Did you lose track of Tacko Fall?
It’s ok.
You can say it.
I lost track of Tacko Fall too.
Well, he’s back, everybody. NBA Summer League MVP? It’s looking that way.
My favorite things about this, in order, are that:
1. Tacko Fall is back in our lives.
2. Tacko Fall dominating Summer League feels like it should be an annual tradition.
3. He’s still wearing 99.
4. It’s fun to imagine him not playing for the Utah Jazz but actually just really liking jazz, the musical genre, and wearing a shirt to that effect.
When do the Jazz play next? Hell if I know. Will Tacko Fall make the Jazz’s NBA roster? Hell if I know. Do I know anything about any of this? Not much. I just like Tacko Fall a lot, and I’m happy he’s back, even if just for a night. Look at this man:
Joe Kelly Rocked It
Joe Kelly had a good outing last night, striking out José Ramírez and Josh Naylor amidst a scoreless inning which kept the White Sox in the game in Cleveland. We told you the bounce back was coming. Just need to string those together, now. (Importantly: No walks.)
The Sens Rocked It
The Senators have successfully unloaded Matt Murray upon the Maple Leafs at the cost of two future draft picks (3rd round, 7th round) and 25% of Matt Murray’s salary. The Senators also got “future considerations” in the trade, so uh, yeah. Pierre Dorion is flying high right now.
To be fair, the Murray situation was of the Sens’ own creation. They overpaid him, they failed to make him a good goalie again, they gave up and let the relationship get toxic. But getting out of a stupid mess that’s entirely your fault, and probably harming the Leafs the process? That’s the definition of a Sens’ing.
Nathan Collins Rocked It
Damn.
Burnley lost Nathan Collins to Wolverhampton, but at the same time, they reportedly made 20.5 million pounds on the sale.
Predictably, there’s a frustrated reaction among lots of the Burnley fanbase, with unproven young acquisitions now tasked with running the defense, but a couple thoughts, as a very distant outsider here:
- Burnley isn’t going to be as exclusively a defensive team as they were under Sean Dyche, because that’s impossible.
- Burnley needs money. That’s the deal with getting relegated when you play in England’s equivalent of Green Bay, Wisconsin. You need money (and money’s also paying for a lot of these exciting acquisitions).
- Selling one player—a young player with huge future value—for a large fee should hurt you less in the short term than selling a higher quantity of developed players, whose future value isn’t as high. There’s a lot of value to selling a 21-year-old who’s already a stud, and yes, it would be nice to have that value yourself, but it seems Burnley fairly efficiently converted the value here to cash, which again, they need.
Again, I don’t know what I’m talking about here, but the goal for Burnley seems to be the EPL equivalent of baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays: An analytically-driven, efficiently-run franchise who makes up for their meager natural resources with shrewdness. We’ll see how the move works out, and there might be growing pains, but it’s not like Burnley’s brought in chumps to man the back line, and 20.5 million is a lot of million.
**
Viewing schedule:
1:10 PM EDT: White Sox @ Guardians, Game 1 (MLB TV/ESPN+)
7:10 PM EDT: White Sox @ Guardians, Game 2 (MLB TV)
With it being a doubleheader, does Joe Kelly pitch on consecutive days? I’m guessing he does, especially since he only threw eighteen pitches last night.
One thing to note with this: The Guardians are starting Shane Bieber in the first game and Konnor Pilkington in the second while the White Sox are starting Davis Martin in the first and Dylan Cease in the second. Seems like a pretty clear choice by the two teams to split the doubleheader, which is an odd decision when you’re hanging onto the edge of playoff relevancy.
8:05 PM EDT: Orioles @ Cubs (MLB TV)
Am I terrified of the Orioles? No. But only because it doesn’t really affect me at this point if the Cubs keep losing. Just keep everyone healthy, get a good night out of at least one guy who’s part of the future plans, and I’m happy. I’m a simple man.
9:45 PM EDT: Diamondbacks @ Giants (MLB TV)
I turned on the Giants game for an inning last night and saw multiple foul balls hit into McCovey Cove, and I’d forgotten what a rush that is. A baseball hit into basically the ocean? That is so cool. Every baseball stadium should have its own ocean behind the right field foul pole. Should’ve included that in the new New Deal, Biden.
