Latest news with #NewEngland
New York Times
an hour ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Rafael Devers is walking more than ever, which is a good sign for his future
Pull up a list of major leaguers who have played 1,000 games before turning 29. Sort them by adjusted OPS (OPS+), which accounts for league-wide scoring levels and ballparks. Focus on the first 200 names. Now you have a list of All-Stars, with a lot of Hall of Famers mixed in. That's the elevator pitch for Rafael Devers. Among players who played a lot of games before turning 30, Devers was among the best hitters. He's keeping company with Al Kaline and Dave Winfield, if you're looking to compare him with Hall of Famers. He's keeping company with Jack Clark and Reggie Smith, if you're looking to compare him to Hall of Very Gooders with a Giants connection. It's a list of players who can provide supporting evidence for whatever narrative you want to tell. If you're worried about Devers' limited defensive ability preventing him from aging gracefully, Kent Hrbek and Greg Luzinski are on the list. If you're projecting a Hall of Fame career, you can tally up the inductees with a lower OPS+ through their age-28 season. There are 35 who hit better than Devers, and there are 44 who hit worse. Advertisement None of this tells us how Devers will age, or how much of a bargain or albatross he'll be toward the end of his contract. It's just another way to say, 'so far, so good.' What he's already done is impressive, and while he's not quite as young as his cherubic face might suggest, he's still in the prime of his career. Let's update the description, then: So far, so great. Devers got on this list by being consistent. Check his slash line since 2019 (excluding the 60-game 2020 season): 2019: .311/.361/.555 (132 OPS+) 2021: .279/.352/.538 (134 OPS+) 2022: .295/.358/.521 (141 OPS+) 2023: .271/.351/.500 (126 OPS+) 2024: .272/.354/.516 (142 OPS+) The batting average fluctuated a little bit because that's what they do, but the overall production was remarkably steady. Even more impressive, Devers had at least 600 plate appearances in all five of those seasons. With continued health, he'll be the best hitter on the Giants for the next several years if he keeps hitting like this. A simple story that doesn't have to get more complicated. A 28-year-old has had a very good career to this point, and if nothing changes, he'll continue having one. That 'if nothing changes' is doing a lot of work, of course. He'll need to stay healthy for the back end of his contract to not be a huge problem. He'll need to follow expected aging curves and keep hitting into his early 30s. He'll need to keep hitting for power. There's another reason why 'if nothing changes' is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Something might have already changed. Devers is staying in the strike zone more than he ever has, and he's walking a lot more as a result. He has the fourth-highest walk rate in baseball, and he's walking more than Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber or Aaron Judge. He literally walked the very second I typed the period at the end of the previous sentence. He's a walking machine these days, and both chase rate and walk rate are statistics that stabilize quickly, so it doesn't have to be small-sample shenanigans. This isn't just important because it appeals to walk fetishists and scratches that 'Moneyball' itch. It's important because over Devers' career, this has been the missing piece. It's been the only missing piece, other than speed. He's been a great hitter over his career, but he hasn't been a generational talent. He's giving himself a chance at the Hall of Fame, but it's hard to say he's on a Hall of Fame pace. He's a three-time All-Star, but he's never had a top-10 MVP finish, and he certainly isn't a superstar outside of New England. Advertisement The one thing preventing him from all of the above: patience. The players who make fewer outs while also clobbering extra-base hits are the generational talents, the MVPs who are on Hall of Fame paces. Devers is an outstanding hitter when he sports a .350-ish OBP. If he can get that into the .400s consistently, though, he could be a top-five hitter in baseball. Maybe he's already there. This is, of course, the part of the article where I hedge my bets and present a counterpoint to all of those fun ideas. Devers is walking more, but he's also making less contact when he swings. A lot less contact, with the lowest contact percentage and highest swinging-strike rate of his career. The biggest change is with his swings and misses at pitches in the strike zone. He's swinging through a lot more strikes. There are a lot of possible reasons for this, and not all of them are bad. It could be a conscious decision to make even better contact, even if it comes with less contact. But the likelier scenario is that Devers doesn't like all this swinging and missing, and he'll continue working to fix it. If he gets back to his career averages, that will mean more balls in play and, presumably, fewer walks. Is that a pretty weak counterpoint? Feels like a pretty weak counterpoint, but it's all I got. The idea of Devers maintaining a top-five walk rate should absolutely thrill Giants fans. There are very justified concerns about the money that's now committed to a 1B/DH-type throughout his early and mid-30s, but a lot of that has to do with the good-not-great OBPs that Devers has had in the past. He's a fantastic hitter with a .350 OBP, but it's easy to imagine that kind of OBP dipping closer to the league average without warning, then settling comfortably below in subsequent seasons. With a high-OBP batter, the aging curve looks a lot friendlier. If he can maintain a .400-ish OBP throughout his peak, then it wouldn't be unthinkable for a 35-year-old Devers to have numbers similar to the ones he put up when he was 25. We're still in the first half of the season, which means this is something to watch, not something to expect. A couple months with a few more walks isn't enough to guarantee that Devers has leveled up. But if he's really found something with how he tracks pitches, if he's showing off a new and sustainable skill, it's hard to overstate how encouraging of a sign that would be. Advertisement And if he goes back to the hitter he's always been, that's pretty cool, too. That's the best part of this. We're not talking about something that's turning a mediocre player into a solid regular; we're talking about something that could turn an All-Star into an MVP. If it doesn't stick, he's just a 28-year-old All-Star again. If you think walks are unexciting — and you should — maybe this will change your mind a little. Now you can pump your fist with every good take and checked swing. You can howl with delight when an umpire flinches but doesn't make the call. Rafael Devers currently has one of the best walk rates in baseball. If he keeps that up for a few seasons, he won't just be one of the best hitters in baseball: He'll be a bargain.
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Judge rules Trump administration can't require states to help on immigration to get transport money
BOSTON — A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from withholding billions of dollars in transportation funds from states that don't agree to participate in some immigration enforcement actions. Twenty states sued after they said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to cut off funding to states that refused to comply with President Donald Trump's immigration agenda. U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. barred federal transportation officials from carrying out that threat before the lawsuit is fully resolved.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Cardi B blasts ex Offset as she reveals petty revenge plot amid Stefon Diggs romance
Cardi B appears to diss her ex Offset on her latest track Outside, with lyrics that allude to her latest romance with NFL wide receiver Stefon Diggs. The 32-year-old rapper, who shares three children with Offset, 33 — Kulture, six, Wave, three, and Blossom, eight months, raps lyrics on her new track that seemingly allude to her romance with the veteran pass catcher, 31. 'Do you how you do me, bet you we won't speak again,' she rapped in the track. 'Favorite player from your favorite team, he in my DM.' The Girls Like You rapper - who has gone Instagram official in her romance with Diggs, now a member of the New England Patriots - rapped the lyrics 'heard them Patriots got them n*****, let me in the locker room.' Diggs has been a mainstay in the NFL for 10 seasons, playing his first five seasons with the Minnesota Vikings before playing for the Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans in the years since. The release of the track comes less than a year after the Bodak Yellow artist filed for divorce from the Migos rapper. The hip-hop mainstay, whose full name is Belcalis Almánzar, a few weeks back delved into her family's over-the-top finances and made a dig at her estranged husband Offset in a furious social media stream. In it, she said that the rapper has not pitched in a penny for the kids since their split. Cardi B added on X Spaces: 'A whole year straight, you have left me with the kids' bills. Y'all want to know what's the kids' bills? Start adding. 'My kids got their own driver — they pick them up from school, they drop them off and they take them to gymnastics and boxing classes. The kids' driver is on a retainer for $10,000 a month.' Cardi B audited the expensive tuitions she is footing the bill for, claiming Offset didn't help with any of it. 'Kulture's school this year — you didn't pay for it — that's $45,000,' said Cardi B. 'Wave's school a year is $35,000, which you didn't help me pay for it this year at all.' The hip-hop mainstay, whose full name is Belcalis Almánzar, added she pays a relative $3,000 weekly to babysit, and a nanny for their baby Blossom charges a daily fee of $500. Cardi B listed a series of ancillary charges she's eaten in the near-year since their bitter breakup. 'Kulture and Wave get tutoring four times a week. Each hour is $250. Count that up,' she said. 'Kulture's piano class, that's $300 an hour and she gets piano classes three times a week. 'I'm not sure how much is gymnastics and Wave's boxing classes, but I pay that too,' she added. The I Like It performer also was critical of Offset for seeking spousal support in the split, again itemizing expenses she's paid for without his assistance. 'Kiari, have I asked you for anything?' the Bodak Yellow vocalist said. 'You want spousal support so bad. 'And mind you, this is not even including food - my kids have a personal chef that comes from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. that I pay for because people in my house don't have time to cook.' Cardi also said that Offset has 'seen Blossom only like five times' since her birth last fall. She added, 'I been trying to save your face. I said you can see my kids in my house. I want my daughter to feel the love of her dad. He hasn't seen his kids since March.' Cardi B filed for divorce from the musical artist in July of 2024, and petitioned the court for full custody of their three kids. She and Offset initially wed in 2017 and had previously filed for divorce in 2020, but eventually called it off. Diggs earlier this month an image of himself in the uniform of his new team, the New England Patriots, amid speculation at the time his mounting controversies could cause a distraction to the team ahead of training camp, endangering his roster spot.
Fox News
3 hours ago
- General
- Fox News
Captain Cook's legendary ship finally identified near New England resort after 250 years
Maritime experts believe they've finally pinpointed the exact resting place of Captain James Cook's legendary ship – just off the coast of a beloved New England resort town. A report about HMS Endeavour was published by the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) on June 3. In 1778, the British intentionally sank the ship off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island, in a strategic move to block French and American attacks. While it has long been known that the 18th-century vessel lies off the coast of the Ocean State, its exact location has eluded marine historians. But now experts are sure that a Rhode Island state archaeological site named RI 2394 is the final resting place of the ship – and they have decades of research to back it up. Also known as the "Kerry" site, the shipwreck is between 39 and 43 feet underwater, the report says. The site includes a "linear stone ballast pile, the eastern periphery of which features a line of partially exposed frame ends that are closely spaced and of substantial size," according to the report. "Four iron cannons are also present on the site," the report continues. "Two are largely exposed above the seabed and lie immediately adjacent to one another on the western side of the site." The site also features remnants of floors, futtocks and a stanchion, which is a post that supported the ship's deck beams. "By 2019, careful surface investigation of all shipwrecks located within the Limited Study Area determined RI 2394 was the most likely candidate for [the] ex-HMS Endeavour," the report said. The site meets 10 criteria that experts previously agreed upon. These include a lack of American timbers, a European elm keel, and evidence of hull repairs matching what is known about HMS Endeavour. The ship also has scuttling holes to prove it was intentionally sunk, and overall possessed "architectural features matching those of Endeavour." The report concluded, "RI 2394 is the largest shipwreck site within the LSA and exhibits attributes that fulfill the criteria." "Consequently, the preponderance of evidence supports this shipwreck site's identification as [HMS Endeavour] … and at the same time discounts any of the other investigated shipwreck sites as that of James Cook's renowned ship of exploration." The Endeavour holds great significance in Australian history as the first European vessel to reach the country's eastern coast. After the ship sailed the world, it was sold to a private citizen in Feb. 1775 and renamed "Lord Sandwich" before it was scuttled. Marine archaeologists across the world are actively discovering countless numbers of shipwrecks per year. Just last week, officials announced that they had discovered a 16th-century shipwreck at record depth in French waters. Off the coast of Ireland, underwater archaeologists recently found an 18th-century vessel that is believed to be a long-lost treasure ship.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Kristin Cavallari reveals which ex was best in bed and takes dig at Jay Cutler over money
Kristin Cavallari confessed which of her exes she'd rather spend the rest of her life with, because of 'great sex' on E! 's Honestly Cavallari: The Headline Tour. The 38-year-old reality star has said in the past that action star Jason Statham was her 'hottest hookup,' with a string of famous boyfriends like Matt Leinart, Nick Zano, Morgan Wallen and of course her marriage to NFL quarterback Jay Cutler. She also admitted on a recent episode that she 'dry humped' actor Glen Powell though she refused to divulge any other details. This week's episode of Honestly Cavallari took her four-city tour to Boston, where she spoke for fans at The Wilbur. She also welcomed surprise guest Camille Kostek, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and the longtime girlfriend of NFL great Rob Gronkowski. Towards the end of the Boston show, Cavallari opened it up to fan questions, where she revealed a rather shocking sex confession, and debunked rumors her ex Jay Cutler funded her Uncommon James brand. She was asked by a fan, 'If you had to spend the rest of your life with one of your exes, who would it be?' The question stunned the rest of the audience, and Cavallari herself, though she revealed it would be her latest ex - 24-year-old Mark Estes, who she dated for seven months before they split in September 2024. 'I would settle with Mark, because I can have really good sex for the rest of my life and be happy,' she said. While Estes didn't appear on the tour, he did appear on a November 2024 episode of her Let's Be Honest podcast, where he admitted she gave him the 'best sex' he's ever had. She added, 'I actually didn't know that. You've never said that to me. We've talked about how great our sex is.' The reality star added, 'I think sex for women just gets better as you get older. Women, when you're in your early 20s, you're insecure in a lot of ways.' 'You're worried about your body or what you look like, where I've let all of that go, and I think I'm more present physically during sex than I've ever been,' she said. She also clarified rumors that her ex-husband Jay Cutler financed her Uncommon James retail brand, insisting she never got anything from him in the divorce. While Estes (above right) didn't appear on the tour, he did appear on a November 2024 episode of her Let's Be Honest podcast, where he admitted she gave him the 'best sex' he's ever had. 'Our revenue is close to $50 million a year, but because I was obviously a WAG, athletes' wives and girlfriends, if you're not familiar, people love to say that everything I have in my life is because of my ex-husband and that my ex-husband funded Uncommon James,' she began. 'But I am, to this day, 100% owner, and I've never taken any outside funding,' she clarified, adding, 'I have never gotten a penny from my ex-husband. I didn't get any money from our divorce. So, let's just clear that up.' She also hinted that she was potentially dating two different athletes, one of whom has since been confirmed as former NHL player Nate Thompson, though the other is a baseball player. She revealed during a conversation with sons Camden, 12, and Jaxson, 10, that she might go to Scottsdale, Arizona after her tour, to see, 'That guy.' Camden asks, 'The hockey guy?' She says, 'No, he's a baseball player,' clarifying he's 30 years of age. The podcast tour wrapped on March 13 in New York City, which meant she might have gone to visit the mystery man during MLB spring training. Scottsdale, Arizona is the spring training home to three teams in the Cactus League - the San Francisco Giants, the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
