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Weekend winners
Houston Astros. A three-game sweep over the previously high-rolling Dodgers puts the Astros right there with Detroit among the front-runners in the AL. Jose Altuve hit three homers in the three-game landslide. And it allowed for quite the broadcast. During Friday’s 18-1 win over LA, Dodgers analyst Orel Hershiser — you remember him — dropped an observation that Astros hitters were teeing off on off-speed pitches like they knew what was coming. Hmmm.
Big league aces. Dude, if you don’t have a bona fide 1, you are going to be cooked come the “er” months. And they are everywhere right now. Tarik Skubal in Detroit. Max Fried — you remember him — in NYC. Zach Wheeler in Philly. Framer Valdez and Hunter Brown in Houston. There are Each is simply amazing. As is Paul Skenes, which leads us to …
Whoever gets the 2026 NBA No. 1 pick. Gang, Cooper Flagg was special last year as a freshman at Duke. BYU freshman-to-be AJ Dybantsa is an even better athlete and has a much higher ceiling. Some experts think Flagg reclassified and entered Duke a season early to not be in Dybantsa recruiting class.