⚾️ Y! Sports AM: PCA’s historic season
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⚾️ FORGET MVP. PCA IS CHASING HISTORY
(Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images)Pete Crow-Armstrong wrapped up the NL MVP award weeks ago. Now, in the final week of the regular season, the Cubs centerfielder is looking to put the finishing touches on one of the greatest all-around campaigns in baseball history.
Triple threat: PCA might not pitch like his onetime MVP competition Shohei Ohtani, but he does wield the best glove in the league in addition to his otherworldly combination of power and speed.
- At the plate he's batting .280 with an NL-best .949 OPS on the strength of 45 home runs. Yes, the speedy centerfielder is now tied with Kyle Schwarber for the MLB lead. He also leads the majors in runs (118) and extra-base hits (83), and ranks third in RBI (107).
- On the bases he's recorded 38 steals and been caught just seven times, making him the third player in MLB history with 45+ HR and 35+ SB in a season.
- In the field he leads all players in outs above average (26) and fielding run value (27). His 50% success rate (8 of 16) on 5-star catches (those with a Statcast probability of 0-25%) is also by far the best in the majors.
Put another way: He's having the best offensive season of anyone outside of Yordan Alvarez, but while the Astros slugger spends almost all of his time at designated hitter, PCA has also been the single best fielder in baseball at any position.
(Kelly Gavin/MLB Photos via Getty Images)Big picture: Add it all up, and Crow-Armstrong has amassed 10.4 wins above replacement at FanGraphs, making him just the seventh position player this century to post a 10-fWAR season. But as impressive as that is in a vacuum, it's in the comparison to his peers where it transcends to historic territory.
- At 10.4 fWAR, he leads second-place Ohtani (6.7) by 3.7, putting him on pace to become just the fourth player in MLB's Modern Era (since 1900) to finish at least 3 fWAR ahead of second place.
- Perhaps you've heard of the other three men to accomplish that feat: Babe Ruth (3x), Rogers Hornsby (2x) and Mickey Mantle. Adjusted for era, PCA's season has to be considered one of the greatest ever. And to think, we almost didn't get it.
Midseason change: It's easy to forget now, but PCA had a terrible spring, batting .224 with 6 HR and a .676 OPS in 55 games from Opening Day through May 26. As the poor results kept coming and he drifted further away from the player who'd shown flashes of superstardom a year earlier, he and Chicago's coaching staff decided to drastically alter his stance.
- The changes, as laid out by WSJ's Jared Diamond ($), were three-fold: He stands closer to the plate and deeper in the box, his legs are a foot closer together, and he holds his hands at his chest with the bat pointing up rather than at shoulder-level with the bat parallel to the ground.
- Safe to say it worked. In 101 games since the changes began taking hold, he's hitting .307 with 39 home runs and a 1.079 OPS.
The last word: "You're grateful to see things like this," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said last week after PCA's seventh multi-homer game of the season. "And you're grateful that the fans get to see a season like this, because they're going to talk about it. They're going to tell their kids about it. They're going to tell their grandkids about seasons like this."
🌍 THE WORLD IN PHOTOS
Have a day, Davante. (Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)🇺🇸 Los Angeles, California
The Rams destroyed the Giants in their home opener, 28-6, behind huge games from Matthew Stafford (22/31, 327 yards, 4 TD) and Davante Adams (8 catches, 195 yards, 2 TD). New York, meanwhile, joined the injured QB club* as Jaxson Dart was knocked out in the first quarter with what appears to be a sprained MCL.
Climbing the leaderboard: With 427 career passing touchdowns, Stafford passed Philip Rivers (425) for sixth-most in NFL history. He'll need to play at least another couple seasons to catch Brett Favre (508) in fifth, and may have a little more trouble catching Aaron Rodgers (528), Peyton Manning (539), Drew Brees (571) and Tom Brady (649).
(Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)🇫🇷 Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, France
Zinedine Zidane oversaw his first training session on Monday since becoming France's new head coach, with his first test coming in Friday's Nations League match against Turkey. The international break, which at 16 days is the longest ever, runs through Oct. 6.
Why so long? This is the first such break under FIFA's new calendar, which has been reconfigured to limit travel and minimize disruptions to domestic club schedules. Instead of three short breaks in the fall and one in the spring, there are now two in the fall and one in the spring.
(Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)🇨🇦 Montreal, Canada
Belgium's Remco Evenepoel dominated the field on Sunday for his record-tying fourth time trial world title, becoming the first cyclist to win the event four years in a row. That continues an excellent year that also saw the two-time Olympic champion finish second to Tadej Pogačar in the Tour de France.
The secret to his success: At 5-foot-7, Evenepoel is smaller than most elite time trialists, but what he lacks in mass he makes up for with his uniquely compact riding position. "He can almost put his head into his trunk and into his arms, and he's still able to look forward," says Evenepoel's physio. "That's why they call him 'the bullet.'"
*QB injury updates: Chicago's Caleb Williams (hamstring) "will likely miss some time" but avoided a serious injury and Washington's Jayden Daniels (dislocated elbow) will meet with specialists this week. On the flip side, Minnesota's Kyler Murray (concussion) and Atlanta's Michael Penix Jr. (ACL surgery recovery) will both start in Week 3.
👟 MBAPPÉ MOVES ON
Mbappe's On cleats were not yet ready for primetime in Sunday's Madrid Derby, where he wore whited-out Nikes instead. (Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)In June, Kylian Mbappé featured centrally in Nike's "Rip the Script" World Cup short film, shortly before tearing through defenses in Nike boots throughout the tournament. Just three months later, his long-time relationship with the Swoosh has ended. Mbappé is moving On… or to On, in this case.
Catch up: Swiss sportswear brand On announced on Friday that it's entering football alongside the French superstar. Mbappé will be a global ambassador for the brand, working closely with product teams in developing football footwear and apparel.
What it means: This is perhaps the most ambitious extension of On's brand yet, as it tries to establish itself at the highest ranks of the world's most popular sport. However, the company has a track record in precisely this sort of endeavor, executed with a very similar playbook.
History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes: The last time On shocked the sports world with a signing of this magnitude, the brand was a lesser-known commodity. Its prize in 2019? Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer, who invested in the company and supported its efforts to build a tennis business. On's efforts in tennis, anchored by Federer and aided by stars like Iga Świątek and Ben Shelton, demonstrate its ability to grow from a nonexistent presence to a major player at a sport's elite levels. With Mbappé in tow, it will try to make the same leap in football.
This is an excerpt from Monday's edition of Yahoo Sports Biz, our new sports business newsletter. Sign up here to get on the list.
🏀 NBA PRESEASON POWER RANKINGS
(Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports)With the NBA season tipping off in less than a month (Oct. 20), Yahoo Sports' Kevin O'Connor has ranked every team's chances of winning the 2027 NBA Championship, while also surveying what's changed during the offseason, what's exciting and what's concerning for each team.
⚽️ BARCELONA ARE UNSTOPPABLE
(Fran Santiago/Getty Images)Barcelona have opened their 2026-27 campaign in another stratosphere, laying waste to the competition with a goal-scoring frenzy the likes of which haven't been seen in nearly a century.
36 goals for, 8 against: Barça are undefeated in eight matches entering the international break, scoring 31 goals across their first seven La Liga fixtures (second-most in league history behind Sevilla in 1940), and 36 if you include their Champions League opener (their most through eight matches since 1935).
- Barcelona 5, Elche 0
- Barcelona 2, Athletic Club 0
- Barcelona 5, Rayo Vallecano 2
- Barcelona 5, Valenica 0
- Barcelona 5, Feyenoord Rotterdam 1
- Barcelona 4, Levante 2
- Barcelona 7, Racing Santander 2
- Barcelona 3, Sevilla 1
Dynamic duo: At the center of the carnage are Brazilian striker Raphinha and Spanish winger Lamine Yamal, who've combined for 22 goals and nine assists on the young season. Raphinha's 12 domestic goals lead La Liga by a wide margin, while his three assists are tied for second; Lamine's seven goals are tied for second, and his four assists are tied for first.
Go deeper:This is the best Barcelona have looked under Hansi Flick(The Athletic)
📺 WATCHLIST: TUESDAY, SEPT. 22
(Ishika Samant/Getty Images)⚾️ Rays at Yankees
The AL East rivals begin their four-game series with a split doubleheader (1:05pm ET, ESPN+; 7:05pm, TBS), and though the division hasn't been decided yet, the race is all but over. The Rays (95-60) have a six-game lead over the Yankees (89-66), who therefore must sweep this series to have any shot of avoiding the wild card.
Best of the rest: The wild-card bound Red Sox (84-72) host the Guardians (81-75), who hold a one-game lead in the AL Central (6:45pm); the White Sox (80-76), currently in the third wild card and chasing Cleveland for the division, visit the Royals (7:40pm); the Rangers (78-78) host the Mets (8:05pm) with a one-game lead in the AL West over the Astros (77-79), who visit the Mariners in the nightcap (9:40pm).
⚾️ WPBL Championship, Game 5
The Women's Professional Baseball League will crown its inaugural champion tonight (7pm, ESPN+) when the San Francisco Firebells — who've fought back from an 0-2 deficit — take on the Los Angeles Queens in a decisive Game 5.
Players to watch: This series features arguably the two biggest names in women's baseball. The Firebells are led by No. 1 pick Kelsie Whitmore, a two-way player who hit a league-leading 11 HR this season while also starting six games on the mound; the Queens boast Mo'ne Davis, the trailblazing star of the 2014 Little League World Series.
More to watch:
- 🏀 WNBA: Lynx at Fever (8pm, ESPN); Sparks at Aces (10pm, ESPN) … Minnesota (32-10) clinches the No. 1 seed with a win.
- ⚽️ Women's Champions League: Bayern Munich vs. Man City (12:45pm, CBSSN); Real Madrid vs. PSG (3pm, Paramount+) … Two of five games as the league phase kicks off.
- 🏒 NHL Preaseason: Panthers at Hurricanes (7pm, NHL); Golden Knights at Sharks (10pm, NHL) … T-minus one week until the regular season begins.
🌍 GEOSPORTS
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