Thousands of French citizens planning to poop in the River Seine had their plans flushed down the toilet after it was announced that president Emmanuel Macron and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo would not swim in the river as they had previously announced, citing “political reasons.”
Officials didn’t expand on the decision, instead loosely saying the swim would happen “eventually.” Many suspect the decision was prompted by online plans to poop in the Siene with scientific precision, which would have ensured floaters hit the politicians right as they planned to dive into the river on Sunday at noon.
Citizens are irate at the astronomical amount of money which is being spent to clean up the Seine with plans to use the iconic river as the venue for open water swimming at the Olympics. The Seine, which has long been connected to the Paris sewerage system, has been too polluted to swim in for over 100 years.
Organizers of the Paris games wanted to showcase the river in 2024, and have since embarked on a cleanup campaign which has cost over 1 billion euros. However, scientific testing has shown that efforts have barely put a dent in the cleanliness of the river — which is still full of human excrement, garbage, and debris.
Protesters saw their chance when Macron and Hidalgo announced they would swim in the Siene to prove the water is safe for the games. Plans began circulating online for a mass-pooping event, complete with maps and water-flow measurements to pinpoint exactly where people would need to poop, and when to ensure their feces would make contact with the politicians at the time of their swim.
Those hopes were dashed Friday when officials called off the event. The Seine still contains dangerously high levels of bacteria, which are almost guaranteed to make athletes sick if they spend extended periods in the river. Now officials are in a race against time to ensure the water meets standards by July 30, which appears to be an impossibility based on the amount of pollution left to clean up.
That job only gets more difficult if people plan to poop in the river more.
Scottie Scheffler earned his sixth PGA Tour victory since January 1 on Sunday as he defeated Tom Kim to win the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands.
He officially won four of the eight Signature Events with the Travelers over. The former Texas Longhorn’s other two wins include the 2024 Players Championship and a second Masters in three years.
The only way to put it is that Scheffler is on a heater.
He is on one historic run as he became the latest player to win six or more times in a single season since Tiger Woods in 2009. The 28-year-old also became the first player since Arnold Palmer did it in 1962 to win six times before July 1.
With this victory, Scheffler took home a $3.6 million check, bringing his 2024 total to $27,696,858.
He continues to break his single-season record. With the Open Championship and FedEx Cup playoffs, there is no telling what the final total could be.
Since his first Signature Event victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 10, Scheffler has won roughly $23 million.
Kim also took home a nice $2.6 million check for finishing second behind one of his best friends. Tony Finau, Patrick Cantlay, Justin Thomas and Akshay Bhatia split fifth place, each winning $702,500.
This week’s tournament did not feature a cut, so everyone who played received a check.
With a $20 million purse, let’s break down how much each player made at the Travelers Championship.
2024 Travelers Championship Prize Money Payout
1: Scottie Scheffler: $3,600,000 2: Tom Kim: $2,160,000 T3: Tom Hoge: $1,160,000 T3: Sungjae Im: $1,160,000 T5: Patrick Cantlay: $702,500 T5: Tony Finau: $702,500 T5: Justin Thomas: $702,500 T5: Akshay Bhatia: $702,500 T9: Brian Harman: $520,000 T9: Wyndham Clark: $520,000 T9: Cameron Young: $520,000 T9: Shane Lowry: $520,000 T13: Xander Schauffele: $400,000 T13: Collin Morikawa: $400,000 15: Tommy Fleetwood: $360,000 T16: Patrick Rodgers: $310,000 T16: Robert MacIntyre: $310,000 T16: Adam Svensson: $310,000 T16: Matthieu Pavon: $310,000 T20: Seamus Power: $241,333.33 T20: Rickie Fowler: $241,333.33 T20: Viktor Hovland: $241,333.33 T23: Sepp Straka: $183,500 T23: Hideki Matsuyama: $183,500 T23: Christiaan Bezuidenhout: $183,500 T23: Taylor Pendrith: $183,500 T27: Corey Conners: $144,000 T27: Adam Hadwin: $144,000 T27: Austin Eckroat: $144,000 T27: Ludvig Åberg: $144,000 T31: Kurt Kitayama: $117,600 T31: Lee Hodges: $117,600 T31: Denny McCarthy: $117,600 T31: Stephan Jaeger: $117,600 T31: Si Woo Kim: $117,600 T36: Mackenzie Hughes: $97,333.34 T36: Brendon Todd: $97,333.34 T36: Matt Fitzpatrick: $97,333.34 T39: Adam Scott: $89,000 T39: Keegan Bradley: $89,000 T39: Michael Thorbjornsen: $89,000 T42: Nick Taylor: $75,000 T42: Will Zalatoris: $75,000 T44: Victor Perez: $63,000 T44: Lucas Glover: $63,000 T44: Andrew Putnam: $63,000 T44: Jason Day: $63,000 T48: Eric Cole: $49,285.71 T48: Russell Henley: $49,285.71 T48: Davis Riley: $49,285.71 T48: Cam Davis: $49,285.71 T48: Webb Simpson: $49.285.71 T48: Jake Knapp: $49,285.71 T48: Sahith Theegala: $49,285.71 T55: Adam Schenk: $44,750 T55: Billy Horschel: $44,750 T55: Emiliano Grillo: $44,750 T55: J.T. Poston: $44,750 T55: Thomas Detry: $44,750 T55: Sam Burns: $44,750 T61: Max Homa: $42,750 T61: Chris Gotterup: $42,750 T63: Harris English: $41,500 T63: Jordan Spieth: $41,500 T63: Chris Kirk: $41,500 66: Nick Dunlap: $40,500 67: Ben Griffin: $40,000 T68: Justin Rose: $39,250 T68: Taylor Moore: $39,250 70: Peter Malnati: $38,500
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
McLaren delivered a stunning turnaround throughout the 2023 Formula 1 season. A slow start saw the Woking-based operation limp out of the starting gate, and when the grid left the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix they were mired in sixth place with just 17 points on the season, 23 points behind fifth-place Alpine. But a series of upgrades to the MCL60 saw McLaren storm up the table passing several teams along the way, including Alpine.
Is the French team putting together a shocking turnaround of their own?
Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished inside the points for the second straight race, with Gasly scoring a P9 finish and Ocon adding a P10, as the team added three more points to their account with a double-points result at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. After beginning the season with five straight races without a point, Alpine has now scored in four out of the last five race weekends to climb out of the F1 cellar, and into seventh place in the 2024 F1 Constructors’ Championship.
Gasly hailed the week as the team’s “best race of the season,” following the race.
“That was our best race of the season so far as a team, so on that front, I am very happy with today,” declared Gasly in the team’s post-race report. “We had a strong Qualifying on Saturday, which set us up for a good result in ninth place today. We executed the race well with the two-stop strategy and managed each stint well.”
The driver highlighted just how close he was to their best single result of the year, as he finished just seconds behind eighth-place finisher Sergio Pérez.
“We almost had eighth place and only missed out on the last lap but I gave it my all. Even so, I’m happy with such a strong race where we battled two fast cars – the McLaren early on and then the Red Bull at the end – so that’s positive for us,” continued Gasly. “We must understand why the package was strong here and take these learnings going forward. We are progressing in a good direction, that’s three points scoring finishes in a row, and we have to keep that going!”
On the other side of the garage, Ocon outlined that it was a “challenging” race, but one that saw a “satisifying” conclusion for the team.
“It was good to get both cars in the points for a second consecutive Grand Prix. It was a challenging race for us with car balance and some tricky stints but nevertheless we managed to bring the car home inside the top ten again and that’s satisfying,” described Ocon.
“It was close with Nico [Hülkenberg] at the end but we were able to maintain pace and grab the final point on merit on track. We have things to analyse such as why the car felt harder to drive in race conditions as I was sliding quite a lot,” continued the Alpine driver. “Even so, we were much more competitive this weekend and we’ve come out of it with a good reward. We will aim to continue our points run in Austria next weekend where we have two opportunities to score points with the Sprint.”
Photo by Kym Illman/Getty Images
Team Principal Bruno Famin — who faced some questions earlier in the week with the news that Alpine was bringing Flavio Briatore aboard in an executive role — hailed the “positive trend” from the team in recent weeks.
“It’s pleasing to have again both cars in the points here in Spain and to score at the last three Grands Prix as a team. It’s a positive trend, which we must keep continuing. We were better at this track and we must analyse the reasons why in order to keep improving our overall package. The race was a tough two-stop for both cars,” described Famin. “The two drivers did a good job, especially in [tire], energy, and fuel management. Next up is the Sprint weekend in Austria where we aim to continue our positive run inside the points.”
Last year at the Red Bull Ring Alpine banked three points, with Ocon securing a pair of points with a P7 in the F1 Sprint, and Gasly adding one more with a tenth-place finish in the Grand Prix. A similar result next weekend would see Alpine creep into double digits on the season, and a few more points closer to sixth-place VCARB.
Perhaps not enough to truly mirror last year’s McLaren rise, but certainly an improvement given where they started the year.
Saturday’s qualifying session at the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix delivered one of the more thrilling hours in recent memory. A back-and-forth fight for pole position saw Max Verstappen put his RB20 on provisional pole in the closing seconds of Q3, but Lando Norris snatched P1 from his friend at the death, capturing pole position by just two-hundredths of a second.
How did Norris pull off the win, and what might Saturday’s results tell us about Sunday?
Let’s dive into the data a bit, thanks to our friends at F1-Tempo. First we can look at the “track dominance” map, highlighting where each car was faster on their final laps in Q3. As you might expect given recent history, the RB20 was faster on the straights — particularly the long straight coming out of Turn 14 and back to the start/finish line — while the MCL38 was quicker through some of the corners:
As you can see Norris — highlighted in the orange — was quicker particularly in Sector 1, which includes the initial chicane coming out of the long straight as well as the sweeping corner coming out of Turn 3 and heading into Repsol at Turn 4.
But on the straighter portions of the track, and the long straight itself, Verstappen was faster.
Verstappen also posted the highest speed on that long straight, a mark of 329 kilometers per hour. As you can see in this next image, that came near the end of the straight, heading into Turn 1. By comparison, Norris was 5 kph slower at that point:
Looking at the delta between the two cars at that point, Verstappen had an edge on the lap of 0.054 seconds per Norris at that point, coming out of that long straight:
Then as the cars hit Turn 1, Verstappen’s advantage was up to 0.125 seconds:
But as you can see from that above graph, Norris then built a lead as Sector 1 came to a close and Sector 2 began, and he held that lead throughout the rest of the lap, fending off a late challenge from Verstappen coming out of Turn 14 and back to the start/finish line (more on that in a second).
Norris built that lead through Turns 3, 4, and 5. As you can see from the initial “track dominance” map, Norris was quicker from Turn 3 into Turn 4, and while Verstappen had an edge from Turn 4 into Turn 5, Norris built a lead he would not give back. In fact, by the time both cars came out of Turn 5 Norris had gone from being 0.125 seconds down at one point, to being up 0.167 seconds on his friend and rival:
And if you look at the entire delta graph, while Verstappen was able to. close that gap over the rest of the lap, he could not make up the difference.
However, there is something to note regarding the final turn, Turn 14, as alluded to above. Take a look at the throttle data for that final turn:
As you can see, while Norris lifted just a bit heading into Turn 14, Verstappen was able to keep the hammer down through the final turn, giving him a huge run of momentum into the long straight and back to the start/finish line.
That has led to some believing that Verstappen is primed for an even bigger Sunday:
Turn 14 reveals Ferrari’s weakness (which is RedBull’s strength)
Ferrari has less downforce than the othersLEC lifted significantly (72% throttle, 267km/h)
HAM and NOR only needed a tiny lift… but VER remained full throttle! His superior downforce reveals a race-focused… pic.twitter.com/dKOF08O8AZ
— Formula Data Analysis (@FDataAnalysis) June 22, 2024
Through nine races, the 2024 Formula 1 season has offered many twists and turns.
The most recent curveball? George Russell pipping Max Verstappen for pole position at the Canadian Grand Prix. Both drivers finished with the same time, but due to the Mercedes driver posting his time first, Russell secured the team’s first pole position of the season. While Verstappen claimed victory on Sunday, Russell finished on the podium in third, the first time Mercedes tasted a podium finish in a Grand Prix this season.
With teammate Lewis Hamilton finishing just behind him in fourth — and securing the bonus point for the fastest lap of the race — it was the team’s best result of the entire season.
Now, on the cusp of qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix, are they poised for an even better day?
Friday’s practices saw the Mercedes duo near or at the top of the timing sheets in both sessions. Russell finished P4 in the first session, with Hamilton close behind in P7, and FP2 was even kinder to the Silver Arrows. Russell posted the eighth-fastest time, but Hamilton topped them all, edging out Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris to top the field.
Might Mercedes be poised for another strong qualifying session in Barcelona?
“FP1 wasn’t the best session for us but we still learned quite a lot. FP2 was a lot better though and the car was feeling great,” said Hamilton in the team’s post-practice report. “The track was very hot, so it was tough on the [tires], especially on the long run. Overall, though, it didn’t feel like we were too far off being right in the mix at the front.”
Russell shared his teammate’s assessment, even if he cautioned Mercedes supporters that it was only Friday.
“We had a good day on track today. The car was performing really well around this circuit. It was encouraging to see Lewis top of the timesheets and we were consistently at the front,” began Russell.
”Our long run pace in FP1 was competitive. In FP2, it seemed that our single lap pace was slightly stronger than our long run speed but overall, the car is feeling strong. It is only Friday, but it has been a while since we’ve been consistently at the upper end of the field,” continued the Mercedes driver. “I’m feeling good and excited as this is what we’ve been chasing for a while. We won’t get ahead of ourselves though and will work diligently tonight and tomorrow to prepare as best as we can for Qualifying and Sunday’s Grand Prix.”
The strong Friday comes at an interesting time for the Brackley-based team. Reports surfaced this week of an anonymous email sent to F1 journalists regarding the treatment of Hamilton by the team. While SB Nation has not reviewed the email, a report from Reuters described the email as “ … purporting to be from an insider” and that it “… accused the Formula One team of sabotaging their departing seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton.”
Team Principal Toto Wolff blasted the email at the FIA Press Conference on Friday, even informing the media in Barcelona that the police have been brought in regarding the matter.
Never a dull moment in F1.
… Alpine?
Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images
Friday’s first practice session showed some promise for Alpine, as Esteban Ocon finished inside the top ten and teammate Pierre Gasly was just outside in P13.
FP2 was even better for the team.
When the checkered flag flew at the end of Friday’s second practice session Ocon was inside the top ten in P9, and it was Gasly who provided the true stunner, as he finished fourth in the session.
After a tumultuous start to the season, is Alpine on the verge of an absolute shocker in Barcelona?
Even the team seemed surprised at their strong performance.
“To end the day with both cars in the top-10 is a little bit unexpected from where we thought we would be entering the weekend on this particular track. Obviously, we do not know what the others are doing but overall, it is a positive start to the weekend,” said Ocon in the team’s post-practice report. “It was not the best lap on the C3 [tire] for me in Free Practice 2 with some traffic and there were a few interruptions in both the long and short runs. There are definitely improvements we can make in order to find lap time, so we will keep digging and try to make steps forward for tomorrow’s Qualifying, which is important around this track.”
Gasly surmised that the result probably “flatters” the team.
“It’s been a positive Friday for us, especially Free Practice 2. The end result, finishing in fourth place, probably flatters us and it was certainly a surprise, but a pleasant surprise, and one that brings a smile to my face! In Free Practice 1, we had some minor aerodynamic issues on the car, which we had to fix,” added Gasly. “Once we did that, the car felt good right from the start of the second session. We have a strong baseline to work from and my push lap on the C3 was good but I’m not completely comfortable in the car. There are some things we need to fine tune with the aim of feeling even better in the car tomorrow when it counts.”
If there is a team in need of some flattery, it is certainly Alpine. Even their result in Montreal — their first double-points finish of the season — was not without some controversy, as Ocon seemed frustrated after the race at some team orders that were handed down in the closing stages of the Canadian Grand Prix.
Then there was the other bit of news on Friday, the announcement that Alpine was bringing Flavio Briatore aboard in an executive role:
BWT Alpine F1 Team announces Flavio Briatore as Executive Advisor
BWT Alpine F1 Team can confirm that Flavio Briatore has been appointed by Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo as his Executive Advisor for the Formula One Division. pic.twitter.com/KAdNVkQBPP
Briatore is a long-time F1 figure and has what you might call a bit of a checkered past. He was convicted in Italy on fraud charges during the 1980s, before his F1 career, and decades later was forced to resign from the ING Renault F1 team due to his involvement in the “Crashgate” scandal surrounding the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Briatore was then banned indefinitely from any events sanctioned by the FIA, a ban that was later overturned by a French tribunal.
The appointment was a focus in Friday’s FIA Press Conference when Alpine Team Principal Bruno Famin was repeatedly questioned about the move.
“I already answered questions about the past and I don’t really mind about the past. I’m always looking about future and trying what we can get and to get our team better,” said Famin in response to questions from David Croft of Sky Sports F1. “And that’s really our goal. And what I see with having Flavio as an advisor of the team is the opportunity to have his experience and to help us. He has a very high-level knowledge of Formula 1. He knows a lot of people. And I’m sure he will support us in developing the team faster and better. That’s all.”
As the saying goes, winning cures all. Alpine might not be ready to contend for wins just yet, but another strong weekend would certainly be welcome.
Even if some flattery is part of the story.
A “tricky” day for VCARB
At the other end of the spear, it was a “trickier” day for Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.
Friday’s first session saw Daniel Ricciardo in P15, with Yuki Tsunoda at the back of the field in P20. Things did not improve much in FP2, as Tsunoda crept up to P15 and Ricciardo slid back to P16.
Both drivers, however, are hopeful that answers can be found overnight.
“Today was trickier than usual. The pace isn’t where we would’ve liked it to be, so we’ll look into what we’re missing and hopefully, it’ll be better tomorrow.,” said Tsunoda in the team’s post-practice report. “The upgrade is working the way we were expecting but we are not where we want to be and off the pace we usually have, so we’ll review all the data to find what we were missing today.”
As for Ricciardo — who said on Thursday he wants to “earn” his seat at VCARB for next season — it was still fun to get a crack at the reconfigured Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, even if the team “struggled” Friday.
“We struggled a little bit today and missed a bit of competitiveness, but driving is always fun and before today I hadn’t done this track with this last sector. It was the old one a long time ago, now the new one again, and I have to say that I much prefer it because I think that it definitely brings the track to life a bit more,” said Ricciardo. “The main upgrade we brought here is the floor, and with these cars, it’s such a big part of development. There’s still some optimism and once we dive into it tonight, we’ll find how it’s working and better ways to set up the car around it. We still have a bit to do but I hope we can improve for tomorrow.”
As noted by both drivers, VCARB brought a host of upgrades to Barcelona, including a new floor for the RB01. That may have put them on the back foot Friday, but hopefully for the team they can unlock more pace and performance after diving into the data overnight.
Checking in on the title fights
Returning to the front of the field the teams and drivers fighting for position at the top of their respective standings might be in different frames of mind heading into Saturday.
McLaren saw both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri inside the top ten of both sessions, with Norris topping the sheets in FP1 and then finishing third in FP2. “Overall, no surprises. It looks pretty tight at the front of the field, and we can see, like we’ve been seeing lately, that all cars seem to be able to produce quick laps,” said Team Principal Andrea Stella. “We’ll have to stay focused and deliver good laps, but the potential is encouraging, and we’ll try to maximise our performance to score as many points as possible this weekend.”
Ferrari, who are hoping for a bounceback after a disastrous Canadian Grand Prix saw both Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc finish outside the points, might view Friday as a bit of a mixed session. Results-wise Sainz had a particularly strong day, finishing third in FP1, and second in FP2. But both drivers described Friday’s dual practice sessions as “tricky” from their point of view.
“Quite a tricky Friday, as always here in Barcelona when the sun is up and the track changes quite quickly. We struggled a bit in both sessions to get the right balance on the car, but I think everyone had similar issues today. So overall, I’m reasonably happy with the car, but we have work to do, especially race pace-wise,” said Sainz in the team’s post-practice report. “What I really enjoyed today was the atmosphere at the track. Thank you to all the fans for their support. I’m looking forward to putting on a good show tomorrow!”
On the other side of the garage Leclerc — who finished P11 in FP1 and P6 in FP2 — echoed his teammate’s thoughts. “Overall, a tricky day on my side. We struggled quite a bit with the balance of the car, so set-up work will be our main focus ahead of tomorrow,” said Leclerc. “We ran a new package in FP2, but we still have lots of work to do as I am not fully comfortable yet.”
As for Red Bull, they too are left looking for some answers. Verstappen was inside the top five in both sessions but never seemed confident in the RB20. At one point in FP2 Verstappen reported that the car was rather “loose,” radioing into the team that “[t]he car is loose in the exits in general. Still just weird understeer mid-corner, this car doesn’t bite.”
Teammate Sergio Pérez placed fifth in the first session, but was outside the top ten in the second, posting the 13th-fastest time.
Following the session Team Principal Christian Horner indicated that it was going to be “tight” this weekend in Barcelona. “Obviously it’s going to be tight. It’s going to be close,” said Horner. “I think we got some very good data, so plenty of work to do this evening.
“It’s going to be a very tight race here in Barcelona.”
Heading into the third race weekend of the 2024 F1 Academy schedule, the biggest question was whether anyone could catch Abbi Pulling.
During Friday’s qualifying session, the answer was no.
The Alpine driver swept qualifying on Friday and will start both races up front at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. However, Pulling certainly had to work for those pole positions, as several drivers put themselves on provisional pole position throughout the session.
Track evolution was a massive part of the story. As time wound down in the qualifying session the sun was doing the same in the sky, and the lap times began to tick down lap-by-lap. With two minutes to go Pulling was atop the timing sheets and on provisional pole, but several drivers were still on the track looking for those critical tenths — or more — to catch Pulling at the top of the timing sheets.
Ultimately, however, they could not.
Haas driver Chloe Chambers came closest, just 0.059 seconds behind Pulling’s fastest time. Nerea Martí, the hometown heroine, qualified third.
Doriane Pin, recovering from the rib injury that kept her out of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, will start fourth. Bianca Bustamante, who enters this F1 Academy weekend sitting fifth in the standings, will start in that position in the first race.
“That was a nailbiting one, wasn’t it?” radioed in Pulling to her team following the session.
As for the second race, Pulling will be again starting up front. Under F1 Academy rules, the fastest time in a qualifying session sets the grid for the first race, but the starting order for the second race is set by each driver’s second-fastest time. Chambers will start third, with Pin in P3 for the second race this weekend, which takes place on Sunday.
Here are the full qualifying results:
F1 Academy Race 1 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Results
Position
Driver
Team
Time
Position
Driver
Team
Time
1
Abbi Pulling
Alpine
1:41.396
2
Chloe Chambers
Haas
+0.059
3
Nerea Martí
Hilfiger
+0.133
4
Doriane Pin
Mercedes
+0.384
5
Bianca Bustamante
McLaren
+0.525
6
Tina Hausmann
Aston Martin
+0.597
7
Hamda Al Qubaisi
Red Bull
+0.727
8
Lia Block
Williams
+0.837
9
Jessica Edgar
American Express
+0.838
10
Lola Lovinfosse
Charlotte Tilbury
+0.980
11
Emely de Heus
Red Bull Ford
+1.023
12
Maya Weug
Ferrari HP
+1.049
13
Amna Al Qubaisi
VCARB
+1.099
14
Carrie Schreiner
Sauber
+1.106
15
Aurelia Nobels
Puma
+1.359
F1 Academy Race 2 Spanish Grand Prix Qualifying Results
Back in spring training when we were previewing each division, my view of the National League Central Division was that it was anybody’s game where anybody could win. That was also to say that this probably would be the end of the two-season run as NL Central champions for the Milwaukee Brewers. Here’s my reasoning below:
If they’re going to do it again in 2024 then it’ll be a bit of an upset because it appears that they’ve fallen right back into the pack after the offseason that they had. Corbin Burnes is in Baltimore now and Brandon Woodruff is likely to miss the entire season as he recovers from shoulder surgery. They also lost their manager to their rivals on the North Side of Chicago, as the Cubs snatched away Craig Counsell almost immediately after his contract with the Brewers expired. That’s a lot to lose in a division that’s as wide open as the NL Central is.
Well, here we are in mid-June and it’s looking like this division may not be as wide open as I had expected it to be. While there are still plenty of questions as to whether or not any of the other four teams in the NL Central will have what it takes to go on the type of run that could propel them into the Postseason, it’s obvious who currently has the massive upper hand when it comes to winning the division. As it turns out, the more things change, the more they stay the same — manager Pat Murphy’s Milwaukee Brewers once again look like they’re the class of the NL Central.
Heading into this season, the Brewers were only given the third-best odds from FanGraphs to win the division at 18 percent. They were given a 30 percent shot to make the Postseason, which is a perfectly fine chance to have going into any season but it was definitely a bit low for a club that had made it to the Postseason in five of the past six seasons.
Now, Brewers fans can’t complain about the odds being against them since their team has surged their way into the position of being massive favorites. Heading into action on June 20, the Brewers are now being given a whopping 73 percent chance to make it three divisional titles in a row and are also being given an 86 percent shot to make the playoffs either way. Most importantly, the Brewers 44-30 and are 7.5 games ahead of the Cardinals for first place in the Central and also hold the second-largest divisional lead in the National League.
While a lot of this may have to do with the fact that the Cubs and Cardinals both have yet to really put it together like most observers expected them to, it also has to do with the fact that maybe the Brewers themselves didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to fade away into the pack. At the very least, Willy Adames and William Contreras both definitely missed the memo as both of them have been fantastic in Milwaukee’s lineup so far this season.
Willy Adames in particular has been killing it both at the plate but out in the field as well. Adames currently has a wRC+ of 118 to go with a wOBA of .336 and 12 home runs as well. If he can keep on producing at the plate at this rate, then he’ll be celebrating a career year once the season ends. Combine that with the fact that he’s currently in the 98th percentile of all fielders when it comes to Outs Above Average and you’ve got a player who has been the total package for the Brewers here in 2024. Adames has rarely had a season where he’s put it together with both his bat and his glove so it’s definitely encouraging for Milwaukee that this appears to be the year where it’s all connecting in his favor.
Meanwhile, William Contreras has simply just been mashing the ball like crazy this season. If he’s made contact with a ball, there’s a very good chance that it’s going to fly long and far and get to where it’s going in a hurry. Contreras is in the 95th percentile of all hitters when it comes to both Average Exit Velocity (93.1 mph) and Hard-Hit percentage (53 percent). Combined with his 89th percentile average bat speed and suddenly it’s easy to envision how Contreras got to a point where he’s sporting a 134 wRC+, which is second-best among all qualified catchers and only one point behind Salvador Perez for first place. While Wild Bill’s defense has taken a step back compared to where he was at last season, you aren’t going to hear anybody in Milwaukee complain about what he’s been doing with the bat this season.
Adames and Contreras haven’t been the only ones killing it for Milwaukee this season. Joey Ortiz has gone from struggling mightily in his first 34 big league plate appearances back in 2023 as a member of the Orioles to succeeding wildly as a breakout candidate for the Brewers. He might be doing it in a weird way (and for more on that, check out this article from Ben Clemens of FanGraphs) but you aren’t going to hear about anybody trying to “fix” what he’s doing when it’s working to the tune of a .369 wOBA and a 140 wRC+ so far. Brice Turang has also turned things around in a major way, though he didn’t have a change of scenery like Ortiz did. Instead, he appears to have found his footing in the bigs and is now sitting on a .328 wOBA and 112 wRC+ after struggling through 137 games with a 60 wRC+ in 2023. It also helps that Turang has been a terror to deal with on the basepaths as well, as he’s already stolen 26 bases this season.
The Brewers have also been getting positive contributions in the outfield from guys like Blake Perkins (and his 97th percentile-rated OAA) and even Christian Yelich. As it turns out, his resurgent 2023 campaign wasn’t just a flash in the pan and Yelich looks primed to improve upon a season that saw him start to look like the old dynamo that was playing MVP-caliber baseball just a few years ago. Yelich’s wOBA is currently at a lofty .394 and his wRC+ is at 157, which is easily as high as it’s been since the halcyon days of 2018 and 2019 when he was truly among the game’s elite players. While Yelich probably won’t fully return to that level again, the Brewers don’t need him to be a world-beater — they just need him to continue being what he is, which is a reliable hitter to slot into what’s been an impressive lineup for Milwaukee so far this season.
Between the high level of production that Milwaukee is getting from impact guys and the fact that they’ve already built up such a large lead in the division, it’s hard to see the Brewers messing this up as we get into the actual second half of this season. Additionally, the Brewers currently have the joint-fifth-easiest strength-of-schedule going forward at .492 while their divisional rivals in Chicago (.508 remaining strength-of-schedule) and St. Louis (.514) each have tougher roads ahead. The Pirates have a similarly-tough SOS remaining (.507) and while the Reds have a slightly-easier road ahead (.491), they also need to get their act together outside of Elly de la Cruz doing cool stuff on a nightly basis.
All this means is that the Brewers have bucked all the odds and have managed to play themselves into a very good position for another season. It’s all coming up sunshine and roses for the Brewers and the only thing that’s really gone wrong for them here in 2024 has been one of their employees getting caught failing miserably in an attempt to do assassination work as a side job. I didn’t make up a single word of that last sentence, either. I’m not going to hold that insane bit of news against the Brewers though since I believe that this squad is smart enough to not find themselves in such an incredibly hot mess. Either way, y’all should keep an eye on Milwaukee this season as they are once again right in the thick of the Postseason conversation.
NFL owners are growing increasingly concerned about mammoth quarterback salaries, and reports indicate there have been some exploratory discussions on how to manage the spending.
Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network said on The Rich Eisen Show Wednesday that some owners have met about the possibility of installing a QB salary cap, which would limit the percentage of the cap which would be spent on a signal caller. Pelissero went on to say that the conversation right now is a non-starter, because so many teams have already paid their passers and don’t want to be hemmed in, but the fact this topic is being broached shows there could be some discussion on it in the future.
It’s a tricky subject to really address properly. On the one hand every player should be allowed to get whatever the free market allows them to, but there is a football reality to this as well. With such a mammoth chunk of a team’s cap being allocated to the QB position, it’s resulted in salaries plummeting at a variety of other positions, most notably at running back and safety, where players haven’t seen remotely the same raises in their compensation as other positions.
As it stands there are 11 quarterbacks in the NFL who account for over 20 percent of their respective team’s cap space this season. Meanwhile the highest-paid defensive player (T.J. Watt) accounts for 15 percent of the Steelers cap, with the vast majority of top-tier players falling in the 8-12 percent range. The owners would hold that if quarterback salaries were capped, let’s say for argument at 17.5 percent of the cap — that every other position would see more pay as a result. In addition, it would incentivize teams to pay better money for backup quarterbacks, which would ensure a more competitive team, should the starter be injured.
There is one huge problem with trying to initiate this kind of position-specific cap: It’s not in the CBA.
The NFL and NFLPA signed their most recent CBA in 2020, and it runs through the 2030 season. If owners wanted to change QB compensation to be a percentage of the total cap it would require an amendment to the collective bargaining agreement, which is something the NFLPA simply wouldn’t allow. Traditionally the union has pushed back on any and all cap-based compensation. The concern is that this would become a slippery slope for the league to implement cap-based spending for every position.
This is something nobody should want, because it would lead to league-wide homogenization. To keep football interesting we have to have some teams willing to overspend on offense vs. defense, and vice versa. If every team spent the same way then it would simply become a battle of the best markets and who drafted better, with little strategic wiggle room.
However, there exists a wrinkle to all this which Pro Football Talk is reporting on. Their sources say that NFL owners wouldn’t seek to codify percentage-based QB spending in the CBA, but rather make it an “unwritten rule” among teams.
“As we’ve heard it, it wouldn’t be an official, separate cap. It would be an unofficial, off-the-books (and, more importantly, off the CBA) arrangement pursuant to which teams would refuse to go above a certain level. All teams. Which would make it pointless for, say, Dak Prescott to force his way to the open market. The best deal he’d get from the Cowboys would be the same as the best deal he’d get from someone else. (It would be like a max contract in the NBA.)”
IT’S COLLUSION!
I’d refuse to believe NFL owners were this dumb, except that time and time again they’ve shown us that they are this dumb. If any conversations have taken place about how to pay quarterbacks amongst owners, and there’s a tacit agreement to keep pay down — then they are colluding against players, and the NFLPA by extension.
This isn’t some cute little idea to fool around with. It’s a blatant breach of the 2020-2030 CBA that could have profound implications. Not only would it be a breach of contract, but if there’s collusion on player compensation the NFLPA has the right to terminate the agreement immediately, which could lead to a prolonged lockout.
Section 2. Termination Due To Collusion: (a) If at any time the conditions of Article 17, Section 16(a), (b), or (c) are satisfied, the NFLPA shall have the right to terminate this Agreement. To execute such termination, the NFLPA shall serve upon the NFL written notice of termination within thirty days after the System Arbitrator’s decision finding the requisite conditions becomes final. The parties agree, however, that such termination shall be stayed if any party appeals such finding to the Appeals Panel, and to seek expedited review from the Appeals Panel.
If conversations took place about circumventing the CBA to install a “QB cap,” then it’s created a mammoth problem for the NFL. Especially with Dak Prescott’s extension on the horizon, with a team that is in salary cap hell, it will warrant a massive investigation into the negotiations process by the NFLPA if it drags out. There were already rumors of collusion taking place in 2023 with Lamar Jackson, but if sources are telling Pro Football Talk that there could be work to suppress salaries then it opens up an entirely new can of worms.
Keep an eye on this story as it evolves, because there are some mammoth implications that take this well beyond simple talks of putting in a QB pay scale.
Kendrick Lamar through one of the greatest televised concerts of all-time on Wednesday night during Juneteenth in a show that featured so many West Coast icons. Los Angeles natives Russell Westbrook and DeMar Derozan came out on stage singing and dancing to all FIVE renditions of Lamar’s lyrical Kamehameha diss track ‘Not Like Us,’ directed at Drake.
‘The Pop Out’, hosted by Kendrick Lamar and every West Coast rapper seemingly on Earth, was less a concert and more a victory lap, putting people on to West Coast rappers while giving Lamar the time to go through his entire setlist of songs that include direct or shaded shots at Drake. It was a moment, an event that put the West Coast right in front of everyone in the world.
It was also a chance for West Coast icons such as Westbrook and Derozan to show up and show out in their home. Getting DeRozan there felt like a given, because of Lamar’s line in ‘Not Like Us’: “I’m glad DeRoz came home, y’all didn’t deserve him neither, from Alondra down to Central n**** better not speak on Serena.” DeRoz is obviously DeRozan, who was traded out of Toronto in the Kawhi Leonard deal, but is known as an icon with the Raptors. However, he’s even more known for being from Compton, a West Coast dude at heart. Getting him up on the stage when Lamar called all of the West Coast icons and rappers up to the stage was an awesome moment, as well as getting Westbrook up there.
Russ looked like he was having the time of his life. He looked like he was having more fun up on stage than he was at any time with the Clippers this season.
While Westbrook and DeRozan are obviously big hits to Drake’s rep in the NBA (which he very deeply cares about), neither of them will equal the final NBA player spotted at The Pop Out on Wednesday.
Take the L out of Certified Lover Boy, it’s Certified OVER Boy.
This is the greatest victory lap of all time, and getting all the NBA players out there was just another chance to dance on the grave.
As the 2024 Formula 1 season unfolded, Mercedes found themselves lingering in the middle of the pack. Drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell described the W15, their team’s challenger for the current season, as being on a “knife’s edge.”
But in recent weeks, that edge has widened a bit.
A series of upgrades the team started rolling out beginning at the Miami Grand Prix, including a redesigned front wing, have seen the team deliver improved performance on the track, and in the standings. The Silver Arrows are coming off their best Grand Prix result of the season in Montreal, as Russell secured the team’s first Grand Prix podium with a P2 and Hamilton finished in P4. Those results, plus Hamilton picking up a bonus point for recording the fastest lap of the race, saw Mercedes bank 28 points in the Constructors’ Championship standings, their best result of the season.
According to Mercedes Technical Director James Allison, that result comes after feeling rather “dumb” when they finally pieced together some answers.
Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Allison opened up about the team’s start to the year, and their search for answers regarding the W15.
“The thing that has bedevilled us from the start of the year, the overriding thing, was that you could get the car okay in a slow corner, get it quite decent in a fast corner, but you couldn’t get it good in both at the same time,” described Allison.
That descriptions mirrors how Russell described the W15 at the Miami Grand Prix. Speaking to the media, including SB Nation, Russell outlined the difficulties in getting the car into the optimal operating window.
“The problems you know Lewis and I faced last year was with this sort of spiteful rear end, and now suddenly we are struggling to turn the car at its low speed corners, and it’s the front [end] That’s that’s sort of washing out,” described Russell in Miami. “So I think we’ve just gone too far in in the other direction, and we need to kind of find a halfway house from what we had last year and where we ended up right now.”
In Allison’s mind, the team finally solved the problems, delivering a more consistent car to Russell and Hamilton.
“What has changed in the last two, three races is that we’ve modified the car in such a way as it actually has a reasonable high-to-low-speed balance and a reasonable through-corner balance,” described Allison.
“Those are sort of boringly jargony things that it just means that the driver can trust both the front and rear axle in a fast corner and a slow corner, and can trust it from when he hits the brakes at the beginning of the corner, all the way through the apex and out the other side,” continued the Mercedes Technical Diretor. “That balance is crucial to a driver, that they know whether the car is going to understeer or oversteer, and that it’s going to follow the trajectory.”
Allison conceded the breakthrough was an “oh my God” moment for him and the team, terming it a “ … more of an ‘oh God, how can we have been so dumb?’-type moment where you see the path forward and you should have seen it sooner.”
Ultimately, the team went down an aerodynamic path to find the solution.
“A thing that we’d been fighting all year with springs and bars and all the mechanical accoutrements on the car, [we’re now] just attacking it with the aerodynamic characteristic of the car,” Allison told the Beyond the Grid podcast.
Having come to a solution, Allison believes Mercedes can be “as fast as anybody” over the rest of the season.
“I think that we definitely can get the car this season to be properly competitive and to fear no tracks,” he said. “I think that the specifics of this circuit [Montreal] might make our fans think prematurely that we’re already there. This circuit has quite a low range of cornering speeds in it, and it tests the car maybe slightly less severely than some of the others that are coming up.
“While I’m pretty sure that we will make a good showing in the nearby future races, I’d be surprised if we’re on pole at the next round, for example. But I am absolutely certain that we can be as fast as anybody over the coming period.”
You can listen to Allison’s entire appearance on the Beyond the Grid podcast here.
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