New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor is going on the 10-day injured list due to a strained left calf, the team announced Thursday.
Going on the IL is a rare occurrence for Lindor, 32, who has done so only two previous times in his career. The last time was in 2021, when he was out for more than five weeks due to a strained right oblique. Juan Soto just returned to the Mets from a right calf strain that sidelined him for 15 games.
“It’s what we’re dealing with right now,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after Wednesday’s game. “We lost Soto, and we had a hard time. Now we could be potentially dealing with losing with another really good player, and we got to figure it out.”
The injury occurred during Wednesday’s 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, when Lindor hurt himself while running the bases in the fourth inning. Although he struggled to round the bases after Francisco Alvarez doubled, Lindor scored a run. But he did not take the field the next inning.
Prior to leaving the game, Lindor went 2-for-2, with manager Carlos Mendoza having moved him into the fourth spot in the lineup. That indicated that perhaps the five-time All-Star was on his way to a turnaround at the plate. But now the IL stint will likely stall whatever progress was being made.
Carlos Mendoza on the Mets losing Francisco Lindor with a calf injury the same day Juan Soto returns from a calf injury
“We lost Soto and we had a hard time. Now we could be potentially dealing with losing with another player and we have to figure it out” pic.twitter.com/vKnxje2yGT
Lindor was off to a poor start to his 2026 season amid the Mets enduring a 12-game losing streak that finally ended Wednesday. In his first 24 games, he compiled a .226/.314/.355 slash line in 105 plate appearances with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, 5 RBI and 2 stolen bases. If that performance continues, Lindor is on pace for the worst season of his 12-year MLB career.
However, the veteran shortstop is playing well defensively. With 2 Defensive Runs Saved and 2 Outs Above Average, Lindor ranks among the top four players at his position.
With Lindor out of the lineup, the Mets could move Bo Bichette to shortstop, where he has played most of his career, after playing him at third base to open this season. But for Thursday’s game against the Twins, Ronny Mauricio is playing shortstop and batting eighth. Bichette is leading off for the second consecutive game.
Mauricio, 25, was called up from Triple-A Syracuse, where he was hitting .293/.349/.638 with 6 home runs, 13 RBI and 5 stolen bases. He hit three homers in Tuesday’s 12-3 win over the Worcester Red Sox.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to take a commanding 3-0 lead over the Toronto Raptors in their first-round series. The Cavs won the first two games in Cleveland with the series now shifting to Toronto for Games 3 and 4. Cleveland is favored by 2.5 points, and the over/under for the matchup is set at 219.5.
How to watch Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Toronto Raptors
Moneyline: Toronto Raptors +125 (42.2%) / Cleveland Cavaliers -155 (57.8%)
Over/Under: 219.5
Series results, schedule
Game 1:Cavaliers 126, Raptors 113 Game 2:Cavaliers 115, Raptors 105 Game 3: Thu., April 23 at Toronto (8 p.m., Prime) Game 4: Sun., April 26 at Toronto (1 p.m., ESPN) Game 5: Wed., April 29 at Cleveland (TBD) Game 6: Fri., May 1 at Toronto (TBD) *Game 7: Sun., May 3 at Cleveland (TBD)
When the Los Angeles Lakers lost Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, their top two scorers during the regular season, just two weeks before the start of the 2026 NBA playoffs, it seemed like a fatal blow to their chances of not only contending for the NBA title, but of even making it out of the opening round of the postseason. A 3-2 finish after losing Dončić and Reaves — with the wins coming over the Warriors minus Stephen Curry, the Suns minus Devin Booker, and the Jazz minus an NBA roster — did little to dispel that notion; a matchup against a tough, physical Houston Rockets team with a top-five defense and plenty of youth and athleticism on the wing seemed like one the Lakers wouldn’t survive.
They’re doing a hell of a lot more than surviving, taking the first twogames of their opening-round matchup and leaving the Rockets looking overmatched and shell-shocked heading into Game 3 back in Houston on Friday. There are plenty of reasons for that: Kevin Durant missing Game 1 and the Lakers haranguing him into nine turnovers in Game 2; Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura and Marcus Smart shooting a combined 19-for-33 (57.6%) from 3-point range through two games; Deandre Ayton holding Alperen Şengün to just 5-for-19 shooting when they’ve been matched up; etc.
One of the biggest ones, though? LeBron James, it turns out, still knows how to take the reins of a playoff series and — even at age 41 — make sure it’s played on his terms and at his pace.
“We all got to pick up our play,” James told reporters after the Lakers’ 101-94 Game 2 win. “When you’ve got two big guns out like we have, we all got to pick up our play. And that’s all it’s about. We’re all just trying to contribute, make contributions in all facets of the game, pick up our play.”
One way LeBron’s been picking his up? By posting up.
As my colleague Tom Haberstroh noted on this week’s episode of The Big Number, through two games of Lakers-Rockets, James has finished 16 possessions out of the post with either a shot attempt or a foul drawn. According to Synergy Sports tracking data, that is not only more post-ups than any other player (nobody else is even in double-digits); it’s more than every non-Lakers team in the postseason field.
Left block, right block or at the nail; Josh Okogie, Tari Eason, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. or Aaron Holiday; backing them all the way down to the rim, whipping a pass to a cutting big man, or turning over either shoulder for that patented baseline fadeaway jumper. LeBron’s breaking out every tool in the toolbox — I guess “every club in the bag” is more appropriate these days — in search of ways to compromise the Rockets’ defense, draw attention away from the likes of Kennard, Smart, Hachimura, Ayton and Jaxson Hayes, and create advantages that allow the Lakers to play on their terms rather than Houston’s.
Including plays where he’s passed to a teammate who has shot the ball, the Lakers are scoring 1.053 points per possession on these post-ups, according to Synergy. That’s not elite efficiency; it would’ve ranked 39th among 76 players who logged at least 50 post possessions during the regular season, between Jalen Johnson and Day’Ron Sharpe. Considering the Rockets gave up 0.94 points per possession on post-ups and 0.99 points per possession on pass-outs from the post during the regular season, though, it ain’t half-bad. Especially when you factor in that a Lakers team that has struggled with ball security without Dončić and Reaves — a 19.3% turnover rate through two games, third worst in the playoff field, including 21 cough-ups of the more damaging live-ball variety — hasn’t turned it over once on those LeBron post-ups, getting a shot on goal or drawing a foul each time.
LeBron James is averaging 23.5 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists through two playoff games. (Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images)
Adam Pantozzi
Thanks partly to those methodical trips to the low post, the Lakers have the slowest average time to shoot on offense (14.6 seconds, more than 60% of the shot clock) in the postseason field, according to Inpredictable, and have decelerated the pace of their series to 91.8 possessions per 48 minutes — the slowest series in Round 1 thus far. Several series in recent years have operated at a slower pace, mostly featuring teams that already played at a snail’s pace (Joe Mazzulla’s Celtics, Tom Thibodeau’s Knicks), that revolved around a low-post monster (Nikola Jokić, Joel Embiid) and/or that entered the series as an underdog and were adopting the underdog strategy of trying to take the air out of the ball — limiting the number of offensive possessions their favored opponents had, and with it their ability to build and extend a lead.
The current iteration of the Lakers check all three boxes: 22nd in pace during the regular season, built around the post game that LeBron has worked tirelessly to hone over the past 15 years, and an underdog heading into the series based on the absence of two of their three best offensive weapons. Given that, it probably shouldn’t surprise us that James has approached the start of the series by hitting the brakes and dragging the game into the post. After all, he’s been here before.
I don’t just mean that generally and metaphorically, in the sense that over the course of 23 NBA seasons and more than 1,900 games, he’s seen just about every scenario and situation that a player can experience in this league. I mean that he has, specifically, had to figure out how to make do in a playoff series against a younger, longer, more athletic, favored opponent without his two best teammates.
LeBron James is turning back the clock
Harken back, if you will, to the long, long ago of June 2015. “Mad Max: Fury Road” was blowing minds at the multiplex. People were super into “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa, partly because of its inclusion in “Furious 7,” which was blowing minds at the multiplex. There was a huge FIFA corruption scandal going on, which I realize doesn’t narrow things down all that much, but stay with me. And LeBron was nearing the end of his first season back in Cleveland, where he paired up with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love on a Cavaliers team that won 53 games and went 12-2 in the Eastern playoffs en route to an NBA Finals matchup with the upstart Golden State Warriors.
Along the way, though, the Cavs lost Love to a dislocated shoulder against the Celtics, and then lost Irving to a fractured left kneecap in overtime of Game 1 in Oakland. The other four Cavs starters for the rest of that Finals series: Timofey Mozgov, Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova.
Playing without another shot creator, with two plodding/mauling big men, and two only-kinda-sorta-OK 3-point shooters, James surveyed the scene and saw only one potentially feasible pathway to victory against a Warriors team that had more talent, depth, shooting and speed across the board. The objective: Keep Golden State from running by grinding the game to a glacial pace through mismatch-hunting and bulldozing his way into the post, where he could overpower the Warriors’ smaller defenders, draw defensive attention and set up shooters and cutters, or just create opportunities for Thompson and Mozgov to generate second chances.
It worked …
… for a little while, at least.
The Cavs forced the Warriors to play at their pace, though; those six games averaged just over 93 possessions per 48 minutes, which is slower than the slowest team in the NBA has played in each of the last nine seasons. And they did that, in part, through James’ control of the game from down low. In that series, including possessions where he passed out of the low block to a teammate who shot the ball, he averaged 9.8 post-ups per game, according to Synergy. (Through two games against Houston: 9.5 such possessions per game.)
It’s possible the Rockets could similarly wrest control of the series back from LeBron as the scene shifts back to Houston. There are some notable differences, though. For one thing, these Rockets (obviously) don’t have the same kind of shooting and offensive firepower as those Warriors, or a supply of high-end two-way players capable of punishing L.A. on both ends of the court. For another, LeBron might actually be getting some reinforcements before too long.
Wherever the series goes from here, though, the Lakers — halfway to four wins, with home-court advantage still intact — enter Game 3 firmly in control, due largely to James still being able to set the terms of engagement after all these years. May the f*****y never cease.
According to Meta, parents using the “supervision” feature on Facebook, Messenger, or Instagram now have an “Insights” tab as part of supervision. If you select this tab, you’ll see all the topics your teen or teens have been chatting with their AI bots about over the past seven days. There are a number of topics that can appear here, including “School,” “Entertainment,” “Lifestyle,” “Travel,” “Writing,” and “Health and Well-being.”
These are just the surface topics, however. If you tap on one, you’ll see all the different categories that are covered by that singular topic. As such, if your teen has been talking with Meta AI about “Lifestyle,” you might tap this topic to see they’ve been chatting about things including fashion, food, and holidays. If their conversations concern Health and Well-being, you might tap in to see the chats span fitness, physical health, and mental health. Importantly, you cannot see the conversations themselves: only the topics that Meta’s AI has populated.
Meta says that its AI should only return results that would fit within a PG-13-rated movie. As such, the bot may refuse to answer some questions, though the topics of these requests will still be recorded in the new Insights tab. The company says it’s still working on tools to alert parents if their teens start talking to Meta AI about suicide or self-harm. It also came up with a series of questions you can ask your teens if you’re not feeling “confident” about broaching the subject of AI with your kids. The questions are available in Family Center.
Meta’s parental controls are a step in the right direction, but far from enough
There’s no getting around the fact that kids and teens today are growing up in an AI world—but that doesn’t mean the technology should go unregulated (or unsupervised). Unfortunately, tech companies have been a bit late to the game at best, and maliciously complicit at worst, when it comes to policing AI use with minors. Meta, for its part, originally allowed its AI bots to have extremely inappropriate conversations with underage users, before a viral Reuters report back in August forced it to change. Two months later, the company announced these new parental controls they are now rolling out.
It’s evident these new features and policies are not here because of a genuine concern for Meta’s underage users. Official Meta policy allowed AI bots to engage in sensual role play with kids and teens, and explicitly permitted the bot to answer racist questions with racist answers. These changes are in response to getting caught, not for the well-being of the users.
That being said, it’s good Meta is finally allowing parents to see the topics their kids are talking to Meta AI about, especially if there are any concerning topics to flag. But why can’t parents disable Meta AI entirely? Why must teens who have an Instagram or WhatsApp account be tied to Meta AI at all? And Meta’s own Insight’s tab says that, because the topics are organized automatically, they might not be accurate, which means that the AI program that summarizes your teen’s conversation topics may hallucinate some of those topics.
At the end of the day, the best approach might still be having an open and honest dialogue with your teens about AI use—though I’m not sure trusting Meta’s Family Center questions is the move.
Walker, 33, compiled a 9.13 ERA and 1-4 record in five appearances (four starts) this season, allowing 36 hits in 22 2/3 innings with 17 strikeouts and 11 walks. He is still owed $15 million on the final year of a four-year, $72 million contract signed before the 2023 season.
Prior to today’s game against the Chicago Cubs, the Phillies recalled RHP Nolan Hoffman from triple-A Lehigh Valley. To make room on the 26-man roster, RHP Alan Rangel was optioned to Lehigh Valley following last night’s game. Additionally, RHP Taijuan Walker was released.
“It just wasn’t working,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told MLB.com’s Casey Drotter.
“He was very thankful for the opportunity to be here, he wishes it would’ve turned out differently,” he added. “We know, and he knows, that he gave every effort he possibly could to try to get people out.”
Austin Riley blasts a three-run shot and the Braves are teeing off on Taijuan Walker pic.twitter.com/Bgtyhjo08e
The Phillies could have moved Walker to the bullpen, but he hasn’t performed well in relief, which led to the decision to move on.
“Rather than put him in the bullpen, which has really not been a great fit for him overall, we just figured we would take an opportunity to put somebody else in the pen,” Dombrowski explained, via the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Reliever Nolan Hoffman was recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, where he compiled a 2.35 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings.
Releasing Walker sets the stage for the return of Zack Wheeler, who is scheduled to make his first start of the season on Saturday against the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves (17-8) after recovering from thoracic outlet surgery last September.
In four seasons with the Phillies, Walker registered a 5.12 ERA and 24-25 record in 89 appearances (71 starts) and 402 2/3 innings, striking out an average of 6.7 batters per nine. His best season was his first year in Philadelphia, when he finished with a 15-6 record and 4.38 ERA in 31 starts.
With the remaining $15 million owed to Walker, the Phillies will be paying $35 million to players no longer on their roster. The team owes $20 million to outfielder Nick Castellanos, who was released before spring training.
The Bear is a phenomenon not only because exploring what goes on in the kitchen is fascinating, but because it’s also one of the best shows on TV when it comes to portraying family drama, generational trauma, and the intense pressure of being the best at something.
Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) is a tortured artist who might be one of the top chefs in the world, but his self-doubt is the engine that keeps the show racing along into uncertainty. Add in the precision and pressure of a high-end restaurant and brigade-style kitchen, and you have the perfect recipe for drama and humor. Plus, the opportunity to watch mouth-watering cuisine being created by passionate people.
If you’re searching for similarly satisfying fare, we’ve already told you the TV series you should be watching, but there are a lot of books, movies, games, and podcasts that share the spirit and themes of The Bear too.
The best books like The Bear
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
$19.20 at Amazon
$24.00 Save $4.80
$19.20 at Amazon
$24.00 Save $4.80
Unreasonable Hospitality, by Will Guidara
$20.00 at Amazon
$20.00 at Amazon
Hot Mess, by Emily Belden
at Amazon
at Amazon
Sweetbitter, by Stephanie Danler
$16.78 at Amazon
$18.00 Save $1.22
$16.78 at Amazon
$18.00 Save $1.22
Last Night at the Lobster, by Stewart O’Nan
$16.00 at Amazon
$16.00 at Amazon
The Bear is a dense narrative with rich, detailed characterizations. In other words, it’s like a novel in TV series form. There are a lot of terrific books that will give you the same vibe.
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
If you love an insider glimpse of how high-end restaurants are run and have a true love for food, head to the ultimate classic of the genre. Bourdain’s 2000 memoir was a revelation, detailing how fine-dining kitchens actually operated, warts and all. It turned Bourdain into a star and is an obvious precursor to (and inspiration for) The Bear.
Unreasonable Hospitality, by Will Guidara
This book directly inspired many plot points on The Bear, and specifically informed the evolution of Richie’s character from an angry lout who disdained fine dining into a man with a purpose. The former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, one of the best restaurants in the world, Will Guidara writes about making every diner’s experience personal, memorable, and curated. If you want to know what drives Carmy and the gang to extremes, this book will explain it all.
Hot Mess, by Emily Belden
If you love The Bear because of the messy interpersonal dramas going on in the kitchen, check out Hot Mess, which offers up the perspective of the people afflicted by an unreliable, mentally unhealthy culinary genius. Allie Simon is swept away by the handsome, charming, and undeniably gifted chef Benji Zane—so much so that she invests her life savings in his new restaurant. When he relapses into addiction and vanishes a few weeks before opening night, Allie must undergo a crash course in the restaurant biz before she loses everything.
Sweetbitter, by Stephanie Danler
Love gulping down the inside dirt about the restaurant business in The Bear? Sweetbitter is the perfect chaser. It’s like Kitchen Confidential turned into a soapy story about a young woman who snags a job at an uber-cool restaurant in downtown New York City. She dives into the pressure, the drama, the drugs, and the culture, and the book offers the combination of revelation and personal struggle that fans of the show will love. (The TV adaptation is fun too.)
Last Night at the Lobster, by Stewart O’Nan
Is a Red Lobster in a New England mall the same as a fine dining restaurant chasing a Michelin Star? No, but the drama is just as high. This short novel about a manager trying to get through his final shift at the fast casual spot on the night of a heavy blizzard is filled with all the conflicts, chaos, and kitchen mishaps you could possibly imagine. The setting might be basic (though those Cheddar Bay biscuits are pretty amazing), but the story is just as entertainingly fraught.
The best movies like The Bear
If your biggest complaint about The Bear is that the episodes are too short, good news: There’s no shortage of movies that capture the frenetic world of high-end cooking and the misfits who work in it.
Big Night (1996)
This 1950s story of brothers and recent Italian immigrants to the U.S. trying to save their struggling restaurant on the Jersey Shore, Big Night is the spiritual precursor to The Bear. Beset by customers who prefer Americanized versions of their cooking and a big pile of debt, the brothers conceive a “big night” to pack the restaurant and make enough money to save their dream. The (often hilarious) pressure builds from there. Stream Big Night on Hoopla or rent it on Prime Video.
Are your favorite episodes of The Bear the ones where things go horribly wrong in the kitchen and the pacing goes to lightspeed? Boiling Point is the perfect movie for you. Presented as a single, 90-minute take, it follows head chef Andy Jones (Stephen Graham) during a disastrous shift at his restaurant. It kicks off with a bad health inspection and gets worse from there. Bonus: If you like the movie, the BBC produced a single season of a sequel series with the same cast. Stream Boiling Point on Kanopy or rent it on Prime Video.
Less fraught and with a slower, cozier pace, Chef nevertheless hits all The Bear‘s sweet spots. When chef Carl Casper quits his job at a successful restaurant after a social media meltdown and a clash with the owner, he opens a food truck to get back to his foodie roots. If you love the idea that a passion for cooking can save (or destroy) your soul, check it out.Stream Chef on Netflix or rent it on Prime Video.
If your favorite aspect of The Bear is Carmy’s tortured genius, Burnt is a great way to spend a few hours. It’s the story of Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper), a superstar chef in Paris with two Michelin stars who destroyed his career through addiction and by generally being a terrible person. After sobering up, he heads to London to make a comeback and get a third star—but he still has a lot of work to do on himself. It’s breezier than The Bear, but still filled with self-sabotaging drama.Stream Burnt on The Roku Channel/Howdy or rent it on Prime Video.
If you like stories about haunted, talented people pushing themselves to their limits, check out this Thai gem. Aoy (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) is the cook at her family’s struggling street food restaurant. When she’s noticed by a recruiter for the impossibly high-end restaurant Hunger, she’s invited to develop her skills there—and she finds herself in a high-pressure nightmare that will remind The Bear fans of Carmy’s time under Chef David.Stream Hunger on Netflix.
Do you find yourself dreaming of how you’d handle the physical challenge of The Bear’s setting—the precision of the plating, the flipping, stirring, and sauteing of ingredients, the balance of the servers? You’ll enjoy replicating that feeling with some of these games with Bear-ish tendencies.
PlateUp!
Want to feel the adrenaline rush that comes with running a restaurant, but don’t feel like scrubbing dishes amd prepping veggies all night? PlateUp! is a restaurant management simulator that actually gets the heart pumping. You can set up your joint any way you like, but if you disappoint a single customer (because they waited too long for their food, for example), your restaurant fails. You can earn upgrades, but with them come extra challenges, and as more people show up for dinner, the gameplay becomes extremely sweaty.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam
If you want even more intense restaurant play, grab some friends and check out Overcooked and Overcooked 2. In a series of increasingly strange settings, you and your friends have to Iron Chef your way through demanding food orders, cooking everything exactly as specified while avoiding obstacles and traps. The graphics are delightfully cartoonish, but the gameplay is frenetic, and there’s no better way to experience the thrill of working a kitchen in perfect unison without actually starting your own restaurant.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Want to experience what it’s like to be a master chef like Carmy, able to create intricate meals on demand?Cooking Simulator is a physics-based game that replicates cooking in a realistic way, challenging you to make nearly 100 different recipes. You can play in Sandbox Mode whipping up impromptu meals, or go for Career Mode and try to become a world-famous chef, balancing the cost of ingredients against your craft. Bonus: Pick a fight with your partner before playing for that true The Bear experience.
Platforms: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Was the first season of The Bear your favorite because of Carmy’s uphill battle to save The Original Beef of Chicagoland while battling the weirdos who worked there? Then check out Recipe for Disaster, a gamified version of Kitchen Nightmares. You’re tasked with saving a series of failing restaurants. You get to choose who to hire, the equipment, and the decor—but you also have to keep your workers from having nervous breakdowns, all while cooking recipes to order and keeping your customers happy.
Want to experience Carmy’s journey from a messed-up kid who likes to cook, to a messed-up, world-famous chef who hates his life? Check out Chef: A Restaurant Tycoon Game. You start as the owner and chef at a small, unremarkable restaurant; the goal is to become a world-famous chef with multiple award-winning hotspots. Choose the cuisine and menus, develop your skills, and build your hotspots with a high level of customization—and then work yourself to death to make them successful.
The world of The Bear is impressively detailed and intricate—but so much is left to interpretation, inspiring endless discussion. Podcasts are a great way to extend that experience, so here are some of the best to pop into your ears.
Let It Rip: The Bear ‘Cast
Credit: Podcast logo
Hosts Lucy and Peter devote each episode of Let It Rip to a single episode of The Bear, offering casual-but-serious analysis and digging into the details, the background information, and the culinary Easter Eggs in each one. It’s a fun, informative way to dig a little deeper and enjoy someone else’s perspective on the show.
The Prestige TV Podcast
Credit: Podcast logo
If you want a more refined and “professional” dive into The Bear, check out The Prestige TV Podcast’s episodes focused on the show. They’re tight, well-produced overviews that recap episodes and interview the people involved in creating an amazing piece of entertainment.
The Menu
Credit: Podcast logo
If watching The Bear inspired an interest in high-level cookery, The Menu will fascinate you. It digs into every aspect of the restaurant business, from the stories behind classic dishes, to interviews with famous chefs, to the development (and dysfunction) of the professional kitchens that serve up the best food in the world.
The Dave Chang Show
Credit: Podcast logo
If your fave aspect of The Bear are the moments when Carmy and Sydney discuss the food and the gastronomic magic that goes into it, check out Dave Chang’s awesome podcast. He wanders into a lot of different subjects, but always comes back to cooking, and his own firsthand experience as one of the most celebrated chefs in the country.
So You Want to Run a Restaurant?
Credit: Podcast logo
The Bear opened a lot of people’s eyes to what really goes into running a successful (or even an unsuccessful) restaurant. It’s an endlessly fascinating subject that this podcast delves into in detail, talking to chefs, owners, and other staffers about what goes into operating a high-end eatery—and what it really costs those who do it. So You Want to Run a Restaurant? will give you a whole new appreciation for the show, and possibly inspire a rewatch with a fresh perspective.
Google Meet’s “Take Notes for me” feature is one particularly useful implementation of AI. When you’re on a video call, Gemini can dictate what’s being said, offering summaries and highlights of the conversation. That way, your attention doesn’t need to be split between the conversation at hand and writing down notes to remember key points later: You can just check the notes that are automatically generated as a Google Doc once the meeting is over. It’s the kind of feature that sells me more on the whole “AI assistant” thing, rather than something trying to order me a coffee.
Of course, video conferencing isn’t the only time dictation can be useful. An in-person meeting can benefit from the same perks as a virtual one: Why bother with scribbling down notes on paper or typing away on a laptop when your phone can transcribe the chat on your behalf? I’ve started using the Voice Memos app on my iPhone for the task, for example, since it’s easy to record both audio and an automatic transcription of the conversation. If you’re a regular Google Meet user, however, you now have a similar option in your app of choice: Meet’s Take Notes for me feature now supports live, in-person meetings as well.
How “Take Notes for me” works in person
As noted by 9to5Google, here’s how it works: You open the Google Meet site or app on your device, but rather than start a call, you can use the new “Take Notes for me” option to task Gemini with transcribing and summarizing your discussion. You can hit “Pause” at any time to pause dictation, and “Stop” followed by “Stop taking notes” to end it altogether. You can also transition to a video call if you want to conference in someone who isn’t in the same room as you. And, just as with a Google Meet call, Take Notes for me will automatically save the meeting notes in a Google Doc.
This feature started as an Alpha-only option but is now rolling out to more Workspace plans. Your admin may need to activate it on their end, but following that, you should be able to start recording your own conversations.
Try an alternative to Google Meet’s in-person dictation
This feature won’t appear for any Google account not tied to a Workspace plan. Of course, there are plenty of alternatives out there if you don’t have “Take Notes for me” available to you in Google Meet. It won’t be a perfect match, since Google Meet integrates with your Google account and does more than just transcribe the call, but there are other options worth considering.
As I mentioned, I really like using Apple’s built-in tools: Voice Memos can generate automatic transcriptions, which you can save to Apple Notes. But if you don’t have an Apple device or you prefer another option, PCMag has a series of recommendations, including Otter.ai, GoTranscript, and Rev.
No matter what fantasy sport you play, there are always players who overperform to start the season. In fantasy baseball, we have to approach these surprising starts a bit differently given how long the season is compared to other sports like football and basketball. And it isn’t just individual performers; we also must account for teams that are either struggling or playing well through the early going.
In this piece, we’ll look at some surprising stats from the first month of the season, and share some takeaways to help you moving forward.
Andy Pages, OF, Dodgers: .353 batting average
There’s usually a surprising name atop the leaderboard for batting average early each season. But if you asked anyone if it would be Pages, they’d probably call you foolish after last postseason. The Dodgers won the World Series, and it wasn’t thanks to Pages, who hit a cool .078 in 55 plate appearances in 16 postseason games. He did post 27 HRs with 86 RBI and a .774 OPS last regular season and is in his age-25 season, but still, this is a pretty big jump year-over-year.
So far in 2026, Pages has been a bit lucky; his BABIP is .439, which means we will certainly see regression. But it may not be that much, given his xBA is still .302, in the 93rd percentile per Baseball Savant. He started the season super hot with 15 hits in his first eight games. Since then, Pages has the same amount of hits in 16 games.
For fantasy baseball managers who lucked into Pages at a high ADP, do you hold or sell high? Either option feels safe. Pages has moved up in the best lineup in baseball. He should continue to get plenty of RBI opportunities and his slugging should maintain a respectable level as we get deeper into the spring. His bat speed (65th percentile) and barrel% (49th) are concerning, however. But again, even with regression, he’s still pacing toward career bests pretty much across the board.
José Soriano, SP, Angels: 0.24 ERA
If the AL Cy Young were given out today, it would go to Soriano, who has been otherworldly through six starts for a competitive Angels squad. The veteran hurler made history, posting the lowest ERA through six starts (minimum 30 IP) of any pitcher since 1913.
I actually held off on writing this section in advance to see how Soriano’s Wednesday start went. All he did was toss five scoreless innings against the Blue Jays with four Ks to lower his ERA a few more points.
But that start on Wednesday should give some cause for concern. The Blue Jays got to Soriano a bit but luck played a factor. Soriano’s BABIP against is .205, which should correct itself; his career BABIP is .288. His xERA is also 2.70, per Baseball Savant — again, an indicator we will eventually see some regression toward the mean.
Essentially, right now, Soriano is a sinker baller who is experiencing the far end of the positive spectrum when it comes to balls in play. He’s also throwing nearly 95 pitches per start, which doesn’t feel sustainable for someone throwing as hard as Soriano does.
So should you sell high or hold on to the Angels’ ace?
My issue is the schedule. If the Halos’ rotation isn’t disrupted at all, Soriano’s next handful of starts are as follows: @ CWS, vs. CWS, @ TOR, @ CLE, vs. ATH. All five of those starts are very winnable, so it isn’t wild to think Soriano carries a sub-1.00 ERA into late May. Still, Soriano feels like a good sell-high candidate if you have good depth at pitcher. He’ll come back down to earth and you were able to take advantage of the peak, rather than have to endure the decline.
Nationals/Pirates Team OPS: .746/.727
These two teams weren’t going to be toward the bottom of the league forever. Both Washington and Pittsburgh are off to surprising starts and it’s mostly thanks to improved offenses (though the Pirates rank top-five in team ERA). The Nats finished 24th in team OPS last season while the Bucs were dead last.
The Nationals lead the majors in runs scored through the first month, made even more impressive when you look at the teams they’ve played so far: Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, Brewers, Pirates and currently the Braves. James Wood looks like he may contend for the NL HR title (if not the entire league) while CJ Abrams could get himself into the NL MVP conversation if the Nats keep this up. While Dylan Crews isn’t in the majors, another young outfielder has been thriving in Daylen Lile, who has been hitting mostly cleanup. He’s starting to hit for power with four doubles and three HRs in his past 11 games.
As for the Pirates, it’s more balanced with the rotation performing well, anchored by Paul Skenes. But the lineup is shaping up nicely and should only get better as rookie Konnor Griffin gets more acclimated. Oneil Cruz appears ready for a true breakout season at age-27. While his fielding leaves plenty to be desired, his Baseball Savant page is eye-opening. Cruz ranks in the 98th percentile or higher in average exit velocity, barrel%, hard hit% and bat speed. He’s still striking out at a high rate but when he’s making contact, it’s doing damage. Ryan O’Hearn has also been a nice surprise out of the cleanup slot, hitting .325, four homers and 16 RBI.
If you can grab a piece of these teams — either via trade or through the waiver wire — it may not be a bad investment.
Mets/Mariners Team HRs: 17/25
I wanted to differentiate the stats but both the Mets and Mariners are toward the bottom of the league in offense through the first month. You could group the Phillies in with the Mets since they’re off to a worse start but we wanted to include an NL and AL team. Last season, both these teams finished in the top five in homers. The power hasn’t quite been there in 2026.
Anyway, we’ll start with New York, which is a complete mess right now. The Mets had dropped 12 games in a row going into Wednesday night, the longest losing streak for the franchise since 2004. Sure, Juan Soto had been out the past 15 games due to a calf injury but this lineup was viewed as very deep going into the season. To many, it was viewed as potentially the best in the majors. So far, that hasn’t been the case — and it isn’t because Soto has been out.
Francisco Alvarez is the only one who has been slightly respectable (.254 BA, .841 OPS). Bo Bichette, Francisco Lindor, Marcus Semien, Luis Robert Jr., Jorge Polanco, Brett Baty and Mark Vientos are all at an OPS well below the league standard. I guess the one positive is that things can only get better, right? Soto should bring stability and the Mets’ schedule is pretty soft the next few weeks until mid-May. And hey, they won on Wednesday!
In Seattle, same deal — the M’s were expected to be a top offense in the AL. While 25 homers is middle-of-the-pack right now, the Mariners are in the bottom third in runs (101) and OPS (.683).
Why is this? Well, you could point to reigning HR champ Cal Raleigh.
We all knew regression was coming for Raleigh but he could end up being one of the bigger busts in fantasy baseball. He enters Thursday as the C18 in head-to-head category leagues on Yahoo and has had a tough start up until the past few games. It feels like he’s turning a corner with HRs in three straight, but his bat speed is down to the 82nd percentile and his batting run value on Baseball Savant right now is very poor in the 15th percentile.
Again, things should get better (and they already appear to be on the up), but Raleigh would really need to catch fire to bring back first- or second-round value in fantasy this season. Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor are also off to slow starts, which have aided in Seattle’s 11-15 record.
The M’s should bounce back and Raleigh already looks like he’s going to make me eat my words here. Targeting Seattle batters at low cost feels like a decent play.
Every wearable these days will tell you how you slept and how well recovered you seem to be for the day’s activities. But it’s rare to get clear guidance or ideas on what you should do based on those scores. Ultrahuman, which makes smart rings, is trying a new approach: serving you different workout videos based on what it thinks you’re up for.
I can appreciate this approach, but I’m also a bit skeptical about letting an app choose a workout for me—what if I feel ready for something else? But I’ve used Garmin’s suggested workouts before, and I find the idea works well as long as you take the recommended workouts as suggestions, not limitations.
What’s in the Les Mills PowerPlug?
This new feature in the Ultrahuman app is available as a PowerPlug. If you use an Ultrahuman ring, you probably know there’s a selection of PowerPlugs available from a store within the app. Some are free, and some have a subscription charge. The Les Mills PowerPlug costs $11.99 per month, $99 per year, or $249 for a lifetime subscription.
Les Mills is a franchise of gym-based fitness classes, which are faithfully replicated in a Les Mills+ app that my colleague Lindsey Ellefson reviewed in detail here. She says the classes have clear instruction with no chit-chat, have original music, and stick to predictable, familiar patterns for each class type.
Each day you’ll get two to three recommended classes, but you can also browse a full catalog if you’d like to do a different workout. For some examples of what may be on offer, Ultrahuman says: “A well-recovered user with elevated heart rate variability and low resting heart rate might see BODYPUMP™ or BODYCOMBAT™ at the top of their feed. On the other hand, a user with accumulated sleep debt, elevated body temperature, increased resting heart rate, or low heart rate variability would be guided toward yoga, BODYBALANCE™, or a gentle mobility session instead.”
If you track your menstrual cycle through the Ultrahuman app, recommendations will take that into account as well. That’s where I have another surge of skepticism—Ultrahuman says “luteal and menstrual phases automatically shift toward recovery-friendly content.” That means you could spend half your month being steered away from hard training, which sounds like it’s at odds with most people’s fitness goals.
After you finish a Les Mills workout through the Ultrahuman app, you’ll find that your workout data, including heart rate, was logged through the ring, the muscles you used were logged, and you’ll get post-workout data like a prediction of your readiness for the next day.
Last week, we debuted the weekly hitter skills and luck factors examination, covering Jordan Walker, Cam Smith and more. To identify the players to discuss, we’ll use the Yahoo player rater for the past two weeks to provide a small sample to choose from. Besides those hot hitters on the player rater, we’ll discuss other hitters generating plenty of buzz throughout the fantasy baseball community.
Most of my analysis focuses on hitter skills, luck factors and other underlying metrics that could be contributing to the player’s outcomes. Our first hitter leaderboard involves bat speed and fast-swing percentage risers. Statcast defines fast swing percentage as the percentage of swings at 75 mph or more. Think of fast swing rate as something similar to hard hit percentage. However, I like that the bat speed metrics provide the inputs for potential exit velocity outputs.
Bat Speed and Fast Swing Percentage Risers
We filtered by hitters with 100 plate appearances in 2025 and 10 plate appearances in 2026 to provide a wider sample. Then we examined hitters who had an above-average bat speed at 73 mph or more, with a 25% fast-swing percentage or higher in 2026. That said, here’s a look at the hitters who met those thresholds while showing a 1 mph bat speed increase in 2026.
Hitters with an increase in bat speed and fast-swing rate in 2026. (Photo by Corbin Young/Yahoo Sports)
Like any leaderboard, there’s a mixture of noisy and notable players. The most fantasy-relevant players include Cam Smith, Colton Cowser, Denzel Clarke, Dominic Canzone, Hunter Goodman, J.T. Realmuto (on the IL), Jackson Merrill, Jeremiah Jackson, Kyle Stowers, Luis García Jr., Luke Raley and Mark Vientos. That doesn’t mean the rest don’t matter, but Amed Rosario, Gabriel Arias, Mitch Garver and others may only be relevant in deeper formats.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen Canzone, Smith, Jackson and Raley raise their stock and roster percentages in most formats.
Let’s examine five hitters who have been performing well and whether they’re legitimate or not based on the skill, luck factors and underlying metrics.
Nico Hoerner (98% Rostered)
Hoerner was a potential player to fade for me earlier in the offseason, but he’s shoved that in my face early on. He’s already hit four home runs in 107 plate appearances; his career high of 10 homers was in 2022. Since April 5, Hoerner has been consistently deployed in the leadoff spot, which surprised us to see more RBI (22) than runs scored (15). Hoerner’s strong plate discipline remained similar to the career norms, but we’re seeing him pull (42.2%) and lift the ball in the air (41% flyball rate) in 2026. For context, Hoerner’s pull and flyball rates in 2026 have been 6-7 percentage points above his career average.
Nico Hoerner’s rolling pull and flyball rates. (Photo by Corbin Young/FanGraphs)
That coincides with Hoerner’s 24.1% pulled air rate in 2026, up from a career average of 14.6%. Though we haven’t seen his bat speed, average exit velocities and barrel rates shift when he pulls the ball and overall, Hoerner showed a 75-76% ideal attack angle on pulled balls over the past two seasons. That’s a nearly 20-point jump in Hoerner’s ideal attack angle overall throughout his career.
A reminder that the ideal attack angle rate is the percentage of swings between 5 and 20 degrees, typically leading to quality outcomes and consistent launch angles.
Unsurprisingly, Hoerner’s pulled batted balls in the air tend to be around 90+ mph in average exit velocity and a 70.1 mph bat speed over the past two seasons. We should continue to see a career-high barrel-per-plate-appearance rate (2.8%), which might only hover near the league average (5%). That matters because league-average power usually means 12-15 home runs as a floor, making Hoerner a massive value, especially if he maintains his 24% stolen base opportunity rate, three points above his career average.
Hoerner’s skills have been consistent across the board, with the most notable being the pulled air rate, potentially leading to a career-high in home runs. That will be a big miss for me, and we’ve seen hitters with good plate discipline add power and bat speed like Brice Turang. Hoerner should also be on track for career-highs in runs and RBI, given the lineup context and lineup spot.
Adding even league-average power increases Hoerner’s value.
Austin Riley (98% Rostered)
There were rumors about Riley stealing more bases with a new baserunning coach, Antoan Richardson, this season. Riley has shown above-average Sprint Speeds in 2025 (73rd percentile) and 2024 (66th percentile), with similar numbers in 2026. In the early 2026 sample, Riley’s stolen base opportunity rate is 8%, compared to a 1% career average. That’s not a significant change in stolen base opportunity rate, but he is on pace to surpass his career high of three.
Stealing bases tends to be a mix of opportunity, coaching decisions and athleticism. Riley has possessed above-average athleticism throughout his career. If Riley’s stolen bases hit double-digits, with consistent skills and outcomes across the board, we could see a peak season from him.
Injuries have been a challenge for Riley over the past two years, so we haven’t seen those peak 30+ home run seasons since 2023. Riley’s plate discipline can also be an issue, evidenced by his 73.2% contact rate, similar to his career average. He still boasts high-end power skills with a 74.9 mph bat speed and 6.8% barrel per plate appearance rate in 2026. Weirdly, Riley’s pulled air rate dipped to 12.9% in 2026, down from 24.2% (2025) and 19.4% (2024). However, that might be fluky since Riley typically taps into his pull-side, flyball approach.
Austin Riley’s xwOBA by zone. (Photo by Corbin Young/MLB.com)
Or, it might be a concerted effort for Riley after having 29.5% of his barrels on pulled batted balls from 2023 to 2025. For context, Riley has one barrel (14.3%) on pulled batted balls in the small 2026 sample. Riley has been taking those pitches on the outside corner and doing damage. It’s a tiny sample of 41 batted ball events, but Riley has a .500 xwOBA, five barrels (23.8%) and a 96.9 mph average exit velocity on pitches on the outside corner. That’s significantly better than Riley’s success against outside pitches in 2025 (.336 xwOBA) and in 2024 (.427 xwOBA).
It looks like an intent to trust his swing and hit the ball to the opposite field. Any time there’s a slight approach change to attack outside pitches, it will impact a hitter’s ability to pull the ball, like we’re seeing with Riley early in 2026. He has the bat speed to turn on inside pitches, and this could unlock another level if he can cover the plate better. That should lead to more contact and loud batted balls.
Hitting more opposite-field batted balls shouldn’t impact Riley’s power significantly. With the potential spike in stolen bases, however, Riley should provide 30+ home runs while pushing toward 10+ steals, making him a value at his draft cost.
Munetaka Murakami (88% Rostered)
Murakami’s calling card was power, and we’ve seen that early in 2026. He already ranks among the top hitters in home runs, showing he belongs in this group. However, Murakami’s 30-grade hit tool was concerning, especially with better competition in MLB. That’s evident in Murakami’s 62-64% contact rate throughout his time in the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB), nearly identical to his 60.9% contact rate in the majors.
For context, Murakami’s contact rate would be the sixth-lowest in a season behind Joey Gallo (2017), Keston Hiura (2020), Miguel Sanó (2020), Matt Wallner (2026) and Garrett Mitchell (2026) since 2015. Like Mitchell (24.5%), Murakami has a chase rate below 25% (21.5%) in 2026. Thankfully, Murakami has shown elite power.
The visual below shows the top 20 qualified hitters sorted by Exit Velocity 50, which we’ll explain below as a strong marker for exit velocity numbers.
Top-20 hitters by Exit Velocity 50 (EV50). (Photo by Corbin Young/Yahoo Sports)
As a left-handed hitter, Murakami taps into a pull-heavy (51.1%) and flyball (48.9%) approach. That aligns with Murakami’s near-elite power skills, evidenced by his 74.5 mph bat speed, 50.7% fast swing rate (percentage of swings 75 mph or more), 11.8% barrel per plate appearance rate and 106.1 mph Exit Velocity 50 (EV50). For context, Murakami’s EV50 ranks sixth behind Nick Kurtz, Jordan Walker, Jac Caglianone, James Wood and Oneil Cruz. A reminder that EV50 is the average of the hardest 50% of a player’s batted ball events, as a more reliable stat than average exit velocity.
Like other hitters who have plate discipline issues, Murakami’s expected batting average tends to be higher than his actual batting average because of his near-elite power metrics. The scouting reports mentioned Murakami struggled with high-velocity fastballs. However, he tended to whiff more against non-fastballs like offspeed and breaking pitches.
There’s no denying Murakami’s power, but the low contact rate is scary.
The visual below shows Murakami’s xwOBA and whiff rates by zone to provide an idea of where he hits the ball hard and where he whiffs.
Munetaka Murakami’s whiff percentage and xwOBA by zone. (Photo by Corbin Young/MLB.com)
In the early sample, Murakami has a 13.6% swinging-strike rate against fastballs at 95 mph or harder, which isn’t worrisome. Meanwhile, Murakami struggled against sliders (26.2% swinging-strike rate) and changeups (26% swinging-strike rate) for a combined 26.1% swinging-strike rate. Sweepers have been a challenge for Murakami, given his 19.2% swinging-strike rate in a sample of 26 pitches. Murakami destroys pitches in the middle of the zone, with tons of whiffs on the edges of the zone.
This looks like an opportunity to sell high on Murakami for a hitter or pitcher who might be underperforming their underlying metrics. Of course, it’s fun to watch Murakami destroying baseballs because there’s a chance he can be an outlier.
That said, Murakami hit another home run on Wednesday — just as we’re submitting this piece.
Andy Pages (95% Rostered)
Pages has been one of the best Dodgers’ hitters in 2026, though his .439 BABIP fuels his .353 batting average. After 27 home runs, 14 stolen bases and a .272 batting average in 2025, Pages has been showing the power, speed and batting average in 2026 (5 HR, 4 SB). Pages’s plate discipline (78.6% contact rate), bat speed (73.1 mph) and 5.6% barrel per plate appearance rate have been similar to his career averages. That suggests luck factors like BABIP and home run rate (22.7% HR/F) look favorable for him early in 2026.
Andy Pages’ rolling HR/F and hard-hit percentage. (Photo by Corbin Young/FanGraphs)
Since Pages possesses above-average power skills, he might be able to maintain a higher HR/F, though expect the current number to regress. His current HR/F sits nearly 10 percentage points above his career average (12.9%), indicating home run efficiency. There’s a chance that Pages’ power metrics could lead to a peak season in home runs. That’s especially true since Pages saw his EV50 jump to 102.8 mph (No. 40) in 2026 compared to 99.3 (No. 182) in 2025. Expect Pages to raise his barrel rates, especially since he has been hitting the ball harder in 2026.
Pages converted 66% of his stolen base chances, which was awful in 2025. However, we’ve seen it increase to 80% while maintaining a 15-18% stolen base opportunity rate. If Pages converts a higher rate of steals, 15-20 SBs feels reasonable in 2026, given his high-end Sprint Speed (78th percentile) and defense (Outs Above Average) metrics in the 75th percentile or higher.
Pages looks ready to build on his 2025 to push toward another level, contributing power, speed and batting average as a sneaky five-category producer. There will be some regression in the luck factors (BABIP and HR/F), but the skills support the outcomes.
Dillon Dingler (51% Rostered)
Dingler has been a top-125 player over the past two weeks. Since most Yahoo leagues tend to be one-catcher leagues, Dingler’s roster percentage probably won’t spike too much higher unless teams put him into a utility spot. Dingler had a productive 2025 season, with 13 home runs, 111 runs plus RBI and a .278 batting average. He is already on pace to set a career-best in home runs in 2026, with five in 83 plate appearances.
Dillon Dingler’s rolling contact rate. (Photo by Corbin Young/FanGraphs)
He lowered his strikeout rate by 6.5 percentage points in 2026, mainly by making a three-percentage-point increase in his contact rate. From the right side, Dingler pulled the ball more often (44.8%), over four points higher than in 2025 (40.2%). There was a slight uptick in Dingler’s flyball rate by a few percentage points in 2026, coinciding with his consistently above-average pulled air rate (18-19%) over the past two seasons. That’s notable because the Tigers’ home park ranks 11th in the three-year rolling home run park factors for right-handed hitters.
Dillon Dingler’s xwOBA by pitch type. (Photo by Corbin Young/BaseballSavant)
Dingler has been using a more open stance by five degrees and moved nearly 2.5 inches farther back in the box. That might allow slightly better pitch recognition, specifically against breaking pitches. Dingler performed well against fastballs (.353 wOBA, .373 xwOBA) and offspeed (.435 wOBA, .458 xwOBA) pitches in 2025. With the strong start, we’ve seen Dingler perform well against fastballs and offspeed pitches again. However, there has been a slight improvement in Dingler’s production against breaking pitches (.403 wOBA, .425 xwOBA) in 2026.
Dingler’s ideal attack angle jumped to 61.1% in 2026, compared to his career average (51%). That indicates Dingler’s percentage of swings at those optimal attack angles (5 to 20 degrees), likely leading to greater launch-angle consistency. Theoretically, Dingler’s swing is more consistently leading to optimal launch angles.
All those components of Dingler’s skill set make him a strong-hitting catcher who will produce power and batting average. Dingler’s power skills support the current and future outcomes.
