcher. Some of that might be due to nerves, but having just a 9% called-strike rate is not great for your four-seam fastball, which is supposed to be a foundational pitch that Misiorowski can also use to get ahead in the count with.
Yet, it seems like Misiorowski has another pitch for that, which is his slider/cutter. It’s classified as a slider right now, but it’s 94.3 mph with just 1.7 inches of horizontal movement and feels an awful lot like a cutter. He had a 48% zone rate on that pitch despite a below-average 56% strike rate. He used it early in the count 70% of the time to righties, which also suggests that he views it as a strike pitch that he can get ahead with. He threw 23 of his 25 cutters to righties, and only threw his four-seam early in the count 33% of the time to righties, so we’re seeing a clear approach. Misiorowski will use the cutter to get ahead on righties and then have the four-seamer as a two-strike pitch, but will use the four-seamer early in the count to lefties and then go to his curveball.
He threw seven of his 11 curveballs to lefties and used it in two-strike counts 85.7% of the time, so the plan is pretty clear. It’s an 88 mph pitch with nearly 11 inches of drop and six inches of horizontal run and can be downright filthy at times. It’s incredibly rare to find a curve that’s nearly 90 mph that drops as much as Misiorowski’s does, but that could also be why he struggles to command it. All four of his curves to righties were thrown for strikes because it’s just a “get me over pitch” against right-handed hitters. However, just two of his seven curves to lefties were for strikes. He missed up and away a handful of times, which indicates he was over-throwing, and had a below-average PutAway Rate on the pitch, which measures how often a two-strike pitch results in a strikeout.
He also threw two nasty changeups to lefties at 91 mph, so maybe that will become a bigger offering for him, but right now we have a three-pitch mix and a pretty clear and narrow arsenal for all hitters. If righties know they’re going to get a cutter early and a four-seam late in the count, will they adapt to that plan quickly? If lefties know the two pitches Misiorowski throws to them are two pitches he struggles to command, will they just wait him out? When you pair that with Misiorowski already being 29 innings away from matching his career high, there are some risks with him as a rest-of-season starter.
I think he needs to be rostered in all formats, and I can easily see a low ERA with plenty of strikeouts the rest of the way. However, I also think there’s a chance his WHIP can hurt your ratios, and the Brewers may shut him down in the middle or end of August if they fall out of playoff contention, which I expect them to do. But for now, enjoy the ride.
Eury Pérez – Miami Marlins
(New Arm Slow, New Sinker, New Curve Grip)
Eury Pérez made his long-awaited return to an MLB mound this month after missing all of last season following Tommy John surgery. The 22-year-old is one of the most exciting young pitchers in baseball, but has struggled in his first two appearances, allowing five runs on eight hits in seven innings with five strikeouts and five walks. We’ve also seen some interesting changes to his pitch mix and mechanics that are worth exploring.
For starters, Pérez dropped his arm angle almost five degrees, which you can see in Alex Chamberlain’s Pitch Leaderboard below. His teammate, Edward Cabrera, also dropped his arm angle significantly this season, so you have to wonder if this is an organizational shift for the Marlins. The new arm angle has, obviously, changed the shape of some of Pérez’s offerings. His four-seam arm angle has dropped almost seven inches, which has cost him over an inch of Induced Vertical Break (iVB) but added over two inches of arm-side run. Even with that change in shape, he has the same Height Adjusted Vertical Approach angle, so it’s still a flat fastball that will succeed up in the zone. Pérez is just not yet locating it there consistently early on, which is to be expected after surgery. Perhaps the new movement profile on the four-seamer will lead to less hard contact when he misses his spot, but sitting 98.1 mph with the pitch is nice to see.
Pérez also added a sinker this season, which might make some sense when paired with this new four-seam shape. Pérez’s sinker is 96.6 mph with over 17 inches of horizontal break, so even though the four-seamer now rides in on righties a bit, the sinker will still bore in on their hands far more. That could create some nice deception and soft contact, but he has been using the sinker more to lefties so far, which is a bit odd to me.
Alex Chamberlain’s Pitch Leaderboard
The change in arm angle and a reported change in grip have also given his curveball over eight inches more horizontal break and nearly six inches more drop. It comes in about one mph slower than it used to, but he seems to, so far, have an easier time commanding the pitch. That pitch has morphed into his primary secondary offering to lefties, but he has yet to induce a single swinging strike on it against them. Some of that is simply that the pitch is catching too much of the plate, which is something he’ll need to iron out as he gets more starts.
Righties are still seeing his slider as the primary secondary offering, and that pitch has gotten a bit flatter with the new arm angle. However, the slider has not induced a single swinging strike to righties so far. It’s a pretty wild stat between that and the curve to lefties. However, we should note that Pérez has faced FAR more lefties so far in his first two appearances, so we’ll take those numbers with a grain of salt. However, the slider has graded out REALLY poorly by PLV so far this season.
Lastly, we saw a minor change with Pérez’s change-up this season, coming in nearly one mph harder and with more arm-side run. However, he’s only thrown five, and not one of them has been for a strike.
At the end of the day, I don’t see this as a package I’m pursuing right now in shallower redraft leagues. If you have the bench space and you want to stash him to see how the next few starts go, I have no issue with that, but Pérez is going to need to figure out his curveball and/or slider this season before he starts racking up strikeouts. The Marlins also have no reason to push him beyond 80-ish pitches per game in his first season back from injury. I’ll be heavily invested in Pérez for next season, but I’m only taking low-cost shares for 2025.
Brayan Bello – Boston Red Sox
(Cutter Usage)
Bello is evolving before our eyes and is turning into a type of pitcher none of us ever expected him to be. When he debuted, Bello had an elite changeup but lacked a plus-fastball or a great swing-and-miss breaking pitch. He has since developed a good slider, but the changeup has left him almost completely. Now, it seems that Bello is relying on three variations of a fastball (four-seam, sinker, and cutter), while mixing in his sweeper and changeup.
Bello threw his cutter for the first time this season on May 13. He then didn’t throw a single cutter in his next outing, but from May 23 on, Bello has thrown his cutter 13% of the time, including a career-high 33% usage on Sunday. Over that same span, he’s using his sinker 39% of the time and sweeper 23% of the time, while dropping his changeup rate to 12% and kicking his four-seam usage up to an equal 12%. It’s a pretty drastic shift for the 26-year-old, but is it one that can work?
Alex Chamberlain’s Pitch Leaderboard
In his start against the Yankees on Sunday, Bello used his cutter as his primary fastball to both righties and lefties, but it was such an anomaly in his usage pattern that we have to wonder if this was just a game plan against the Yankees. However, Boston has also tweaked their entire pitching philosophy over the last week and have leaned harder into fastball usage than they have since Andrew Bailey became the pitching coach. The cutter is Bello’s best fastball, so this may be a new avenue forward for him.
He can locate the pitch in the zone well, using it more as a strike pitch for lefties but bringing it in as a two-strike offering for right-handed hitters as well. The cutter is about 89 mph with just 1.5 inches of horizontal movement and very little drop, but it has been great as a two-strike pitch to righties, posting a 28.6% chase rate in those counts and a 28.6% PutAway Rate. We’re dealing with a small sample size, but because Bello throws his slider 36% of the time in two-strike counts to righties, he’s able to create some deception by mixing in the cutter in those counts too.
The cutter doesn’t miss a ton of bats, but it’s Bello’s best fastball variation and gives him another pitch he can command while he struggles to harness his changeup. Bello’s change has a league-average swinging strike rate to lefties, and his slider has a league-average swinging strike rate to righties, so having multiple fastball variations where he can get ahead certainly raises his floor. However, I still think Bello won’t take a true leap forward until he figures out his changeup, which is, for some reason, now over two mph harder than it has been in his career and is posting a career-worst zone rate and strike rate. That’s going to be the true key to unlocking Bello, but I do think this new cutter usage makes him a bit safer by raising his floor.
Brandon Walter – Houston Astros
(Pitch Mix Review)
Moving from one Red Sox pitcher to a former Red Sox pitcher. Walter was a 26th-round pick by the Red Sox in 2019 and emerged onto the prospect radar in 2021 after a solid season split between A-ball and High-A. He then posted a 2.88 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, and 68/3 K/BB ratio in 50 innings at Double-A in 2022. However, he struggled in a promotion to Triple-A that year and struggled again in Triple-A in 2023 before getting promoted anyway and posting a 6.26 ERA in 23 innings out of the bullpen for the Red Sox. He suffered a rotator cuff injury that kept him out all of the 2024 season and was designated for assignment after the Red Sox acquired Lucas Sims at last year’s deadline.
A member of the Astros organization since last August, Walter has made a few changes since we last saw him in big league games in 2023.
For starters, his cutter velocity is up from 87 mph to 88.3 mph and features double the iVB while cutting down on some of the horizontal run. As you can see below, it’s his primary fastball offering, and he uses it exclusively against right-handed hitters. He does a nice job getting the pitch inside, but keeps it more in the middle of the zone rather than attacking up or down with it. The pitch has high zone and strike rates, but it also doesn’t miss many bats and has a 47% Ideal Contact Rate allowed, so that’s not an ideal pairing.
Pitcher List
He uses this cutter 72% of the time early in counts to right-handed hitters, so even if it doesn’t get swings and misses, as long as he can get ahead with it, the pitch is doing its job. He then comes back with a sweeper that he throws 41% of the time in two-strike counts to righties and a changeup that he uses 34% of the time in two-strike counts. The sweeper is another pitch that he doesn’t focus much on burying low in the zone, but it has a 72nd percentile PutAway rate to righties, likely because of how it plays off of his cutter.
The changeup is another high zone rate pitch that has an absurdly low 17% ICR allowed to righties while also posting a league-average swinging strike rate. He does a good job keeping it in the lower half of the strike zone and away from righties, which is who he throws it to exclusively. That’s a pretty solid three-pitch mix against right-handed hitters that won’t lead to tons of strikeouts but should lead to a fair amount of weak contact.
Lefties see a heavy dose of Walters’ sweeper, both early in the count and with two-strikes, and also get an equally heavy dose of sinkers that weirdly have an 83rd percentile PutAway Rate against lefties. He’ll mix in the odd four-seamer to lefties and righties, which means that he has four pitches he can use to righties and three he can use to lefties, all while locating his pitch in the zone well.
The easy comparison is Ryan Yarbrough, and I understand that, since both are low-velocity lefties with a funky arm angle and a five-pitch mix that relies primarily on a cutter and sweeper. However, Walter throws over three mph harder than Yarbrough, while Yarbrough has registered more swing-and-miss so far this season. To me, Walter is more of a 15-team league option, but I like him more than Ryan Gusto and Colton Gordon because I think his pitch mix is deeper, and I can see a clear attack plan for both righties and lefties. He’s still a streamer, but in deeper formats, I’d be OK using him against the bottom half of the league, and I think he can outlast his two teammates and remain in Houston’s rotation.
It’s Wednesday, June 18 and the Guardians (36-35) are in San Francisco to take on the Giants (41-32). Logan Allen is slated to take the mound for Cleveland against Justin Verlander for San Francisco.
The Guardians won a close low-scoring game last night over the Giants.
Let’s dive into the matchup and find a sweat or two.
We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on how to catch tipoff, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.
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Game details & how to watch Guardians at Giants
Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Time: 9:45PM EST
Site: Oracle Park
City: San Francisco, CA
Network/Streaming: NBCS BA, Guardians TV
Never miss a second of the action and stay up-to-date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day MLB schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game with every out.
Odds for the Guardians at the Giants
The latest odds as of Wednesday:
Moneyline: Guardians (+122), Giants (-146)
Spread: Giants -1.5
Total: 7.0 runs
Probable starting pitchers for Guardians at Giants
Pitching matchup for June 18, 2025: Logan Allen vs. Justin Verlander
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Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Guardians at Giants
The Giants are showing a 111% return on investment at home on the Money Line
The Giants’ last 3 home games have stayed under the Total
The Guardians have covered the Run Line in 4 straight games at the Giants
If you’re looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline, and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports!
Expert picks & predictions for tonight’s game between the Guardians and the Giants
Rotoworld Best Bet
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Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.
Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Wednesday’s game between the Guardians and the Giants:
Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the San Francisco Giants on the Moneyline.
Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the Cleveland Guardians at +1.5.
Total: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the over on the Game Total of 7.0.
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