👋 Good morning! J.J. Spaun, are you serious?!?!

I enjoyed The Golf yesterday. As y’all know, I love me some Course. And that Course, in those rainy conditions, was a proper test. The weather made it even tougher. Poor Sam Burns, I thought that the water ball in the fairway was a particularly tough break.

All that said, J.J. Spaun earned that one. Birdie-birdie to finish in the most difficult scoring conditions imaginable. Perfect drive on the drivable 17th, and then the longest putt of the week to close it out on 18. Spaun got a nice break from Viktor Hovland, which evened out some terrible breaks he got earlier in the round.

The anecdote that particularly cracked me up? Spaun, who is a journeyman finally playing his best golf in his mid-30s, took inspiration from the 2004 rom-com Wimbledon, staring Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst. Like, it was presented to us that the movie actually turned Spaun’s game around. An underrated cable flick when cable was more of a thing (98-minute runtime, which is key), I did not think that particular film would inspire greatness. But on Sunday, J.J. Spaun became Peter Colt. — Rich Hofmann

As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

What a roller coaster ride the MLB season can be.

You read my thoughts on Wednesday, I was pretty down on the Phillies. Sure, I left the door open that these guys could (and would at some point) turn things around. But I did not have a ton of confidence in how they were playing, not at the moment at least. The Phils were 5.5 games back of the Mets entering the weekend.

Welp, now it’s just 2.5 after the Phils swept Toronto and the Mets got swept by Tampa Bay. And the reeling Mets, who only cushioned their division lead in the first place by beating up on a bunch of bad teams, have to come to Philly for a huge series this weekend. And now I have gone from despondent to cocky just like that. Yeah, that’s right, bring me Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning. Those guys want NOTHING to do with Alec Bohm! To follow a baseball team for 162 games is to accept that you are gonna become a different person from week-to-week.

As always, the Phillies have a high floor because of their starting pitching. That again was the case this weekend…

Ho-hum stuff for the best rotation in baseball, but it should not be taken for granted. The Toronto offense is mediocre on the season, but the lineup has some names in it. And the Phils starters absolutely dominated them.

Biggest swing of the weekend? That belonged to Max Kepler, because he got the Phils over the finish line in the one game that the offense was held relatively in check. Similar situation to the go-ahead homer Kepler hit against Arizona early last month. Four games in a row with extra-base hits for Kepler, and then two singles on Sunday. Good to see, he was ice cold in May.

Also, how about Otto Kemp? I do not know where to stick Kemp in the field, but the man was on base seven times this weekend and wearing out the entire field. A bunch of Phillies had nice weekends at the plate, but Kemp is the new guy and thus seems to have provided a jolt to the clubhouse/lineup. Who knows where this goes, but it has been a strong start for Kemp. Looks very much the part of a Professional Hitter.

One last thing: Can we please retire the “Nick Castellanos homers on the same day as BAD THING X” thing? There is bad stuff that happens all the time! Nothing bad happened yesterday that was not already happening, and Castellanos hit a grand slam with a blue bat for Father’s Day. A nice moment. Seriously, uncle!

A second ring for Jalen Hurts: As Eagles fans are battling football hipsters online over Jalen Hurts’ place on QB ranking lists (the Birds fans are right, of course), Hurts got married this weekend in Napa. Seems like Jalen and Bry Burrows were technically already married (he mentioned something about that in the Men’s Health piece), but this must have been the big ceremony.

And for the first time in newsletter history, I am citing Page Six:

Stevie! What a get!

Andy P, back on track: Everything that was down for the Phils on Wednesday is now up. After getting hit hard earlier this week, Andrew Painter made some adjustments against the same team on Sunday. On a related note, do Lehigh Valley and Worcester play against each other 40 times per season?

I like those IronPigs unis.

Big Trade, Baseball: A blockbuster out of nowhere! Boston sent Rafael Devers to San Francisco for Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs (13th pick last year) and a minor-league pitcher named Jose Bello.

Interesting one, in part because there are such differing opinions on the deal. The one thing that seems clear here is that the 41-31 Giants got better this year. Devers is a very good hitter, and San Francisco did not have a lot of very good hitters. And there are people in Boston who are losing their minds, treating this like Mookie Betts 2.0. Check out our guy Bill!

And yes, Red Sox ownership has been terrible for the past five years, treating the organization like they are in a small market. But there are others who point out that Devers has 8.5 years left on a 10-year, $313.5 million contract that might not age well. That is because Devers is terrible at defense, and to boot, he made a huge stink about moving off third base this season when, again, he was a downright terrible defensive player there. Like, he makes Alec Bohm look like the second coming of Brooks Robinson. Basically, Devers better keep hitting throughout his 30s or the contract becomes terrible.

Should be a fun one to look back on, either way.

Sam Vecenie: The guys had Sam Vecenie on to talk prospects for an hour, which was awesome. I used to work with Sam and think he is quite good at the whole NBA Draft thing. Many of our commenters did not appreciate that Sam is high-ish on Kon Knueppel and low-ish on Ace Bailey (at least his star potential). Again though, I respect that like Derek and Kyle, Sam does not care about the blowback. He is just telling you what he thinks.

(One thing I am seeing in the comments: If you compare Kon Kneuppel to an off-ball shooter like Kyle Korver just because he is white, you are telling me that you did not watch him play closely. Knock the athleticism, say that you would go in another direction with the pick, but that guy was very good with the ball in his hands as a freshman at Duke.)

In his latest mock draft, Sam had an interesting thought…

My general thought is that I would be OK with this if the prospect at 6, or wherever the Sixers trade down to, is their No. 3 overall prospect. In that case, why not get off a few contracts and add some picks while you are at it?

I also think it is highly unlikely that the actual draft plays out this way. Getting off Drummond and Gordon would likely be helpful when it comes to re-signing Quentin Grimes and Guerschon Yabusele, but I also think Daryl Morey is not gonna let those guys risk what is an important opportunity to improve the team’s talent pool at No. 3. Getting the pick right is the top priority here. Add in the fact that projecting what other teams are gonna do at 4, 5 and 6 can be tricky and I just do not see it, unless the trade-back offer is much better than this.

Big Trade, Basketball: Desmond Bane to Orlando for KCP, Cole Anthony, four first-round picks and a swap. Wild one!

That is a high price, but the Magic desperately needed 3-point shooting and Bane is an excellent high-volume 3-point shooter who can also run pick-and-roll. The four-man core of Bane, Suggs, Wagner and Banchero should be rock-solid. Bane also is not a zero on defense, which helps in the postseason. East is wide open next year, too.

My main takeaway, though: How is Nico Harrison still employed?

Union 2, Charlotte 1 FC: Markus Anderson at the death!

The Union are having an incredible season. Now four points clear of everyone in the Eastern Conference.

One last thing that you gotta see: North Penn is playing in the 6A state final. Bottom of the 13th inning and the score is 0-0, but North Penn’s opponent (Cedar Cliff) has the bases loaded with nobody out.

So, what happens? A balk! The state championship is decided on a balk that advances the runner in from third base. And let the debates begin.

Seems like a pretty textbook balk to me. Once you make the move to get set out of the stretch, you do in fact have to get set. But the question of, “Should it be called in that spot?” is one that could fill hours of time on the air. After all, that was not a balk in which the pitcher gained any sort of advantage. Just a mistake in the stretch.

I feel bad for the North Penn kids, particularly the pitcher. And regardless of what you think about the call, I hope that ump ran straight to his car and hightailled it out of there.

Your tentative Monday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann

Daily Newsletter Editor

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