Thursday May 14, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4280

it's mock schedule time

OK, no one else is doing it, so why shouldn't we, here at #DMD?

I'm talking about a "mock schedule". Just for kicks and giggles, I mean. Why not take a stab at the (still stupid) 17-game regular season game schedule of the Ravens?

We already have one "gimme". We know they're playing week #3 in Brazil vs. Dallas.

We know the O's are away on Sunday, September 13, so that could serve as the football opener in Baltimore. However, there's a rugby game at the football stadium on Saturday that would seemingly create an issue in terms of getting the stadium ready for football less than 24 hours later.

This begs the obvious question: What moron scheduled an event in the football stadium on Saturday, September 12? They do know we have a football team in Baltimore, still, right? #clownshoes

The Sunday Night Game on the opening weekend has already been announced as Dallas at the Harbaugh-Giants, so the Ravens are most likely going to open on the road on that opening Sunday.

We'll also point out here the Orioles are home for a rare Sunday night home game on September 20. So, unless the football-baseball combo is played that day, the Ravens aren't playing at home in week #2, either.

Oh, and the Blue Jays are in Baltimore the next night, Monday the 21st, so that's not happening for football, either.

Would the NFL really make the Ravens open their regular season with three straight away games?

I don't think they would, however, there doesn't seem to be a lot of flexibility.

Unless they can get the football stadium to transition from rugby to football in less than 24 hours on September 12-13, the Ravens can't play at home on the 13th. The Monday Night schedule for September 14 has been listed as Denver vs. Kansas City. Could they play another game at the same time in Baltimore? Of course, but that seems like the kind of thing the TV partners wouldn't like very much.

So, week #1 seems destined to be a road game.

The Thursday Night game for week #2 is already slated for Buffalo.

Sunday the 20th, the Orioles are home in the evening. Could they play a football game at 1 pm and play the baseball game at 7:20 pm that night? Of course they could. But would they? That seems unlikely. Parking would be the major concern.

Week #3 the Ravens are in Brazil.

Three straight on the road?

I'm convinced the league will do something to not have the Ravens start the season away-away-away, but their options seem very limited. The most logical thing to do would be to have the Ravens host a Monday night game on Septemer 14 (the O's are in New York). But unless the league did a 5:30 pm start in Baltimore and an 8:30 pm start in Kansas City, I don't see any way to double-dip that night with two games.

So, with that said, if you're the league and you force the Ravens to go away-away-away to start the season, wouldn't it make sense to give them the easiest trip of the year, travel wise, to start the season?

It doesn't get any easier than a 55-minute flight to Cleveland.

Week #1 -- Ravens at Cleveland (Guardians are away)

Week #2 -- Ravens at Carolina

Week #3 -- Ravens at Dallas (Brazil)

Week #4 -- Chargers in Baltimore

Week #5 -- Buccaneers in Baltimore

Week #6 -- Bye

Week #7 -- Ravens at Buffalo

Week #8 -- Titans in Baltimore

Week #9 -- Bengals in Baltimore

Week #10 -- Ravens at Indianapolis

Week #11 -- Browns in Baltimore

Week #12 -- Ravens at Pittsburgh

Week #13 -- Jaguars at Baltimore

Week #14 -- Ravens at Houston

Week #15 -- Saints at Baltimore

Week #16 -- Ravens at Cincinnati

Week #17 -- Ravens at Atlanta

Week #18 -- Steelers at Baltimore

Nothing about that schedule stands out. Three straight on the road to start the season, followed by four out of five at home and a bye week sandwiched in there to help with rest and recovery.

I still have a funny feeling the league is going to figure out a way to not force the Ravens to start the season with three straight on the road, but we'll see tonight.

During my weekly appearance on Glenn Clark Radio yesterday, the outstanding show host brought up the Ravens and Stefon Diggs and wondered if the former Maryland wide receiver was destined to wind up in purple for the '26 season.

Clark also asked me if I, operating as the team's GM, would accept Diggs on the roster given his recent brush with the law and "not guilty" verdict in a Massachusetts domestic violence case.

There are two separate questions.

Would I sign Diggs given his off-the-field history?

Do I think the Ravens will sign him?

Starting with the latter first, I do believe the Ravens are going to be Diggs' ultimate destination. I don't know how signing him will impact the team's salary cap, but Clark indicated the team has roughly $18 million left to spend with recent draft pick Zion Young still unsigned.

So, they apparently can fit Diggs into their salary structure for '26.

I think there was a time when the Ravens would have been leery of signing someone like Diggs, particularly in the years immediately after the Ray Rice saga. But that was more than a decade ago. And the Ravens have softened their stance on "off the field" situations.

The biggest reason why I think they'd consider Diggs is because I think the Ravens know they're in "win now or pretty daggone soon" mode as it relates to Lamar Jackson.

As I said to Clark yesterday, I have no idea how much longer "great Lamar" will be around. Does he have FOUR more years of elite, top-of-the-list quarterback play? Three more years? Two more years? No one knows. But I'm guessing he has four "elite" years remaining.

So, sign Diggs for 3 years and have at it, as the great Brian Billick would often say.

The Ravens need to win a Super Bowl soon. Or this decade-plus of Lamar Jackson will have mostly been a waste.

Ten years ago, they might have looked the other way on Stefon Diggs. In 2026, I don't think they will.

The Ravens are business to win football games. Once upon a time, a player's personal history or locker room presence might have been factored in when they were considering signing or drafting a player to fit into their organization. I'd say that ship has sailed, philosophy wise.

"We want to win football games. Is he going to help us do that?" is the only real question the Ravens ask. All of the other stuff is just eye-wash.

For me and my money, though, I'd "pass" on Diggs. The biggest red flag to me is four teams in the last seven years. He was a star in Minnesota but they didn't want him. He moved on to Buffalo for a few years and they didn't want him. He joined the Texans in Houston for one year and they said "no thanks". And then he spent a season with the Patriots and now they're dumping him.

His off-the-field issues aside, something's "off" when you're a great player (supposedly) and four teams in seven years say, "You know what, I think we'll move on without you" when it comes time to resigning you.

That red flag I can't ignore.

But I think Ravens will ignore it. And Diggs will be in Baltimore in 2026.

---

There's a thing known as "reading the room".

How you go about reading it and taking it seriously is up to you, of course.

Everyone is different.

Fortunately, I've always been pretty good at that exercise, for whatever reason.

Loosely translated, "reading the room" just means "being aware of what's going on".

You can see it, hear it or, sometimes, just feel it.

Eventually, you might have to act on whatever it is you feel.

Recently, it seems some of you are upset with me about some personal dislikes of mine.

Sophomoric, it's been called. I get that. Really, I do.

Granted, everyone has a team or musical artist they dislike.

Only I have this very forum here to express my disdain for teams and musical artists.

That's really the only difference.

Saying that, I'll try to do better in the future with expressing those dislikes.

Whenever that mood strikes me, I'll pause for a minute and say, "Should I?"

Eliminating those digs and jabs might get people to calm down a little bit.

Personally, I want this to be a friendly place where we all get along.

Thank you for continuing to stop by every day and supporting #DMD.

---

orioles minor league player of the week

It’s time to highlight the O’s farm system a little bit and announce our DMD Orioles’ Minor League Player of the Week.

The 2026 Minor League season is well underway now, and this week several prospects made this an incredibly difficult decision, but ultimately we have selected Norfolk Tides’ RHP Nestor German as our DMD Minor League Player of the Week.

The decision was extremely tough, as our selection last week, Wehiwa Aloy, had himself a terrific week as well (five home runs, nine RBI and hit .500).

German, 24, however earned the nod this week thanks to two stellar starts for the AAA Tides. Over those two starts, German tossed 11 innings while allowing just one earned run (two runs total), walked just one and struck out a robust 16 batters.

In addition, he allowed just seven hits over that stretch, only one of two of which went for extra bases.

The 10th ranked Orioles’ prospect per MLB Pipeline, German has had a very nice start to the season for the Tides. Over eight starts, he has posted a 3.79 ERA with 47 strikeouts over 35.2 innings pitched. In addition, he has allowed just one home run thus far this season and is striking out 11.9 batters per nine innings pitched.

His WHIP is a little high for my liking at 1.430 as he has allowed 33 hits and 18 walks this season, but he is utilizing the strikeout to escape major damage for the most part. In fact, if you take away his April 22 start where he allowed five earned runs over 3.2 innings pitched, German has allowed just 10 earned runs over the rest of his 32 innings pitched.

Given the current performance of the Orioles’ starting rotation, it is not hard to envision the 2023 11th round selection out of Seattle University making his MLB debut at some point this season. If he continues to pitch as well as he has recently, that debut may come sooner rather than later.

Be sure to check back in all season as we will continue to highlight top performers from the O’s farm system!

This weekly contribution of the O's Minor League Player of the Week is provided by Josh Michael.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 28 days to go

Today's featured team: Scotland

Group: C — Brazil, Morocco, Scotland, Haiti

How they Qualified: Scotland won UEFA Group C and ended their 28-year World Cup absence in dramatic fashion.

Best World Cup Finish: Group Stage. Scotland have never reached the knockout rounds and last appeared at a World Cup in 1998.

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $233.51 M

FIFA Rank: 43

Odds to Win Group: 9-1

Odds to Advance: -310

Odds to Win Cup: 200-1

Key Players:

Scott McTominay — Midfielder — Napoli (Italy). McTominay is the obvious headliner. Last season’s Serie A Player of the Year, he is Scotland’s most valuable player, listed at $53m transfer value. He scored the spectacular early goal in the decisive win over Denmark that helped send Scotland to the World Cup.

Andy Robertson — Left Back — Liverpool (Premier League). Robertson is still the captain and emotional tone-setter of the team. He assisted Scotland’s second goal in the comeback push against Greece, and provides a dynamic presence down the left side.

John McGinn — Midfielder — Aston Villa (Premier League). McGinn remains one of the team’s most important all-around players, both for his energy and his knack for popping up in big moments. He assisted Ben Doak’s goal in Greece and is still one of the key runners around McTominay in Scotland’s midfield.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Scotland, under Steve Clarke, are pragmatic team. In qualifiers, they lined up in a 4-2-3-1 away to Greece, then a 4-1-4-1 in the winner-take-all match against Denmark. They are not built to dominate the ball for long stretches.

Against Denmark, Scotland had only 30.2% possession and were outshot 18-10, but still found a way to win 4-2 because they are comfortable playing directly, living off second balls, and trusting late runs and big moments from midfield.

What makes them a little different from some other teams in this range is that they are not a soft, reactive underdog. They can be ugly, but they are tough and emotionally resilient. In Greece, they fell 3-0 down before fighting back to 3-2, with goals from Ben Doak and Ryan Christie.

Then they came right back and beat Denmark four days later. So this is a team that can look limited for long spells, but it also has a habit of staying alive long enough for the match to tilt.

That gives Scotland a real chance in this group. Brazil are the clear heavyweight, which puts extra pressure on the opener against Haiti and especially the middle match against Morocco. Scotland probably are not going to outplay Morocco on skill over 90 minutes, but with the expanded format they may not need to.

The market has them favored to reach the knockout stage, and that feels right: beat Haiti, make Morocco uncomfortable, and then see whether they need anything from the Brazil match. They are not one of the tournament’s real dark horses, but they are sturdy enough to be more than just a sentimental returnee.

---

35 most interesting players to watch

28 - Jamal Musiala - Germany - Midfielder

If fully healthy, Jamal Musiala may be among the most exciting players to watch at the tournament. Still only 23, the Bayern Munich star is already the kind of attacker who can make a game feel tilted every time he gets the ball, gliding past defenders in tight spaces and turning harmless possessions into real danger. He is capable of being both the creative force that unlocks defenses and being the goal scorer finishing off attacking moves.

Musiala is no longer just a gifted prospect. He will be one of the central figures of a Germany team that believes it can make a real run. He missed most of Germany’s qualifying campaign through injury, but Julian Nagelsmann still views him as one of the team’s potential regulars, and he showed again recently how decisive he can be by scoring the equalizer in Bayern’s wild 4-3 comeback win over Mainz.

After only recently returning from a gruesome broken leg suffered in last summer’s Club World Cup, he is just starting to get back to full fitness. If Germany is to make a deep run, they will need Musiala to get back to his game-wrecking self in short order.

It is easy to imagine Musiala being the player people remember most, not just because of the goals or assists, but because very few players in the tournament move like him with the ball at their feet.

Wednesday May 13, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4279

what's wrong with (insert name here)?

In my various golf-related capacities, I get a lot of people come to me throughout the year and say, "Coach, can you take a look at my swing?"

Inevitably, something has gone wrong and the ball isn't going where they want it to go.

When I help someone with their golf swing, I ask a lot of questions.

I generally ask the hardest one first.

"Why do you think the ball is going to the right?"

Most of them say, "I don't know, that's why I'm asking you for help" or something like that.

It's a hard question for that very reason. You see your ball going right (or left) and you've tried to fix it or band-aid something together to help over a short period and it doesn't work.

I'll usually follow up with, "Do you think your ball is going to the right because of the club face being open at impact? Or is it going right because the club face is square at impact but the club path is going right at impact?"

That's the most important question, honestly. The ball going right (or left) is going that way almost always because of one of those two things -- club path or club face.

Fixing one of those two issues isn't always easy. But identifying it isn't that hard.

Sometimes the problem in golf has nothing at all to do with what you think.

I once had a top player on my team who went on to have a decorated college career text me on a Saturday to help with his putting.

"Coach, I have to figure this out. Something's wrong with my lag putting," he texted me. "Can you meet me at Hayfields at 4 pm?"

We stood on the green at Hayfields and he dropped 3 balls about 50 feet from the hole. "I can't get this close," he confessed. "It's always coming up six feet short. Sometimes even more. I'm 3 putting at least three times a round."

I watched him hit probably five sets of three putts, 15 in total. His numbers were off a little, but he was mostly right. He was leaving almost every 50 footer a few feet short. Some were three feet (acceptable) and some were five or six feet short.

"Do you see anything?" he asked. "I feel like I'm not getting the putter face shut or something." He made a few practice strokes and looked at his putter and shook his head.

"I have to fix this," he moaned.

"Move up here," I said, motioning to a spot about 30 feet from the hole.

"Knock a few from here," I pointed. "Let's see what happens.

He putted six balls from there and nearly everyone nestled up closely to the hole. He actually made one.

"Move up here," I urged, pointing to a spot 20 feet from the hole. The same thing happened. He didn't make one this time, but all nine from 20 feet were tap ins.

"What am I doing different?" he asked. "Those definitely felt better."

"This has nothing at all to do with your putting stroke," I told him. "It has to do with you convincing yourself something's wrong with your putting because you've been three putting from 40 or 50 feet. Here's the deal. A lot of people, including players on TOUR, would be three putting from 40 or 50 feet."

"You just fixed your putting," I said. "By hitting it closer to the hole."

"There's nothing at all wrong with your putting," I continued. "If you're leaving yourself a lot of 40 or 50 foot putts, that tells me there's something wrong with your golf swing and you're not hitting the ball the right distance or right direction into the greens."

I urged him to start charting his approach shots into greens to figure out why he wasn't hitting it closer. There was nothing wrong with his putting. He just needed to give himself 20 or 30 feet instead of 40 or 50 feet.

Golf is weird like that. You think it's "A" that's wrong when it's really "B" and maybe even "C" that are making it look like "A" is what's leading you to shoot higher scores.

It wasn't two weeks later I received a "thank you, you were right" text from him as his summer tournament scores dropped and he actually won a fairly big event in the Philadelphia area.

I bring all of that up to ask..........

"What's wrong with Gunnar?"

After last night's 0-for-4 outing vs. the Yankees, the talented O's shortstop is hitting .201 on the season.

Even worse, his on-base-percentage is a paltry .258 and he's slugging at a .402 clip.

There are others on the team we can also ask that same question, "What's wrong?", but those guys aren't in line to receive $40 million per-season sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Gunnar is definitely "off" at the plate.

It's also fair to point out that Shohei Ohtani is off to a slow start as well. Those things happen. But he also pitches every 5th day to help soften the blow of his lack of production at the plate.

And since he plays for the Dodgers, we're not really overly concerned with the Japanese star's play this season.

But we are concerned with Gunnar. The O's are now 43 games into a 162-game season. It's far too early to panic, but it's also a fair sample size to evaluate. A quarter of the season has elapsed after all.

By the way, we can ask "what's wrong?" with Trevor Rogers, also. The O's southpaw returned from an "illness" last night and pitched like he was still sick, allowing 6 earned runs and 6 hits in 4 innings, walking more guys (3) than he struck out (2).

For today, though, we'll focus on Gunnar. I'll let our astute baseball reporter, Randy Morgan, handle all of the heavy lifting on this one.

I can fix Gunnar's golf swing.

But Randy is better served to break down what's going on with Henderson through a quarter of the 2026 season.

---

what's wrong with gunnar?

It seems like this is a theme every week.

With the nature of this team, there isn’t much positive to write about. Let’s see if there are any silver linings in Gunnar’s disappointing start to 2026.

Through 38 games, Gunnar Henderson is slashing .201/.260/.420 with a .674 OPS and 54 strikeouts.

Editor's note: This piece was contributed on Sunday, May 10.

That strikeout rate of 31.2% would be a career high by a wide margin if it holds, and his two-strike performance has been genuinely alarming, with a .074 batting average and .278 OPS in those counts, ranking 329th out of 343 qualified hitters.

This is the same player who posted a .281/.364/.529 line with 37 home runs and a 6.7 fWAR in 2024, looking like a future MVP.

Even his down year in 2025, when the power dipped to just 17 homers but with a .787 OPS, looks luxurious compared to what we're watching now.

So what happened?

The encouraging place to start is that Gunnar has not lost the ability to hit the ball hard. His nine home runs through 38 games put him on pace for roughly 38 on the season. His ISO (Isolated Power, calculated as SLG minus AVG) of around .220 is actually closer to his 2024 level (.248) than the anemic .165 he posted last year.

Baseball Savant has his barrel rate at 10.4% and his average exit velocity at 89.7 mph, both in the neighborhood of league average, but a decent step down from the 92.1 mph he posted in his MVP-caliber 2024 season, which ranked in the 91st percentile.

However, in general when has connected, he’s still doing damage.

The problem is how often he is not connecting, and why.

Multiple deep dives this week, particularly strong pieces from Pitcher List and Orioles Hangout, have converged on the same diagnosis, Henderson's struggles are more self-inflicted than physical.

He has revamped his swing to be more uphill and more pull-oriented, and the results have been mixed at best. He is swinging more often, chasing more pitches outside the zone, and making contact farther out front, all of which has produced more pull-side air contact but far less squared-up damage against anything that isn't a fastball.

Pitchers have noticed. According to Orioles Hangout's analysis, pitchers have cut Henderson's fastball diet by almost 10 percentage points compared to 2024, feeding him a steady stream of offspeed and breaking pitches. Henderson can still punish fastballs, his slugging against heaters is above .530, but his production against offspeed has cratered.

His meatball swing rate, the rate at which he swings at the pitches he should absolutely be swinging at, has dropped from 77.8% in 2024 to 70.7% in 2026. So he's swinging more overall but swinging less at the pitches that are there to be hit.

The two-strike counts tell the story most vividly. Henderson is reaching two-strike counts at the highest rate of his career and then getting put away at a 24.8% clip, which sits in the 13th percentile.

There is a real statistical case for optimism beyond just "he's too talented for this." Gunnar's BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) sits at .242, a full 64 points below his expected BABIP.

His xwOBA (Expected Weighted On-Base Average) of .288 is well below his actual wOBA (Weighted On-Base Average) of .298, suggesting he is due for at least some positive regression.

Some of this is tied to his pull-heavy, high-flyball approach depressing his BABIP, and some of it is just bad luck on balls in play. A 64-point gap between expected and actual BABIP suggests meaningful regression to the mean is coming. His batting average should climb closer to his career .270 line as the season wears on.

But here is the concern. If this were purely a luck problem, you could just shrug and wait. It is not purely a luck problem.

Gunnar (and/or the team) has made a deliberate swing change that has introduced real vulnerabilities, and the league has already adjusted. This decision seems like a massive over-correction for his drop in homers last season.

He went from a hitter who could damage anything in 2024, especially breaking balls, to a hitter who is vulnerable to anything with movement away from his bat path. The largest concern is that the 2024 MVP–level campaign is beginning to look more like the outlier than his true level. Player progression is not always linear and the harsh reality could be that we’ve already seen Gunnar’s peak.

Now a better than average bat, with good power, solid defense and outstanding baserunning at shortstop is still someone you can build around. It just isn't quite the franchise-altering superstar the 2024 season promised.

So should Gunnar change his approach or just wait? The answer is probably a bit of both.

The luck will correct itself, and his batting average will rise. But he also needs to re-establish his ability to lay off offspeed pitches down and away, get back to using the whole field, and stop letting pitchers dictate the terms of the at-bat.

He told reporters on Friday that he felt something click in Thursday's game against the Marlins, and he battled through a 10-pitch walk in Friday's opener against the Athletics that felt like a statement at-bat. Maybe the corner is being turned.

For the Orioles' long-term outlook, Gunnar remains the most important position player in the organization. He is under team control through 2029, arbitration-eligible after this season, and an extension in the range of $250-350 million is still a possibility. Even a "disappointing" Gunnar is a player most teams would build their franchise around.

The question is whether this version, higher strikeouts, less contact, more pull-happy, represents a permanent shift in his profile or a correctable rough patch. The track record, the underlying quality of contact, and the sheer amount of BABIP regression he's owed all point toward better days ahead.

But this is no longer just a slump to be waited out. There are real approach and swing-decision issues that need to be addressed, and the sooner he and the coaching staff confront that, the sooner we get the hitter we know he can be.

This review of Gunnar was provided by Randy Morgan.

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10 was Daniel Berger. #9 was Kurt Kitayama. #8 was Sepp Straka. #7 was Rory McIlroy. #6 was Harris English. #5 was Justin Rose. #4 was Sam Burns. #3 was Tommy Fleetwood. #2 was Jacob Bridgeman.

#1 Ludvig Aberg -- Other than sand save percentage, where he's average at best this year, there's nothing at all statistically about Ludvig's season that points to anything other than winning this week at the PGA Championship.

It's his time, finally.

He's killing it off the tee. (18th in distance)

He's hitting it in the fairway. (42nd in accuracy

He's hitting it on the greens. (24th in greens hit)

And he's hitting it closer than just about anyone in golf. (5th in proximity)

And he's putting it fine. (51st in shots gained, putting)

There's nothing he's not doing well other than getting it up and down out of bunkers. And it's not like he's "terrible" in that category. He's just not in the top half of the field, that's all.

Aberg has flirted with a few major championships in his young career, but has yet to win.

I think that's going to change this week at a course that's almost perfectly fit for him and his game.

Can he close?

That's the question that has haunted him a bit over the last three years. He does have two TOUR wins, but he has a half dozen back nine "flubs" where he was all set to win but then couldn't play the incoming nine holes well enough to cap it all with a victory.

I'm thinking that changes this week at Aronimink and Aberg finally gets that elusive major championship.

You'll note in my selections above I don't list "the big three" of Scheffler, Fitzpatrick (Matt) and Cameron Young. Would I be surprised if any of those three were to win? Not at all. Would I suggest placing a few bucks on each? Sure. One of them can definitely win.

But when I look at what a player needs to do well to win at Aronimink, certain things stand out that I've chronicled along the way and there are names that jump out right away.

If you gave me your $100 and said, "Put $25 on four players you really think might win", I'd put $25 on Aberg, Harris English, Sepp Straka and Kurt Kitayama.

I love, love, love Harris English's chances this week.

If Straka putts well, he can win.

And I think Kitayama could be this year's J.J. Spaun, a supremely talented but undervalued player who is capable of going toe-to-toe with the best players in the world and he won't back down.

I'll give you three long shots for those of you who enjoy playing those "off the radar" screen guys.

David Puig is a talented Spanish player on the LIV circuit who should not be overlooked this week. You can get him at a great price to win (+15000), finish Top 20 or Top 10. You can also get him at +950 to be the "low LIV player" which is just too inviting to pass up.

Wyndham Clark is a former U.S. Open champ who has undergone some swing changes over the last 12 months. His odds (+17500) are kind of crazy. I'll throw $10 on him to win "just because". If he hits it well at Aronimink, he has a chance.

Alex Noren is, like, Jacob Bridgeman, at +15000. Noren is an incredibly talented ball striker who has always come up short with the putter. But when he finds greens to his liking, he's a threat to put it all together, much like Reitan did last week at The Truist.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 29 days to go

Today's featured team: South Korea

Group: A — Mexico, South Korea, Czech Republic, South Africa

How they Qualified: South Korea topped AFC third-round Group B and clinched qualification with a 2-0 win at Iraq on June 5, 2025, then closed the campaign with a 4-0 win over Kuwait. It is their 11th straight World Cup qualification and 12th overall appearance.

Best World Cup Finish: Semifinals (2002)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $164.69 M

FIFA Rank: 25

Odds to Win Group: 3-1

Odds to Advance: -330

Odds to Win Cup: 450-1

Key Players:

Son Heung-min — Forward — LAFC (MLS). Son is still the face of the team and the player everything runs through. He is South Korea’s most-capped player with 140 appearances and 54 international goals. Even after his move from the Premier League to MLS, he remains a world class talent and led South Korea with 10 goals in qualification.

Kang-in Lee — Attacking Midfielder — Paris Saint-Germain (France). Kang-in is South Korea’s main creative spark between the lines and one of the two most valuable players in the squad at $29m. He gives them a level of technical quality that separates them from a lot of mid- tier teams. Lee led South Korea in assists in qualifying.

Kim Min-jae — Center Back — Bayern Munich (Germany). Kim remains the defensive anchor and is tied with Kang-in as South Korea’s highest-valued player at $33m. If South Korea are going to handle the physical side of this group, he is the player who has to set that tone.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Under Hong Myung-bo, South Korea has lined up in a 4-2-3-1 against Palestine, Oman, Iraq, and Kuwait, and that shape suits the personnel. With Son off the left, Kang-in as the main creator, and attacking fullbacks supporting, this is a team that wants to play with structure and technical quality rather than simply sit deep and wait.

That said, the qualifying campaign suggested a team that was steadier than spectacular. South Korea went unbeaten in the third round but struggled at home, and the results back that up, they drew 0-0 with Palestine and 1-1 with Oman before finishing strongly.

So this is probably not a side that wants chaotic, end-to-end games. They look more comfortable controlling rhythm, combining in the half spaces, and letting their better players decide matches with moments of quality.

That makes Group A pretty interesting. Mexico are deserved favorites because of the home advantage, while the opener against Czech Republic feels huge because it could decide whether South Korea are playing from strength or pressure the rest of the way.

South Africa look like the one matchup where Korea should expect to have more of the ball and more of the initiative.

The market has South Korea as only the third choice to win the group, but still odds-on to advance, which feels about right: this looks like a solid, balanced team with a real chance to get through, even if it does not quite feel like one of the tournament’s true dark horses.

---

35 Most Interesting Players to Watch

29 - Arda Guler - Turkiye - Midfielder

For a U.S. audience, Arda Güler is probably the first Turkish name to circle in this group. He is only 21, plays for Real Madrid, and is one of the most exciting young players in the entire tournament.

His decisive passing, set-piece delivery, and long-range shooting have vaulted him to a key contributor for the Spanish giants. That matters because the U.S. will not just be dealing with a tidy possession player.

They will be dealing with one of the two Turkish midfielders most capable of turning a half-chance into the pass or shot that changes the match. He is also arriving in real form, not just on reputation.

In recent months he has assisted in Türkiye’s playoff semifinal, scored a goal from his own half for Madrid, and a brace in Munich. It was Güler’s moment of brilliance that set up the winner in Türkiye’s 1-0 playoff victory over Romania.

So when the U.S. sees Türkiye on the schedule, this is the player most likely to punish a loose midfield rotation or a defender stepping out a second too late.

That is what makes him so interesting in this group. The U.S. will probably feel good about its athleticism and tempo against Türkiye, but Güler is exactly the kind of player who can slow the game down and make the Americans defend with patience instead of energy.

If the U.S. let him receive too comfortably between the lines or give him cheap fouls around the box, he has the ability to make them pay.

Tuesday May 12, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4278

stealing one

I don't know that anyone keeps an exact count of how many games during a season a team wins when they shouldn't and loses when they shouldn't, but I think those kind of games mostly even out when it's all said and done.

In any given baseball season, you might win 5 that you otherwise deserved to lose and you probably lose 5 you should have won.

For better teams, it might be 10 and 5 instead of 5 and 5, which is why they wind up winning, say, 90 games instead of 85.

Or 100 games instead of 95.

And if it's the other way around, 5 and 10, you might go 76-86 instead of 81-81.

Last night was a game the Orioles were always going to lose. Right up until they won, that is.

They were no-hit for six innings by Ryan Weathers, then scored three runs in the 7th to edge ahead, 3-2. And that's how it ended, a 3-2 win over the Yankees that gave the O's a bit of new found energy...we hope.

Coby Mayo's 3-run homer was the difference.

That's not a typo. Coby. Mayo. 3 run homer.

The Birds were baffled and hitless into the 7th inning before the southpaw finally gave up a hit to Adley Rutschman. Weathers departed and then Tyler O'Neill actually did something productive at the plate and walked. And that paved the way for Mayo to dump a ball into the left field seats for the game winning homer.

New York nearly tied it in the 9th on a long fly ball to right field off the bat of Ryan McMahon, but O'Neill made a leaping nice catch at the wall that had Kevin Brown sounding like it was Roberto Clemente diving outstretched for a liner into shallow right field.

Those play-by-play guys. It must be nerve-wracking to have to report to the ballpark every night and know you could lose your job if you don't make every play sound like Game 7 of the World Series.

Anyway, that was one the O's stole on Monday night, which is most certainly a good thing, particularly given that it was actually Mayo himself who threw the ball away in Miami last Wednesday to give the Marlins a victory they didn't deserve.

Brandon Young had another decent, steady start on the mound for 'dem O's, going 5.1 innings and allowing just 3 Yankees hits and 2 runs on the night.

It's almost time to give Young a talk and say, "You're staying up here with us, kid. Keep up the good work." He's certainly been more reliable than any of the team's other veteran pitchers over the last few weeks.

And then once Young departed, it was bullpen time, with Enns, Garcia and Nunez slamming the door with flawless relief work to preserve the win.

Any win is a good win but that one last night was especially tasty after New York took the Birds to the woodshed over four straight days last weekend by a total score of 39-10.

Oh, and don't look now, but the Yankees have suddenly dropped four straight.

A crowd of 23,000 plus took it all in at Camden Yards. About 10,000 of them were wearing dark blue Yankees tee-shirts.

They probably see $14 beers and $12 chicken tenders and fries and think, "Wow, what a bargain down here in Baltimore!"

If the rumors are true and the Ravens are opening their season at home on a Monday night vs. Cincinnati, that's pretty cool. A Ravens-Bengals clash is always good football, especially if it's one of the rare occasions that Joe Burrow is actually healthy and not on the injured list.

I guess, from a selfish standpoint, we'd much rather see the Ravens play Cincy in something like weeks 9 and 17, because Burrow is generally good for 4-6 games before he gets hurt. By the time November rolls around, the Ravens don't have to worry about him.

Oh, and by playing the Bengals in the season opener, it also means wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase will actually be locked in, still, and not checked out like he would be in December if Cincinnati had, say, a 6-9 record with a couple of weeks left in the campaign.

On second thought, maybe playing the Bengals in the Monday Night season opener isn't "pretty cool" after all.

Seriously, though, a Monday night opener on a warm September night in The Land of Pleasant Living? Yeah, I don't care who comes to town for that one, sign me up for it.

Jesse Minter's coaching debut in Baltimore on national TV against a division rival? Sounds like a sure-fire "W" to this guy.

A #DMD reader trying to pass him/her self off as "Marcie Madsen" had an interesting comment in yesterday's #DMD that I feel should be addressed here since, as you know, the Flyers season is now officially over after their humiliating 4-0 sweep at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes.

"Marcie" wrote this: I'm really wanting to get on the Flyers hate bandwagon, but it would be nice to know why, of all the teams on the planet, this is the one I should direct all my vitriol toward. Do all of the players support Donald Trump? Have they been accused of serious crimes - are they murderers and rapists? Do they cheat? Or is this something personal, as in you attended a Flyers game in Philly and all the air was let out of your tires? Or you were sexually abused by drunken Flyers fans in the men's room during an intermission. Or a Flyers fan accused your mother of wearing Army boots. If it's personal, well, you should stop shoving your personal vendetta/psychological problems down your readers' throats. But if it's any of the other reasons, I'm onboard!!

Sentence by sentence, I'll handle addressing the issues "Marcie" presented.

I'm really wanting to get on the Flyers hate bandwagon (There's plenty of room!), but it would be nice to know why, of all the teams on the planet, this is the one I should direct all my vitriol toward. (I didn't tell you to direct your vitriol toward anyone. You can make up your own mind.)

Do all of the players support Donald Trump? (I have no idea who they support politically and don't care.)

Have they been accused of serious crimes - are they murderers and rapists? Do they cheat? (Not sure of this one, either, although they did have a (former) player involved in a pretty ugly scandal up in Canada that finally got resolved last year.)

Or is this something personal, as in you attended a Flyers game in Philly and all the air was let out of your tires? (Oh, yes, it's VERY personal, but it had nothing to do with my car or my tires. All good there.)

Or you were sexually abused by drunken Flyers fans in the men's room during an intermission. (No, nothing like that happened to me, either, although I once discreetly dropped a Bobby Clarke hockey card in a urinal during a Caps/Flyers game in Philly and then waited around to see what the reaction would be. It was priceless, by the way.)

Or a Flyers fan accused your mother of wearing Army boots. (My mom was quite the fashionista in her day, so I don't think a good pair of Army boots would have looked all that bad on her. But, no, nothing like that happened to me.)

If it's personal, well, you should stop shoving your personal vendetta/psychological problems down your readers' throats. But if it's any of the other reasons, I'm onboard!! (Look, I realize you're agitated that your team got swept in embarrassing fashion by the Hurricanes. I know it hurts. And I have no idea how old you are, "Marcie", but if you're not 51 yet, I realize you've spent your entire life rooting for a team that has NEVER won the Stanley Cup. I love hockey. You probably do as well. And I know, as a lifelong Caps fan, how difficult it is every year to have your team stink. But things will get better for you up there in Philly. Heck, you guys might even make the playoffs again in, say, 2029 or 2030. Who knows? Maybe by the time the Flyers make it back to the Finals, you'll find yourself a nice pair of Army boots to wear to the games.)

I can see the 2026-2027 season ticket brochure now: Flyers hockey! You never know, this might be the year we actually do something almost special.

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10 was Daniel Berger. #9 was Kurt Kitayama. #8 was Sepp Straka. #7 was Rory McIlroy. #6 was Harris English. #5 was Justin Rose. #4 was Sam Burns. #3 was Tommy Fleetwood.

#2 Jacob Bridgeman -- With news coming out of Aronimink on Monday that the greens are fast, firm and difficult, who better to slide into our Top 10 as a true darkhorse winner than this year's current top putter on TOUR? Bridgeman has 10 three-putts ALL year. That's it. 10.

And if he can conquer the greens at Aronimink, he stands a real chance of making some noise in the PGA Championship.

He has a "big" win already this year (Genesis) and has the driving stats, both in accuracy and length, to contend at a big layout like Aronimink. His scrambling numbers aren't great, but that's mainly because he's hitting most of the greens and doesn't need to fiddle around with his chipping and short game.

If he just drives it straight this week and gets it on the putting surface, he has a real chance.

And Bridgeman would definitely fit the "unknown" narrative that tends to accompany the PGA. He'd join the likes of Micheel, Beem, Yang, Dufner, Bradley and Walker as guys you assumed wouldn't win majors who actually did...all at the PGA.

But this kid's not a fluke. He's the real deal, as he proved out in L.A. earlier this year. If his driver cooperates this week, I like his chances to contend.

The set-up of the course is going to go a long way in determining who contends and who doesn't. The early reports are the fairways are a little more wide than players anticipated, the rough is "up" a bit more, especially around the greens, and the putting surfaces are very fast and firm, which most people expected.

This lends itself to someone like Bridgeman, I'd say, who has all the tools tee-to-green and is having himself a heck of a season once he gets on the greens. The moment will not be too big for him if he can put himself in position to win on Sunday.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 30 days to go

Today's featured team - Algeria

Group: J — Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan

How they Qualified: Algeria won CAF Group G and sealed qualification with a 3-0 win away to Somalia on October 9, 2025, with Mohamed Amoura scoring twice and Riyad Mahrez adding the other.

Best World Cup Finish: Round of 16 (2014)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $270.22 M

FIFA Rank: 28

Odds to Win Group: 7-1

Odds to Advance: -310

Odds to Win Cup: 350-1

Key Players:

Mohamed Amoura — Striker — Wolfsburg (Germany). Amoura looks like Algeria’s most dangerous current attacker. Valued at $34m, Amoura scored twice in the win over Somalia that sent Algeria to the World Cup and led them with ten goals in the qualifying campaign.

Riyad Mahrez — Winger — Al-Ahli (Saudi Arabia). Mahrez is still the captain, still the main creative reference point, and still the player most likely to decide a match with one moment of quality. He has notched 107 caps and 34 goals in his international career and led the team in assists during qualification.

Rayan Aït-Nouri — Left Back — Manchester City (Premier League). Aït-Nouri gives Algeria a modern, high-level threat from the back line and raises their ceiling athletically. He made a big- money move to Manchester City last year and is currently valued around $50m.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Under coach Vladimir Petkovic, Algeria generally wants to control the game, not just survive it. They lined up in a 4-3-3 attacking against Botswana, Somalia, and Uganda, with a 4-2-3-1 away to Guinea, and the numbers back up their desire to control the ball: Algeria had 66.3% possession against Botswana and 68.9% against Uganda.

This is a team that usually expects to have the ball, push its fullbacks forward, and let players like Mahrez, Amoura, Gouiri, and Aït- Nouri create pressure in the final third.

However, the AFCON quarterfinal against Nigeria was a useful warning sign. Nigeria dominated from start to finish and left Algeria with no clear scoring opportunities, while Petkovic admitted afterward that his team had been prevented from playing the way it wanted.

So while hat Algeria can look assertive and front-footed against a lot of opponents, against stronger, more physical teams they can be knocked out of rhythm.

That makes Group J pretty interesting. Argentina are the clear favorite, but Algeria seem like a real challenger to Austria for second place rather than a team just hoping to finish third. They have more attacking quality than Jordan, more individual craft than a lot of teams in this tier, and enough control in their game to make Austria uncomfortable if they can dictate tempo.

They are not a threat to win the whole tournament, but they are one of the more plausible mid-tier teams to get out of the group and become annoying for somebody in the knockouts.

---

35 Most Interesting Players to Watch

30 - Alexis Mac Allister - Argentina - Midfielder

There are more explosive stars on Argentina, but Alexis Mac Allister is one of the players who makes the whole machine work. Still only 27, he has become a central piece for both Liverpool and Argentina, the kind of midfielder who can connect phases of play, keep the game calm, and then suddenly arrive with a big goal or decisive pass.

Mac Allister is a truly well-rounded midfielder, with the ability to slide between playmaker, ball- winner, tempo-setter, and late-arriving threat depending on what Argentina need around players like Lionel Messi, Enzo Fernández, and Julián Álvarez

That versatility has helped make him a fixture for the reigning world champions, and it is a big reason he feels so important even if he is not always the headline name.

At this World Cup, Mac Allister arrives as a more mature and complete version of himself. So while he may not dominate the highlight reels, he is exactly the type of player who can quietly shape whether Argentina can defend their trophy.

Monday May 11, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4277

51 years...and counting

There's a tradition about 75 miles up I-95 that takes place right around this time every year.

If you follow sports, you're familiar with it, I'm sure.

It's early in the spring, every year since 1975, when two gentlemen dressed to the nines with white gloves and all make their to the ice and present the Philadelphia Flyers with their off-season gift.

Some teams give out expensive watches or cars to their players at the completion of the season.

The Flyers keep "sports" as their theme and they give out beautiful, hand-crafted Flyers golf bags to all of their players.

And they present those bags to the players right there on center ice, just like they would if hell froze over and the Flyers won the Stanley Cup.

It's become an emotional tradition in Philadelphia. The players have given their all in the regular season and come up short, once again.

But the team doesn't want to disregard their efforts.

And on the rare occasion when the Flyers' chakras line up and they make the playoffs once every 5 or 10 years, the front office wants to make sure they show their appreciation for what they've dubbed "our Spring miracle" in the City of Brotherly Love.

The golf bag themed as a mock Stanley Cup is always a fitting way to close out another disappointing campaign.

The players are thankful, of course. You know athletes, they love getting free stuff. And each player's name is proudly hand-stitched in the bag so they're never confused with, say, a member of the Washington Capitals, who won the Stanley Cup back in 2018.

I guess it would be hard to confuse the two franchises. The Capitals have been annual championship contenders for many of the last 20 years. The Flyers haven't been relevant in two decades.

Alas, today, somewhere up there in the Philadelphia area, the Flyers will be teeing it up and enjoying their new gift. Fairways and greens, men. Fairways and greens.

---

first quarter grades

With the Birds at 18-23, let's hand out our first quarter report card to the battlin' Birds.

The offense wasn't there, again, on Sunday, but the pitching was more-than-solid, as the O's squeaked out a 2-1 win over the visiting Athletics. Chris Bassitt went 6 innings and allowed just 4 hits and 1 earned run to help the Birds snap a 3-game losing skid.

We'll do the report card a different way.

We're going to list the guys who A's, those who got B's, and so on.

And we'll fill in the blanks with some commentary along the way.

There aren't many A's, that's for sure. There are a few more B's. A lot of C's and D's. And maybe one E. Or two.

I didn't bother grading the manager because I don't see how you hand him a grade at this point. For starters, his lineup has been littered with injuries. And the lineups he does wind up playing are mostly hand-carved for him by the front office data gang.

OK, so here we go. We're grading only guys who played "most" of the first quarter in Baltimore. Like, we're not giving out grades to Mountcastle or Kremer or Akin or Kittredge. Kittredge is fortunate he's not getting graded, actually.

Grade: A

* Adley Rutschman (despite missing some time with an injury, he's the team's MVP thus far)

* Rico Garcia (0.50 ERA, 0.44 WHIP, only pitcher with a WAR number above 1)

* Leody Taveras (this one's on a curve because I never thought he'd be any good, but he's been excellent)

Grade: B

* Taylor Ward (the power numbers are down but other than that he's been just what they thought he'd be)

* Samuel Basallo (sometimes looks overmatched but he's basically in the 3rd month of his MLB career, remember)

* Ryan Helsley (was doing the job before he got hurt, despite a bump or two in the road)

* Jeremiah Jackson (was on the fast track for an "A" until he went in the tank 10 days ago)

* Yennier Cano (reliable more than not, doesn't get lit up very often)

Grade: C

* Dylan Beavers (he might argue with the professor he's earned a "B")

* Blaze Alexander (grading him on the curve, expected little, got a bit more than that)

* Tyler Wells (1.20 WHIP and 3.44 ERA, along with just 4 walks in 18 innings pitched)

* Brandon Young (it feels like he's a legit MLB pitcher when he has his best stuff)

* Pete Alonso (at least he's starting to trend "up" over the last 2 weeks)

Grade: D

* Gunnar Henderson (only thing saving him from an "E" are the 9 homers)

* Trevor Rogers (started off with an "A+" but has been lousy for the most part)

* Grant Wolfram (he probably deserves a C- but we only grade in A, B, C, etc.)

* Coby Mayo (has been a "B+" defensively but his bat has been woeful)

* Chris Bassitt (hard to give a starter with a 5.21 ERA anything other than a "D")

* Cade Povich (honestly, he's one good start away from a "C" grade)

* Anthony Nunez (same as Povich, he's one or two solid appearances shy of earning a "C")

* Shane Baz (are the Rays interested in getting him back?)

* Kyle Bradish (expected more from a varsity letterman)

Grade: E

* Colton Cowser (no homers and a .181 average and .277 OBP)

* Tyler O'Neill (1 homer and a .185 batting average, LOL)

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10 was Daniel Berger. #9 was Kurt Kitayama. #8 was Sepp Straka. #7 was Rory McIlroy. #6 was Harris English. #5 was Justin Rose. #4 Sam Burns.

#3 Tommy Fleetwood -- Fleetwood fits the same profile as someone like Burns, English or Straka above. He's going to win a major at some point in his career.

His most likely journey to the major winner's circle is probably the British Open, but I like his chances at Aronimink as long as he putts decently.

Statistically, Fleetwood is probably only flawed in two areas; putting and driving distance. And in both cases, he's more than competent in those areas, just not good enough to be in the Top 100. But that can all change in one week if the driver sight lines are to his liking and the greens fit his putting style.

Make no mistake about it, Tommy Fleetwood is good enough to win a major championship. His game should actually travel well enough to be a factor in all four of them. He just needs a good week with the putter more than anything else.

The oddsmakers think Tommy has a chance, too. He's at +2500, which is a little surprising given his career accomplishments (1 win) on the PGA Tour.

But they also know what we know. If Fleetwood putts well, he's a threat to win.

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to return to the A.L. playoffs after missing the post-season in 2025.

orioles week in review

Week Record: 3-3

Season Record: 18-23

AL East Standing: 4th (9 GB of NYY)

Player of the Week: Samuel Basallo - .360 AVG 1 3B 3 DB 5 RBI

The Orioles once again had a promising start to the week before floundering in a three game losing streak and managing to tread water with a sweep-avoiding Sunday win. The mediocre week dropped them further behind the first place Yankees and did nothing to provide any solace for a fanbase worried another season is starting to slip away.

The Birds headed to Miami for a three-game set with the Marlins, desperate to reset after getting outscored 39-10 in a four-game sweep by the Yankees. Baltimore took two of three to win the series, but the finale delivered another gut punch.

Tuesday's opener was a wild 9-7 win that snapped a five-game losing streak. Chris Bassitt continued to struggle, allowing four runs on six hits with three walks in just four innings, bumping his ERA to 5.91.

But the offense bailed him out in a big way. Pete Alonso ripped a two-run double in the first, and Samuel Basallo followed with an RBI double to make it 3-0. Basallo was sensational all night, finishing a home run shy of the cycle with four RBI, including an RBI triple in the fifth that pushed the lead to 7-4.

The Marlins clawed back with back-to-back homers in the seventh, then tied it in the eighth. In the ninth, Adley Rutschman came off the bench to pinch hit against lefty Andrew Nardi and delivered a go-ahead single to left. Leody Taveras tacked on an insurance RBI single, and Rico García closed it out to earn the win.

Wednesday was more straightforward. Brandon Young gave up three runs in the first but settled down to deliver six solid innings (3 R, 4 H, 3 BB, 5 K), improving to 3-1.

Alonso set the tone immediately with a 407-foot, three-run homer off Eury Pérez to erase the early deficit. Rutschman stayed hot with a pair of RBI doubles as the O's pulled away for a 7-4 win. García worked a scoreless ninth for his second save, lowering his ERA to a sparkling 0.53 across 18 appearances.

Thursday's finale was supposed to complete the sweep. Instead, it was another momentum- killing, deflating loss. Cade Povich walked former Oriole Connor Norby on four pitches to open the first, then Hicks launched a two-run homer to put Miami up early.

Povich exited after just three innings and 43 pitches with left forearm discomfort (always an ominous sign) and headed to the IL. The bullpen was excellent in relief, with Yennier Cano, Dietrich Enns, and Keegan Akin combining to keep the O’s in the game.

Alonso tied it at 3-3 with an RBI single in the eighth, but Coby Mayo sealed the loss by bobbling a Javier Sanoja grounder in the ninth and throwing wild to first, allowing Joe Mack to score the walk-off run in a 4-3 loss.

The Athletics came to Camden Yards for the weekend series riding a wave of confidence, sitting atop the AL West at 21-18. In the Friday opener, Kyle Bradish delivered far and away his best start of the season, firing seven innings of three-run ball with 10 strikeouts and just one walk on 96 pitches. Unfortunately the offense gave him little to work with and the defense and managerial decisions let him down.

The O's managed just four hits on the night, two of them solo homers from Adley Rutschman and Pete Alonso. The A’s rallied for three runs in the fifth, sparked by a weak grounder that scored the first run when the Orioles aggressively shifted for a bunt that never happened.

Trey Gibson surrendered an insurance run in the eighth, and A’s closer Hogan Harris escaped a ninth-inning jam by retiring Gunnar to strand the tying run. Samuel Basallo drove in a run in the ninth to make it interesting, but it was too little too late in a 4-3 loss.

Saturday was worse. Shane Baz continued his slide, lasting just 4.2 innings while allowing five runs on five hits with three walks.

Aaron Civale held the O's scoreless through five innings despite allowing six hits, escaping a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the fifth when Rutschman struck out and Alonso and Basallo both hit shallow fly balls.

It was the kind of inning that perfectly encapsulated the O's offensive struggles this season, all the traffic, none of the damage. Colton Cowser broke up the shutout with a pinch-hit, two-RBI single in the eighth, but the 6-2 final dropped the O’s to 17-23 and six games under .500 for the first time this year. Hopefully Nelly was better than the O’s.

The Birds got a desperately needed win to avoid a sweep in the Sunday finale. Chris Bassitt turned in a strong outing after Keegan Akin pitched one inning as the “opener”. Bassitt held the Athletics to one run on four hits over six innings, striking out six with just one walk on 94 efficient pitches.

Dylan Beavers doubled and scored in the third, with Henderson singling him home for the tying run. Beavers then singled home Basallo, who had doubled, in the sixth for the go- ahead run.

The bullpen was airtight from there. Anthony Nuñez worked around two walks in the seventh, Keegan Akin punched out two in the eighth, and Rico García earned his third save with a scoreless ninth to seal the 2-1 win and avoid the sweep.

A few players made strong cases for Player of the Week. Adley Rutschman was excellent across the six games, slashing .333/.417/.619 with three doubles, a homer, and four RBI. The pinch-hit go-ahead single against the Marlins on Tuesday was exactly the kind of clutch hit the O’s have been missing.

Kyle Bradish also deserves recognition, even though his line includes a tough-luck loss. His seven-inning, 10-strikeout gem against the Athletics on Friday was the best start by any Orioles pitcher not named Trevor Rogers this season. He walked just one batter and was in complete control for the first time all year, locating his fastball and putting hitters away with consistency. The team desperately needs Bradish to build on this.

Dylan Beavers quietly put together a strong week at the plate as well, batting .350/.458/.550 with four doubles and four walks across 24 plate appearances and his Sunday performance was the clutch highlight of the week.

But the award goes to Samuel Basallo, who was the best hitter on the team this week. Basallo slashed .360/.385/.560 with nine hits, three doubles, a triple, and five RBI across six games. His Tuesday night in Miami was a show, going 3-for-3 with a double, a triple, and a two-run single, finishing a homer shy of the cycle with four RBI in what may have been the best game of his young career.

He also doubled in Thursday's loss and again on Sunday, showing a willingness to drive the ball to all fields that the Orioles desperately need from their middle-of-the-order hitters.

At 21 years old, Basallo is starting to look like the player the organization bet $67 million on last summer. In a week where much of the lineup went cold, Basallo was the one constant.

Down on the Farm --

Norfolk went 2-4 on the week, but Creed Willems continued his torrid start to the AAA season, slashing .353/.450/.882 with three home runs and six RBI in 20 plate appearances, bringing his season OPS to .866.

The catching prospect now has five homers and 13 RBI through his first taste of Triple-A and has looked comfortable at every level the organization has placed him.

On the mound, Nestor German was utterly dominant in 11 innings of work, striking out 16 against just one walk while allowing one earned run on seven hits. German continues to look like one of the more intriguing arms in the upper minors.

Levi Wells also turned in a solid 4.2 innings with four strikeouts and one earned run. It was not all positive, however. Trace Bright was roughed up for seven earned runs on nine hits in four innings, and Cameron Foster allowed five earned runs in 2.2 frames.

AA Chesapeake was the more interesting story this week, thanks to a pair of high-profile rehab assignments arriving at Prince George's Stadium. Jackson Holliday resumed his third rehab stint of the season on Thursday, going 0-for-6 with four walks in his first two games with the Baysox.

This is Holliday's third attempt at a rehab assignment since his February hamate bone surgery, with the first two cut short by recurring hand discomfort.

The bigger news is positional. Albernaz confirmed Holliday will get reps at third base during this assignment, his first look at the hot corner since a couple of games in the low minors in 2023.

With Jordan Westburg's likely done for the year and Coby Mayo looking baffled by Major League pitching, the Orioles clearly need options at the position. Holliday is expected to rejoin Norfolk on Tuesday to continue the assignment. A return to the big league roster by mid-to-late May remains the target if the hand cooperates.

Heston Kjerstad also began a rehab assignment at Chesapeake on Saturday after missing the entire season with a Grade 1 right hamstring strain suffered in a late-spring exhibition game. He went 1-for-6 in his first two games. The likely path for Kjerstad once he's activated is an option to Norfolk for additional at-bats before a big league roster spot opens up.

Among the everyday Chesapeake players, Ethan Anderson was the standout, slashing .368/.455/.842 with three homers, five RBI and two stolen bases. Anderson has an .863 OPS on the year, another promising catching prospect in the organization.

Frederick Bencosme had a well-rounded week at .316/.409/.632 with three doubles and a homer. Tavian Josenberger swiped four bases while hitting .278 with a homer and four RBI. Anderson De Los Santos drove in six runs despite a low average, and Griff O'Ferrall doubled four times while batting .222/.318/.444.

On the Chesapeake pitching side, Sebastian Gongora was excellent in six innings (5 H, 1 BB, 7 K, 1 ER), and Yaqui Rivera punched out nine in 5.1 innings of two-run ball. Evan Yates was the most dominant arm on the staff, allowing just one hit and one walk across 5.1 innings with five strikeouts and a 0.38 WHIP on the week.

Tomorrow here at #DMD, Randy's question of the week will be explored: "What's wrong with Gunnar?"

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 31 days to go

Today's featured team - Australia

Group: D — United States, Paraguay, Australia, Türkiye

How they Qualified: Australia reached a sixth straight World Cup and finally did it the direct way again. They breezed through the AFC second round with six wins from six and no goals conceded, then had a rocky start to the decisive third round with a home loss to Bahrain and a draw in Indonesia. That led to the coaching change from Graham Arnold to Tony Popovic, and the Socceroos then went unbeaten the rest of the way.

Best World Cup Finish: Round of 16 (2006, 2022)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $38.71 M

FIFA Rank: 27

Odds to Win Group: 7-1

Odds to Advance: -115

Odds to Win Cup: 500-1

Key Players:

Riley McGree — Midfielder — Middlesbrough (English Championship). McGree remains one of Australia’s most important connectors in the final third, and he supplied the cut-back for the late winner against Japan in one of the biggest matches of the cycle. Transfermarkt values him at $3.3m.

Mat Ryan — Goalkeeper — Levante (Spain). Ryan is still the veteran backbone of the side. He started both decisive June qualifiers against Japan and Saudi Arabia, and FIFA notes he is already one of Australia’s joint record World Cup appearance-makers, which matters for a team that wants to keep matches tight and survive pressure.

Aziz Behich — Left Back/Wing-Back — Melbourne City (Australia). Behich feels like a much more important player than his profile suggests. He started both of the qualifiers that finished the job, then scored the 90th-minute winner against Japan, one of the biggest goals of Australia’s cycle.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Australia are one of the least glamorous but most awkward teams the U.S. could have drawn. Under Tony Popovic, they have mostly leaned into a back-five / back-three structure and a low- event style built around defending the box, winning second balls, and waiting for one or two moments to swing the match. That was the story in the decisive qualifiers: a 1-0 win over Japan and a 2-1 win at Saudi Arabia.

For a U.S. audience, the October friendly in Denver is probably the most useful reference point. Australia scored first through Jordan Bos, but once the Americans pushed the tempo and forced the game to open up, the U.S. had more attacking upside and won 2-1 behind Haji Wright’s brace.

That does not mean the World Cup match will play out the same way, but it is a clue. Australia are most dangerous when they can keep the game scrappy and territorial, not when they are asked to trade chances with the U.S. over 90 minutes.

That is also what makes them tricky in the broader group. Türkiye have more technical quality and individual creators, while Paraguay are probably a more natural stylistic cousin in terms of low-margin games and defensive grit.

Australia look like the fourth-most talented team on paper, and current betting markets reflect that, pricing them as the group outsider with roughly a 12.5% chance to win the group and around a 50% chance to advance.

But they are exactly the kind of team that can make every match in the group feel uncomfortable and drag the standings into ugly math by the final matchday.

---

35 Most Interesting Players to Watch

31 - Virgil Van Dijk- Netherlands - Centerback

There are flashier stars at this World Cup, but few players shape a team more completely than Virgil van Dijk.

He is still the captain and defensive centerpiece for the Netherlands, and at 34 he remains the kind of center back who can calm a match just by being on the field. The Dutch still lean on his positioning, command in the air, and ability to organize everyone around him, and he showed in March that he can still deliver in big moments by scoring in the 2-1 win over Norway.

Part of what makes Van Dijk so interesting is that he is no longer just a pure stopper. At this stage of his career, he feels more like the Netherlands’ defensive quarterback, the veteran who sets the line, wins the crucial first duel, and keeps the whole back line from tilting into chaos.

Official Dutch federation records show he debuted for the senior national team in October 2015 and has now reached 90 caps with 12 goals, which is a huge return for a central defender. He has been a rock at Liverpool and pushed the team to perennial contention in the Premier League and Champions League during his tenure.

Van Dijk does not appear to be a player hanging on for one last run. He remains one of the game’s great defenders still operating at a very high level, now trying to turn that authority into a deep World Cup push for a Dutch side that just lost Xavi Simons to injury and may need its captain even more.

Sunday May 10, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4276

are sweeping changes in store?

Shortly after the final goal found its way into the net, #DMD reader Creston M. sent me an e-mail and challenged me not to pile on about last night's hockey result in Philadelphia.

"Be the better man and take the high road. Write about how bad the Orioles are, at least we all care about them."

I thought about it for a while.

And I'm going to take Creston up on his offer/plea. I think he's right. I should probably just chronicle another O's loss here this morning.

At one point in yesterday's game, it was 4-0 in favor of the Athletics. I was sooooooo hoping the final score would be just that: 4-0.

There was a 6-0 result in Texas last night where the Rangers blanked the Cubs. When it was 4-0 in Baltimore, I just kept thinking, "Please end up 4-0."

I mean, as it was, the score ended 6-2, but six runs allowed is just too many. Just giving up four, even if you lose 4-0, is kind of accceptable. Alas, in Baltimore, at least, it didn't end up 4-0. It did end up 4-0 elsewhere, though.

Let's not sweep things under the rug here. The O's are in trouble. That's two straight losses to the Athletics and three straight overall.

Speaking of "4" and "0", Pete Alonso was part of the 4-0 club on Saturday. He went to the plate 4 times and had 0 hits on the day.

I'm not a pro athlete, but I have to imagine getting 4 opportunities and not being successful even one time is VERY embarrassing.

Alonso might have had a better day with, let's say, a broom in his hand instead of a baseball bat.

He can probably find plenty of brooms at the hardware store in Federal Hill. There are other cities where they're on short supply, like in Raleigh, for some weird reason. But they're plentiful up here in The Land of Pleasant Living.

That said, speaking of sweeps, the O's need a win today or they're facing that exact fate at the hands of the lowly somewhat decent Athletics.

Shane Baz was again mostly ineffective on the mound yesterday. He allowed 8 base runners in 4.2 innings of work, along with 5 hits and 5 earned runs. His ERA is now 5.48 on the season. And they gave him $68 million at the beginning of the season. Dude needs to step up here sometime soon.

Back to that whole "4-0" thing. The A's also had someone in that club. Second baseman Jeff McNeil joined Alonso as part of the embarrassing "4" and "0" experience on Saturday.

Oh, wait, one more thing about yesterday. When it was 4-0, the O's loaded the bases in the 5th inning with no one out. This was going to be the big moment, particularly with Adley, Alonso and Basallo coming to the plate.

But, no. Adley struck out and Alonso and Basallo both popped out meekly. That was the game right there. It remained 4-0.

I'll keep saying "it's still early" until, I guess, maybe late May, when it won't be "early" any longer. I don't see the need for sweeping changes in Baltimore just yet. But this losing has to stop or, at the very least, slow down a little bit.

If it doesn't get better soon, the O's will no longer be able to sweep these failures under the proverbial rug. They'll have to do something about it.

Oh, and speaking of sweeps and brooms, does anyone know why it's spelled B-R-O-O-M-E County (upstate New York) and not just BROOM? Seems weird. I mean, you spell broom without the "e", yet they added an "e" up there. Weird. I've always known "broom" to be spelled like that. With no "e", I mean.

With yesterday's loss, the Birds are now 17-23. Like I wrote above, you can't sweep away this lousy start to the season. You have to face it head on. It's not good.

You know what else isn't good? Losing four straight games. That's actually terrible. And especially when you lose that 3rd and 4th game at home, which the O's are in danger of doing if they don't win today.

A loss to the A's this afternoon will be FOUR STRAIGHT LOSSES for the Orioles. Four in a row. Man, that's bad.

As I was watching the A's celebrate last night's win, I remembered that scene from Bull Durham where the Durham Bulls were struggling and Kevin Costner turned on the sprinklers at a visiting stadium because, he said, the Bulls needed a "rain out" to get themselves a day off and back on track.

Maybe that's what the O's need. Some wet weather. Not anything like a hurricane or terrible weather.

Hurricanes are nasty. The Birds just need a nice, steady day-long rain.

What do you think, Creston? I'm a man of my word.

Not one mention of the hockey result in Philly.

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10 was Daniel Berger. #9 was Kurt Kitayama. #8 was Sepp Straka. #7 was Rory McIlroy. #6 was Harris English. #5 was Justin Rose.

#4 Sam Burns -- Burns is definitely another gamble of sorts given his driving accuracy stats, but I look at it like this. He was a thunderstorm and a horrible ruling away from potentially winning the U.S. Open last June at Oakmont CC. If he can "almost" win that event, he can win the PGA Championship.

Everything else about Burns' game stacks up.

He's an awesome player. One of the best putters in the world. Hits his irons close. Hits it plenty far enough off the tee. The only question, like Justin Rose, is can he hit enough fairways over the 72 holes at Aronimink?

Burns is, to me, one of those "next" guys on TOUR. "Who is the next guy to win a major, break through, and then watch their career skyrocket?"

This year, that guy is clearly Cameron Young. He doesn't have a major, yet, but he won The Players and he's certainly going to be heard from next week in suburban Philadelphia.

I think once Burns collects his "big win", the world will be his oyster.

But he's going to need to drive the ball well next week to have any chance. And just like he figured it out last summer at Oakmont, I'm going to assume he'll figure it out next week and be in the hunt at the PGA.

It will all come down to how many greens he hits. If he's wild off the tee and can't hit the greens, the scrambling numbers he's produced this season (awful) will probably have him heading home after 36 holes.

But if he can get it in the short grass off the tee...the data says he's going to be a threat.

Vegas definitely has no confidence in Burns. He's currently listed at +6000 for the PGA Championship. I'll take him in any tournament at those kind of numbers.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 32 days to go

Today's featured team: Egypt

Group: G — Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand

How they Qualified: Egypt topped CAF Group A and sealed qualification with a game to spare by beating Djibouti 3-0 on October 8, 2025. They finished the campaign unbeaten at 8-2-0, with 20 goals scored and only 2 conceded.

Best World Cup Finish: Group Stage (1934, 1990, 2018)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $163.21M

FIFA Rank: 31

Odds to Win Group: +450

Odds to Advance: -340

Odds to Win Cup: 300-1

Key Players:

Mohamed Salah — Winger — Liverpool (Premier League). Salah is still the face of the team and the player everything revolves around. He scored nine goals in qualifying, became the all- time top scorer in African World Cup qualifying, and Reuters reported this week that although he picked up a muscle injury, he is still expected to be fit for the World Cup.

Omar Marmoush — Forward — Manchester City (Premier League). Marmoush gives Egypt a second elite attacking threat that past Egyptian sides often lacked. Transfermarkt lists him as Egypt’s most valuable player at $76.6m, and he scored in the AFCON quarterfinal win over Ivory Coast and in the March 4-0 friendly win over Saudi Arabia.

Mohamed El Shenawy — Goalkeeper — Al Ahly (Egypt). El Shenawy remains a key part of Egypt’s identity. Egypt kept seven clean sheets in qualifying, and the veteran keeper has logged 74 caps.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Egypt do not look like a team that wants to dominate matches through long spells of possession. Their recent competitive matches point much more toward a side built on structure, patience, and attacking quality in big moments.

In the last six World Cup qualifiers, In recent matches they have used a mix of 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 3-4-3, and 3-4-2-1, which suggests Hossam Hassan has been willing to change the shape while keeping the same basic approach.

The bigger constant is how the games have looked. Egypt won qualifiers by scores of 2-0, 1-0, 2-0, 0-0, 3-0, and 1-0, then went to AFCON and beat South Africa 1-0, Benin 3-1 after extra time, and Ivory Coast 3-2 before losing 1-0 to Senegal and then falling to Nigeria on penalties in the third-place game.

Against Ivory Coast, Reuters noted that Egypt won despite Ivory Coast dominating possession, and against Spain in March Reuters said Egypt held on for a 0-0 draw while Spain controlled the ball and fired 25 shots. That is a pretty clear picture of what this team is: compact, disciplined, and dangerous when Salah or Marmoush get space to attack.

That makes Egypt one of the more credible teams in this range. They are not flashy, but they have a real attacking pair in Salah and Marmoush, a veteran spine, and a draw that gives them a genuine path forward.

Belgium are still the favorite in Group G, but Egypt are widely priced as the likeliest team to finish second ahead of Iran and New Zealand. They are probably not built for a deep run, but they are absolutely good enough to make the knockout stage and become awkward for whoever sees them next.

35 Most Interesting Players to Watch

32 - Rodri - Spain - Midfield

It feels a little strange to have Rodri this low on a list like this, because at his best he is one of the most important players in world soccer. The Manchester City midfielder won the 2024 Men’s Ballon d’Or after helping City win another Premier League title and starring for Spain in its Euro 2024 triumph, where he was named Player of the Tournament.

Rodri is not the kind of player who dominates highlight reels, but he is a master of controlling games. He dictates tempo, protects the back line, breaks up attacks, and keeps possession moving with a calmness that makes everything around him look more organized.

When he is on the field, Spain tends to look more balanced, more mature, and much harder to break down. When fully healthy, he remains a central figure for both club and country.

The big question heading into the World Cup is less about quality and more about sharpness. After a slow return from injury, Rodri is gradually getting back to his top form. If Rodri is fully fit and close to his peak level, Spain will have one of the tournament’s ultimate tone-setters in midfield.

He may not pile up goals or flashy moments, but he is the sort of player who can quietly decide whether a team has the control and composure to win seven games in a row. That alone makes him one of the most significant players to watch in the entire tournament.

Saturday May 9, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4275

rewind and hit play

I think we're getting close to the stage where I can create a paragraph or two and just store it here and use it 3 or 4 times a week.

"The offensive struggles of the Orioles continued last night as they managed a Suzanne Vega, Al Stewart, Beatles and had just four hits in a (4) to (3) loss to the (Athletics). Gunnar's woes at the plate continued as he went 0-fer and he's now hitting an embarrassing (.198) on the campaign. Tyler O'Neill played, failed to get a hit, but didn't show up on the injury list after the game. Around here, we call that a "win" for him."

All I need to do is just fill in numbers and names in the parantheses and we're good to go.

That's pretty much the summary of about 50% of the O's losses so far this season. There's no offense to speak of, Gunnar looks uninterested at the plate, and O'Neill does nothing but at least he isn't hurt the next morning.

Last night followed that profile to a tee.

Just rewind the tape and hit play and you'll hear the same game summary from three weeks ago, two weeks ago and earlier this week.

Gunnar went 0-for-3. O'Neill did him one better at 0-for-4. Jeremiah Jackson is no longer Reggie Jackson, but has reverted back to Jeremiah, unfortunately. He went 0-for-4 and is now slashing a pitiful .244/.266/.415.

On the good news front, the two guys on the team who actually have been contributing of late continued to do so. Adley had a home run and a couple of hits and he's now at .325/.382/.602. Pete Alonso homered again. That's his 8th of the season.

Kyle Bradish looked like Kyle Bradish last night for one of the rare times this season. That was also good to see. He struck out 10 A's in 7 innings and only allowed 6 total base runners in that span.

But it was another loss for the Birds, who have now dropped two straight one-run games to fall to 17-22 on the season.

I totally understand that May 8 is far too early to panic. But it's also time to make sure you don't do something dumb and fall 10 or more games below .500 by Memorial Day, which the O's are in jeopardy of doing if they don't start stacking some wins.

Once you fall 10 games below .500, you probably have to play something like 20 games above .500 for the rest of the season to have a shot at the post-season. Some years, 86-76 will get you into a wild card spot. But if you're 10 below .500 for two months, it seems kind of unimaginable to go 20 above .500 for four months.

Alas, that's why they play the games.

And the key to that whole scenario is obvious: Don't fall 10 games below .500 in the first place.

I can't imagine a summer around here where the games sorta-kinda don't matter and they just become Tuesday evening white noise on a warm July evening.

I mean, I'm a lifelong Orioles fan and I've been paying attention for the last 25 years, so I know it's possible. I mean, I just can't imagine having to sit through that again this summer. Baseball is meant to take you through summer into fall with comfort and energy.

When the team stinks in July, it tends to put a damper on those warm months here in The Land of Pleasant Living.

#DMD reader Paul B. sent me a note about the Tupac Shakur bobblehead that was distributed last night and wondered if I had an opinion on it given the stir it created this week in the media.

In case you missed it, some people were offended that the O's chose to honor the iconic but controversial rapper who attended the Baltimore School for the Arts before embarking on his successful music career.

Tupac's music was often littered with violent and "gangster-related" lyrics that led critics to question why the Orioles would use him in a game promotion like Friday night's bobblehead giveaway.

Tupac was shot and killed at age 25 in an apparent gang-related incident in Nevada.

My opinion?

First of all, people read a lot into things that are sometimes just done "for entertainment purposes only". I mean, the Ravens spent a few years turning off the lights and using the "Omar whistle" to get the crowd fired up at their home games. Anyone that watched The Wire knows Omar wasn't exactly a Deacon at a church on North and Bentlow.

It was entertainment. It wasn't meant to promote or endorse Omar's character from the TV show.

Now, Tupac might be different. They were lyrics and they were HIS lyrics and there were certainly things in his music that I didn't necessarily appreciate, even though I liked a lot of what he did, musically. If you're any kind of fan of old school rap/hip hop (which, I am), he is a Top 10 artist of all-time in that genre of music.

So, while the Ravens were essentially promoting a TV character that in no way carried out his behavior in real life, Tupac was using "real life" to create his lyrics and his music.

I do see a difference there.

However...

The Orioles are trying to sell tickets. And they're trying to connect not only with their communiity, but perhaps a certain age group or demographic at the same time.

The organization dives head first into "Pride Month" and features a number of LGBTQ-related events at the ballpark, including give-away items to fans and forcing their players to wear apparel featuring a Pride symbol or color scheme.

I consider that equally as controversial as giving away a bobblehead of a deceased music star who has/had a connection to Baltimore in his younger years.

So...my opinion?

Eh, it's nothing to get worked up about, really. If you're not a fan of Tupac, don't take the bobblehead. If you're willing to draw a line in the sand, don't buy a ticket to that game (last night).

If the Orioles gave away a "Pride" tee shirt at the ballpark and I walked through the turnstiles, I have the option of accepting it or not accepting it. It's not like I have to take it.

We spend a lot of our time these days looking for things that irritate us.

I'm far more worked up about Gunnar Henderson hitting .198 than I am about a Tupac bobblhead.

Gunnar hitting .198 is worth getting irritated over, I'd say.

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10 was Daniel Berger. #9 was Kurt Kitayama. #8 was Sepp Straka. #7 was Rory McIlroy. #6 was Harris English.

#5 Justin Rose -- Given his Shots Gained, Off the Tee ranking (terrible), this is probably an eye-opening pick. But I have two good reasons why I think Rose can win next week.

Everything but his SG Off The Tee numbers are great. He drives it straight, long, hits the greens and so on. What's hurting him are his scrambling numbers. If he doesn't hit the green, it's a fair bet he's making a bogey.

I'll take the "everything else" part of that equation next week at Aronimink. I think he'll hit a lot of fairways and greens and make enough putts to stay in the hunt.

The other reason I'm taking him?

I think Justin Rose is just too darn good to only win one major in his career. Lots of players win one. That list is endless. Only great players win two or more.

And there are some outliers in that statement, of course. John Daly wasn't a "great" player by historical standards, but he won two. Same for Lee Janzen, Andy North and perhaps even Zach Johnson. None of them were extraordinary in their respective TOUR careers, but they did manage to win two majors.

Anyone can win one. When you win two, you've reached a new level. I can't imagine Justin Rose is only going to win one major. So that's another reason why I like him next week. He's going to win a 2nd major title at some point, but he's only a few years away from senior golf. It needs to happen now, in other words.

He's at +3500 for next week's second major of the year. If Rose drives it well and hits 70% of the greens like he's been doing this year, he has a definite chance.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 33 days to go

Today's featured team: Ivory Coast

Group: E — Germany, Curaçao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador

How they Qualified: Ivory Coast topped CAF Group F and sealed their place with a 3-0 win over Kenya in their final qualifier.

Best World Cup Finish: Group Stage (2006, 2010, 2014)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $436.97M

FIFA Rank: 34

Odds to Win Group: 6-1

Odds to Advance: -500

Odds to Win Cup: 250-1

Key Players:

Amad Diallo — Winger — Manchester United (Premier League). Amad is the biggest attacking star in the squad right now. Transfermarkt lists him as Ivory Coast’s most valuable player at $52m, and was their best player during their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations run.

Ousmane Diomande — Center Back — Sporting CP (Portugal). Diomande gives Ivory Coast a high-end defender that many teams in this range do not have. The highly valued Sporting man is a big reason they can play aggressively without completely sacrificing recovery speed at the back.

Franck Kessié — Midfielder — Al-Ahli (Saudi Arabia). Kessié remains the veteran heartbeat of the side with 98 caps and 14 international goals. His blend of physicality and calm on the ball still gives this team balance in the middle.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Ivory Coast has a real front-foot identity under coach Emerse Faé. Their recent matches show repeated use of a 4-3-3 attacking setup in qualifiers against Burundi, Gambia, Gabon, and Kenya, and the same shape carried into the AFCON knockout matches against Burkina Faso and Egypt.

The stats back that up. In the 3-0 AFCON win over Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast had 57.9% possession and 21 shot attempts. In the 3-2 quarterfinal loss to Egypt, they somehow had 71.1% possession and still pushed forward even after falling behind early. That tells you this is not a bunker team.

They want the ball, they trust their wingers, and they are comfortable attacking through wide players like Amad, Adingra, and the younger options coming through.

There is still some risk in that approach. Faé himself warned before the Egypt match that his side could be punished by opponents who absorb pressure and strike efficiently, and Egypt did exactly that. So the upside is obvious, but so is the vulnerability. Ivory Coast can look dynamic and modern going forward, yet still leave space for better teams to exploit.

That makes them one of the more interesting teams in this part of the countdown. They looked sharp again in March, beating South Korea 4-0 and Scotland 1-0, and on raw talent they are stronger than their ranking here.

In Group E, Germany are the clear headliner, but Ivory Coast have enough pace, athleticism, and attacking quality to believe they can compete seriously with Ecuador for second position and do more than just fill out the bracket.

35 Most Interesting Players to Watch

33 - Weston McKennie - USA - Midfield

While Christian Pulisic is often seen as the star of the show for the US team and its most prominent attacker, Weston McKennie may be even more important for this World Cup campaign.

McKennie has been around the national team just about as long as Pulisic and he enters this World Cup in the best form of any American. He has had a terrific season for Juventus, scoring nine goals and assisting six across all competitions.

McKennie has been a swiss-army knife for Juventus, playing multiple different positions throughout the season. That versatility is part of what makes him so interesting for the US. Mauricio Pochettino has openly praised McKennie’s ability to fill different roles, and that flexibility could be huge in a tournament setting where injuries, suspensions, or match-specific tweaks can force teams to improvise.

Depending on the opponent, McKennie could be used as an end-to-end engine in midfield or he could slot higher up to create around the box and get on the end of scoring chances. At this point, McKennie is one of the vets on this team and will need to provide leadership both on and off the field.

Few American players better capture the edge and personality of this U.S. team than Wes. His skill on the ball and creativity is often underrated, but can influence games as much as his more well regarded ability winning second balls, crashing the box, filling passing lanes, and scrapping on both ends of the field.

With the World Cup coming to home soil, that all-action style will make him one of the most important barometers for how far the U.S. can go.

Friday May 8, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4274

the error of your ways

The funniest part of the loss last night is the guy who made the game-losing error has actually been one of the team's rare defensive bright spots this season.

And I don't mean "funniest" in that ha-ha-ha kind of way. You know what I mean.

Coby Mayo has been more than decent at third base this season playing in place of Jordan Westburg. A lot of other guys on the team haven't held up their end of the bargain with their glove, but Mayo mostly has handled his business well.

Until last night, that is.

Mayo fielded a 9th inning grounder with a runner on 2nd, bobbled the ball, then promptly threw it away on his attempt to get the runner out at first base. Game over. Two-game win streak over. Good feelings in Miami......also over.

If you're the silver lining type like me, here it is: Pete Alonso had a nice series. He battered the Marlins for 4 hits, 6 RBI and a home run. His hit in the 8th inning last night tied the game at 3-3.

You want more silver lining stuff?

Sure thing.

Actually, I don't know that I have anything else. Tyler O'Neill drove in a run last night. That was cool to see. I assume he's going on the injured list at some point in the next 3-5 days, but he did make a slight contribution on Thursday evening in Miami.

Speaking of injuries, we have another one to ponder. Starting pitcher Cade Povich left last night's game with "forearm soreness", which is never a good thing for someone who uses their arm a lot. Let's hope for the best. Average as he might be from start-to-start, Povich still produces an occasional good start and is (likely) better than other options at Norfolk.

The Birds are now 17-21.

And here come the Athletics into town with their scrappy brand of baseball that will likely give the O's trouble over the weekend.

Then the Yankees come to town for three games.

And then there's a 3-game gift down in Washington D.C. where the Birds get to play a supposed Major League team in the Nationals.

It's way too early to do this, but I'm doing it anyway because it says "Drew's" Morning Dish at the top.

A 6-3 mark in these next 9 games would be very acceptable.

A 7-2 record? Awesome. In fact, if the O's can go 7-2, they'd actually be above .500 (24-23) for the season.

But 5-4 or 4-5 in these 9? Not good enough.

If there's good news on the Trevor Rogers horizon and he returns and is actually the Trevor Rogers we thought we'd see, that will help a lot. I suspect there's a chance he makes the start on Tuesday night vs. the Yankees, but we'll see about that.

If Brandon Young continues to improve and be competent, that also helps.

If Kyle Bradish can............

Oh, never mind. That's too many "ifs".

And we're not really putting the focus on where we should: the offense. There are so many "ifs" on the offensive side of the ledger that we can't count them all at this point.

Gunnar did manage a hit last night, in 5 trips to the plate, so he's still above the Mendoza line at .201.

He's the biggest "if" on the roster. If he doesn't hit this season, the O's are going nowhere. Right now, he's not hitting.

Neither is Colton Cowser, who went 0-for-4 last night and makes contact with fewer breaking balls than Pedro Cerrano. Maybe Cowser needs a visit from Jobu.

There's too many "ifs" to go into them all here, but this O's team is filled with them 38 games into the season.

Hopefully the Athletics serve as a good tune-up for a visit from the Bronx Bombers next week.

I've seen the chatter here and elsewhere about the Derby winner, Golden Tempo, electing not to run in the Preakness next weekend at Laurel Park.

I assume there's a concerted effort now, within the big time horse racing community, to very quietly (but obviously) force the powers-that-be to shift the dates of the three Triple Crown races.

No one is saying it out loud because they don't want to be the one that ruined tradition, but it's clear. No one wants to run in the Derby and then saddle up again two weekends later and then, potentially, do it all again three weeks later.

And here's the shocking reality: Winning the Triple Crown is just not that important.

There was a time when it was important. That's for sure.

But now, there's so much money to be made if you just win one of the Triple Crown races that there's no need to press the gas to win two or three of them.

And horse people are just not that interested in putting their animal and the entire operation through all of the effort to run in a race (the Preakness) that is just not critically vital to their success. Maybe it would be different if 14 horses were in the field every year. But you go into knowing 7 or 8 other horses are going to run. It's boring, if we're being honest.

If they move the Preakness to the first week of June and shove the Belmont back another month after that, you might see more Derby winners show up for the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown.

There are tons of issues associated with that, though. Tradition being the main one. The Preakness has been run on the 3rd Saturday in May forever. The Belmont is always the first weekend in June, or three weeks after the Preakness.

But if horse racing wants more excitement, they have to do something about the schedule. Like it or not, the horse "people" are putting their foot down on this one.

---

orioles minor league player of the week

Welcome back to our second year here at Drew’s Morning Dish where we take a look down on the Orioles’ farm and announce our #DMD Minor League Player of the Week.

The 2026 Minor League season is well underway now, and this week we are happy to announce that High-A Frederick Keys’ shortstop, Wehiwa Aloy is our DMD Minor League Player of the Week.

Aloy, 22, is highly regarded as one of the top prospects in the Orioles’ system, currently ranked fifth according to MLB Pipeline.

He had a stellar week for the Keys, hitting .310 (9-29) with two home runs, four RBI, two walks and scored five runs as well. Another nice addition this week was Aloy picking up his first stolen base of the year as well.

It was a nice week for the 31st overall selection in last year’s draft, as he is partaking at the High-A level for the first time since being drafted. Over 22 games this year for the Keys, Aloy is hitting .267 with five home runs, 19 RBI, eight walks and has scored 11 runs.

The 6-foot-2, 200 pound shortstop has played both third base and shortstop thus far in his professional career, and he is more than capable of sticking at shortstop, especially with his solid glove and rifle of an arm.

Most became familiar with Aloy thanks to his dominant 2025 season with the Arkansas Razorbacks where he won the SEC Player of the Year and the Golden Spikes Award, given to the best player in college baseball.

There is no denying the talent is there for Aloy, and if this past week is any indication, he is getting more comfortable at the professional level.

If he continues to produce at the dish, it would not be difficult to envision a mid-season promotion to AA in his future.

Be sure to check back in this season as we will continue to highlight top performers from the O’s farm system!

This contribution was provided to #DMD by Josh Michael, our Orioles minor league correspondent.

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10 was Daniel Berger. #9 was Kurt Kitayama. #8 was Sepp Straka. #7 was Rory McIlroy.

#6 Harris English -- There's a part of me that just think it's inevitable that Harris English is going to win a major championship and, when he does, I want to make sure I've invested in him.

English is, to me, Jason Dufner. Keegan Bradley. Jason Day. Jimmy Walker. In other words, he's a guy who is bound to win a major someday and it's probably going to be the PGA Championship.

He's 11th on TOUR in birdies made so far in '26.

He's having a really nice season, with 10 of 11 cuts made and a bunch of finishes inside the Top 25.

His shots gained, approach to green numbers aren't great, but that's really the only category where he's decidedly "off" from the rest of the TOUR.

He averages 302 yards off the tee (which, funny enough, is probably considered semi-short in pro golf these days) and hits 62% of the fairways. English makes a lot of birdies because he's an outstanding putter, not because he hits it closes and wills a few in here and there.

The 36 year old finished tied for 2nd last year to Scottie Scheffler at Quail Hollow, so he can play major championship golf. In fact, he has three top 5 finishes in the U.S. Open in his career. He is a legit TOUR player, maybe a hair short of "star" status, but he's made a heckuva living out there playing golf.

English is one of our constants here at #DMD. Like Corey Conners and Russell Henley, he's simply too good to not win a major on the PGA Tour someday. You can get him at +5000 for next week's 2nd major of the year at Aronimink. We think those are great odds for a guy we can easily see holding up the trophy on Sunday.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 34 days to go

Today's featured team: Ghana

Group: L — England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama

How they Qualified: Ghana topped CAF Group I and punched their ticket with a 1-0 win over Comoros on October 12, 2025. The Black Stars finished with 25 points from 10 matches.

Best World Cup Finish: Quarterfinals (2024)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $300.33 M

FIFA Rank: 74

Odds to Win Group: 10-1

Odds to Advance: -145

Odds to Win Cup: 300-1

Key Players:

Antoine Semenyo — Forward — Manchester City (Premier League). Semenyo is Ghana’s highest-valued player at $72m. He made a big-money transfer to Manchester City this season from Bournemouth and has been a key piece in City’s title chase. He gives Ghana a dangerous combination of athleticism and skill, capable of playing anywhere along the attacking line.

Jordan Ayew — Forward — Leicester City (English Championship). Ayew was the most productive player in qualifying, scoring seven goals, and he still brings leadership and end product to the front line. He has 115 caps and 32 goals for Ghana.

Thomas Partey — Midfielder — Villarreal (Spain). Partey gives Ghana a veteran presence and a higher floor in the middle of the field. He has 54 caps and 15 international goals, and now with Villarreal, remains one of the most accomplished players in the squad. If Semenyo and Ayew are two of Ghana’s main attacking outlets, Partey is the player most capable of holding the team together in big matches.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Ghana’s qualifying run showed a team with enough attacking talent to change shape without losing threat. In meaningful matches, they used a 4-3-3 in the 5-0 win over Chad, a 4-2-3-1 in the 5-0 win over Central African Republic, and a 3-4-3 in the tighter 1-0 win over Mali.

That points to a side that was comfortable adjusting the structure around its front-line talent rather than forcing one rigid system every match.

The bigger story is the contrast between ceiling and volatility. Ghana scored 23 goals and lost only once in qualifying, so the upside is obvious. But they also drew 1-1 at Chad, needed just 1- 0 wins over Mali and Comoros, then changed coaches after March friendly losses to Austria and Germany.

Carlos Queiroz was appointed on April 13, so the World Cup version of Ghana may be a little more conservative and organized than the one that qualified.

That makes Ghana one of the more interesting teams in this range. On talent, they look stronger than this 34th best ranking, but they also come with real uncertainty: a late coaching change, an injury to key attacker Mohammed Kudus, and a group with England and Croatia.

If the attack clicks, they are good enough to make life very uncomfortable for both favorites. If it doesn’t, they are the kind of team that could leave you wondering why the pieces never quite added up.

---

35 Most Interesting Players to Watch

34 - Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal - Forward

At this point, there is not much left for Cristiano Ronaldo to prove, which is part of what makes him so fascinating to watch.

Now 41 years old, he is set to become the first man ever to appear in six World Cups (alongside Messi and Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa), and this tournament feels like the final major chapter in one of the most decorated careers the sport has ever seen.

Ronaldo remains the all-time leading scorer in men’s international football with 143 goals for Portugal.

Ronaldo is no longer the unstoppable all-action force of his Real Madrid peak, but he is still producing. He has scored 24 goals for Al-Nassr this season as the Saudi club sits atop the league, and he continues to chase the absurd personal milestone of 1,000 career goals.

That blend of longevity, production, and sheer force of will is hard to match in any era.

The real intrigue, though, is what kind of World Cup ending he can still write. Portugal have enough talent around him to be a serious contender to win the trophy, and teammate Bruno Fernandes said last week that winning the tournament would be the perfect way to crown Ronaldo’s international career.

Whether he is still a central star or more of a finishing piece, every Portugal match will carry the same question: does one of the greatest players ever have one last signature moment left on the biggest stage?

faith in sports

I know college kids can sometimes get a bad rap. I get it.

But there are also a lot of college kids -- athletes and otherwise -- who completely have their stuff together. And one of those is former Arkansas QB Taylen Green.

If you watch his quick 8-minute video below of him and you don't come away super impressed, I don't know what to say. What an awesome young man! I wish the Ravens had him.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our Friday "Faith in Sports" segment here.

Thursday May 7, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4273

surprises so far?

We're nearing the quarter-pole of the 2026 Major League Baseball season. Most teams will have played 40 games by this weekend.

We can start to see some clear pictures forming, both on the good side and the not-so-good side.

Surpises?

Yep, we have a bunch.

That the Yankees are 25-12 isn't one a shock. I don't know that I expected them to be on a 102 win pace in early May, but the rest of the A.L. is down (thus far), so that explains a little bit about their inflated record.

But Tampa Bay at 24-12 at this stage? I'd consider that one a surprise. Of the two, I assume we'll see more market correction from the Rays than the Yankees, but, still, the Rays are probably the surprise of the A.L. at this point with their hot start.

Quick, name three players on Tampa Bay's team.

No, Carl Crawford's not there any longer.

Right. You can't name three. Neither can I. Neither can anyone else. But this is what they do down there.

The Orioles -- they of the modest 2-game win streak -- are probably a "bad" surprise given their stumbling, bumbling 17-20 start to the campaign. They're injury riddled, yes. But they're also an oddly configured bunch with so many defensive issues I don't know where to start.

Only one team in the A.L. Central is above .500, which isn't a huge shock. Someone will get hot in that division and roll to the title. I still think it will be the Royals, but they're also starting to get nicked with injuries. The Guardians seem to be the class of the division year-after-year somehow, despite always being picked 3rd at the start of the season.

In the West, just like the Central, only one team is above .500 so far. That it's the Athletics is definitely a surprise. Can they keep up this kind of pace and be in the race still by the early July? Eh, maybe. It still feels like everyone will ultimately chase the Mariners out there when it's all said and done.

The A.L. batting average leader at the quarter-pole (roughly) is Ben Rice of the Yankees at .343. I guess that's surprising.

That Aaron Judge, with 15 homers, is leading the A.L. in round-trippers is obviously not surprising in the least. Can he hit 60 homers in 2026? Sure, if he stays healthy. The ball doesn't start flying out of ballparks until the weather warms up, remember. 15 homers in early May is a really nice start to the season.

Sticking with the Yankees, I'd probably classify Cam Schlittler as the early Cy Young favorite a big surprise. He's 5-1 with a 1.52 ERA and 0.87 WHIP. He's off to a great start. Cleveland's Gavin Williams, Chicago's Davis Martin and New York's Max Fried are as well. But Schlittler is the early favorite at this point.

Sadly, Gunnar Henderson is one of the surprises on the down side of the ledger. His home run total (9) is fine, but everything else about his work at the plate is el stinko.

He wallowed through a listless 0-for-5 (again) outing last night in Miami with three more whiffs at the plate. Gunnar is now hitting .201 with a .690 OPS through the first quarter of the season. It's far too early to be "overly" concerned, but Vanna has "O" and "V" in her hand.

I assumed we'd get a league MVP type of campaign out of him. Instead, he's 5th in Orioles MVP voting at this point.

In the National League, standings wise, the Braves running away with the East (8.5 game lead) is definitely a shocker. They're hitting the ball like madmen down there in Atlanta and their pitching is doing the job as well. I didn't have 26-12 on my bingo card for the Braves at this point in the campaign. Can they keep it up? We'll see.

There's only division in baseball with all 5 teams over .500 and it's the N.L. Central. I actually don't think that's a surprise. In fact, I could see something like that holding true for most of the year and one team eventually winning the division with, say, 92 wins and everyone else bunched up in the 80 to 86 win range.

The Cubs are, so far, the class of the division. Not a shock there.

Out West, the Dodgers aren't "sputtering", per se, but they're "only" 23-14 right now. With that lineup and pitching staff, I assumed, honestly, they'd be more like 27-10 at the 37-game mark. So, yes, maybe I'm a tad surprised at their record thus far.

The biggest surprise of the entire campaign so far, performance wise, is Shohei Ohtani's current 26-home-run pace. The big man has just 6 homers and here we are on May 7. His batting average (.248) is nothing to write home about, either.

On the mound, nothing is out of whack, though. He's "only" 2-2, but everything else is spectacular. An 0.97 ERA along with 42 strikeouts in 37 innings and a WHIP of 0.81.

Ohtani the pitcher? Not a surprise. Ohtani the hitter? Big surprise.

Ildemaro Vargas is the surprise batting average leader (.364) thus far. I have no idea who that guy is, honestly.

Matt Olson of the Braves (I've heard of him) leads the N.L. in homers with 14. Not a huge surprise there.

Olson and C.J. Abrams of the Nationals are tied for the league lead in RBI with 33. That anyone on the Nationals is doing anything worthwhile is surprising, I suppose.

On the mound, ageless Chris Sale is off to a sizzling start at 6-1 with a 2.14 ERA and 0.90 WHIP. I saw someone on Twitter a day or two ago starting an early campaign to discuss Sale's Hall of Fame candidacy. I laughed at that one. If Mark Buerhle isn't in, Chris Sale can't get in, either.

That said, he's 151-89 with a career ERA of 2.99 and WHIP of 1.043. He owns a Cy Young award ('24) but he's never won 20 games. Some folks will point to his lousy post-season numbers to mitigate his potential Cooperstown discussion.

I'm by no means suggesting Sale is a slam dunk Hall of Famer. But his regular season numbers are actually better than any of us probably realized. He's having a heckuva start to his 2026 season, for sure.

There's soooooooo much baseball left that it's hard to predict what's going to happen. Injuries will determine the whole direction of the campaign. The Tigers lost Skubal for 3 months. They're probably cooked. The Dodgers might have just lost Tyler Glasnow last night. I don't think that "cooks" them in the least, but he's a quality arm they'll have to do without, now.

If Judge goes down in New York for some weird reason, that hurts them.

What if Ohtani's woes at the plate continue? Maybe the Dodgers "only" win 92 games and they're just another team.

It's far too early to make any kind of formal call other than to say the class of the sport thus far are the Yankees, Braves and Cubs. If you made me bet right now that one of those three teams makes the World Series, I'd take the "no" on that one just because I assume the Dodgers are making it in the N.L. and someone will, somehow, nose past the Yankees in October.

But I'm also willing to concede that the American League might be all Yankees in 2026 if some of these other teams don't get their heads out of their hind quarters. The Yankees might be the class of the A.L. by default by the time Labor Day rolls around.

In Baltimore, I'd be surprised if the Orioles can rebound from this start to be anything other than a Wild Card contender. That said, 85 wins might be enough in the A.L. to snag one of those three "extra" playoff spots.

The Orioles are currently 3 games under .500. Going 85-77 means they have to play 11 games over .500 between here and the finish line. That hardly seems like an impossible challenge, even for a so-so team like the O's.

Maybe I'm simply expecting more out of them because they're my team, but I'd be surprised if the O's aren't a few games above .500 when we reconvene in another 6 weeks to do our mid-season report here at #DMD.

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10 was Daniel Berger. #9 was Kurt Kitayama. #8 was Sepp Straka.

#7 Rory McIlroy -- Boring, yes. I know. But, remember, I didn't have Rory on my betting card at Augusta National last month. I assumed he'd go back there, smell the flowers, enjoy the walk as the defending champ, and we'd get a T8 finish from him back in April.

I fully expect him to be right there at Aronimink next week. I'm not saying the course was built for him. But Rory was built for Aroninimk.

If he drives it well, he has a definite chance to win.

Unlike Augusta, though, where you can spray it all over the place, Aronimink will not reward a wayward driver of the golf ball. The guy who hits it (fairly) straight and long will have a great chance. If you're off with your driver next week, forget about it.

But McIlroy is a sublime driver of the golf ball. And when he's on, which is "almost always", he's going to hit fairway after fairway and leave himself plenty of scoring clubs into greens.

The PGA Championship has always resembled something "close" to a regular, amped up PGA Tour event. 14 to 18 under par will likely be the winning score, which means guys are going to have to make birdies in bunches over the 72 hole tournament.

"Birdies in bunches" should be Rory's marketing slogan. He makes a ton of them.

I certainly don't want to get the cart before the horse, but if I don't, who will? If McIlroy can somehow pull off a win at Aronimink, you would be well within your rights to at least start hinting at the possibility of a single-season grand slam.

Shinnecock (U.S. Open) is the big, open ballpark he will love. It will feel like a British Open, almost. I have no idea if Rory stays awake at night thinking about winning all four majors in one year, but if ever there was a year to do it, 2026 is it.

McIlroy is at +750 for the PGA Championship. You won't make a lot of money on him, but I'd never tell you to bet against him. Actually, I did tell you to bet against him in April and look what that got you.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 35 days to go

Today's featured team: Panama

Group: L — England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama

How they Qualified: Panama won Concacaf third-round Group A to reach their second World Cup. Their campaign got tight in the fall but they finished strong with a 3-2 win at Guatemala and a 3-0 home win over El Salvador on the last matchday to jump Suriname and clinch the spot.

Best World Cup Finish: Group stage (2018)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $37.24 M

FIFA Rank: 33

Odds to Win Group: 30-1

Odds to Advance: +220

Odds to Win Cup: 1000-1

Key Players:

Amir Murillo — Right Back — Beşiktaş (Turkey). Murillo is probably Panama’s most accomplished player. Transfermarkt lists him as Panama’s most valuable player at $11m with 90 caps and 9 goals. He gives Panama experience, athleticism, and real quality from right back.

Adalberto Carrasquilla — Midfielder — Pumas UNAM (Mexico). Carrasquilla is still the player who makes Panama function. He’s the midfielder who kept Panama’s shape together in the decisive qualifying stretch, and Transfermarkt lists him at $2.6m.

Cecilio Waterman — Striker — Universidad de Concepción (Chile). Waterman was one of the main heroes of qualification. He and José Fajardo combined for four goals in the final round, and Waterman himself scored twice at Guatemala in the must-win match. Waterman has 50 caps and 14 goals.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Panama are one of the more tactically flexible teams in this part of the field. Under Thomas Christiansen, they have not stuck to one shape. In the 2025 Nations League against the United States and Mexico, they used a 5-4-1.

In the Gold Cup against Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Jamaica, and Honduras, they played a 4-2-3-1. Then in the decisive World Cup qualifiers they shifted again: 4-2-3-1 early in the round against Suriname and Guatemala, 5-4-1 in tougher October and November matches, and 3-4-2-1 in the final 3-0 win over El Salvador.

That tactical flexibility is probably the most important thing to understand about them. Panama are not a pure possession side, but they are not a generic bunker team either. Against Guatemala in the huge November qualifier, they had only 38.2% possession and just nine shot attempts, but they were clinical and won 3-2.

Against Jamaica in the Gold Cup, they were much more front-footed and won 4-1 out of a 4-2-3-1. The common threads are a disciplined structure, aggressive wide play, and a midfield anchored by Carrasquilla that can help them change the rhythm depending on the opponent.

That makes Panama a tough out for the favorites in their group. They have recent experience in big regional matches, they are comfortable changing game plans, and they are better organized than a lot of the teams in this range.

The draw is still rough with England and Croatia the obvious heavyweights, and Ghana also bringing more individual talent. But this is not a team that will be overwhelmed by the moment, and if the group gets messy, they are capable of being the side that takes advantage.

---

35 Most Interesting Players to Watch --

35 - Luka Modrić - Croatia - Midfielder

There are flashier young stars in this tournament, but few players will be more compelling to watch than Luka Modrić. Now 40 years old, the Croatia captain is closing in on what would be his fifth World Cup, and this feels like one last chance for one of the great midfielders of his generation to author another deep run with his country.

Modrić’s résumé is absurd. He left Real Madrid last year as one of the club’s most decorated players, then joined AC Milan, and he is still Croatia’s all-time caps leader. He also won the 2018 Ballon d’Or and the Golden Ball as the best player at the 2018 World Cup after leading Croatia to the final.

Part of what makes him interesting now is the contrast between age and influence. He is no longer the all-action version of himself from his prime, but Croatia still lean on his composure, passing range, and feel for the rhythm of a match.

While he may not have the range of his youth, he can still control the game from midfield with his passing vision and ability to read the game in transition moments.

Modric had a scare in late April after sustaining a fractured cheekbone in a nasty head to head collision playing for Milan, but the expectation is that he should recover in time for the World Cup, possibly wearing a protective mask.

That only adds to the sense that this could be one final, very dramatic chapter for a player who has already had one of the great international careers of this era.

Wednesday May 6, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4272

geez, just say "i screwed up"

I don't know that last night's 9-7 win in Miami was an "instant classic" or anything quite that extreme, but that O's victory was certainly very much needed for the team's mental well-being, I'm guessing.

The Birds built an early 3-0 lead, then had another advantage of 7-4 later in the game before the Marlins rallied to tie the score with 2 runs in the 7th and another in the 8th.

"Here we go again," some people everyone said as they watched it unfold.

Except the Birds did something very un-Birds-like in the 9th. They actually came through in the clutch, with Adley Rutschman and Leody Taveras driving in runs that would eventually provide for that 9-7 victory.

It wasn't a great night for the pitching staff, on the whole, but the arms did just enough to squelch the Marlins, who, like the Orioles, are barely an average team at this point in the season.

Chris Bassitt got the start and was his usual "meh" self, going 4 innings and allowing 6 hits and 4 runs with 3 walks sprinkled in. He's not quite rubber-armed Eddie Harris from the movie Major League, but he's approaching that sort of status. Bassitt's trying hard, but his stuff's just not good enough any longer.

Meanwhile, Andrew Kittredge got nicked up again and he could probably play Eddie Harris in Major League 5 someday down the road. Maybe he just needs more work after off-season arm issues, but every time Kittredge pitches the other team seems to score runs. News flash: Good pitchers generally don't allow a lot of runs.

If you're a "tell me some good news" kind of person, here you go: Sam Basallo had 3 hits and drove in 4 runs and is now hitting .255 on the year. Pete Alonso had 2 hits to raise his average to .226.

Colton Cowser struck out 3 times and his average is now .179. That doesn't qualify as good news, of course. I'm just letting you know. Coby Mayo went 0-for-4 and his average is now .157. Those two are very fortunate the Birds don't have real players to replace them or I'd assume both guys would be watching a lot of Bull Durham on those bus trips in and out of Norfolk.

As one of our astute readers/commenters noted, this is a tough team to watch. Sure, baseball is baseball, and on a warm spring night with the windows open, it's hard to beat having a ballgame on to serve as your evening entertainment.

But this is, right now at least, a bad baseball team, filled with fundamentally flawed players who seemingly weren't paying attention in spring training. Or maybe there's not really any "teaching" that goes on in spring training because most teams assume the players are good enough already that no further training is needed.

Every season has ebbs and flows. I'm sure the Birds are going to go on some sort of run that yields 11 wins in 15 games or something of that nature.

Check that: I'm not so sure of that at all. The odds and the data suggests every team along the way has one of those 11-4 runs in it, but I don't know that the Orioles do. I don't see how their pitching can provide that sort of run over a half-a-month of baseball.

Former PGA Tour star Bryson DeChambeau is making news these days as he draws his line in the sand and basically tells the PGA Tour in so many words, "You need me so badly that I shouldn't have to pay the penalty to come back to the TOUR."

DeChambeau's run with LIV Golf is seemingly over, as his contract is up and the Saudi based Public Investment Fund who handed over hundreds of millions of dollars to DeChambeau and others is pulling the plug on their generosity later in 2026. That means Bryson and the others will need to find new work.

Two of his former LIV brethren, Patrick Reed and Brooks Koepka, both got out earlier this year and negotiated their "penalty return" to the TOUR. Koepka is currently back and playing while Reed won't be eligible to return until late August.

DeChambeau has built a profitable, lucrative internet-based business while he's been helping LIV and the PIF sportswash their way back into the hearts of the sporting public, and it's there he says he'll turn once his LIV deal dries up this year.

"I think, from my perspective, I'd love to grow my YouTube channel three times, maybe even more," DeChambeau said on Tuesday. "I'd love to do a bunch of dubbing in different languages, giving the world more reason to watch YouTube. And then I'd love to play tournaments that want me."

I love how these guys -- or at least DeChambeau in this case -- gaslight the PGA Tour into thinking they're the ones at fault now that the LIV money has gone away and players are seeking new homes.

"I'd love to play tournaments that want me."

What a dope.

The PGA Tour "wanted you" once upon a time until you jumped ship and tried to help put them out of business. Use that SMU education, kid. The PGA Tour would love to have you back. But there's a penalty to pay for leaving like you did and you knew that back in late January when they offered you a deal and you were too arrogant to take it.

DeChambeau is obviously too proud to just tell the truth and say, "I screwed up and now I need an olive branch."

Instead, he thinks doing goofy videos on the internet with your hat backwards and saying "bro" in every sentence is what he'll be remembered for 50 years from now.

People still talk about Ben Hogan for three reasons. His golf swing, his "Five Fundamentals" book (which still holds up today, 60 years later) and his return from a life-threatening car accident to win again.

A half-century from now, people aren't going to say, "Yeah, that DeChambeau kid. Remember him? Won a couple of U.S. Opens. But remember when he made that hole-in-one on YouTube hitting balls over his house in Dallas? Remember when he played those three club champions at their course and DeChambeau had to make a 12 foot putt on the last hole?"

I didn't go to SMU (great school by the way) and I'm not a rocket scientist (which, I think, DeChambeau might be), but I know the only thing that matters in professional golf is how many PGA Tour events you win coupled with how many major championships you win.

Nothing. Else. Matters.

Quick, name the all time leader in wins on the European Tour? Right. No one knows and no one cares.

The PGA Tour is all that matters.

YouTube is cool. I watch something on YouTube almost every day of my life. But DeChambeau using it as a tool to leverage his way back to the PGA Tour is silly. And stupid. Keep making videos and collect your $100,000 monthly checks while the rest of the guys out there actually play meaningful, competitive golf.

Of course, this is all part and parcel of the decision to leave the PGA Tour in the first place. Any player with a brain knew that giving away their competitive future for money was always going to wind up burning them, either as a golfer or from a historical perspective.

DeChambeau wants to come back to the PGA Tour but he doesn't want to pay the price for it. I get it. But it doesn't work that way.

With all due respect to him and his golf, he's not Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy. He's not even Scottie Scheffler.

DeChambeau is a nice player. But he's more of an entertainment feature than anything else. If the world of golf had a Harlem Globetrotters type outfit that barnstormed their way around the country doing "golf tricks", DeChambeau would be part of that touring group of has-beens.

A real golfer wouldn't have left in the first place.

Oh, and Seve Ballesteros is the all-time leader in European Tour wins with 50. Guess who is 3rd with 41? Tiger Woods. That should win you a beer or two at your local watering hole.

The PGA Tour is in Charlotte, NC this week for the Truist Championship and I'm hoping you're back here with me to cash in again after we gave you last week's winner in Miami, Cameron Young.

You're welcome, by the way. Just make sure the Silver Oak is the one from Napa and not Alexander Valley. It's the least you can do.

Rory McIlroy has had plenty of success at Quail Hollow so he's the easy pick at +700. I'm certainly not going to sway you away from him. But he's not on my list of five.

I'm loving Ben Griffin this week at +5000. I don't think Griffin is on the verge of competing with Scheffler for the #1 spot in the world or anything like that, but I do think he's starting to emerge as a weekly contender, much like has happened to Cameron Young this year.

I also feel a smidgen the same way about Ryan Gerard, who got off to a great start and then cooled off a bit in April. But, still, I think a big win is in his future and this week could be it. He has the best value of anyone I'm giving you at +8500.

Akshay Bhatia is +6500 and could certainly be a factor this week. It's always about putting with Bhatia. If he handles his business on the greens, he has more than a puncher's chance.

It's not a major, obviously, but the course itself (where Scheffler won the PGA last year) is "major worthy" and the assembled field is first-in-class. With that, I like the chances of Tommy Fleetwood at a nice price of +2700. Fleetwood might not have the length off the tee that others have but his iron play and putting should put him on the leaderboard over the weekend.

If you pressed me to pick one outright winner, I'd give you Ludvig Aberg. He's quietly put together a very nice last month on TOUR and seems ready to win. I keep waiting -- as does everyone else -- for that one big moment where he breaks through with a huge win or two. Maybe it starts this week and carries over to the PGA Championship next week? He's at +1800.

Want a longshot? Sure. Taylor Pendrith is +15000. He has all the tools. They seemingly never all come together over the same four days. But if they do...

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10 was Daniel Berger. #9 was Kurt Kitayama.

#8 Sepp Straka -- I assume you knew this was coming. I mean, hardly a major championship goes by where Straka isn't one of my featured favorites.

There's not much to say.

Or, at least, there shouldn't be much to say about why I always fancy Straka. He does everything well.

He's "green" in every statistical category (which means he's better than the TOUR average) except sand save percentage.

He's 20th in shots gained, total. He's 13th in shots gained, approach. He's 51st in driving accuracy and 47th in greens in regulation.

His putting numbers have even improved this year.

I know he's winning a major at some point. The PGA Championship seems like the perfect one for him. It's the closest major in golf to just a regular old, "plain" PGA Tour event.

Straka is +5500 right now for next week's major at Aronimink. I almost can't believe that number. Grab him at +5500. Twice, maybe.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 36 days to go

Today's featured team: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Group: B — Switzerland, Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar

How they Qualified: Bosnia and Herzegovina came painfully close to qualifying automatically out of UEFA Group H, but a 1-1 draw at Austria on November 18, 2025 left them two points short of first place. They then survived a dramatic playoff path, drawing 1-1 at Wales before winning on penalties after a late Edin Džeko equalizer, then drawing 1-1 with Italy in Zenica before advancing 4-1 in the shootout after a late Haris Tabaković goal.

Best World Cup Finish: Group stage (2014)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $148.98 M

FIFA Rank: 65

Odds to Win Group: +370

Odds to Advance: -240

Odds to Win Cup: 250-1

Key Players:

Amar Dedić — Right Back — Benfica (Portugal). Dedić is Bosnia’s most valuable player on Transfermarkt at $21m, and he is a huge part of how they generate width and forward thrust from the back line.

Edin Džeko — Striker — Schalke 04 (Germany). Even at 39, Džeko is still the emotional center of the team. He scored the late equalizer against Wales that kept Bosnia alive, and has 146 caps and 72 goals.

Esmir Bajraktarević — Winger — PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands). Bajraktarević is one of the breakout faces of this team. He scored against Romania in qualifying and then converted the decisive penalty against Italy to send Bosnia to the World Cup. He played for US youth teams before switching his eligibility to Bosnia.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Bosnia is a team that can change shape, but not really identity. They used a 4-2-3-1 in qualifiers against Romania and Cyprus, then a more old-school 4-4-2 look in the huge matches against Austria and Italy. The common thread is pretty clear: Bosnia want a Dzeko as a physical focal point up front, runners around him, and service from the wide areas, especially through Dedić, Memić, and the young wingers.

What makes them different from some of the teams in this range is that they are built more on duels, crosses, set pieces, and resilience than on sitting deep and hoping. Against Wales, they had only 38.1% possession, but still produced 14 shot attempts and found the late equalizer through Džeko.

Against Italy, helped by the red card, they actually had 64.9% possession, 30 shot attempts, and kept coming until Tabaković equalized. So this is a team that is comfortable playing direct without the ball, but it is not afraid of the game either.

That makes Bosnia a pretty awkward team in Group B. Switzerland are the most complete side in the group, but Bosnia look like a very live contender with Canada for second place, while Qatar trail them in most markets.

They are not especially deep, and they still lean heavily on veterans and a few key creators, but they are tough, emotionally charged, and dangerous in exactly the kind of tense, close matches that often decide a group like this.

Tuesday May 5, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4271

if the players stink...who picked 'em?

It's still too early for an official, flag-waving "Fire the GM" campaign here in The Land of Pleasant Living.

At least it's still early in my eyes. Your mileage on that topic might vary.

Our resident baseball guru, Randy Morgan addresses the Mike Elias situation below. He basically asks the question many in town are starting to ponder: How long until Mike Elias's seat becomes hot?

In case you were busy watching the Flyers lose again in dramatic fashion last night, the O's got mollywhooped by the Yankees, 12-1, losing all four of the games in the Bronx by a combined score of something like 85-5.

OK, it was actually, 39-10. It just felt like 85-5. The Orioles, here's a stat for you, never held a lead at any point in the 36 innings of baseball they played in New York. Not one lead. Not once.

Anyway, the Birds are not hitting on all cylinders. Pun intended. And they're also not pitching on all cylinders. You could actually say, quite truthfully, they're not doing anything on any cylinders.

Their defense is lousy, too, just so we have part of their game covered.

But the guy who put the team together, Mike Elias, is probably one that we need to focus on now. As I wrote here a couple of days ago, you can't really over-scrutinize the new manager yet. I mean, he's 6 weeks into his managerial tenure. Rome wasn't built in a day. Or a month, even.

You can't really make wholesale changes in the roster, either. The Birds are already cripped with injuries. They only have six decent players available. You can't starting benching those dudes just yet.

But we might be approaching the time when it's fair to question just what kind of team and personnel decisions are the responsibility of Mike Elias.

I'll let Randy Morgan do all of the unpacking on that subject. He's put a lot of time into breaking down the arrivals and departures and who has pulled their weight (thus far) and who hasn't.

I'm just here -- as the "don't panic" guy in the room -- to say, "This isn't going the way we thought it was going to go and the mistakes that have been made in assembling the roster have to be put on someone's shoulders."

That someone, it appears, is Mike Elias.

And without further adieu, let's see what Randy has to say about it all with his commentary that you'll find below.

Let's start with the ledger. Mike Elias took over as general manager after the 2018 season, inheriting a franchise coming off 115 losses.

Seven-plus years later, the Orioles under Elias have gone through a painful but deliberate rebuild, bottomed out with a combined 131-253 record from 2019 to 2021, then surged to 101 wins and an AL East title in 2023, followed by a 91-win wild card berth in 2024.

That two-year run earned Elias the 2023 Executive of the Year award and seemed to validate everything.

But here's the part that matters most, the Orioles are 0-5 in the postseason under Elias.

Swept by Texas in the 2023 ALDS. Swept by Kansas City in the 2024 Wild Card round. Zero playoff wins and a total record of 496-570 (.465) under Elias.

For all the regular season success, the franchise has not won a single October game during his tenure. Then came the 75-87 disaster of 2025, a season ugly enough to cost Brandon Hyde his job and prompt Elias's promotion to president of baseball operations, a title change that felt more like an organizational reshuffling than a reward.

Now, 34 games into 2026, the O's sit at 15-20, unable to string together the kind of sustained run that would quiet the doubters. They're coming off of an ugly four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium.

At a certain point, you have to ask what this rebuild has actually produced. The answer starts with the draft, the centerpiece of the Elias philosophy. He inherited the first overall pick in 2019 and used it on the consensus top choice, Adley Rutschman, who looked like a generational talent early in his career before slipping the last two seasons.

He looks to be back on course in the early part of 2026, but he was also a pick anyone could have made.

Gunnar Henderson, technically a second-round pick in that same 2019 class, has been the crown jewel of the Elias era, the one prospect who has unambiguously delivered on the hype. After Henderson, though, the returns start to thin out in a hurry.

Heston Kjerstad, drafted second overall in 2020, lost a full year to myocarditis and has never established himself as a big league regular.

Coby Mayo, an over-slot fourth rounder from that same class, has struggled mightily at the major league level, with his bat and his glove raising questions about whether he's a viable everyday player.

Colton Cowser, the fifth overall pick in 2021, slashed just .207/.293/.371 in 2025 and has continued to struggle this year. It may be too early to call Mayo a bust but Cowser and Kjerstad are rapidly approaching that territory.

Jackson Holliday, the first overall pick in 2022, owns a career MLB line of .219/.284/.345 and is currently rehabbing in Norfolk after hamate bone surgery. He hasn’t quite lived up to the lofty expectations yet, but there is still time given his age.

Enrique Bradfield Jr., the 2023 first rounder, hasn't reached the majors yet and hasn't exactly torn the cover off the ball in the upper minors. Vance Honeycutt (2024) and Ike Irish (2025) are still years away.

The pattern that emerges is somewhat damning. Outside of Henderson, the Orioles' high draft picks have produced one legitimate All-Star whose production has trended in the wrong direction for two years and a collection of young players who are, at best, still works in progress and, at worst, looking like they may never be the franchise cornerstones they were drafted to become.

Perhaps the most glaring omission of all, Elias has never used a first-round pick on a pitcher. Not once in seven drafts. The only pitching prospect the organization drafted and developed into a big league starter was Grayson Rodriguez, selected 11th overall in 2018, before Elias arrived. Rodriguez was then traded to the Angels last offseason for one year of Taylor Ward.

To his credit, Elias has made some successful acquisitions and a few meaningful long-term commitments.

Samuel Basallo looks like a gem from the international pool and his extension, eight years and $67 million, was a smart, team-friendly bet on a 21-year-old catcher and the first real indication that the new ownership group would invest in the core.

Pete Alonso's five-year, $155 million deal gave the lineup the middle-of-the-order anchor it desperately needed. Ryan Helsley on a two-year, $28 million contract has been one of the few offseason additions that has paid off immediately (until he got hurt), converting all seven save opportunities.

The early returns on his 2026 offseason acquisitions are not all that promising. Pete Alonso started the year ice cold, but he's heated up recently and the underlying contact quality suggests the bat is coming around.

However, for $31 million a year, the Orioles need him to be a middle-of-the-order force, not a guy who runs hot and cold in stretches.

Taylor Ward has been the most consistent of the new faces, batting .295 and settling into a regular role and Ryan Helsley has been everything the Orioles hoped, converting all seven save opportunities and looking like a legitimate closer.

The moves to address the starting rotation have not produced the desired results through 34 games. Shane Baz finally earned his first win as an Oriole against Houston, but a 4.50 ERA and a 1-2 record aren't exactly what you envision from a guy who cost four prospects and was then signed to a long-term deal before even throwing a pitch.

Chris Bassitt was historically bad through his first few starts, with an ERA pushing 14 at one point, though he did deliver his best outing of the season this week.

Even with that gem, he still sits at 6.75 ERA on the year. Then there's Zach Eflin, the $10 million depth piece who went down with elbow discomfort in his first start and is now facing Tommy John surgery.

Some of this was foreseeable, and some wasn't. You can't blame Elias for the Eflin injury. You can blame him for the fact that Chris Bassitt was the insurance policy for exactly that kind of injury.

You can't blame him for Holliday's broken hamate bone or Westburg's elbow injury. You can blame him for a roster construction philosophy that left the team one injury away from running Brandon Young and Cade Povich out there as rotation regulars.

Building a rotation that was one Eflin injury away from calling up Trey Gibson to face the first-place Yankees in his major league debut was never deep enough to begin with.

Someone may have even pointed this out in their preseason preview: “The rotation is just a few injuries away from relying on AAAA-type arms like Brandon Young, Cade Povich or Tyler Wells, a scenario that should feel all too familiar to anyone who watched the 2025 season unfold.”

It barely took a month to realize this prediction (I wish I had been wrong). The failure to sign either a true top of the rotation arm, or more starting rotation depth (Zac Gallen), was a massive and obvious miss by this front office. And it just may be one that tanks the team this season.

This season was supposed to be the validation of the rebuild's second act. Instead, the Orioles have been the definition of inconsistent. The offense is currently 14th in OPS+ at 98, slightly below average. Meanwhile, the rotation is now in the bottom six in ERA+ at 94 (25th).

On top of that, the defense has been a recurring liability. And the team just began a crucial stretch that includes seven games against the first-place Yankees in their next 16.

So how long until the seat gets hot?

The honest answer is that it probably should be warm already.

The combination of zero playoff wins, a last-place finish in 2025, a philosophical stubbornness about drafting pitchers, and a 2026 roster that looks like it's treading water should have the temperature rising. However, there are reasons to think Rubenstein won't act quickly. Elias was just promoted before last season.

The ownership group is still relatively new and has shown a preference for stability. Firing your top baseball executive a year after promoting him would look reactionary, and Rubenstein doesn't strike me as a reactionary owner.

That said, there is a natural evaluation point. If the Orioles are still hovering around .500 or worse at the All-Star break, with no realistic path to the postseason, the conversation has to get serious.

Would it really be a good idea to let Elias handle another trade deadline with the team on the brink of missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the rebuild bottomed out, with a roster that was supposed to be built for sustained contention.

The July trade deadline becomes the line of demarcation. If the team is selling again, if Rogers or Helsley or other pieces are being moved for futures, then you're essentially acknowledging that the competitive window Elias built has already closed.

And if it has closed this quickly, after only two playoff appearances and zero wins, that's a fireable outcome. I would expect Rubenstein to let the season play out and make a decision in October, but the groundwork for that decision is being laid right now.

As for what the ownership might look for in a replacement, it's anyone’s guess. Rubenstein would likely want someone who can complement the analytical infrastructure Elias built, not tear it down, while bringing a more balanced roster-construction approach.

A GM who understands that you can't build a contender by hoarding hitting prospects and hoping the pitching takes care of itself.

Someone willing to invest premium draft capital in arms, pursue top-tier free agent pitchers on multi-year deals, and make aggressive trades when the window is open rather than perpetually waiting for the perfect deal.

The Elias tenure has developed some solid young position players and a modern front office structure, but it has also left them with a rotation that is perpetually held together with duct tape and optimism. The next executive needs to fix that, or this franchise is going to waste the prime years of Gunnar Henderson wondering what might have been.

This review of Mike Elias was contributed by #DMD baseball analyst and reporter Randy Morgan.

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10 was Daniel Berger.

#9 Kurt Kitayama -- If J.J. Spaun can win a major so, too, can Kurt Kitayama. He's similar in statistical nature to the guy we had at #10 yesterday, Daniel Berger. Kitayama drives it great, hits his irons well, but lacks in the putting department.

That doesn't mean he can't have a great week at Aronimink, though.

He's having a very nice, reputable season on TOUR, making 9 of 11 cuts with two straight Top 10 finishes at RBC Heritage and last week's Cadillac Championship at Trump Doral.

Kitayama fits the same narrative as some other one-and-done major championship winners like Jason Dufner, Jimmy Walker, Keegan Bradley and Jason Day.

And guess what they all have in common? Besides only winning one major in their career(s), I mean. All four of them won their only major at the PGA Championship.

Kitayama's game is built around his ball striking. He drives it straight and finds the green about 70% of the time. From tee-to-green, Kitayama is a Top 15 player on the entire PGA Tour. It's the putting that drops him down to a Top 40 player.

But it only takes a week where your putter gets a little hot and all the sudden, you're in the hunt.

I can see that situation taking shape at Aronimink for Kitayama. He hits it like he always does and then he rolls in a few putts over the first two days. He's at 7-under through 36 holes. The leader is 9 or 10 under. Then Kitayama keeps it up on Saturday and heads into the final round at 11-under while the leaders are 12 under.

Suddenly, he's in the hunt for his first ever major championship.

Kitayama is currently a great investment at +6000.

Get him there while you can.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 37 days to go

Today's featured team: Tunisia

Group: Group F - Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Tunisia

How they Qualified: Tunisia qualified in typically ruthless fashion. They beat Equatorial Guinea 1-0 on a stoppage-time goal from Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane to clinch their place, and they finished the CAF campaign with nine wins, one draw, and no goals conceded.

Best World Cup Finish: Group stage. Tunisia have reached the World Cup seven times but have never advanced to the knockout rounds.

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $80.23M

FIFA Rank: 44

Odds to Win Group: 8-1

Odds to Advance: +120

Odds to Win Cup: 500-1

Key Players:

Hannibal — Attacking Midfielder — Burnley (Premier League) Hannibal is the highest- valued player in the squad at $19m and gives Tunisia their best blend of ball-carrying, energy, and creativity between the lines.

Montassar Talbi — Center Back — FC Lorient (France). Talbi is the best defender in the squad and one of the main reasons Tunisia were so hard to break down in qualifying.

Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane — Midfielder — Al Ahly (Egypt). Ben Romdhane scored the dramatic late goal that sent Tunisia to the World Cup, and was their top scorer in qualifying.

Playing Style and Outlook

Tunisia is a team built first on control, structure, and defensive discipline. In their last four World Cup qualifiers they used a 4-4-2, 4-3-3 attacking, and 4-2-3-1, so they are not locked into one exact shape, but the identity stayed the same.

They won those four matches 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, and 1-0, and finished the entire qualifying campaign without conceding a single goal.

What makes Tunisia a little different from some other teams in this range is that they are not chaotic. They are measured. Even when they had a bit more of the ball, like in the 3-0 win over Namibia, the game still looked organized and low-risk rather than expansive.

At AFCON they opened with a 3-1 win over Uganda, but then the attack lost its sharpness in a 3-2 loss to Nigeria, a 1-1 draw with Tanzania, and a round-of-16 exit to 10-man Mali on penalties. That inconsistency cost Sami Trabelsi his job, and Tunisia turned to Sabri Lamouchi in January.

So Tunisia come into this World Cup as a team with a very recognizable formula but a little uncertainty around the ceiling. Under Lamouchi, the early signs have still been pragmatic: a 1-0 win over Haiti and a 0-0 draw with Canada in March.

In a group with the Netherlands, Japan, and Sweden, they are probably not going to outgun anybody. Their path is to make games tight, defend their box well, and hope players like Hannibal and Ben Romdhane can create just enough in one or two moments.

They are not flashy, but they will be hard to break down and are the kind of team that can make a game uncomfortable.

Monday May 4, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4270

"your mom busted in and said..."

If you're like me, and an old guy who has loved music his whole life, there are some songs along the way that only need a lyric mentioned and you immediately know the tune and, probably, where you were in that time of your life, growth and maturity wise.

"The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways..."

"And as we wind on down the road, our shadow's taller than our soul..."

"Begin the day with a friendly voice, a companion unobtrusive..."

That's Springsteen's Thunder Road, Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and Rush's The Spirit of Radio for those of you who were somehow under a rock throughout the 1970's and 1980's.

Oh, and there's one more for you.

"You're mom busted in and said what's that noise?"

The first time I ever heard that song off the Licensed to Ill album, I knew that was an anthem I'd be hearing for a long, long time.

The answer to the question. "What's that noise?"

"Aw mom you're just jealous it's the Beastie Boys"

I take a moment every year here on May 4 to pause and refect on the great work of Adam Yauch, a founding member of the Beasties, who passed away at age 47 of cancer on May 4, 2012.

I haven't really had many celebrity deaths hit me hard in my lifetime. Yauch's left me hurting. I was not only a huge fan of the Beastie Boys, but I grew fond of Yauch and the quiet way he went about doing outstanding work in his community.

He became a staunch defender of human rights in his 40's and was particularly convicted to support the older Jewish community in New York City.

Yauch's father was Catholic. His mother was Jewish. He was an only child.

"Sometimes we forget what the generations before us had to endure to make sure we're able to enjoy the world and the freedoms we have," Yauch once said. "I see a lot of older men and women get treated in a way that doesn't represent our gratitude for the things in the past they had to face and overcome. I want to show them love and kindness."

Maybe it's the fact I've had a lot of Jewish friends in my lifetime, but something always connected with me whenever I heard Yauch talk about his efforts to help the Jewish community in New York.

Later in life, he was a practicing Buddhist. Yauch became an important voice in the Tibetan independence movement, creating the Milarepa Fund, a nonprofit organization devoted to Tibetan independence and organized several benefit concerts to support the cause, including the Tibetan Freedom Concert.

The Beastie Boys were a groundbreaking, not-afraid-to-fail group of boys from New York City with stars in their eyes. That they wound up selling over 50 million albums worldwide is a testament not only to their popularity, but their ability to create a message that resonated with their fans.

Just like Jimmy Buffett, Snoop Dog and Shania Twain "aren't for everybody", the Beastie Boys aren't everyone's cup of tea. Their music was loud, sometimes crass and most certainly an acquired taste. But what they were, for sure, was "original". There was never anyone like them before they showed up and no one has been able to duplicate them since they disbanded following Yauch's death.

Like I wrote above, celebrity deaths in my lifetime haven't been all that impactful. I remember, vividly, my mom crying during a day at the beach in Ocean City on the day Elvis Presley died.

I'll probably cry the day Bruce Springsteen dies, admittedly, although these days I tear up a little when I hear him beat up the government and the very country he supposedly loves. But that's a story for another day, I guess.

I remember where I was the day I heard the radio DJ say, "Sad news this morning from the world of music. Adam Yauch, founder of the Beastie Boys, died overnight from cancer at age 47."

I was on my way to play a practice round for the Maryland Open at Queenstown Harbor. I had to pull over for a minute and gather myself.

They say "Imitation is the biggest form of flattery." So, rather than play "Fight For Your Right" by the Beasties, I'll show you what Coldplay's Chris Martin did on the evening of May 4, 2012 during a concert in California. Earlier that day, Yauch had passed away. So Martin paid a special tribute to him at their show.

The video is below. I hope you enjoy it. And let's remember to take Yauch's message for kindness to heart today and every day.

For those looking for a cute stat from the Yankees three wins over the weekend in the Bronx, here it is: The Birds had 16 hits. The Yankees had 15.

Except the O's had 16 hits in total...for 3 games.

The Yankees had 15 -- yesterday. In the 11-3 win on Sunday, the Yankees battered the Birds for 15 hits, including 7 off of Andrew Kittredge, who either needs more seasoning after returning from his arm injury or he's done. It doesn't seem like there's any middle ground.

There wasn't much good about the weekend in New York. At least not from the O's.

Pete Alonso had a couple of home runs.

Trey Gibson made his big league debut yesterday and was decent enough.

And..........

Well..........

I can't think of anything else that was good from the weekend.

Well, I guess there is one good thing.

It wasn't a 5-game series.

Alas, it is a 4-game series, sadly. I think we all know what that means tonight.

pga championship top 10

The timeless Aronimink GC in suburban Philadelphia will host the PGA Championship May 14-17 and if the course tells us anything about the eventual winner, the guy holding up the trophy better be able to hit the ball long off the tee and straight off the tee.

Wayward drivers of the golf ball will not be rewarded at Aronimink.

The lead-up to the second major championship of the golf season is interested and sprinkled with potentially sizzling storylines.

After finishing in 2nd place every tournament he enters, can Scottie Scheffler break out and win his second consecutive PGA and 5th career major? Scheffler has one win this year and coulda, shoulda, woulda won a few other times. But majors are his main pursuit now and Aronimink should set up well for him.

Only one player on the planet has a shot at winning the 2026 golf grand slam, and it's Rory McIlroy. Long known for his ability to hit 300 yard drives in the middle of the fairway, Rory should find Aronimink to his liking.

Matthew Fitzpatrick has 2 individual wins and a team win this year. He's on a heater. Can he stay hot at the PGA?

The same goes for Cameron Young. He has 2 wins. How about the hat trick at Aronimink?

We'll be diving into the stats and data over the next 10 days to preview who we like at the PGA. I hope they help you make enough money to spend a week (or two) at the ocean this summer.

#10, Daniel Berger -- Berger is due for something "big" to happen. He's fully healthy after a two year battle with a balky back and his game is a nice fit for Aronimink. More than anything, the former Florida State standout drives it dead straight and long.

He's currently 12th on TOUR in the "Total Driving" stat, which measures the combination of length and accuracy off the tee. He's 51st in distance and 36th in accuracy. He's 6th on TOUR in shots gained, approach, which should be a valuable stat at Aronimink given his one 2026 weakness has been putting.

Berger is 13th on TOUR in greens in regulation percentage (69.8%), another stat that should bode well for him at Aronimink.

He has a spotty career record in major championships, and in particular the PGA hasn't been overly friendly to him, but he did make the cut last year and finished T33 at Quail Hollow in Charlotte.

This year, he's made 9 of 11 cuts with a 2nd place finish and four finishes inside the Top 25 to his credit.

He's currently at +7500 for the PGA Championship, which is a very inviting number for a guy who drives it as long and straight as Berger.

A win bet might be overly bold, but I could see Berger finally hoisting a major championship trophy or finishing in the Top 10 after hanging around the leaderboard for a few days.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 38 days to go

Today's featured team - DR Congo

Group: K — Portugal, DR Congo, Uzbekistan, Colombia

How they Qualified: DR Congo did not get to this tournament the easy way. They finished just behind Senegal in CAF qualifying, then beat Cameroon and Nigeria in the African playoff to reach the inter-confederation playoff, where they beat Jamaica 1-0 after extra time on an Axel Tuanzebe goal to clinch their place.

Best World Cup Finish: Group Stage (1974 as Zaire)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $157.97 M

FIFA Rank: 46

Odds to Win Group: 11-1

Odds to Advance: -120

Odds to Win Cup: 700-1

Key Players:

Yoane Wissa — Forward — Newcastle United (Premier League). Wissa is DR Congo’s highest-valued player at $31m, and his return from injury was a major boost before the decisive World Cup playoff.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka — Right Back — West Ham United (Premier League). Wan-Bissaka is one of the standout names in the squad and a fixture in the recent big-match lineups, giving DR Congo real quality and recovery speed on the right side.

Chancel Mbemba — Center Back — Lille (France). The captain remains the emotional and defensive anchor of the team. He started the recent AFCON and playoff matches and gives this side a veteran backbone that a lot of teams in this range do not have.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Their recent competitive matches show a team with a pretty clear identity under Sébastien Desabre. In the AFCON group stage and round of 16, they repeatedly lined up in a 4-1-4-1, including against Benin, Senegal, and Algeria. In the World Cup playoff final against Jamaica, they shifted into more of a 4-4-1-1.

The recurring pieces were a solid back four, Samuel Moutoussamy sitting in front of it, and quick, direct attackers like Wissa, Elia, Bongonda, Mbuku, and Bakambu around the front line.

What makes them interesting is that they can play two different kinds of games. Against stronger African sides, they have shown they are willing to defend without much of the ball — they had only 35.9% possession in the AFCON draw with Senegal and 30.9% possession in the September qualifier against them.

But they are not passive. In the playoff final against Jamaica, they generated 19 shot attempts and largely controlled the danger even though the match needed extra time. They are a team built on unity and discipline, but with enough athleticism and attacking talent to threaten better teams.

So DR Congo feel a little sturdier than a typical team in this part of the field. They are experienced in the spine, they have real pace out wide, and they look comfortable in tight tournament games.

The group is tough because Portugal are the clear heavyweight and Colombia bring more top-end quality, but the market actually has DR Congo favored to get out ahead of Uzbekistan and move on to the knockout as one of the top third place teams. That feels about right. They are not just happy to be here, and they are one of the more credible upset threats among the lower-ranked teams.

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to return to the A.L. playoffs after missing the post-season in 2025.

o's week in review

Week Record: 2-4

Season Record: 15-19

AL East Standing: 3rd (8 GB of NYY)

Player of the Week: Pete Alonso - .435 OBP 3 HR 5 RBI 2 DB

This was yet another week where the Orioles teased fans with some promise only to whipsaw back down worse than where they started, continuing the trend of one step forward, two steps back.

The Birds welcomed the struggling Astros to Camden Yards for a three-game set that was rearranged by weather into a Tuesday opener and a Thursday doubleheader. They took two of three, highlighted by an offensive outburst in the first game of the doubleheader, but couldn’t complete the sweep as the nightcap turned ugly in a hurry.

Following the Astros series, the O’s traveled to the Bronx for the first three games of a four- game set against the AL-best Yankees and were thoroughly outclassed, dropping all three by a combined score of 27-9.

It was the kind of series that lays bare the gap between the true contenders and whatever the Orioles are now. The Yankees have now won 11 of their last 12 meetings against Baltimore, and the O's dropped to 15-19 on the season, four games under .500 for the first time this year.

On top of that, there was more worrying injury news on the already threadbare pitching staff.

Tuesday’s opener with the Astros was Shane Baz‘s best outing in an Orioles uniform. Baz earned his first win since the December trade from Tampa Bay, holding Houston to one run on six hits and a walk across 5.2 innings while striking out six.

Adley Rutschman set the tone with an RBI single in the first. Samuel Basallo followed with an RBI double to right to make it 2-0. The game stayed tight until the fifth, when Pete Alonso crushed an opposite-field two-run homer off reliever Ryan Weiss to push the lead to 4-1.

Ryan Helsley eventually slammed the door in the ninth for his seventh save in as many opportunities in a 5-3 win.

Wednesday’s game was postponed due to rain, setting up a single-admission doubleheader on Thursday. Chris Bassitt started the first game and continued to correct course from his disastrous early season, delivering his best outing of the season. Bassitt went 6.2 innings allowing just one earned run on seven hits while striking out seven.

Jeremiah Jackson opened the scoring with an RBI double in the fourth, and then the floodgates opened. In the fifth, with the bases loaded, Rutschman lined a ball to the left-center field wall. Astros center fielder Brice Matthews leaped and appeared to make the catch, but as he crashed into the wall the ball slipped out and fell into the bullpen for a grand slam.

Jackson added a grand slam of his own in the seventh, jumping on the first pitch from Jason Alexander, a hanging sweeper that he deposited over the left field fence. It was the first time the Orioles hit two grand slams in a game since September 11, 2015, and just the eighth time in franchise history, prompting Jim Palmer to eat his first chicken wing ever in an amusing exchange on the TV broadcast. The O’s won 10-3.

Whatever magic was in the air for the first game evaporated immediately in the nightcap. Brandon Young, who had been solid in his first two starts of the season, struggled from the very first inning, victimized by the team’s ugly defense.

Dustin Harris floated a two-out, two-run single to right that Tyler O’Neill misplayed, and Cam Smith followed with a three-run homer to put the Astros up 5-0 before the O’s even came to bat.

Yordan Alvarez added a solo shot in the second to make it 6-0, and by the fourth inning Young had allowed 10 runs (seven earned) on 10 hits.

The defense did him no favors, with balls finding holes and plays going unmade all over the field. Lance McCullers Jr., in sharp contrast, held the O’s to just two hits and three runs across six innings while striking out nine as the Birds fell 11-5.

Also of note, both Trevor Rogers and Ryan Helsley were placed on the 15-day injured list. Rogers hit the list with an illness, retroactive to April 26. More concerning was Helsley, who has been outstanding to start the year, who went down with the always-ominous “elbow inflammation.”

Friday's opener in New York was a mismatch from the outset. Cade Povich (1-1) was recalled to fill one of the empty rotation spots and ran straight into the teeth of the Yankees' lineup. José Caballero broke a 1-1 tie with a solo homer in the second, and Ben Rice followed with a three- run blast to blow it open.

Will Warren was outstanding on the other side, striking out nine in 6.1 innings while allowing just two runs (one earned) and three hits. Pete Alonso provided the lone highlight, launching his fifth homer in his first trip back to New York since leaving the Mets, but the O's managed just three hits total in a 7-2 loss.

Saturday was the Cody Bellinger show. The Yankees left fielder went 4-for-4 with two solo homers and four RBI, putting New York ahead with a solo shot off Kyle Bradish (1-4) in the second and adding another off Keegan Akin in the fifth.

Trent Grisham tacked on a two-run homer in the fourth as the Yankees moved a season-high 11 games over .500 at 22-11. Alonso homered again, his sixth, and Samuel Basallo drove in a run, but the Orioles' bats were otherwise quiet against lefty Ryan Weathers, who allowed just one earned run in five-plus innings and the O’s fell 9-4.

The loss extended Baltimore's record to 0-7 against left-handed starters this season, a trend that has gone from quirky to genuinely alarming. Sunday brought the major league debut of Trey Gibson, the club's No. 3 prospect who was called up from Norfolk to fill the rotation hole created by Rogers' IL stint.

To his credit, Gibson kept the O’s in the game, allowing three runs on four hits across 4.2 innings, with two walks and two strikeouts. Rice hit a solo homer off him in the first and Judge tagged him for a two-run shot in the third, but Gibson battled and left with the game tied at 3-3.

The defense did him no favors, with Weston Wilson muffing a grounder at third base that allowed Judge to reach in the first. The offense actually pressured Fried with a fully right-handed lineup, with Blaze Alexander blooping an RBI single in the third and two runs scoring in the fourth on a Leody Taveras infield single and a Jeremiah Jackson groundout.

But the O's couldn't deliver the decisive blow and the bullpen eventually caved when Andrew Kittredge surrendered seven runs in the eighth, leading to an 11-3 loss.

The series crystallized a few uncomfortable realities, demonstrating just how large the gap between the O’s and the division leaders really is.

Although the O’s have their share of injuries, the Yankees are also missing two of their top starters in Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon, as well as Giancarlo Stanton.

In a week where the bats carried the team for a few games, the pitching staff was badly exposed, both the starters and the bullpen. The team is able to take advantage of some of the struggling teams in the league but they badly failed one of their first tests against top competition.

While it wasn't a great week for the Orioles by any measure, Pete Alonso picked a good time to look like the hitter Baltimore thought it was paying for. The Polar Bear slashed .316/.435/.895 across the six games, launching three homers and driving in five while drawing four walks.

Two of those homers came on back-to-back nights in the Bronx, his first trip to New York since leaving the Mets, a setting that clearly brought out something in him. After a brutal first month that had his OPS sitting in the .600s and his strikeout rate at career-worst levels, this was the first sustained stretch where Alonso looked like himself.

The power was loud, the plate discipline was improved, and the at-bats had a purpose that had been missing. One week doesn't erase the slow start, but if this is the version of Alonso that shows up going forward, the lineup becomes a fundamentally different animal.

Samuel Basallo deserves a nod for his steady presence in the middle of the lineup. The 21- year-old hit .294 with two doubles and two RBI, continuing to look like a player who belongs at this level. He doesn't chase, he uses the whole field, and he rarely gives away at-bats.

In a week where much of the lineup went cold against Yankees pitching, Basallo was one of the few hitters who consistently put good swings on the ball.

Chris Bassitt also earned mention for his best start as an Oriole in the first game of the Houston doubleheader, going 6.2 innings and allowing just one earned run on seven hits while striking out seven.

After weeks of being a legitimate liability with an ERA north of 14, Bassitt finally delivered the kind of outing the Orioles envisioned when they signed him. Whether he can build on it remains to be seen, but at minimum it was a reminder that there's a competent pitcher in there somewhere.

Down on the Farm --

Norfolk had a quiet week at the plate, but a few names stood out.

Creed Willems continues to look comfortable in his first taste of Triple-A, clubbing his third homer of the season while driving in four runs with a .788 OPS on the week.

Non-prospect, 26 year-old Christian Encarnacion- Strand showed some pop with two homers and three RBI, though the .269 OBP suggests he's still selling out for power.

Jud Fabian added a homer and two steals, keeping his name in the conversation as a toolsy outfield option, even as the batting average (.217) remains a concern. On the mound, Yaqui Rivera was the week's headliner, spinning 4.1 innings of one-hit ball with six strikeouts and no runs allowed.

Levi Wells turned in a solid five-inning start, allowing just one earned run on three hits to pick up a win.

Less encouraging was Nestor German, who issued six walks in four innings, a departure from the command he showed at AA last season.

Down at AA Chesapeake, Aron Estrada continued to rake. The 22-year-old infielder slashed .381/.364/.714 with two homers and three RBI, building on what has been a strong start to his season.

Anderson De Los Santos drove in a team-high five runs despite a modest .118 average, including a homer.

Frederick Bencosme added two homers and three RBI of his own, showing some encouraging thump from the lower levels of the system.

On the pitching side, it was a rough week for a couple of names worth tracking. Juaron Watts- Brown, who had been one of Chesapeake's more reliable arms, was tagged for six earned runs in four innings. Luis De León also struggled, allowing four earned runs in 3.1 innings with three walks.

The bright spot was Juan Rojas, who didn't allow a hit across four innings while striking out six, though the five walks will need to come down. Daniel Lloyd was sharp as well, allowing just one hit in 2.2 scoreless innings with four punchouts.

Sunday May 3, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4269

o's not in a new york state of mind

Knowing the way things usually go, the Birds are more than likely going to do something totally unthinkable today and knock Max Fried around and beat the Yankees, 7-5.

I know what you're thinking.

"Is Drew day-drinking this early on a Sunday morning?"

You know how it goes. The O's have now lost three straight, including two in New York, where they have been thoroughly outclassed by the division-leading Yankees.

Desperate for help in the pitching department, the O's have summoned Trey Gibson from Norfolk and will give the 23-year old right hander his first big league start in the Bronx this afternoon.

They're opposing Max Fried, who has been one of the top three American League starters over the last year.

Logic says the scuffling O's, who only have recorded 7 total hits in the first two games of the series, will get roughed up by the Yankees. Our rookie pitcher against their stud southpaw ace. Feels like a 6-0 New York win.

So........

We're figuring it will be a 7-5 win for the battlin' Birds.

I think they call this sort of thing a "reverse lock" or something like that.

One question I saw being tossed around on Saturday afternoon as the O's were stumbling and bumbling through a 9-4 loss in New York was this: Is Craig Albernaz the right manager for the 2026 Orioles?

I think we all know the answer to that question.

"Who knows?"

I think it's far, far too early to start piling on Albernaz for the team's early season woes. The O's injury list has more names on it than there are songs on Hall and Oates Greatest Hits.

I realize injuries happen and they're part of the game and blah, blah, blah. Every team gets them, I know. But it's not just the injuries, but the fact that the O's can't stay healthy long enough to see if they're actually any good at all.

Now, we also don't know what Albernaz would do with a full, completely healthy roster. Maybe the O's would still be a .500 club?

I have no idea what Craig Albernaz did in the interview and hiring process to warrant being offered the managerial position in Baltimore, but I assume he lit up the room, somehow, with either his baseball acumen or the prospect of supervising a locker room littered with good, young professional players.

And I don't really know who his main competition was for the manager's role in Baltimore, either. I mean, it wasn't like he beat out Joe Torre and Dusty Baker. He probably had to earn the job over a few other Craig Albernaz types, in other words.

Whether Albernaz was the right hire or wrong hire is a long way from being decided, in my mind. I realize people on the internet are quick to pull the trigger, especially when the season was filled with high expectations, but I'm willing to be a little more patient with Albernaz and his staff.

And the injury factor is real in Baltimore. Again, I don't know if a fully-healthy O's team would be 20-13 at this point, but I'd say, given what has transpired thus far, injury-wise, that 15-18 is about what you'd expect after 33 games where you never once had your full team on the field.

It's far too early to panic.

Let's see where the Birds are after 50 games.

Anything in the 23, 24 or 25 win range after game #50 is fine by me.

You don't want to go 21-29 or 22-28 after 50. Those are big deficits to pick apart.

But 24-26? Not a problem at all.

Oh, and don't look now, but only four teams in the entire A.L. are above .500 as we enter the month of May. It's the Yankees, Rays, Guardians and Athletics and that's it. Everyone else is pretty much what the Orioles are...15-18. Or 16-17.

There's a lot of baseball left, sports fans. I will agree that there are some early signs of trouble. I'm not naive to the team's offensive woes or the starting pitching struggles we've seen. The defense is pretty much below average. I get it all.

But let's wait until the end of the month before we start making any real assessments. Fair?

Something weird could happen today at Trump Doral in Miami and Cameron Young could lose his six shot lead, but I'm going to guess he figures out a way to hold and win the Cadillac Championship, even with Scottie Scheffler playing alongside of him in the final group.

It would be Young's second huge win of the season, to go along with his outstanding play at The Masters last month.

I'm not here to say Cam Young is the "new" or "next" Scottie Scheffler, but I do think you're starting to see an avalanche of strong golf from the New York native that might just include a major championship sometime during this 2026 campaign.

If Scheffler's the best player in the world (and he is, still, by 10 lengths), Young is the "hottest" player these days, even with Rory winning his second straight green jacket in April.

His "shots gained" numbers through the first four months of the PGA Tour season are off-the-charts good. He's 9th in shots gained, total, he's 10th off the tee, 18th in approach to the green, 2nd in total driving, 32nd in driving distance and 24th in driving accuracy.

Even his putting, which was once upon a time his definite weak spot, has dramatically improved so far in 2026.

He's finished in the Top 10 in four of his last five events and will likely make that five of six today. His worst finish since mid-February? It came a couple of weeks ago at the RBC Heritage, where he was T25.

The 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup currently has two roster spots filled: Scheffler and Cameron Young. They're on the team.

And with a win today at Trump Doral, Young will now be tied with Fitzpatrick and Gotterup as the only guys on TOUR this year to have two victories in individual tournaments.

There's more where that came from, too, I believe. Young is looking at 4 or 5 win season if this play we're seeing from him continues into the summer months.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 39 days to go

Today's featured team: Uzbekistan

Group: K — Portugal, DR Congo, Uzbekistan, Colombia

How they Qualified: Finished second in AFC third-round Group A and clinched their first-ever World Cup berth with a 0-0 draw away to the UAE.

Best World Cup Finish: First appearance

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $75.13 M

FIFA Rank: 50

Odds to Win Group: 35-1

Odds to Advance: +190

Odds to Win Cup: 1500-1

Key Players:

Abdukodir Khusanov — Center Back — Manchester City (Premier League). Khusanov is the clear headliner of this squad. Transfermarkt lists him at $47m, easily the highest-valued Uzbek player. He has been on a rapid rise this season, cementing himself as a starter for Man City at just 22 years-old as they push for a Premier League title.

Abbosbek Fayzullaev — Attacking Midfielder — Başakşehir (Turkey). Fayzullaev is one of the main creative sparks in the side. Transfermarkt lists him at $11m. Another 22 year-old, Fayzullaev is the rising offensive counterpart to Khusanov as leading young talents driving Uzbekistan onto the world stage. He led the team in scoring during qualifying.

Eldor Shomurodov — Striker — Başakşehir (Turkey). The veteran forward remains the focal point up front. He has 88 caps and 43 international goals, and scored in the recent March win over Gabon.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Uzbekistan does not look like a pure hang-on-and-hope underdog. They lined up in a 3-4-3 in most of their critical qualifiers. The repeated use of Khusanov in the back line, Fayzullaev and Jaloliddin Masharipov as creative pieces, and Shomurodov as the central striker suggests a team that is comfortable with either a back three or back four, but consistently wants mobile attackers around a true No. 9.

The broader picture from qualification is of a side that is organized, hard to beat, and a little more technical than the typical debutant. They boasted a solid defense anchored by Khusanov, allowing the fewest goals in their group, just seven goals in ten games.

There is also a current wrinkle worth noting. Uzbekistan qualified under Timur Kapadze, but former Italian star Fabio Cannavaro was appointed in October 2025 to lead them into the tournament. Under Cannavaro, they went unbeaten in the March friendlies, beating Gabon 3-1 and drawing Venezuela 0-0 before winning on penalties.

So the basic structure appears solid, even if the exact tactical details may still evolve a bit before June.

In Group K, Portugal are deserved favorites, but Uzbekistan look competitive enough to make life uncomfortable for Colombia and DR Congo rather than just filling out the group.

Saturday May 2, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4268

and down the stretch they come!

Man, it feels like horse racing in this country is just not the same as it was, say 25 years ago.

Then again, it's probably fair to say that "most things" that were great in 2000 aren't all that great in 2026.

Times change. What we thought was cool and fun once upon a time has been replaced by something else that's cool and fun now.

I remember when the Kentucky Derby was a big freakin' deal.

To some (of us), it still is. But it just doesn't feel like the sports world stops from 5 pm until 7 pm on the first Saturday in May like it did once upon a time.

The Preakness, of course, will be taking on an entirely new life in two weeks when it shifts, temporarily, to Laurel Park while repairs to Pimlico continue to be made.

If things go well and the racing industry is lucky, the winner of today's Derby will make the trip to Baltimore Laurel on May 16 and the Preakness will actually be ultra-important. Without the Derby winner, it's pretty much has the excitement of a Boy Scouts' Soap Box Derby race.

Let's get to today's events at Churchill Downs and show you who we think is going to finish in the money.

This year's race doesn't have a star-studded field. As usual, despite a few late-in-the-week scratches, there are too many horses scheduled to run later today. But while there's no "rock star" horse in the field, there are 6 or 8 who are very competent and worthy of consideration for a visit to the winner's circle.

Renegade is likely going to go off as the favorite in the #1 post position. Current odds are 5-1. He has the benefit of having one of the country's best jockeys, Irad Ortiz Jr., on board.

Commandment will be in the #5 post position after switching from the #6 when the #5 was scratched. This horse has been gaining steam from bettors as Saturday draws near.

So Happy might just have a smile on his face after today's race. In the #8 post position and likely to go off somewhere around 8-1 today. Ageless Mike Smith is in the irons for So Happy.

The Puma is in the #9 position and will also probably go off around 8-1 today. These two in the 8-9 spots might wind up challenging each other throughout the trip around Churchill Downs.

Chief Wallabee, with Junior Alvarado on board, is in the #12 position and has really gained favorable steam this week with horse players who have been paying attention to the week leading up to the race. Expect the Chief to be somewhere around 7-1 by race time today.

Further Ado is the last of the horses most people consider a "favorite" to hit the board today. He's on the far outside, in post position #18, and will probably be 5-1 or better by the time 6:57 pm rolls around and the horses hit the starting gate.

There are two other horses worth considering; #7 Danon Bourbon and #15 Emerging Market. Both of them could be in the mix as the horses turn for home, although a trip to the winner's circle might be an ambitious ask of either of them.

Emerging Market is particularly interesting because perhaps the nation's best jockey is on him, Flavien Prat.

Who do we like here at #DMD?

Our pick to win the race is #12 Chief Wallabee. We love the combo of Alvarado (jockey) and Mott (trainer) and even though he's lightly raced (the Derby is only his 4th race ever), the Chief is ready to deliver on the biggest stage today.

Commandment, the #5 horse, finishes 2nd by two lengths. Luis Saez keeps him in a good spot as they head for home, but Chief Wallabee holds him off.

Emerging Market, the #15, hits the board behind another remarkable ride from Flavien Prat.

So Happy, #8, is in the hunt throughout most of the race before wilting in the final quarter-mile and hangs on for fourth place.

We're going with 12, 5, 15 and 8 as our top four finishers.

In case you're one that believes in stats, data and trends, here are a few nuggets regarding post positions for the Derby.

The #5 post position has produced the most victories (10) in the race's history. That might bode well for Commandment, who was in the #6 spot before moving to #5.

No horse in the #17 post position has ever won. Sorry about that Six Speed. You got the bad draw.

The post position that has produced the most "in the money finishes"??? That would be #10. 28.7% of the time, the #10 horse hits the board. This year, the #10 is Wonder Dean. I don't see him making any noise, but he's there at #10.

#DMD's horse racing enthusiast Greg Trehane helped compile our information and predictions for today's Kentucky Derby.

The Birds opened a weekend series in the Big Apple last night by producing one of those "Blue Oyster Cult" nights at the ol' ballpark. You know, three hits. And that's it. Three stinkin' hits.

Final from the Bronx: Yankees 7 - Orioles 2

In case you can win a bar bet with this today, here's who had the three hits for Bawlmer last night: Pete Alonso (home run), Sam Basallo and Blaze Alexander.

Cade Povich got the emergency start for the Birds and was lousy, giving 7 hits and 5 earned runs in 4 innings of work. Albert Suarez, who cleared waivers this week and was called up earlier on Friday when Ryan Helsley hit the injured list with an elbow ailment, helped keep the bullpen a little bit rested with 2.2 innings of decent work.

The Birds are now 15-17 after briefly getting back to .500 on Thursday when they won the doubleheader opener against the Astros.

But the 11-5 loss in the nightcap and the 7-2 shellacking in New York last night sent the squad two games below .500.

And the early season struggles of Gunnar Henderson continued last night, as he went 0-for-4 to see his average drop to .207 and his on-base-percentage dwindle to .275. His power numbers are good, but that's about it for Gunnar. He's having a tough time at the plate.

Pete Alonso's average isn't any better (.203), but he's getting on base at .319 clip, which still isn't great, but it's way better than Gunnar's .275 OBP.

Mayo (.165/.239) and Cowser (.183/.265) are scuffling so bad that scuffling called and said, "Don't worry guys, it'll come around for you at some point."

From the silver linings department, Adley Rutschman continues to have a good start, despite last night's 0-for-4 outing at Yankee Stadium. Rutsch is hitting .333 and he's getting on base at a .382 clip. Those are big league hitter numbers right there. Let's hope he's putting up those digits in June.

Of course, it's almost impossible to fairly judge the club and their 15-17 mark based on how many of the team's starters have spent time on the injured list. With Friday's news that Helsley is suffering from elbow inflammation, it's assumed that Tyler Wells will move into the closer's role if, in fact, the O's have a lead at some point in the next 15 days.

This is likely the way the '26 season is going to go for the next five months. Win 2, lose 3. Win 5 of 7. Lose 3 of 4. Win 2 of 3. Lose 5 straight. In the end, it will probably result in a record of 70-something and 80-something.

I would say, "If nothing else, it's going to be fun." But I'm not sure that's true.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 40 days to go

Today's featured team: Saudi Arabia

Group: H — Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay

How they Qualified: Topped AFC fourth-round Group B. Saudi beat Indonesia 3-2 and then drew Iraq 0-0 to finish first on goal difference and clinch their seventh World Cup appearance.

Best World Cup Finish: Round of 16 (1994)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $25.69 M

FIFA Rank: 61

Odds to Win Group: 18-1

Odds to Advance: +100

Odds to Win Cup: 1000-1

Key Players:

Salem Al-Dawsari — Winger — Al-Hilal. The 34 year-old captain is still the face of the team and their most proven big-game player. Transfermarkt lists him with 104 caps and 25 international goals, and he was one of their top rated players during the qualifying campaign.

Firas Al-Buraikan — Striker — Al-Ahli. He is Saudi Arabia’s most valuable player on Transfermarkt at $4.3m, and he led the team in scoring during qualifying, including the massive brace against Indonesia that put Saudi in position to qualify directly.

Mohamed Kanno — Midfielder — Al-Hilal. Kanno is the midfield anchor and one of the players who best explains how this team wants to play. He is the heart of the midfield because of his ability to control tempo, retain possession under pressure, and win balls back.

Playing Style and Outlook:

Saudi Arabia are a team that changes shape depending on the opponent rather than forcing one rigid identity.

Transfermarkt logs them in a 5-4-1 away to Japan in a scoreless draw, a 4-3-3 attacking setup in the 2-0 win at Bahrain, and then a 4-2-3-1 in the decisive fourth-round matches against Indonesia and Iraq. That is a pretty clear sign of a tactically flexible side rather than a one-note bunker team.

The constants are easier to spot than the formation. Saudi still revolves around Salem Al- Dawsari as the left-sided creator, Al-Buraikan as the main finisher, and a midfield built to keep the ball moving rather than just clear lines. Their fullbacks also matter, especially on the right side when they can get forward.

This is a team that can sit deep against a stronger opponent, as it did in the 0-0 draw at Japan, but it is also comfortable stepping forward and playing on the front foot when the matchup allows it, like in the 2-0 win over Bahrain and the decisive 3-2 win over Indonesia.

Saudi conceded only four goals in their last six qualifiers, which fits the idea of a team built first on structure and control.

That makes Saudi Arabia a more credible team than a typical No. 40 in the field. The group is obviously difficult, with Spain and Uruguay as the bigger names, but the betting market still gives Saudi about even odds to advance, which is much shorter than the true long shots in the tournament.

They are experienced, tactically adaptable, and good enough to make this group awkward. They have pulled off surprising results before, like their stunning 2-1 win over eventual champions Argentina in the last World Cup.

One wildcard, though, is the bench: AFP reported on April 17, 2026 that Hervé Renard had been relieved of his duties, creating some late uncertainty about exactly what version of Saudi Arabia will show up in June.

Friday May 1, 2026

#DMD

Issue #4267

"legend" doesn't do him justice

Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban was once asked how someone knows if they'll be missed when they're gone.

"You know you made an impact if they'll miss your a** when you're no longer there," was his succinct and accurate reply.

Baltimore lost an icon late Wednesday evening this week.

Joe Baker '76 passed away at age 67 after a long illness.

The Calvert Hall community suffered an unthinkable loss.

The local sports and education world owes him gratitude beyond imagination.

Most recently, Baker served as the Director of Advancement at Calvert Hall. Anyone who knew Joe said the same thing about the position at the school. "It was built for Joe Baker."

He was a gifted salesman who helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Calvert Hall during his tenure in that role.

Throughout his 50 year career at the school, Baker did everything. Like, actually, EVERYTHING.

He coached basketball and baseball. He taught class. He was a key administrator. And he ended his run at Calvert Hall serving as the institution's chief fund raiser.

If there was ever someone at Calvert Hall known as the "father" of the school, it was Joe Baker. And in an ode to Nick Saban's commentary, Joe Baker will be missed more than he could have ever possibly imagined.

On a personal note, back in early January, I popped into Joe's office and asked him if he would serve as our golf team's "Honorary Captain" for the 2026 season.

The Honorary Captain is something we do every year within the golf program, nominating a Calvert Hall graduate to connect with our team and serve as a mentor and professional "friend" to our young men. We've had a distinguished list of Honorary Captains in my 14 years, including Mike Gill '68, Frank Miller '75, Brian Hubbard '92 and Rich Kohles '64, just to name a few.

But Joe Baker '76 was the dean of those on the list.

"Why me?" Joe asked that day when I sat in front of him with the Honorary Captain request. "You're not that far down on the list yet are you?" he said with a laugh.

And, of course, Joe Baker gladly accepted and is our current Honorary Captain for the golf program.

We played our match yesterday at Baltimore Country Club vs. St. Paul's in honor of Joe Baker. That we won, 16-5, was great. But it struck me as I watched our team compete that Joe would be particularly proud of the way Calvert Hall played the game yesterday and the way Calvert Hall conducted its "business".

As always, our on-course decorum was outstanding. We hit a lot of great shots and some bad ones, too, and we carried ourselves well no matter where the golf ball went. Our opponents didn't always do that, a frustrating day on the course occasionally getting the best of them.

But as I watched my six guys play golf on a windy spring day at one of the finest private clubs in the state, it became apparent to me how proud Joe Baker would have been of those young men, some of which he likely helped bring to Calvert Hall through his various philanthropic and fund raising efforts.

There could be no better way for us to thank Joe Baker for a life well done than to represent Calvert Hall the way he would want the school represented "out there" in the public eye.

Joe Baker '76 is a Calvert Hall legend. Anyone who attended the school over the last 50 years has somehow been impacted by him.

And to say he'll be missed...

Well, that's the understatement of the year. And we're only into May.

I'm willing to admit that perhaps only hockey fans get this, but there's nothing in sports that compares to playoff hockey. Nothing. At all.

The NFL playoffs look, to me, anyway, like a good mid-December regular season game that matters. If you flew in from Pluto in mid-January and didn't know what the NFL schedule was all about, you wouldn't know the difference between a game on January 15 and a game on December 15.

The NBA playoffs are the same. Their might be a slight uptick in defense in April and May, but last night's 140-89 Knicks win over Atlanta looked just like a Wednesday night game in mid-January where the Hawks were playing their 3rd game in five nights and just didn't really care.

Perhaps Major League Baseball has the second best "playoffs" of the four major sports. Anyone that watched Game 7 of last year's ALCS or Game 7 of the World Series can attest to the idea that playoff baseball looks and feels different than games you see in June, July and August.

But nothing compares to playoff hockey.

And while I can't really put my finger on why that is, it just is.

It might be that nearly every guy playing in the hockey post-season grew up wanting to skate around the rink with the Stanley Cup over their head.

The actual trophy in hockey means something. Winning is important, sure, but the actual physical trophy you get to hold has a special place in the hearts of hockey players all over the world, but particularly in Canada and the U.S.

No football player cares about the Lombardi Trophy.

No baseball or basketball player cares about the actual trophy.

That's not to say that winning championships in football, baseball and basketball aren't important to the athletes. "Winning a ring" is the ultimate pro sports goal.

But in hockey, it's all about that trophy.

Both games last night went down to the wire, with Minnesota and Anaheim both sealing series-clinching wins at home with empty net goals in the game's final minute(s).

There's are three huge games tonight where Montreal (home), Buffalo (away) and Las Vegas (away) could win their respective best-of-7 series'.

If you're not a hockey fan or just not someone generally inclined to watch hockey, carve out an hour or two this evening and watch one of the three games. Or, like me, spend your entire Friday evening in front of the TV watching all three.

I think you'll agree there's nothing like playoff hockey.

---

orioles minor league player of the week

It’s time to highlight the O’s farm system a little bit and announce our #DMD Orioles’ Minor League Player of the Week.

The 2026 Minor League season has just begun with all the four major affiliates having gotten their seasons underway. This week the honor belongs to one of, if not the best prospect in the Orioles’ system, outfielder Nate George.

George, 19, had an absolute torrid week for the High-A Frederick Keys. Over five games played, George hit .473 (9-19) with two extra-base hits,10 runs scored, five RBI and drew six walks to make it reaching base 15 times over 25 plate appearances.

Yeah, that’s pretty good.

Oh, and let’s not forget that George can absolutely fly around the base paths. Over those five games last week, he swiped six bases without getting caught once.

Currently ranked the top prospect in the Orioles’ system by MLB Pipeline, George used this week to rebound after a somewhat slow start to the 2026 campaign. Over 16 games this season for the Keys, he is hitting .292 with four extra-base hits, 16 runs scored, six RBI and has stolen 10 bags. He has also drawn nine walks to help him post a .382 OBP.

The 2024 16th round pick out of Minooka Community HS (Minooka, IL) bolstered up the prospect rankings last season, his first in professional baseball after posting an overall .337 batting average with 50 stolen bases, 28 extra-base hits, 42 RBI and scoring 66 runs to go along with a .413 OBP over 87 games across three minor league levels.

George quickly became a name to know last year, and if this last week was his jumping off point for the 2026 season, he may very quickly find himself on the quick road to Chesapeake and a AA promotion at a very young age.

Be sure to check back in season as we will continue to highlight top performers from the O’s farm system!

This contribution was provided by our Orioles minor league correspondent, Josh Michael.

	RANDY MORGAN on World Cup 2026
As World Cup 2026 approaches, our #DMD soccer reporter, Randy Morgan, previews the teams we'll see this summer as the tournament makes its way to North America.

countdown to the world cup - 41 days to go

Today's featured team - South Africa

Group: A — Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Czech Republic

How they Qualified: Won CAF qualifying Group C. South Africa clinched their place by beating Rwanda 3-0 on October 14, 2025, sealing their first World Cup appearance since 2010.

Best World Cup Finish: Group Stage (1998, 2002, 2010)

Transfermarkt Roster Value: $54.62 M

FIFA Rank: 60

Odds to Win Group: 12-1

Odds to Advance: +120

Odds to Win Cup: 800-1

Key Players:

Lyle Foster — Striker — Burnley (Premier League). Foster is easily the squad’s most valuable player on Transfermarkt at $12m, and was one of the standout African performers from the decisive September qualifying window.

Teboho Mokoena — Defensive Midfielder — Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa). Mokoena is one of the constants in Hugo Broos’ midfield. He was in the starting XI in the key qualifiers against Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda.

Oswin Appollis— Winger— Orlando Pirates (South Africa). Appollis was one of South Africa’s most productive players in qualifying. He scored once and added two assists in the 3-0 clinching win over Rwanda, then followed that by scoring in South Africa’s 2-1 AFCON win over Angola. He also led the team in assists throughout CAF qualifying.

Playing Style and Outlook:

South Africa lined up in a 4-2-3-1 against Lesotho, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda. The results in that stretch were 3-0 win, 1-1 draw, 0-0 draw, 3-0 win.

They are a little different from the typical teams this low in the rankings, as they are not just a pure bunker-and-counter underdog.

Bafana Bafana have shown in both qualifying and the Africa Cup of Nations that they are comfortable controlling possession against a lot of African opposition. They had 70% possession and 24 shot attempts in a World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe, then posted 66% possession against Zimbabwe and 66.4% possession with 18 shot attempts against Cameroon at AFCON.

That does not necessarily mean they can play the same way against World Cup competition.

Against stronger teams, South Africa will probably need to be more selective about when they press and how much of the ball they try to keep. In that sense, they look more like a flexible, organized side than a one-note long shot. They have enough quality and confidence to make this group uncomfortable, but against Mexico, South Korea, and Czech Republic they may need a more balanced approach than they often used in Africa.

Coach Hugo Broos has been quoted saying he believes South Africa can surprise people at this tournament, and they do look more credible than the usual team in this part of the countdown.

faith in sports

The website "Sports Spectrum" is a bookmarked feature on every device I own. Phone, laptop, home computer -- it doesn't matter, I'm constantly getting updates from Sports Spectrum every time they release a new video or podcoast.

This week's entry with Saints' tight end Juwan Johnson is one of the best entries we've seen from Sports Spectrum in 2026. And you don't have to be a fan of the Saints to enjoy it!

Juwan Johnson is an amazing young man!

Matt Forte opens the interview with a prayer, thanking God for the opportunity glorify Him through Sports Spectrum. And I just took a minute to do the same thing as I type this, thanking God for the opportunity to put this in front of thousands and thousands of people who may -- or may not -- take a minute to click on the video and watch and listen to Forte and his guest put the spotlight on the Lord.

There's scripture in the Bible that says, ""Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

So, here we are, you and I, gathered. And the Lord is here with us.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our Friday "Faith in Sports" segment.

O's SCOREBOARD
Wednesday, May 13
Orioles 7	Yankees 0
WP: K. Bradish (2-5) LP: M. Fried (4-3) HR: Rutschman (6) RECORD / PLACE: 20-24, 4th

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