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Teaser trailer released for ‘F1’ starring Brad Pitt and produced by Lewis Hamilton teaser,trailer,released,for,f,starring,brad,pitt,and,produced,by,lewis,hamilton,sbnation,com,front-page

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Earlier this week racing fans learned the title of the upcoming movie set in the world of Formula 1 starring Brad Pitt and produced in part by Lewis Hamilton.

Those same fans have now been treated to their first glimpse of the upcoming feature.

In the hours ahead of the British Grand Prix the teaser trailer for F1 was released, giving fans their first look at the upcoming movie, which has been filmed at various locations throughout the F1 schedule. Eagle-eyed fans will notice some familiar faces in the trailer along with Pitt and Damson Idris, who plays his teammate at the fictional F1 team APXGP:

That’s right, there is former Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner, as well as the two APXGP drivers standing alongside current drivers Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, Fernando Alonso, and more ahead of a race.

There is also a lot of racing action, including one view from the cockpit as cars charge up the legendary hill known as Eau Rouge at historic Spa-Francorchamps, site of the Belgian Grand Prix.

F1 hits theaters next summer.

John Deere Classic Round 4 tee times for a competitive final day john,deere,classic,round,tee,times,for,a,competitive,final,day,sbnation,com,golf,golf-pga-tour,golf-news

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Welcome to Playing Through’s morning ritual — Golf Talk Today.

Each morning will feature a Golf Talk Today, where the crew will discuss various elements throughout the PGA Tour, LPGA, LIV Golf, and more.

Today marks the final round at the John Deere Classic.

Davis Thompson took the lead on Saturday after his impressive 9-under 62, which got him to a 21-under total. The former Georgia Bulldog looks to win his first PGA Tour event at the same place that sparked Jordan Spieth and many other players’ careers.

TPC Deere Run continues to give up massive amounts of birdies. The players have made 1,681 birdies through 54 holes, more than 24 tournaments from earlier in the season.

With a chance of scattered thunderstorms, the PGA Tour chose to have players go off split tees for the final round to avoid any delays hopefully.

Brew a pot of coffee, grab some breakfast, and settle in as we get you ready for the final round of the John Deere Classic.

John Deere Classic Round 4 Tee Times (ET):

*indicates a 10th tee start

10:25 a.m. — Sam Stevens, Robby Shelton, Zach Johnson

10:25 a.m.* — Adam Svensson, Hayden Buckley, David Lipsky

10:36 a.m. — Chandler Phillips, Joshua Creel, James Hahn

10:36 a.m. *— S.H. Kim, Austin Smotherman, Patrick Rodgers

10:47 a.m. — Jason Day, J.T. Poston, Chesson Hadley

10:47 a.m.* — Wilson Furr, Jake Knapp, Bud Cauley

10:58 a.m. — Trace Crowe, Ben Silverman, Scott Gutschewski

10:58 a.m.* — Mark Hubbard, Sam Ryder, Ben Taylor

11:09 a.m. — Kevin Yu, Sungjae Im, Mac Meissner

11:09 a.m.* — Ryo Hisatsune, Stewart Cink, Kevin Streelman

11:20 a.m. — Max Greyserman, Beau Hossler, Brendon Todd

11:20 a.m.* — Pierceson Coody, Sepp Straka, Roger Sloan

11:31 a.m. — Denny McCarthy, Harry Hall, Seamus Power

11:31 a.m.* — Doug Ghim, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Justin Lower

11:42 a.m. — Lucas Glover, Andrew Novak, Chan Kim

11:42 a.m.* — Lee Hodges, Nico Echavarria, Blaine Hale Jr.

11:53 a.m. — Ben Griffin, Keith Mitchell, Jhonattan Vegas

11:53 a.m.* — Henrik Norlander, Brice Garnett, Joel Dahmen

12:04 p.m. — Sami Valimaki, Rico Hoey, Jordan Spieth

12:04 p.m.* — Bill Haas, Zac Blair, Thorbjørn Olesen

12:15 p.m. — Michael Thorbjornsen, Luke Clanton (a), Carson Young

12:15 p.m.* — Justin Suh, Matt NeSmith, Kyle Westmoreland

12:26 p.m. — Hayden Springer, C.T. Pan, J.J. Spaun

12:26 p.m.* — Kevin Dougherty, Ben Kohles, Dylan Fritteli

12:37 p.m. — Davis Thompson, Eric Cole, Aaron Rai

12:37 p.m.* — Kevin Chappell, Ryan Palmer

ICYMI: Top stories from the Rocket Mortgage Classic and across professional golf

Check out these stories:

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John Deere Classic: Hayden Springer’s epic sub-60 round makes TPC Deere Run look easy

Thursday’s Golf Tips: The 5 best ways to remain cool, hydrated on the golf course

All golfers should do these 10 things during every round they play

Emotional Bernhard Langer says goodbye, gives one more epic driver off the deck

John Deere Classic: Comparing PGA Tour players to their ultimate equipment twin

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.

Daniel Ricciardo not making any proclamations after frustrating Saturday for VCARB at the British Grand Prix daniel,ricciardo,not,making,any,proclamations,after,frustrating,saturday,for,vcarb,at,the,british,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one

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A week ago at the Austrian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo delivered a bold statement despite missing out on the third segment of qualifying. Ricciardo outlined how the RB01 was a “top ten” car despite his elimination in Q2, and he backed up that proclamation with a points finish at Red Bull Ring.

There were no similar proclamations from Ricciardo following Saturday’s qualifying session at the British Grand Prix.

Ricciardo and teammate Yuki Tsunoda were both eliminated in Q2, with Tsunoda set to start 13th in the main event Sunday, and Ricciardo behind him in 15th. To hear the Visa Cash App RB F1 Team driver tell it, he was not “happy” with how things unfolded on Saturday at Silverstone.

“I’m not particularly happy with today’s qualifying; it wasn’t a good session, and this is something we need to figure out,” said Ricciardo. “Both runs in Q2 didn’t go as expected, and we struggled to get the lap in, leading me to do some overtaking in the last corner, which is something I hate when people do it to me.

“I started my last push lap a couple of seconds behind Zhou [Guanyu], and with the dirty air, you’re never going to get a good lap. The last three weekends haven’t been easy, but we found a way to make it work,” added Ricciardo. “Coming into Silverstone with the same struggles has also added to today’s frustrations because we don’t have the luxury to be able to get things wrong. We’ll address all we need during tonight’s debrief and look ahead at the race.”

While Ricciardo was frustrated with how Saturday played out, his teammate was a bit more pleased with the session.

“I’m happy with how we handled today; the team and I worked well together and communicated during qualifying to adapt to the changing weather conditions,” described Tsunoda. “We knew it would be difficult coming into quali because we’ve been lacking pace throughout Free Practice, and it’s a shame we haven’t been able to quite turn it around as much as we would’ve liked to, but the field is tight, and anything can happen.

“We’re struggling with pace in the high-speed corners at this track, which is similar to last week, but we’ll work hard to maximise our performance tomorrow. We had good pace in the wet and we’ll adapt based on the weather conditions and communicate, that’s the key.”

VCARB Technical Director Jody Egginton noted that the team might not have put Ricciardo in the best position during Q2, but that there is potential for the team on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t put Daniel in good enough conditions for his final run in Q2 which got him caught up in a lot of traffic, altering his position for tomorrow,” said Egginton. “We find ourselves slightly back from where we want to be, but laps time deltas to the cars around us are small and the team is pushing hard to extract everything from the car.”

Salvaging something on Sunday could be critical for the team in their fight with Haas in the F1 Constructors’ Championship. VCARB currently sits in sixth place in the standings, 11 points clear of Haas. But with Nico Hülkenberg starting sixth on Sunday Haas has tremendous potential to cut into that lead. If Riccardo and/or Tsunoda can find a way to forge into the points, it would be a massive step for the team.

And it would perhaps ease some of the frustration Ricciardo is feeling this Saturday at Silverstone.

Charles Leclerc and Ferrari looking for answers to a ‘slow’ car at British Grand Prix charles,leclerc,and,ferrari,looking,for,answers,to,a,slow,car,at,british,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one

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Charles Leclerc struggled to find the right answers, but not many are on offer at the moment for Ferrari.

Speaking with the official Formula 1 channel following a surprising elimination in Q2, the Ferrari driver lamented a frustrating state of play for the team at the moment. Leclerc has endured a difficult stretch of performances in the weeks since his victory at the Monaco Grand Prix which saw the Monegasque driver finally break through with a win at home, despite Ferrari bringing a series of upgrades to the SF-24. He finished out of the points in the Canadian Grand Prix and after a fifth-place finish in Barcelona, Lecler brought home only two points from Austria, both of which came from a seventh-place finish in the F1 Sprint Race at Red Bull Ring.

That run may continue on Sunday, as Leclerc will start in P11 in what he calls a “slow” car.

We are just slow. We are just really slow at the moment and we have a lot of inconsistencies with the car,” said Leclerc to F1TV. “I don’t think it quite helps that we are trying to also… we are trying to just assess the situation we are in at the moment and try to understand which are the directions in which we need to push into.”

The driver noted that the team tried some different configurations in practice, to try and unlock the answer to the questions they faced with the SF-24. While Leclerc noted that the decision offered some potential solutions for Ferrari, it was not enough to unlock the time he needed to reach Q3.

“I felt like yesterday, by splitting the cars [with pre and post-Barcelona configurations], we understood a good amount to use for the future,” described Leclerc. “However, that means that maybe you don’t optimise your whole weekend as you are focused on just trying to learn, and when you are speaking about a tenth to go to Q3, it’s all about small details. So at the moment we are just struggling with the situation we are in, and I hope we can bounce back as soon as possible.”

Leclerc compared the strategy to a similar decision Ferrari made a year ago. Last season saw the Scuderia struggling during the summer, and trying different configurations at the Dutch Grand Prix helped the team improve down the stretch.

“I think last year we did that in Zandvoort, where it was really a turning point of the season and we did well,” said Leclerc. “We shouldn’t over-panic, but it is true that now this difficult time has been there for longer than last year, so we’ve really got to react now and I hope that from next race onwards we can re-optimise the weekend like we did at the beginning of the season.”

Things were a bit better for teammate Carlos Sainz Jr., who advanced to the third segment of qualifying and will start Sunday’s British Grand Prix up in seventh, but Ferrari seems on the back foot compared with some of their rivals at the moment.

Perhaps adding to the frustration is that this weekend may present a missed opportunity for the Scuderia. With Sergio Pérez starting at the back of the grid, and Max Verstappen set to start fourth, Ferrari could have taken a big step towards Red Bull at the front of the grid.

Instead, they are still looking for answers to what Leclerc calls a “slow” race car.

British Grand Prix qualifying: A ‘sketchy’ decision pays off for Nico Hülkenberg and Haas british,grand,prix,qualifying,a,sketchy,decision,pays,off,for,nico,h,lkenberg,and,haas,sbnation,com,front-page

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As the minutes ticked down in the first qualifying segment at the British Grand Prix, 19 of the 20 drivers wound their way around historic Silverstone circuit in wet conditions, relying on the green intermediate tires.

Nico Hülkenberg was that 20th driver, who remained in the garage waiting for the track to dry out, and the right moment to join the fight.

Hülkenberg had to wait through a red flag, brought out by Sergio Pérez. The Red Bull driver was one of the first to switch to the slicks, with just over seven minutes remaining in the session, but quickly paid a steep price. Pérez slid into the gravel and could not get moving again, ending his session early.

Ultimately, Hülkenberg had just one shot at a flying lap and he made it stick, doing just enough to get into Q2.

But when the dust settled and the checkered flag flew at the end of Q3 Hülkenberg was up in sixth on the timing sheets, and he will start on the third row in Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

That stands as not just the best qualifying result for Hülkenberg this season, but for the team as well.

However, the approach taken by Haas made for some nervy moments for both the driver and the team.

“I managed to take the momentum from last race into this week, plus I think the updates we brought to the car yesterday really had an impact and I felt a gain with them straightaway,” said Hülkenberg in the team’s post-qualifying report. “That’s good news and it’s not always the case, so a big well done to the team. Quali was good; Q1 was a bit too close for comfort with only one lap.

“With the red flag, we got a little out of sync and maybe it was a bit sketchy, but otherwise it was a good, clean session. I feel good confidence in the car which means I can produce the laps, even if it’s just one.”

Team Principal Ayao Komatsu hailed an “amazing” result for the team, but outlined how Haas needs to review their “tricky” approach.

“It’s been a pretty eventful day with pretty tricky conditions, but in FP3 I think we made progress learning about car behavior on the intermediates. In Q1 we decided not to run on the inters because we expected it to be dry, so that’s what we did,” described Komatsu. “It was very tricky, we need to review what we did and how we can do it better because we just got through with Nico. Kevin didn’t get through Q1 because he went off but with Nico, we didn’t give ourselves enough margin, so that’s something we need to improve.”

Komatsu outlined how it could have been even better for Hülkenberg.

“Moving into dry conditions with Nico, what a fantastic result with P6, and that could’ve been better. He made a mistake on his flying lap in one of the corners so it’s really pleasing with all the hard work from the team getting this upgrade on and it paying off well,” added the Haas boss. “It’s an excellent position to start tomorrow, so we’ll see what we can do, but for now, I’m happy for the team – amazing work from everyone.”

While Kevin Magnussen failed to advance out of Q1 and will start at the back of the field, Hülkenberg’s starting position gives Haas a tremendous chance to bring home solid points on Sunday. The team enters the British Grand Prix sitting seventh in the Formula 1 Constructors’ standings, 11 points behind Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.

But with both Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda starting outside the points — and behind Hülkenberg — Haas is in position to cut into that lead Sunday.

Despite a “sketcky” Saturday.

John Deere Classic Round 3 tee times for an exciting Moving Day john,deere,classic,round,tee,times,for,an,exciting,moving,day,sbnation,com,golf,golf-pga-tour,golf-news

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Welcome to Playing Through’s morning ritual — Golf Talk Today.

Each morning will feature a Golf Talk Today, where the crew will discuss various elements throughout the PGA Tour, LPGA, LIV Golf, and more.

It is Moving Day at the John Deere Classic.

CT Pan and Aaron Rai are tied for the lead at 14-under after they carded 8-under 63s.

TPC Deere Run is giving up so many birdies. The players have made 1,352 birdies and 35 eagles through 36 holes, more than 13 tournaments in total. If this pace remains, it could see the most birdies in a 2024 event.

Brew a pot of coffee, grab some breakfast, and settle in as we get you ready for the third round of the John Deere Classic.

Notable names who missed the cut at the John Deere Classic

The cut line for the John Deere Classic was 5-under. The top 60 and ties make the weekend in Illinois, but check out the biggest names headed home early.

Popular golfers who missed the cut at the John Deere
— Daniel Berger (-4; 68-70)
— Harry Higgs (-3; 72-67)
— Matt Kuchar: (-3; 69-70)
— Nick Dunlap: (-3; 69-70)
— Kevin Kisner: (-2; 68-72)
— Patton Kizzire: (-1; 71-70)
— Maverick McNealy: (E; 67-75)
— Nick Hardy: (E; 70-72)
— Neal Shipley: (+2; 70-74)

John Deere Classic Round 3 Tee Times (ET):

Everyone tees off the 1st tee

7:55 a.m. — Thorbjørn Olesen, Wilson Furr

8:06 a.m. — Stewart Cink, Justin Suh, Ryan Palmer

8:17 a.m. — Kevin Streelman, Jake Knapp, Nico Echavarria

8:28 a.m. — Blaine Hale Jr., Bud Cauley, Kevin Chappell

8:39 a.m. — James Hahn, Matt NeSmith, Pierceson Coody

8:50 a.m. — Henrik Norlander, Brice Garnett, Sepp Straka

9:01 a.m. — Kyle Westmoreland, Joel Dahmen, Bill Haas

9:17 a.m. — Hayden Buckley, Roger Sloan, David Lipsky

9:28 a.m. — Scott Gutschewski, Jordan Spieth, Sam Stevens

9:39 a.m. — Kevin Dougherty, Mark Hubbard, Sam Ryder

9:50 a.m. — Doug Ghim, Ben Kohles, Jason Day

10:01 a.m. — S.H. Kim, J.T. Poston, Zac Blair

10:12 a.m. — Dylan Frittelli, Mac Meissner, Ben Griffin

10:23 a.m. — Trace Crowe, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Ben Taylor

10:39 a.m. — Austin Smotherman, Ben Silverman, Patrick Rodgers

10:50 a.m. — Justin Lower, Ryo Hisatsune, Seamus Power

11:01 a.m. — Lee Hodge, Robby Shelton, Chesson Hadley

11:12 a.m. — J.J. Spaun, Carson Young, Sami Valimaki

11:23 a.m. — Keith Mitchell, Jhonattan Vegas, Zach Johnson

11:34 a.m. — Max Greyserman, Lucas Glover, Beau Hossler

11:45 a.m. — Andrew Novak, Michael Thorbjornsen, Chandler Phillips

12:01 p.m. — Rico Hoey, Chan Kim, Joshua Creel

12:12 p.m. — Adam Svensson, Brendon Todd, Kevin Yu

12:23 p.m. — Luke Clanton (a), Sungjae Im, Hayden Springer

12:34 p.m. — Eric Cole, Davis Thompson, Denny McCarthy

12:45 p.m. — C.T. Pan, Aaron Rai, Harry Hall

ICYMI: Top stories from the Rocket Mortgage Classic and across professional golf

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Golfers must avoid these 10 mistakes during every round they play

John Deere Classic: Hayden Springer’s epic sub-60 round makes TPC Deere Run look easy

Thursday’s Golf Tips: The 5 best ways to remain cool, hydrated on the golf course

Golf Talk Today: A quick July 4th golf fashion guide to stay trendy but patriotic

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Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.

Lewis Hamilton hails ‘encouraging’ start for Mercedes at F1 British Grand Prix lewis,hamilton,hails,encouraging,start,for,mercedes,at,f,british,grand,prix,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one

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Mercedes tasted victory for the first time this Formula 1 season last week in Austria, as George Russell capitalized on a late-race incident between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, storming to the front to take the checkered flag at the Austrian Grand Prix. Can the Silver Arrows make it two in a row with a win at home in the British Grand Prix?

While that might be a tall order given what we have seen from McLaren and Red Bull so far — more on that in a moment — the team got off to an “encouraging” start in Friday’s two practice sessions at the historic Silverstone circuit.

Lewis Hamilton finished seventh in FP1, running a mix of the hard and the medium compound, and then improved to P6 in the second session while running a mix of all three compounds, including some runs on the softs. Russell was on a similar program, placing fifth in the first session on a mix runs using the hards and the mediums, and then finished tenth in the second session while using all three compounds.

“P1 was a strong session with the car feeling great. FP2 was a slightly more challenging hour, and we need to pick through why that was,” reported Russell in the team’s post-practice media report. “It was much windier, and I don’t think we got the [tires] in the right window, so that could explain a chunk of it. The conditions are likely to change across the weekend, with more rain possible too, so we will have to be adaptive.”

“The car felt generally good today. We’re still a little bit behind the ultimate pace at the front but today was encouraging. I don’t think the times are fully representative of where our speed was, but nevertheless, we know we’ve got work to do tonight,” said Hamilton. “We will therefore do what we can to try and find more performance and hopefully that can get us a little closer to those ahead.”

As far as the pecking order after the first day, Russell put McLaren and Red Bull a bit ahead of Mercedes, indicating that it might be a battle with the Ferraris on tap this weekend for the Silver Arrows.

“After today’s running, I’d say that the competitive picture looks similar to the past few races. McLaren and Max [Verstappen] look a step ahead and it’s close between ourselves and Ferrari,” added Russell. “We will work hard overnight to try and take a step forward and see where that leaves us tomorrow.”

As has been argued here and elsewhere, over the past three race weekends no team has been hotter than Mercedes. The Silver Arrows have scored 100 points over that stretch, more than McLaren, Ferrari, and yes, Red Bull.

Can they extend that streak at Silverstone? It might be too early to tell, but the week did get off to an encouraging start for the team.

British Grand Prix: Praise rolls in for Oliver Bearman after news of Haas promotion british,grand,prix,praise,rolls,in,for,oliver,bearman,after,news,of,haas,promotion,sbnation,com,front-page,formula-one

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Thursday’s media day at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix kicked off with some news regarding a young British driver. Haas announced in the morning that Oliver Bearman, the Ferrari Academy driver who is currently splitting reserve duties between Haas and Ferrari, would be taking one of the team’s two seats on the F1 grid next year.

Bearman’s promotion was a topic of discussion during Thursday’s FIA Press Conference, with three of his countrymen joining the praise for the young driver. Among those included both Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, who Bearman fended off in the closing stages of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to finish seventh in his stunning debut in replace of an ailing Carlos Sainz Jr.

“Yeah, [he] did a phenomenal job earlier on this year. Yeah, bright young talent, and I think it’s great that the UK is pumping out a lot of great young talented drivers,” said Hamilton. “I would say Silverstone and the [British Racing Driving Club] have been a part of that, I would say, because they do invest in young and up-and-coming, a lot of the sport’s young and up-and-coming drivers. I think, yeah, I think it’s amazing for the sport. Takes the pressure off of all of us. At least hopefully one of the Brits would be up there.”

“I think he deserves it,” said Norris. “I think he showed in Saudi how good of a job he can do, even under the pressure that he was in to perform and get so much out of the car in his first weekend. So I’m excited to see him on the grid next year and look forward to racing.”

George Russell, the winner of the Austrian Grand Prix, joined in on the praise for the young British driver.

Y”eah, clearly Ollie’s a great driver and it’s great to see four Brits on the grid and I think it just goes to show the strength of British motorsport. I think when we raced in Karting, the competition was so high and I think that translates into next year, 20% of the grid being Brits. Obviously, Alex [Albon], half British as well, so it’s great to see him there and I’m sure he’ll do a great job.”

Bearman is scheduled to take part in FP1 this week as part of his reserve duties for Haas, before taking over next year on a full-time basis. He currently sits 14th in the F2 Drivers’ Championship standings and secured his first win of the season in the F2 Sprint Race at the Austrian Grand Prix.

And if he needs some advice, he has a seven-time F1 champion winner he can turn to.

“No, no, I’ve not been asked to and it’s not even been a thought,” said Hamilton if he was asked to take Bearman under his wing. “I don’t think he needs to. I think he’s a sharp enough lad. And I think, I mean, naturally, as one of the older drivers here, my door’s always open if anyone ever has a question or any advice that’s needed.”

Yankees’ Aaron Judge is on pace for another record-breaking season yankees,aaron,judge,is,on,pace,for,another,record,breaking,season,sbnation,com,front-page,mlb,dot-com-grid-coverage

Yankees Aaron Judge is on pace for another record breaking season
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Back in 2022, Aaron Judge brought the baseball world back to an era that hadn’t been seen since the late 90s and the early 00s. Those were the days when other shows on ESPN would get cut into whenever a prolific home run hitter was having an at-bat that was deemed to be culturally significant. While Tulane and Houston football fans probably weren’t enthused about having to share half of their screen with one at-bat of a regular season baseball game that they probably didn’t care about, it’s proof that there is nothing like hitting a bunch of dingers that can grab the imagination of fans all over the baseball landscape.

Judge finished 2022 with an astonishing tally of 62 home runs and a scarcely-believable wRC+ of 209 to go along with 11.2 fWAR for the season. His 2022 was so incredible that it was totally understandable when Judge, who was injured and missed time, “fell off” and had a “normal” season in 2023 where he “only” hit 37 home runs and finished with a wRC+ of 174 and 4.8 fWAR over 106 games. That’s still a very fine season for any player in particular but it’s not the type of season that gets ESPN to cut away from college football games in order to show off your live at-bat. With that being said, we might be seeing those days return in September because Aaron Judge is currently in the midst of another absolutely incredible season at the plate for the New York Yankees.

Heading into action on Wednesday, Judge is hitting .321/.440/.718 with a wOBA of .478, an Isolated Power number of .397, a wRC+ of 218 (!!!) with 32 homers and an fWAR of 6.1. There is so much here to talk about that it’s mind boggling. Sir, what are you doing with a .718 slugging percentage? Your wOBA is nearly .500, that is wild. Usually an Isolated Power number of .200 or above is considered to be “serious power hitting” so what are we supposed to make of a guy who nearly has an Isolated Power number of .400? He’s already cleared his 2023 fWAR production with 22 games left to spare, and the fact that he’s already five homers away from matching his 2023 number and the wRC+ being above 200 is all you need to know. Aaron Judge is currently the best hitter on Planet Earth and right now it’s not particularly close between him and the competition.

It is wildly impressive that Aaron Judge is currently on track for another season that could see him finish in double digits as far as fWAR is concerned. Although seasons like that are already rare to begin with, it’s always possible that some of the most talented players in baseball are capable of putting up at least a 10 fWAR season if they can fully lock in for an entire year of crazy production. Mike Trout and Mookie Betts immediately come to mind, and Shohei Ohtani could potentially do it as a two-way player at some time down the road. However, doing it twice would put Aaron Judge in some truly rarefied air as far as baseball greats are concerned. There are many Hall-of-Fame players who never cleared the single season 10 fWAR threshold at any point in their career, so to do it twice (in addition to having a stellar career outside of that) would be as close to punching a ticket to Cooperstown as you could get.

It sounds wild to talk about that while a guy is active but that’s where we’re at with Aaron Judge right now. He is simply hitting at a Hall-of-Fame level at the moment and we also know it’s not just some isolated breakout because he’s already had a season under his belt where he did this before. It also makes you wonder: “Well, if he’s this good and this dangerous at the plate, why is he even getting stuff to hit?” Indeed, Aaron Judge has gotten this hot once again because he’s been getting a level of protection that he’s never had — and as Mike Petriello of MLB.com noted, it’s coming from the front instead of from behind him in the lineup:

He’s seeing somewhat more in-zone fastballs when runners are on as compared to when they aren’t, and he’s seeing more first-pitch in-zone fastballs when runners are on as compared to not, and so on, a dozen other small things that add up to an advantage for him – which is part of why he’s slugging 203 points higher with a runner on base. Why, then, wouldn’t you work around him and risk putting him on? Because more often than ever before, someone is already on.

“What he and Juan are doing as a tandem is hard to wrap your brain around,” said manager Aaron Boone.

So instead of simply giving Aaron Judge first base and calling it a day, managers have decided that they’d be better off actually dealing with Judge and whatever damage he can do with (more than likely) Juan Soto already on the base paths instead of walking Judge and potentially exacerbating the problem if someone behind Judge happens to do the damage. Essentially, since Juan Soto has been so good in front of Judge (and he’s also on 10 fWAR watch for this season, as he’s produced 5.0 fWAR over 83 games so far), it’s been nearly impossible to get Judge in that situation where the bases are clear and you can basically just give Judge the free pass and be done with it. Instead, you get to see scenarios like this one where the Mets were dealing with the Yankees last month.

It’s the top of the eighth, the Yankees are down 9-3 and Judge is at the plate with the bases loaded and two outs on the board. Now, it’s a six-run lead so the Mets have a very solid cushion and can afford to even take a grand slam here and still have a two-run lead. Mets manager Juan Mendoza still admitted after the game to Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated that he was thinking about walking Judge, conceding the run and then testing his luck with Gleyber Torres. Instead, Mendoza decided to simply play the matchup straight up. Aaron Judge responded thusly:

It doesn’t matter if it’s an 0-2 count. It doesn’t matter if the pitch that was thrown was 99 mph. If you throw a pitch to that part of the plate against Aaron Judge, you deserve whatever’s coming to you. Here’s what it looked like on MLB’s Gameday tracker:

Oof.
mlb.com

Now, here’s a collection of Aaron Judge’s zone charts for this season:

judge pitch position graphs

OOF!
baseballsavant.mlb.com

So yeah: Aaron Judge is currently on an incredible heater and he’s doing it in an environment that is conducive for him to keep on seeing pitches right where he wants them instead of being pitched around. The combination of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge has proven to be absolutely lethal for most teams and as a result, Aaron Judge himself is on track to have another otherworldly season at the plate.

I’m not going to guarantee anything but I suppose it really wouldn’t be shocking if some mid-tier college football fans are going to be annoyed with ESPN and Aaron Judge once again in September because it appears that Judge is once again on track for another historically great season. As long as opposing teams feel like they have no choice but to test him, Judge is going to continue dropping the gavel upside their heads.

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Fifty years after his European Tour debut, Bernhard Langer will make his final DP World Tour start this week at the BMW International Open in Munich, Germany.

It will mark his 513th start on the European circuit—the tour where he amassed 42 career titles, second only to the late, great Seve Ballesteros.

“I’ve never said goodbye to anything so far in terms of golf; this is going to be a first experience [for me],” Langer told DP World Tour media officials.

“I have a feeling it’s going to be very emotional.”

The two-time Masters champion grew up 45 minutes from Golfclub München Eichenried, the host course of this week’s tournament. His connections to this area run deeper than that, though. Langer worked as an assistant professional at nearby Munich Golf Club, which helped give him his start.

Langer then went on to win 123 times around the world.

He is a Ryder Cup legend, too, having played on Team Europe 10 times, winning six. Langer also captained the Europeans to a dominant victory at the 2004 Ryder Cup, winning 18.5-to-9.5 on American soil—one of the more impressive wins in Ryder Cup history.

He is, without a doubt, Germany’s most accomplished golfer.

So, in an ode to German golf, the DP World Tour paired Langer with fellow countryman Marcel Siem, who won last week’s Italian Open, and Martin Kaymer, who, like Langer, won a pair of major championships. Kaymer won the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits and the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

“It means a great deal just to play in front of the home crowd,” Langer added.

“Hopefully, I can make the cut, but I hear the golf course is a lot longer than it used to be, and that’s a challenge for me.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.