Victor Robles just set a new bar for baseball fighting tactics. The outfielder, who’s currently in AAA on a rehab assignment, decided to chuck his bat at the pitcher after he was hit with a pitch. It reminded us a lot of that time a roided up Roger Clemens threw a jagged bat head at Mike Piazza. What’re the odds Robles got a “random” drug test after the game?  

QB competitions are winding down. In one of the saddest QB battles in years, Daniel Jones has been named the Colts’ starting quarterback over Anthony Richardson. Surely the Colts won’t regret choosing the guy who trips over his own legs running the football. 

• Meanwhile, Saints coach Kellen Moore said the team's QB1 job is basically a coin flip between Tyler Shough and Spencer Rattler. We’re assuming he’s trying to figure out which guy can lose the Saints more games so they can draft Arch Manning next year.
  

Quote of the week alert…Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson said that trying to force her game on the court is “like forcing a fart… all you get is shit”. We hope she’s speaking figuratively, but you never know. 

There’s a lot of (ugly) ways to catch a baseball… and the Giants and Rockies just proved it. The Rockies closer somehow held on to the ball after soaking a linebacker level collision from his teammate, while Giants outfielder Jung Ho Lee managed to catch a fly ball between his kneecaps. 

It wouldn’t be NFL training camp without a couple exhibition game brawls. Take this scuffle as a sign that the Packers and Seahawks will have some chippy games this year (take the over on penalty flags). 

The MLB players' weekend gear rocked. The highlight might have been Cal Raleigh’s “Big butt… bigger bombs” bat, but there were some honourable mentions like Marcello Mayer’s Lightning McQueen bat, and Austin Hedges Zyn-inspired stick. 

• Nothing will ever beat Phillies pitcher (and Nicholas Cage doppelganger) Matt Strahm wearing a Declaration of Independence glove. If you’ve never seen National Treasure, I feel bad for you. 

We’ve got a play of the year candidate courtesy of Bobby Witt Jr. Nothing this guy does anymore is surprising, but this play is absurd. Send this to anyone who’s still in the “baseball players aren’t athletes” camp. 

Hot Takes Pick em’

The first instalment of our new weekly pick 'em game. If you need a refresher on the rules, scroll back up to the top of the newsletter. 

Click here to lock in your picks for this week.

MLB expansion is on the horizon

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred revealed this week that the league will not only be expanding in the next few years, but that the structure of American and National leagues could be overhauled completely.

The two-team expansion will give the league an excuse to realign the divisions to fit tighter geographically, and maybe shake-up some of the less competitive clusters (we’re looking at you AL Central)

Who are the likeliest expansion teams? The first one is almost certainly going to be Nashville (which will be awesome) but the second spot is more of a question mark.

• The top contenders look to be Salt Lake City, Portland, Vancouver, and Charlotte. Montreal and Austin are dark horse picks that could make some sense. 

So what will the new leagues look like? 

There’s no concrete proposal for the realignment yet, but there have been some predictions floated for what it could look like. Most of them follow a similar eight-division format as the NHL and NFL, but shuffle teams around to prioritize proximity. Some of the highlights include:

• A new pacific northwest division with the Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and a Portland expansion team.
  

• A new southern division with Colorado, Texas, Houston and Kansas City.
  

• A new eastern division with Atlanta, Miami, Tampa Bay, and a Nashville expansion team.
  

• A stacked northeast division with the Red Sox, Yankees, Mets and Phillies. There’d be a lot of post-game parking lot fights if these four teams played each other 13 teams a year.
  

Historic rivalries like Dodgers‑Giants or Cubs‑Cardinals could be axed for convenience, but some new divisional matchups — like a yearlong subway series between the Yankees and Mets — could be a lot of fun. 

What’s next: Stadiums still need to be built in Vegas and whichever expansion cities are chosen, but once those deals are done, Major League Baseball is going to look a whole hell of a lot different. 

@Alvintschetters rode monster nights from Vladdy Guerrero and Kyle Schwarber to the biggest parlay of the week. That two-run Vladdy bomb in the 8th inning of the Cubs game must’ve been a fun watch. .

Check out the full parlay here.

🎞️ On this day in 2007, the Texas Rangers beat the brakes off of the Baltimore Orioles 30-3, the most runs scored by a team in modern MLB history. The worst part for the O’s? It was the first game of a doubleheader. They had to back out there and play a second game after taking that record-breaking shitkicking. In case you’re wondering, they lost game two as well.

Alright, that’s enough yelling for one Friday.

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