Happy Friday, everyone! Congrats on making it through another week. There's a weekend full of football as your reward.
Let's get right to it.
Good morning to everyone but especially to...
Getty ImagesSERIE A FANS
Welcome back, Serie A! The top Italian soccer league begins this weekend, and you can watch all season long on Paramount+.
Last year's title race wasn't decided until the last day, when AC Milan claimed their first league title since 2010-11. Our Serie A expert Francesco Porzio says they'll be hard-pressed to defend that title; his pick to win the Scudetto is Juventus.
Porzio: "After a very solid transfer window, Juventus have to be considered as the leading candidates to win the Scudetto alongside Serie A title holders AC Milan and Inter Milan. [Coach Massimiliano] Allegri has explicitly told the press that Juventus' main target of the season will be to win the domestic competition with the same ambition to go as far as possible in the UEFA Champions League and also try to win the Coppa Italia, which they lost last season in the final against Inter Milan."Be sure to check out Francesco's outlooks for AC Milan, Juventus, Inter Milan and Roma.
Honorable mentions
And not such a good morning for...
THE NEW YORK YANKEES
Yes, they didn't play last night, but the dog days of summer are here and they're hitting the New York Yankees hard. Since the All-Star Break, the Yankees are:
7-13 (tied for 23rd in MLB)2-6 in games decided by one run (down from 19-11 prior to the break)Scoring 4.7 runs per game (down from 5.4 before the break, which was best in MLB)Pitching to a 4.36 team ERA (24th in MLB).Are the Bronx Bombers just slogging through the summer, or are there bigger issues? It's that final bullet point that's been a big issue, says MLB expert Mike Axisa.
Axisa: "The problem is obvious, right? New York's rotation has gone from being an elite home run prevention unit to nearly the worst in baseball. Their walk rate is up a bit but still well below the MLB average (8.2 percent of batters faced), and the strikeout rate is unchanged. Basically, the rotation is pitching like it did before, only with way more balls leaving the yard. ... Having a great rotation and then suddenly having an ineffective rotation is a surefire way to go from the sport's best record to playing .500 ball for two months."This is a really good look into the four biggest reasons the Yankees have cooled off as summer has heated up, and whether they can turn things around. As Mike points out, "it's important to note they still have a 10-game lead in the AL East and also a 10-game lead for a Wild Card Series bye. At the start of this 22-25 stretch, they had a 12-game lead."
This weekend could provide a perfect turnaround opportunity against the struggling Red Sox. Boston is running out of time to get into the playoff race. The Yankees could start their turnaround by pushing their arch rivals further out of things... or they could stay mired in their slump as the stretch run nears.
