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September 9, 2026
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Beat desk

Grant Lombard

Has the beat, which means most of the site. Recaps, transactions, injuries, the depth chart, and the trade nobody saw coming.

When he files: No fixed day. A beat runs on events.

The full masthead entry →

14Held up
10Missed
82Still open

24 resolved, 58% held up.

Every call, graded

OpenJul 28, 2026

Luca Cagnoni plays fewer than 42 regular-season games for the San Jose Sharks in 2026-27. Scored off his official NHL regular-season games-played total for San Jose only: 41 or fewer is a hit, 42 or more is a miss, including if he reaches 42 after being recalled from the Barracuda, and including if he is traded (games for another club do not count).

Resolves by Apr 30, 2027

The piece that made itGrier Says The Blue Line Is A Runway. Count The Spots.
OpenJul 29, 2026

Macklin Celebrini's $18.8 million average annual value is NOT the highest in the NHL on July 29, 2027. Scored off any active standard player contract carrying a higher AAV on that date, signed by any player on any club, and counting a signed extension that has not yet taken effect. A hit means at least one such contract exists; a miss means $18.8 million still stands alone at the top.

Resolves by Jul 29, 2027

The piece that made itThe $10 Million Macklin Celebrini Left On The Table All Comes Out Of 2031 And 2032
OpenAug 14, 2026

San Jose scores fewer than 276 goals in the 2026-27 regular season. Scored off the Sharks' official regular-season goals-for total, from any single source that carries it: 275 or fewer is a hit, 276 or more is a miss. Shootout-winner goals count or do not count as that source counts them, and empty-net goals count. 276 is the top of the availability-adjusted band this piece argues for, so the row tests the ceiling of my own reading rather than the projection I am arguing against.

Resolves by Apr 30, 2027

The piece that made itEvery Sharks Point Total Is Reasonable Until You Add Them Up
OpenAug 14, 2026

Michael Misa finishes the 2026-27 regular season with fewer than 60 points. Scored off his official NHL regular-season point total for the season, from any single source that carries it: 59 or fewer is a hit, 60 or more is a miss. Points for any club count, not only San Jose, so a trade does not make the row unresolvable. Misa is the single largest rate increase asked of any returning player on the board this piece examines, from 0.47 points per game as a rookie to 0.71.

Resolves by Apr 30, 2027

The piece that made itEvery Sharks Point Total Is Reasonable Until You Add Them Up
OpenAug 16, 2026

The NCAA's reply in support of its motion for a stay pending appeal in Wisne v. NCAA, No. 26-1309 (10th Cir.), will not identify a single Division I athlete who has lost a roster spot to a member of the certified class.

Was due Aug 24, 2026. Still ungraded: the desk has not been able to get The reply brief itself from the Tenth Circuit docket in No. 26-1309, via PACER or a copy posted by an outlet covering the case

The piece that made itDan Hurley Counted 80. The NCAA Told A Court It Might Be Tens Of Thousands.
OpenAug 24, 2026

Michigan commits 20 or more turnovers in its August 27 exhibition against Mega SUPERBET in Dubrovnik, the third and last game of its European tour.

Was due Aug 28, 2026. Still ungraded: the desk has not been able to get Michigan's official PDF box score for the August 27 Mega SUPERBET game at mgoblue.com, TEAM TOTALS turnover line, which is the source this take named

The piece that made itMichigan Lost Three Starters To Fouls And The Ball Twenty-Seven Times
OpenSep 4, 2026

On 2026-09-10, the depth chart published at 49ers.com/team/depth-chart still carries a "Last Updated" stamp dated EARLIER than 09/02/26. Method, fixed in advance: open that page on 2026-09-10 Pacific time and read the date printed in the line beneath the chart ("The San Francisco 49ers Unofficial Depth Chart was Last Updated on MM/DD/YY"). A stamp of 09/02/26 or later grades this WRONG. A page that does not load or prints no stamp grades this WRONG.

Was due Sep 10, 2026. Still ungraded.

The piece that made itThe 49ers Have Two Depth Charts And Only One Of Them Has A Left Guard
OpenSep 5, 2026

Jackson Flora appears in at least one more professional game after his September 4 debut, at any level, at any point in 2026. RIGHT if he is credited with an appearance in any game dated September 5 through the end of San Jose's postseason. WRONG if his 2026 professional record ends at the one inning he threw at Fresno on September 4. Resolves off his official game log at the league's own feed.

Resolves in 7 days, Sep 18, 2026

The piece that made itJackson Flora Signed On July 18 And Threw His First Professional Pitch On September 4
OpenSep 5, 2026

Jackson Flora is credited with fewer than 100.0 innings pitched in the 2027 minor league REGULAR season, counting every affiliated level combined and excluding postseason innings and any major league innings. RIGHT if his 2027 minor league regular-season total is 99.2 innings or fewer in baseball's notation. WRONG if it is 100.0 or more. Resolves off his official season totals at the league's own feed.

Resolves by Oct 8, 2027

The piece that made itJackson Flora Signed On July 18 And Threw His First Professional Pitch On September 4
OpenSep 5, 2026

Ryan Walker does not appear in a major league game for the San Francisco Giants at any point in the remainder of the 2026 regular season, meaning he throws no major league pitch from September 5 through the end of the regular season. RIGHT if he makes no appearance. WRONG if he appears in one or more games. Resolves off the league's official box scores.

Resolves in 17 days, Sep 28, 2026

The piece that made itSan Francisco Claimed A Reliever Milwaukee Waived, So Ryan Walker Is Going To Sacramento For The Third Time
OpenSep 5, 2026

Ryan Walker is NOT on the San Francisco Giants' 40-man roster on Opening Day of the 2027 regular season, counting the 40-man as MLB publishes it that day and treating a player on the 60-day injured list as NOT on it. RIGHT if he is absent. WRONG if he is on it. Resolves off MLB's published 40-man roster for teamId 137 on Opening Day 2027.

Resolves by Apr 15, 2027

The piece that made itSan Francisco Claimed A Reliever Milwaukee Waived, So Ryan Walker Is Going To Sacramento For The Third Time
MissedJul 27, 2026

DL Kevin Givens is on the San Francisco 49ers' initial 53-man roster, the one submitted at the August 30, 2026 cutdown. A waiver claim, a practice-squad signing or a post-cutdown re-signing does not count. He has to be on the 53 as submitted.

The piece that made itVederian Lowe Lasted Three Snaps

The work, newest first

Roster

Alfred Collins Is Out For The Year And His Replacement Is Whoever Is Already In Australia

Alfred Collins tore his patellar tendon at San Francisco's second Melbourne practice and is out for the 2026 season, per head coach Kyle Shanahan, reported by Matt Maiocco at NBC Sports Bay Area, Nick Wagoner at ESPN and David Bonilla at 49ers Webzone. He was the club's projected starting right defensive tackle. The club's own unofficial depth chart, stamped September 8 and read on Wednesday morning, still lists Collins first at that position, and lists Gracen Halton and James Thompson Jr. behind him. The club's roster page gives both men an R in its experience column, and both appear on the Week 1 practice participation report the club distributed Tuesday: Halton limited with an ankle, Thompson the only man who did not practice at all, with a hamstring. Asked who replaces Collins, Shanahan said any defensive lineman is a possibility unless reporters could name someone the club could fly to Australia quickly. Collins was still on the club's active roster when it was read Wednesday morning, and the club's transaction page carried no injured-reserve move for him, its newest entry being September 5, so the move reported as coming had not happened. Sam Okuayinonu, the other defensive lineman lost, went on injured reserve on September 4 with a broken foot. Collins went 43rd overall in 2025 and played 16 games as a rookie with one start; Maiocco and Bonilla both give the rest of that season as 17 tackles, one sack and two forced fumbles. One take filed.

Grant LombardSep 9, 20264 min read
Alfred Collins Is Out For The Year And His Replacement Is Whoever Is Already In Australia
Sixteen Left

Every Team Left On The Giants' Schedule Has A Number. San Francisco Has A Letter.

San Francisco is eliminated from postseason contention. The league's standings feed carried a wild-card elimination number of two for the Giants through Saturday's games and has read E, in both the wild-card and division columns, from Sunday's games onward. Sunday was a 4-2 loss at Citi Field; Arizona beat Houston 3-2 the same afternoon. San Francisco is 61-85 through 146 games, so its maximum possible win total is 77, and Philadelphia (81-64), the Cubs (81-65) and Arizona (78-68) already have more than that, against three wild-card places. The Giants have won both games since, 5-4 in eleven innings Monday on a Shay Whitcomb single and 2-1 Tuesday behind six scoreless innings from Landen Roupp, with both runs coming on solo home runs by Bryce Eldridge and Christian Koss. Sixteen games remain against four opponents, and every one of the four still has a live elimination number: four with St. Louis (72-74, number 10), three with San Diego (77-68, half a game behind Arizona for the third wild card, number 16), three with Minnesota (69-76, number 12) and six with the Dodgers (88-57, leading the National League West by ten and a half). Arizona does not appear on San Francisco's remaining schedule and neither does Colorado, the only other eliminated club in the National League at 55-89. The season ends at Oracle Park against the Dodgers on September 27. San Francisco has used 64 players in 2026 and 15 of them made their major league debut this season. Two takes filed.

Grant LombardSep 9, 20264 min read
Every Team Left On The Giants' Schedule Has A Number. San Francisco Has A Letter.
Nine of twenty-four

The Last Time Bryce Underwood Faced Oklahoma He Completed Nine Passes

Kyle Whittingham conditioned his starting quarterback's job in public at his Oklahoma-week press conference on Monday morning, saying Bryce Underwood is Michigan's quarterback right now and that the job is not something that's infinite. The quarterback room behind Underwood is one true freshman: Whittingham put the practice split at 80-20 and said Tommy Carr is the only other quarterback who gets reps. Underwood was 12 of 22 for 170 yards, a touchdown and an interception in a 13-12 win over Western Michigan. The opponent on Saturday is the one he completed 9 of 24 against in Norman last September, the lowest completion rate of the fourteen college games he has played.

Grant LombardSep 8, 20265 min read
The Last Time Bryce Underwood Faced Oklahoma He Completed Nine Passes
Twenty Men

Cesar Perdomo Gave Up Three Singles And A Walk In His First Major League Start

Cesar Perdomo made his first major league start at Citi Field on September 6, five days after his major league debut, and pitched six scoreless innings against the New York Mets. He faced twenty batters, allowed three singles and one walk, struck out four and threw 83 pitches, 48 of them for strikes. No New York runner reached second base against him. Joel Kuhnel pitched a scoreless seventh. Carson Seymour then allowed four earned runs on sixteen pitches in the eighth, on a solo home run by Brett Baty and a three-run home run by Bo Bichette, and San Francisco lost 4-2 in front of 29,410. The Giants scored both their runs in the fourth on a Jung Hoo Lee single and finished with five hits and twelve strikeouts. Perdomo is the thirteenth different pitcher to start a game for San Francisco in 2026, which resolves an open Andie Townsend call filed August 21, and his start resolves a Grant Lombard call filed September 2. Perdomo's career major league line is now ten innings, six hits, one earned run, two walks and eight strikeouts. His 2026 was worse at every stop before this: a 3.98 earned run average at Double-A Richmond and a 5.10 mark with twenty walks at Triple-A Sacramento. He has thrown 130 innings this year against a previous career high of 127 and a third. Two takes filed.

Grant LombardSep 7, 20265 min read
Cesar Perdomo Gave Up Three Singles And A Walk In His First Major League Start
Nine for nine

Every Run The Giants Scored On Saturday Left The Ballpark

San Francisco beat the Mets 9-5 at Citi Field on Saturday, and all nine of its runs scored on home runs. The Giants hit six: Rafael Devers in the first and the fifth, his 34th and 35th; Christian Koss in the third and the fifth, his second and third; Osleivis Basabe in the eighth; Grant McCray in the ninth. Every run-scoring play in the game was a home run. The Giants also had four hits that were not home runs, a Grant McCray single, a Jonah Cox single, a Bryce Eldridge double and a Shay Whitcomb single, and none of the four drove in a run. Three of the four men who homered are having bad seasons: Koss is hitting .211 with three home runs in 52 games, two of them Saturday and all three inside his last nine games after none in his first forty-two, McCray is hitting .143 with eight hits in 56 at-bats, and Basabe is hitting .216. Manager Tony Vitello was ejected by home-plate umpire Jeremie Rehak in the top of the second, after one of the nine runs had scored. Across 143 games this season the Giants have scored 601 runs, 259 of them on home runs, which is 43.1 percent, on 164 home runs. Sixteen times this season every Giants run in a game has come on a home run, and before Saturday the most they had scored in such a game was three. Only twice all year have they hit five or more home runs in a game, the other being seven on June 5. Friday night in the same ballpark they had twelve hits, one home run, and lost 10-6. San Francisco is 59-84, eliminated in the National League West, with a wild-card elimination number of four and 19 games left. Two takes filed.

Grant LombardSep 6, 20265 min read
Every Run The Giants Scored On Saturday Left The Ballpark
Forty-eight days

Jackson Flora Signed On July 18 And Threw His First Professional Pitch On September 4

Jackson Flora, the fourth overall pick in the 2026 draft, made his professional debut on Friday night for Class A San Jose at Fresno, starting and pitching one scoreless inning against the Grizzlies. He faced five batters, allowed one hit and one walk, struck out two, and threw 28 pitches, 14 of them for strikes. Three of the five hitters took him to a full count and the first two outs cost him twelve pitches. San Francisco signed Flora on July 18 for a $7,997,500 bonus against a slot value of $8,988,400 and assigned him to the Arizona Complex League the same day; the complex league activated him on July 29 and he never appeared in a game there. He was assigned to San Jose on September 1. Of the thirty players taken in the first round of the 2026 draft, eighteen have now appeared in a professional game and Flora has the fewest appearances of the eighteen, with the next-fewest being four. Twelve first-rounders have not appeared at all. Ali Thanawalla of NBC Sports Bay Area reported the club is being cautious after Flora threw 102 innings for UC Santa Barbara this spring. San Jose, 78-52 and a division winner, has two regular-season games left. Two takes filed.

Grant LombardSep 5, 20264 min read
Jackson Flora Signed On July 18 And Threw His First Professional Pitch On September 4
Seventeen saves

San Francisco Claimed A Reliever Milwaukee Waived, So Ryan Walker Is Going To Sacramento For The Third Time

San Francisco optioned right-hander Ryan Walker to Triple-A Sacramento on Saturday morning, the third time it has optioned him in 2026, and activated right-hander Joel Kuhnel, whom it claimed off waivers from Milwaukee on Friday after the Brewers designated him for assignment on Wednesday. The move was forced by two ceilings: the Giants carried 28 active players and 14 pitchers before it, and all thirty major league clubs were carrying exactly 28 and exactly 14 on Saturday, measured off MLB's active-roster endpoint. Walker led the 2025 Giants with 17 saves out of the 41 the club recorded in 162 games, with Camilo Doval taking 15 of the rest. This season he has a 7.16 ERA across 33 appearances and 32.2 innings, with 19 walks, one more than he issued in 80.0 innings in 2024, when his ERA was 1.91. Opponents have scored in 16 of his 33 outings. His three optional assignments came on May 10, July 9 and September 5, with recalls on June 12 and August 24; in his last stint he allowed four runs across 6.1 innings in six appearances, the first three scoreless, two runs on August 29 and one in each of the last two. San Francisco has made 49 optional assignments across 26 players in 2026, led by Tristan Beck's six. Ten different Giants have recorded a save this year, 26 in total through 142 games, with Caleb Kilian's eight the most. Walker was San Francisco's 31st-round pick in 2018, No. 916 overall, out of Washington State. The club is 58-84, eliminated in the National League West, with a wild-card elimination number of five and 20 games left. Sacramento has 14 games left and its regular season ends September 20. Two takes filed.

Grant LombardSep 5, 20265 min read
San Francisco Claimed A Reliever Milwaukee Waived, So Ryan Walker Is Going To Sacramento For The Third Time
Camp Battles

The 49ers Have Two Depth Charts And Only One Of Them Has A Left Guard

The depth chart at 49ers.com carries twenty-nine position rows and a name in the first column of twenty-eight of them. Left guard is the twenty-ninth, its first column is empty, and the page stamps itself August 27, which was eight days ago. A separate one-page sheet dated September 2 lists Connor Colby first at left guard and Carver Willis second, and the club does not publish it: the media site its own pronunciation guide points to refuses a request from outside. Kyle Madson of Niners Wire reports that the sheet is assembled by the communications staff with no input from the coaches and binds nobody. Kyle Shanahan said on August 31 that he did not know who starts, and nothing since has replaced that. Seven of the seventy-two men still named on the club's live chart are on the September 2 sheet's injured reserve list, three of them offensive linemen.

Grant LombardSep 4, 20265 min read
The 49ers Have Two Depth Charts And Only One Of Them Has A Left Guard
The schedule

Michigan Bought A Date Change From Eastern Michigan For $50,000 Before Anybody Explained Why

Kevin Kelley of FBSchedules published an amendment on September 1 that he obtained from Eastern Michigan University through a state public records request. It moves the 2027 Michigan-Eastern Michigan game from September 18 to September 11 and raises Michigan's guarantee by $50,000 to $1.55 million. Michigan was already booked at Texas on September 11, and the Texas contract carries a $2 million cancellation fee unless both schools agree to void the game. On Thursday afternoon Texas Athletics announced that the Michigan game moves up one week to September 4, 2027, and Michigan's future-schedules page now reads Buffalo on August 28, at Texas on September 4, Eastern Michigan on September 11. Each of the three is exactly seven days earlier than the date the schools originally announced, which is what the new season-start bylaw in the 2026-27 Division I Manual does to a calendar.

Grant LombardSep 4, 20266 min read
Michigan Bought A Date Change From Eastern Michigan For $50,000 Before Anybody Explained Why
The money

To Find Out What Michigan Football Pays, Ask Ohio

Michigan Athletics announced two future non-conference games on August 28: Bowling Green at Michigan Stadium on August 25, 2029, and Charlotte on September 9, 2028. FBSchedules had published the Bowling Green game and its $1.6 million guarantee on August 19, off a copy of the contract obtained from Bowling Green State University through an Ohio open records request. The Charlotte story, by the same writer on the day of the announcement, carries no figure and is sourced to Michigan. The pattern holds at higher stakes: Utah's August 3 suit against Michigan tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham put a $525,000 salary, a 75 percent liquidated-damages formula and six departing assistants into a public record on August 20. Michigan's own account of what the coaching change cost is one clause in the FY2027 budget presentation: salaries, wages and benefits up $2.53 million, due in part to football staff transition costs and annual salary increases, not broken out.

Grant LombardSep 3, 20266 min read
To Find Out What Michigan Football Pays, Ask Ohio
Game week

Michigan Would Not Name Its Two Starting Guards Because Three Seniors Are Going To Split The Job

Michigan's offensive coordinator held his final press conference before the opener on Wednesday afternoon and was asked the question that has followed this offensive line since camp opened. Jason Beck answered it with a number rather than a name. Evan Link, Nathan Efobi and Brady Norton will all play at the two guard spots, at what Beck called fairly similar snaps, and Clayton Sayfie of On3 reported that the rotation may hold for more than one game. The three tackles-and-center jobs are settled: Blake Frazier on the left, Jake Guarnera at center, Andrew Sprague on the right, the last of those hardened by Andrew Babalola's injury. Michigan's own roster still lists nineteen men as OL and nothing else, while it breaks the defensive line into ends and tackles, and on Wednesday the defensive coordinator named starters at both.

Grant LombardSep 3, 20265 min read
Michigan Would Not Name Its Two Starting Guards Because Three Seniors Are Going To Split The Job
Twelve Outs

Logan Webb Got Six Outs In Pittsburgh. The Pitcher San Francisco Added That Morning Got Twelve.

San Francisco selected the contract of left-hander Cesar Perdomo from Triple-A Sacramento on September 1 and he made his major league debut the same afternoon at Pittsburgh, pitching the fourth through the seventh innings of a 13-12 loss. Perdomo faced fifteen batters, recorded twelve outs, allowed three hits and one run, walked one and struck out four, throwing 40 of 58 pitches for strikes. Logan Webb started and was charged with nine earned runs while recording six outs against eighteen batters faced. Perdomo is 24, signed as a free agent out of Venezuela on July 2, 2021, and did not appear in a professional game until June 2022, when a 60-day injured list stay ended his first season after fifteen innings. He did not reach a full-season league until April 2024 and was assigned to Double-A Richmond on April 1 of this year, five months before his debut. His Sacramento line was a 5.10 earned run average with 20 walks in 47 and two-thirds innings. The 40-man spot came from Adrian Houser, moved to the 60-day injured list the same day with a right forearm strain and a club-stated expected return of 2027. San Francisco also recalled catcher Zach Morgan, who has still never appeared in a major league game. Two takes filed.

Grant LombardSep 2, 20265 min read
Logan Webb Got Six Outs In Pittsburgh. The Pitcher San Francisco Added That Morning Got Twelve.
April

The Last Giants Team To Hand Out This Many Debuts Kept Exactly Half Of Them

San Francisco has given fourteen players their major league debut in 2026, the most in any season since 2008 and the second-most in the twenty-two seasons from 2005 on, counted off the league's own full-season roster and debut dates. Buster Posey told the San Francisco Chronicle that the point of the last month is getting a look at players the club would not otherwise see. The 2008 club, which finished 72-90, handed out sixteen debuts and eight of those men played for San Francisco again the following year. Across ten previous debut classes the share who came back ranges from 44 percent to 100 percent, and neither the size of a class nor the age of the men in it separates the high years from the low ones. Two of this year's fourteen are already gone: Wilkin Ramos and Eddys Leonard, whose entire San Francisco career ran seven days from debut to designation. Turner Hill, 27, has taken more plate appearances than anyone else in the class since August 22. One take filed.

Grant LombardSep 1, 20265 min read
The Last Giants Team To Hand Out This Many Debuts Kept Exactly Half Of Them
Game week

Michigan's First Official Injury Report Is Due September 23, Three Games Into A Season That Starts Saturday

Michigan Athletics published thirty-six pages of week-one game notes on Monday. Page 36 prints a table headed Michigan Starting Lineups, twenty-two positions across offense and defense, and every 2026 box in it is empty. The table directly beside it, which counts how many games each returning player has started, is filled in completely. Four days later the Big Ten announced it will require four availability reports a week instead of one, and the conference confirmed the reports cover games against conference opponents only. Michigan plays three non-conference games first. Its first report is due at 8 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, September 23. It will say who cannot play. It has no column for who starts.

Grant LombardSep 1, 20266 min read
Michigan's First Official Injury Report Is Due September 23, Three Games Into A Season That Starts Saturday
Rotation

Michigan Has Not Lost A Single Player To Basketball This Summer

Michigan Athletics announced at 12:45 p.m. Eastern on September 1 that freshman guard Brandon McCoy Jr. will miss the 2026-27 season with an ACL injury to his right knee, with no surgery date, no timetable and no word on his eligibility. McCoy is the sixth player off Michigan's roster since June 23. Three went in the first round of the NBA draft, one entered the transfer portal, one had his fifth season stayed by the Tenth Circuit, and one slipped in Montenegro. Only L.J. Cason made the decision himself.

Grant LombardSep 1, 20264 min read
Michigan Has Not Lost A Single Player To Basketball This Summer
The November deadline

Yunior Marte's 40-Man Spot Was Already Spoken For In November

San Francisco selected Yunior Marte's contract on August 29 and started him in the second game of a doubleheader against Arizona, under three months before the November deadline at which the club had to protect him or lose him in December. Marte signed with Kansas City on June 2, 2022 at age 18, which under the published rule gives his club five seasons, and 2026 is the fifth. San Francisco acquired him from the Royals for Mike Yastrzemski at last year's deadline. Buster Posey described the promotion criterion in public on August 23, six days earlier. Matt Wilkinson was the same case ten days earlier. The counter-argument is five pitchers newly hurt in August, which explains the vacancy and not who filled it. Two takes filed.

Grant LombardAug 31, 20265 min read
Yunior Marte's 40-Man Spot Was Already Spoken For In November
The projections

Three Bowl Projections Agree About Michigan Until They Have To Name The Bowl

Seven preseason products from four organisations sorted college football between July 7 and August 22, and Michigan lands in the same place in all of them: good, and outside a twelve-team field. Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon sit above Michigan in every one of them, including the two that are power rankings, the one that is a model with a published method, and the one that ranks quarterbacks rather than teams. The AP had Michigan 16th on 718 points on August 17, which is four places outside a bracket that takes twelve, so the bowl assignment is arithmetic rather than an opinion. The disagreements start immediately after that: ESPN's two projectors send Michigan to the ReliaQuest Bowl and Athlon sends it to the Citrus Bowl, and Athlon's own power rankings say Michigan should be squarely in the playoff mix its own bracket leaves it out of.

Grant LombardAug 31, 20266 min read
Three Bowl Projections Agree About Michigan Until They Have To Name The Bowl
Fourteen

San Francisco Used The Same Roster Spot For Two Major League Debuts On Saturday

San Francisco handed out two major league debuts on Saturday, eight hours apart, and used one active-roster spot to do it. Seth Lonsway, 27, threw two innings of relief in a 7-1 loss in the first game and was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento between games so the club could add Yunior Marte, a 23-year-old right-hander promoted directly from Double-A Richmond. Marte started the second game and gave up one run in four and two-thirds innings of a 7-2 win. He had thrown 291 professional innings before Saturday and none of them at Triple-A. The 40-man spot came from Casey Schmitt, moved from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list with a left knee meniscus tear he has carried since July 28. Marte is the eleventh man to start a game for the Giants in 2026 and the fourteenth to debut for them, a figure MLB.com's Maria Guardado reports is second in the majors behind the White Sox. Six of the fourteen came between April 1 and June 26, none in July, and eight in August. Two takes filed.

Grant LombardAug 30, 20265 min read
San Francisco Used The Same Roster Spot For Two Major League Debuts On Saturday
August 23

Both Of The Arms San Francisco Added Saturday Last Pitched On August 23

San Francisco made three pitching moves on Saturday morning before a split doubleheader against Arizona: Matt Wilkinson recalled from Sacramento, the contract of left-hander Seth Lonsway selected from Sacramento, and Spencer Bivens optioned to Sacramento. Wilkinson and Lonsway both last pitched on August 23, which is the thing they have in common and the reason both are on the roster. Lonsway is 27, was signed by the Giants in July 2021, and has never appeared in a major league game; at Triple-A this season he has a 6.00 earned run average with 45 strikeouts against 49 walks in 72 innings. Arizona named Merrill Kelly and Mitch Bratt for the two games. San Francisco named nobody for either until late morning, when it posted Wilkinson, who had been recalled about four hours earlier, for the opener. Of the 34 starting pitcher slots on today's major league schedule, three were blank at mid-morning and two of them were San Francisco's. The active roster reads 27 men and 14 pitchers; the 40-man reads 39.

Grant LombardAug 29, 20264 min read
Both Of The Arms San Francisco Added Saturday Last Pitched On August 23
The extension

Macklin Celebrini Explained His Own Contract By Talking About Everybody Else's

Macklin Celebrini's first media availability since his five-year, $94 million extension. He explained the number, the timing and the term, and all three explanations were about San Jose's flexibility rather than his own market. The context underneath them is a June meeting his agent Pat Brisson requested with owner Hasso Plattner and general manager Mike Grier, reported in July, about the direction of the franchise.

Grant LombardAug 28, 20264 min read
Macklin Celebrini Explained His Own Contract By Talking About Everybody Else's
The tour

Michigan's One Tour Win Came On A Night Mega Superbet Missed Twenty-Six Threes

Michigan beat KK Mega Superbet 84-81 on August 27 in Igalo, Montenegro, to close its European tour 1-2. Both teams attempted exactly thirty-two three-pointers; Michigan made twelve and Mega made six. The three scoring columns reconcile to the margin exactly: Michigan won the three-point column by eighteen points, lost the two-point column by six (sixteen of twenty-six against nineteen of thirty-five) and lost the free-throw column by nine (sixteen of twenty-eight against twenty-five of thirty-three). Michigan shot 48.3 percent overall and held Mega to 37.3 percent, and outrebounded the club 41-35. Michigan also made twelve threes in the tour opener and lost that game by twelve, so the difference in Igalo was Mega's 18.8 percent from the arc rather than Michigan's 37.5. Trey McKenney scored a game-high 25 points on nine-of-sixteen shooting with seven rebounds; he and Elliot Cadeau scored 19 of Michigan's 22 fourth-quarter points, including a 13-0 run that turned a three-point deficit into a 77-67 lead. Cadeau had 15 points in just over seventeen minutes in foul trouble, going seven of nine from the line. J.P. Estrella scored 16 on seven-of-eleven shooting and fouled out in sixteen minutes. Michigan lost the first half 49-38 and won the second half 46-32. The Wolverines committed 21 turnovers, their third straight tour game in double figures, and blocked no shots. Brandon McCoy Jr. started and lasted one minute: about twenty seconds in he slipped driving in transition, his right leg rolling underneath him, and he was carried to the locker room without putting weight on it, per the Detroit News and 247Sports. He does not appear anywhere in Michigan's published account of the game, and the program has said only that he will continue to be evaluated. Michigan scored 245 points across the three games to its opponents' 259, and took 105 of its 199 field-goal attempts from behind the arc.

Grant LombardAug 28, 20265 min read
Michigan's One Tour Win Came On A Night Mega Superbet Missed Twenty-Six Threes
The four days

A Rainout In Atlanta In June Left The Giants Needing Two Starters On Saturday

San Francisco's schedule from Friday to Monday asks for four starting pitchers. Blade Tidwell is the only one named. Saturday is a split doubleheader at Oracle Park, moved off Sunday on June 23 to clear a travel day for the makeup of a June 18 rainout in Atlanta, which is now Monday. Ten men have started a game for the Giants in 2026; Robbie Ray and Tyler Mahle were traded, Trevor McDonald and Carson Whisenhunt are on the 60-day injured list, Adrian Houser went on the 15-day list Wednesday, JT Brubaker is on the 15-day list, and Matt Wilkinson was optioned to Sacramento on August 24. That leaves Logan Webb, Landen Roupp and Blade Tidwell, and all three are already spoken for. The club is carrying thirteen pitchers, which is the most the rules allow before September 1, when the active roster goes to 28 and the pitcher limit to 14. The doubleheader lets it add a 27th man for one day, and that exception is the only way Wilkinson pitches in the majors before September 8. Two takes filed, on the 27th man and on the length of the four starts.

Grant LombardAug 27, 20265 min read
A Rainout In Atlanta In June Left The Giants Needing Two Starters On Saturday
The fifteenth man

Georges Niang Missed All Of Last Season. The Warriors Just Gave Him Their Fifteenth Job.

Golden State agreed to terms with forward Georges Niang on Tuesday, one year at a reported $3.9 million, filling the fifteenth and final standard roster spot a day after agreeing with guard Brandon Williams. The club's own roster page carries both men. Niang has not appeared in an NBA game since April 11, 2025, when he played 16 minutes for Atlanta at Philadelphia; he missed all of 2025-26 after Utah diagnosed a fourth metatarsal stress reaction in his left foot on September 27, 2025, and was traded and waived while rehabbing. He has made 457 of 1,156 three-pointers in his career, 39.5 percent. Both new contracts are veteran minimums carrying a cap charge of $2,449,421 apiece. The two men will be paid $6,502,156 between them; the two charges total $4,898,842, against $5,246,410 of room under a second-apron hard cap of $221,686,000. Without the league's reimbursement of one-year minimum deals, the pair would not have fit. Once Spotrac posts both, Golden State projects to have $347,568 left. That margin is the reason a live August 6 call on this site's ledger said the club would stop at fourteen, and it is on course to be wrong. One take filed, on Niang's games played.

Grant LombardAug 27, 20265 min read
Georges Niang Missed All Of Last Season. The Warriors Just Gave Him Their Fifteenth Job.
The secondary

Michigan Lists Eleven Cornerbacks And Their Position Coach Says He Intends To Start Four Of Them

Michigan's cornerbacks coach said Tuesday that he is probably going to start four cornerbacks, with Shamari Earls the fourth alongside Jyaire Hill, Zeke Berry and Smith Snowden. The number came out of the coach's mouth. The names and the word cornerbacks were supplied by the reporter who wrote it up. And Michigan's own biographies say Berry has 16 career starts outside and seven at nickel, while Snowden made 11 starts at nickel for Utah in 2024, so a Michigan defense that starts three corners and a slot defender is already starting four cornerbacks by the roster page's own definition.

Grant LombardAug 27, 20265 min read
Michigan Lists Eleven Cornerbacks And Their Position Coach Says He Intends To Start Four Of Them
The rotation

Carson Whisenhunt's Only Scoreless Start This Season Was The One He Did Not Finish

San Francisco placed Carson Whisenhunt on the 15-day injured list on Tuesday and recalled Spencer Bivens from Triple-A Sacramento. Whisenhunt made eight starts this season, 34.2 innings at a 6.49 earned run average, and Monday's was the only one in which nobody scored on him. He is the third San Francisco starting pitcher this year to lose an elbow: Hayden Birdsong went on the 60-day injured list in March with Tommy John surgery already named in the transaction, Trevor McDonald had his on August 5, and Whisenhunt has been told to have his. Adrian Houser then left Tuesday's game after 26 pitches with what Tony Vitello called tightness in his flexor, and has an MRI Wednesday morning with no result published. Whisenhunt's major league record is 13 starts, 58 innings, 33 walks and 42 strikeouts.

Grant LombardAug 26, 20266 min read
Carson Whisenhunt's Only Scoreless Start This Season Was The One He Did Not Finish
The call-up

San Francisco Got The Better MRI And Called Up A Man Who Has Never Pitched Up Here

San Francisco placed Adrian Houser on the 15-day injured list Wednesday with a right forearm strain, transferred Carson Whisenhunt to the 60-day list, and selected the contract of right-hander Braxton Roxby from Triple-A Sacramento. Roxby is 27, has pitched in 211 professional games across six seasons, and has never appeared in a major league game. He came to the Giants in January 2025 as the return in a salary trade. His strikeout rate at Sacramento this year is 22.6 percent, against 30.8 percent across his five previous professional seasons. Houser's 2022 flexor strain in the same arm cost him 54 days; the Giants have 32 left before their last scheduled game on September 27.

Grant LombardAug 26, 20265 min read
San Francisco Got The Better MRI And Called Up A Man Who Has Never Pitched Up Here
What is left

San Francisco's Active Roster Does Not List A Shortstop

San Francisco placed Willy Adames (left elbow sprain on the transaction log; MLB.com reported an MRI showing a moderate strain of the non-throwing elbow, and the two wordings are recorded here as published rather than blended) and Victor Bericoto (right knee bone bruise) on the 10-day injured list on August 24 and JT Brubaker (bruised ribs) on the 15-day, all three hurt in Sunday's 5-4 loss at Boston. Bryce Eldridge went on the bereavement list and Matt Wilkinson was optioned. The Giants recalled five men from Triple-A Sacramento the same day: Nate Furman, Grant McCray, Anthony Molina, Ryan Walker and Shay Whitcomb. Adames had started 121 games at shortstop and played 1,046.1 innings there; MLB's active-roster page now lists no shortstop among the 26. Christian Koss, a third baseman with 71 innings at short this year and two innings pitched, played the position Monday while Whitcomb made his Giants debut at third. San Francisco won 5-0 behind six pitchers after losing starter Carson Whisenhunt in the third inning to left elbow pain. Whisenhunt was scheduled for an MRI on Tuesday morning and no result has been published. The Giants have used 58 players this season, tied with the Angels and the Athletics for fifth-most in the majors against a league median of 52, and seven of them made their San Francisco debut in August.

Grant LombardAug 25, 20264 min read
San Francisco's Active Roster Does Not List A Shortstop
Roster

Brandon Williams Will Be Paid More Than Golden State Is Charged For Him

Free agent guard Brandon Williams agreed to a one-year, $2.6 million deal with the Warriors on Tuesday, reported by Shams Charania at ESPN through agents Derek Lafayette and Curtis Lawrence. The figure is the four-year veteran minimum of $2,625,627 for 2026-27. Because the league reimburses part of a one-year minimum signed by a veteran of three or more years, the charge against Golden State is fixed at $2,449,421, the two-year minimum, and the difference of $176,206 is the league's. Williams becomes the 14th man on a roster that carried 12 fully guaranteed standard contracts plus Charles Bassey on a partial one, against a limit of 15. He averaged 13.0 points, 3.9 assists and 2.9 rebounds in 22.2 minutes across 66 games for Dallas last season, and 10.7 points in 19.3 minutes across 140 career games and 34 starts in four seasons since Portland. ESPN reported Tuesday that Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody will miss the opening months of the season rehabilitating knee injuries. No take is filed with this piece; three open calls on the ledger already run into it.

Grant LombardAug 25, 20263 min read
Brandon Williams Will Be Paid More Than Golden State Is Charged For Him
The tour

J.P. Estrella Played Thirty-Five Of Forty Minutes For A Michigan Team Down To Eight

Michigan lost the second game of its European tour 82-77 to Lithuania's National B Team on August 24 in Utena, a day after losing 96-84 to the Lithuania senior national team in Vilnius. Michigan's box score listed ten players and Michigan used eight, with Moustapha Thiam, Trey McKenney and Ricky Liburd all resting nagging injuries as a precaution and Lincoln Cosby and Jalen Reed still rehabbing. Four Wolverines played more than thirty-one minutes after none had reached thirty-one the previous night: J.P. Estrella 35:34, Quinn Costello 34:34, Oscar Goodman 32:04, Brandon McCoy Jr. 31:06. Michigan's reserves scored seven points on three-of-twelve shooting in 44:33, against forty bench points on Sunday, though Costello and Goodman had both come off the bench in Vilnius and started here. Michigan attempted forty-three three-pointers and thirty-three two-pointers, making eleven and seventeen. The Wolverines scored ten points in the third quarter and led 47-46 at halftime. Elliot Cadeau had nineteen points and eight assists in 22:09. Michigan closes the tour against Mega SUPERBET in Dubrovnik on August 27.

Grant LombardAug 25, 20264 min read
J.P. Estrella Played Thirty-Five Of Forty Minutes For A Michigan Team Down To Eight
The tour

Michigan Lost Three Starters To Fouls And The Ball Twenty-Seven Times

Michigan opened its European tour with a 96-84 exhibition loss to the Lithuania senior national team at Arena Vilnius on August 23. The Wolverines led 56-44 at halftime and by fourteen early in the third quarter, then were outscored 52-28 after the break. Michigan committed 27 turnovers and 28 fouls. Trey McKenney, Elliot Cadeau and J.P. Estrella each committed a fifth personal foul, left the floor at it and did not return, all three inside the last eight minutes. Quinn Costello led Michigan with 17 points on five three-pointers off the bench in 27:45, second on the team in minutes. Joseph Hartman played 20:58 with five assists and finished the game at point guard. Michigan's bench played 105:10 to the starters' 94:50. Azuolas Tubelis, who played three seasons at Arizona, scored 31 points on 12-of-15 shooting for Lithuania. Michigan plays the Lithuania B Team on August 24 in Utena and Mega SUPERBET on August 27 in Dubrovnik.

Grant LombardAug 24, 20264 min read
Michigan Lost Three Starters To Fouls And The Ball Twenty-Seven Times
The farm

The Level Changed Luis Hernández And It Did Not Change Josuar Gonzalez

The Giants promoted shortstops Josuar Gonzalez and Luis Hernández from the Arizona Complex League to Low-A San Jose on July 24, and both debuted for San Jose on July 25. Through August 22, Gonzalez is hitting .379/.476/.609 in 21 games with 16 walks against 19 strikeouts. Through August 20, Hernández is hitting .231/.276/.319 in 20 games with 6 walks against 29 strikeouts. A .463 batting average on balls in play accounts for most of the difference in the batting averages and will not last. The plate-discipline gap will not regress the same way: Gonzalez walked and struck out at San Jose at almost exactly the rates he posted in the complex league, while Hernández's walk rate halved and his strikeout rate nearly doubled. Hernández is fourteen months younger, is in his first full-season league, and had the better strikeout rate of the two in the complex over a sample nearly twice as large. He is on San Jose's active roster and has not batted since August 20. MLB Pipeline moved the Giants from 19th to 5th in its refreshed farm system rankings on August 16, credited Gonzalez in part, and ranks Gonzalez 17th and Hernandez 27th among all prospects in baseball.

Grant LombardAug 23, 20265 min read
The Level Changed Luis Hernández And It Did Not Change Josuar Gonzalez
The deadline buy

Marcelo Mayer's Foot Was Not The Injury San Francisco Was Buying

San Francisco acquired Marcelo Mayer from Boston on August 3 for reliever Erik Miller and outfielder Carlos Gutierrez, knowing he was on the injured list with a bone stress reaction in his left ulna. The forearm has given no trouble. Mayer began a rehab assignment at Triple-A Sacramento on August 13, played four games in six days, and has not been in a lineup since August 18. Manager Tony Vitello said Friday that the assignment stopped because of soreness in Mayer's right foot, an injury he had in Boston, and that an MRI and a CT scan found a bruise. Mayer is resting in San Francisco while the Giants play three games at Fenway Park against the club that traded him. Erik Miller pitched the seventh inning of the first one.

Grant LombardAug 22, 20265 min read
Marcelo Mayer's Foot Was Not The Injury San Francisco Was Buying
The depth chart

The Only Michigan Starters Kyle Whittingham Would Name On Friday Were The Kicker And The Punter

Michigan's offensive line coach set a public deadline on August 6 for having the starting five settled: approximately two weeks out from the opener. Friday was two weeks out, and Kyle Whittingham said the staff knows its five and will not name them before the first snap on September 5. In the same session he named his kicker and his punter. Whittingham ran Utah for 21 seasons, and Utah was still releasing a preseason depth chart as recently as August 24, 2024. What he said moved him off it a year later was not distaste, it was a new Big 12 rule about injury disclosure.

Grant LombardAug 22, 20266 min read
The Only Michigan Starters Kyle Whittingham Would Name On Friday Were The Kicker And The Punter
The September calendar

San Jose Has Four Preseason Games And Nineteen Men Who Can Play Two Of Them

San Jose's 2026-27 preseason is four games, down from six in each of the last three years, because the new collective bargaining agreement caps it there. The same agreement limits any player with 100 or more NHL games to two exhibition appearances. Nineteen of the 41 players on the club's listed roster clear that bar, including Macklin Celebrini at 152 games and Will Smith at 143. From the first rookie game on September 12 to the opener on October 1 is nineteen days and six games.

Grant LombardAug 21, 20266 min read
San Jose Has Four Preseason Games And Nineteen Men Who Can Play Two Of Them
The number

Jay Hill Put Three Numbers On Michigan's Defense. Last Season Nobody In College Football Hit Two Of Them.

Michigan's first-year defensive coordinator named a rushing target of 85 yards a game on Thursday and explained where it came from. He is right: four FBS teams of 134 finished under it in 2025, and Michigan was 19th at 111.9. Two further targets reported from the same availability, a pass efficiency mark under 100 and seven combined sacks and takeaways per game, were cleared by one team and by nobody at all. Hill's own BYU defense missed all three.

Grant LombardAug 21, 20265 min read
Jay Hill Put Three Numbers On Michigan's Defense. Last Season Nobody In College Football Hit Two Of Them.
The debut

The Giants Called Up Tugboat Wilkinson To Start And Used Him For Seven Batters

Matt Wilkinson made his major league debut on Wednesday against the organization that drafted him in 2023 and traded him in May, and San Francisco used him as an opener: two scoreless innings, seven batters, twenty-five pitches, then Adrian Houser for the next five. It is the second time in 126 regular-season games that a Giants starter has been pulled after two innings or fewer by design, and Houser has thrown the bulk innings behind both, and won both. Vitello said the two innings were partly to get Wilkinson on a major league mound and partly to set him up for innings in Boston.

Grant LombardAug 20, 20264 min read
The Giants Called Up Tugboat Wilkinson To Start And Used Him For Seven Batters
The Big House

Coca-Cola, Meijer And Google Gemini Are Going Inside The Big House At An Undisclosed Price

Michigan Athletics announced the Leaders and Best Champion Partners Program on August 19, bringing select advertising inside Michigan Stadium with Coca-Cola, Meijer and Google Gemini as the inaugural partners and Learfield's Michigan Sports Properties as the seller. Athletic director Warde Manuel framed it as support for student-athletes in the revenue-sharing and NIL era. No dollar figure appears in the release or anywhere since. The House settlement cap that money is meant to feed started at roughly $20.5 million a school and is set at 22 percent of average media, ticket and sponsorship revenue, so stadium sponsorship is an input to the ceiling it pays. The release also floats jersey patches, which the NCAA's Division I Cabinet made legal on January 23 effective August 1, capped at four square inches, and which LSU announced a deal for in February.

Grant LombardAug 20, 20264 min read
Coca-Cola, Meijer And Google Gemini Are Going Inside The Big House At An Undisclosed Price
The poll

Michigan And Utah Swapped Twelve Places In The Poll Without Playing A Game

The Associated Press preseason Top 25, voted by 69 media members and released Monday, puts Michigan 16th with 718 points and Utah 21st with 304. In last season's final AP poll the order was reversed and wider: Utah 14th on an 11-2 record, Michigan 21st on a 9-4 one. Kyle Whittingham left the first program for the second in December after 21 seasons, taking his offensive coordinator and, in John Henry Daley, the only Michigan player on either of AP's preseason All-America teams, an edge rusher who ruptured an Achilles last November and has been on a camp snap count since.

Grant LombardAug 19, 20265 min read
Michigan And Utah Swapped Twelve Places In The Poll Without Playing A Game
The frontcourt

Jalen Reed Was Aiming At Late December And His Coach Just Said Opening Night

Mike Boynton said Tuesday that Jalen Reed is ahead of his rehab schedule, that doctors cleared him for contact work as soon as Michigan returns from Europe on August 29, and that the November 3 opener is now a real target instead of a late-December ramp-up. Reed and freshman Lincoln Cosby both sit out all three exhibitions. Marcus Moller, who was a question mark three weeks ago, is playing.

Grant LombardAug 19, 20265 min read
Jalen Reed Was Aiming At Late December And His Coach Just Said Opening Night
Fifth year

The NCAA Lost On Friday And Filed For Nashville On Saturday

One day after Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney certified a nationwide class and enjoined the NCAA in Denver, the association filed a motion with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation asking that eight eligibility cases across five districts be centralized before Chief Judge William L. Campbell Jr. in the Middle District of Tennessee. The Panel scheduled argument for September 24 in Chicago. The brief describes the Colorado class as putative and says no decision has issued, which had stopped being true the day before it was filed.

Grant LombardAug 16, 20266 min read
The NCAA Lost On Friday And Filed For Nashville On Saturday
Fifth year

Dan Hurley Counted 80. The NCAA Told A Court It Might Be Tens Of Thousands.

In its August 10 emergency motion to the Tenth Circuit, the NCAA argued that class members returning for a fifth season will displace younger athletes, and put the available Division I roster spots at 4,808 in women's sports and 988 in men's. The same 24-page brief describes the class as tens of thousands on one page and as thousands on another. Dan Hurley, making the identical argument at UConn on August 7, counted 80. Twice a federal judge has gone looking for evidence attached to the displacement claim and reported finding none.

Grant LombardAug 16, 20266 min read
Dan Hurley Counted 80. The NCAA Told A Court It Might Be Tens Of Thousands.
2028

The Best Giants At Oracle Park In July 2028 May Be In The Futures Game

Major League Baseball awarded San Francisco the 2028 All-Star Game on Friday, the city's fourth and its first at Oracle Park since 2007. The Giants are 50-72 and spent the deadline turning veterans into prospects. Four of their five Baseball America Top 100 prospects are in Single-A or below, and on the reported date of the game the two that shop ranks highest will be 20 and 19 years old. The men actually under contract that summer are Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Logan Webb, and Webb's deal expires that year.

Grant LombardAug 15, 20265 min read
The Best Giants At Oracle Park In July 2028 May Be In The Futures Game
Eligibility

The Fifth Year Only Moves You If You Were Already In The Portal In April

A nationwide class of athletes who ran out of eligibility in the spring is now eligible for a fifth season by order of a federal court in Denver. Whether any of them can join a school other than the one they just left is a separate question, raised in an emergency motion to enforce filed August 4, fully briefed on August 10, and undecided as of August 15. Seth Trimble reached Louisville because he had entered the transfer portal in the spring, before any of this existed.

Grant LombardAug 15, 20265 min read
The Fifth Year Only Moves You If You Were Already In The Portal In April
Sharks projection

Every Sharks Point Total Is Reasonable Until You Add Them Up

A full 21-man point board for the 2026-27 Sharks totals 796 points, which converts to between 294 and 307 goals and would be a top-two offense in the NHL. Seven of the fifteen returning players on it are projected to score fewer points than they did last season. The increase is almost entirely an assumption about games played, and the man who built the board says so himself in its final minute.

Grant LombardAug 14, 20267 min read
Every Sharks Point Total Is Reasonable Until You Add Them Up
The fifteenth man

The Warriors Will Carry Fifteen And Dress Thirteen

Golden State has thirteen standard contracts and two open spots, and the general manager says both will be filled by October 21. The last four openers they went a man short, and last October they were one of sixteen clubs that did. What changed is not the philosophy. It is that two of the fifteen cannot play, and filling the roster in October is how a team gives up the thing it usually saves for February.

Grant LombardAug 14, 20265 min read
The Warriors Will Carry Fifteen And Dress Thirteen
Roster math

San Francisco Claimed A Third Baseman Thursday. The Roster Spot Came From An Elbow.

San Francisco claimed Shay Whitcomb off waivers from Houston on Thursday and optioned him to Triple-A Sacramento, opening the roster spot by transferring Trevor McDonald to the 60-day injured list. Nothing about McDonald's elbow changed Thursday. It was rebuilt on August 5. The transfer was a piece of paperwork the club had been able to file for eight days and filed the moment it wanted something.

Grant LombardAug 13, 20264 min read
San Francisco Claimed A Third Baseman Thursday. The Roster Spot Came From An Elbow.
Camp

Michigan Named Its Two Running Backs In May And Fall Camp Has Not Moved Them

Michigan's running back room is the one place on this roster where fall camp is a formality. Whittingham named Jordan Marshall the starter and promised eighteen-year-old Savion Hiter carries in game one, both in early May. The man whose carries those are, Justice Haynes, averaged 7.1 yards a carry for Michigan last season and is now at Georgia Tech. The game log says the staff can probably live with that, and the reason is volume rather than talent.

Grant LombardAug 13, 20264 min read
Michigan Named Its Two Running Backs In May And Fall Camp Has Not Moved Them
The contract

Michigan's Season Goals Are Written Into Section 3.01c-ii Of Its Coach's Contract

Michigan won the national championship in April, lost its head coach on the afternoon of the NBA draft, lost three big men to the lottery that night, and hired Boynton on a deal that guarantees one season. The contract lists what earns him a second: 24 regular-season wins, a top-four Big Ten finish, a Big Ten tournament title or a Sweet 16, any two of them, plus a clause about other people's grades. The team he has to do it with boards a plane for Lithuania in eight days.

Grant LombardAug 13, 20265 min read
Michigan's Season Goals Are Written Into Section 3.01c-ii Of Its Coach's Contract
One night up

Zach Morgan Reached The Major Leagues On Monday Without Reaching The Batter's Box

Zach Morgan was a major league catcher for one game and did not catch it. The Giants called him up August 10 after Susac fractured his patella, sat him behind Drew Cavanaugh, signed 31-year-old Andrew Knizner off the free agent market the next day, and sent Morgan back to Triple-A. The league's own player record lists no debut date for him. There is a word for what he nearly became, and more than 400 men in baseball history have earned it.

Grant LombardAug 12, 20264 min read
Zach Morgan Reached The Major Leagues On Monday Without Reaching The Batter's Box
Fifth year

Seth Trimble's Fifth Season At Louisville Depends On A Reply Brief Due Monday

Seth Trimble committed to Louisville on Wednesday using a fifth year of eligibility that exists because of a preliminary injunction in Wisne v. NCAA, which the NCAA is asking the Tenth Circuit to reverse with a reply brief due August 17. The order that gave him the year specifically did not give him a roster spot: Judge Sweeney's August 2 clarification leaves the transfer rules, the age limit, the professional-contract bar and the House settlement roster limits fully in force.

Grant LombardAug 12, 20266 min read
Seth Trimble's Fifth Season At Louisville Depends On A Reply Brief Due Monday
Ninety days

Ninety Days On The Roster Was The Price Of Daniel Susac, And The Giants Cleared It Friday

Susac went on the injured list Monday with a fractured left patella, the third time this season the Giants have put him there. The first two trips were the expensive ones. A Rule 5 pick has to be active for ninety days or the restrictions follow him into next year, and San Francisco got him to ninety on August 7, forty-eight hours before the injury that probably ends his rookie season.

Grant LombardAug 11, 20265 min read
Ninety Days On The Roster Was The Price Of Daniel Susac, And The Giants Cleared It Friday
Schedule

Every Team In The NBA's Showcase Finished Above .500 Except The One Playing Last On Christmas

The NBA revealed its opening week and Christmas Day matchups Tuesday morning. Thirteen clubs appear across the 13 announced games. Twelve finished 2025-26 above .500 and the thirteenth is Golden State at 37-45. Both Warriors games are the nightcap of their night, October 21 at the Lakers at 10 p.m. ET and Denver at Chase Center at 10:30 p.m. ET on Christmas. It is the 14th straight Warriors Christmas and only the second in that run scheduled off a losing season. The first was December 2020, after 15-50.

Grant LombardAug 11, 20268 min read
Every Team In The NBA's Showcase Finished Above .500 Except The One Playing Last On Christmas
The fifth starter

San Francisco Traded A Reliever For A Starter And Then Used Him In Relief

Tidwell has walked four men in seventeen innings as a Giant, a rate of 2.1 per nine. He walked 35 in 72 innings at Sacramento this season, 37 in 97 Triple-A innings last season, and ten in fifteen with the Mets. Every other sample on his record says he walks people, and San Francisco is buying about five innings tonight.

Grant LombardAug 10, 20264 min read
San Francisco Traded A Reliever For A Starter And Then Used Him In Relief
Camp

The Freaks List Used To Be Where Michigan Kept Its Defensive Line

Gavin Magorien is No. 78 on Feldman's 2026 Freaks list: 6-0, 202, a 550-pound squat and a 6.87 three-cone. Michigan's own roster matches Feldman's description on all five stated fields. What has changed is how many names Michigan puts on the list and where they sit. The Wolverines had four in 2024, two in 2025 and one now, and Manuel Beigel, No. 62 last year as a defensive lineman, is listed at offensive line.

Grant LombardAug 10, 20264 min read
The Freaks List Used To Be Where Michigan Kept Its Defensive Line
The bullpen game

The Giants Used An Opener On Friday. The Man Behind It Wants His Job Back.

Houser made 14 starts and posted a 5.73 ERA in 66 innings. He has made nine relief appearances since and posted a 2.03 in 31. Five of the nine ran four innings or longer. The Giants traded two starters last week and have found a fourth one by not calling him that.

Grant LombardAug 9, 20264 min read
The Giants Used An Opener On Friday. The Man Behind It Wants His Job Back.
Eligibility

The Only Transfer Portal Open In College Basketball Has A Guest List

Chancellor I'Ashea L. Myles of the Davidson County Chancery Court signed a temporary injunction on July 31 that gives nineteen named basketball players a fifth season and orders the NCAA to open the transfer portal for those nineteen from noon on August 3 to 8 a.m. on August 10. Chendall Weaver has committed to Houston and Jalen Washington to Tennessee. The order also says in plain terms that it cannot make any school take any of them.

Grant LombardAug 9, 20266 min read
The Only Transfer Portal Open In College Basketball Has A Guest List
The injury report

Matt Chapman Played Most Of This Season With A Hernia

A second MRI this week confirmed a core muscle injury, and MLB.com's Maria Guardado reports a hernia that hampered Chapman throughout the year. He batted 224 times in April and May without a home run. Whether those two facts are connected is a question this site can raise and cannot answer, and the difference matters.

Grant LombardAug 8, 20265 min read
Matt Chapman Played Most Of This Season With A Hernia
The booth

The Giants Gave Up Joe Morgan For Mike Krukow And Got Forty-Four Seasons

San Francisco traded Joe Morgan and Al Holland to Philadelphia on December 14, 1982, and one of the three players who came back was Mike Krukow. He has been in a Giants uniform or a Giants booth every season since. The record of what he watched, counted, and the part of the partnership that does not end.

Grant LombardAug 7, 20265 min read
The Giants Gave Up Joe Morgan For Mike Krukow And Got Forty-Four Seasons
Camp

Jim Harding Moved Two Tackles To Guard And Put A Date On The Rest

Andrew Sprague at right tackle and Jake Guarnera at center are effectively settled. The other three spots are open, and two of the men competing for them played tackle last season and are taking guard reps now. Harding wants the five solidified about two weeks before Western Michigan, which is a checkable date on a checkable thing.

Grant LombardAug 7, 20265 min read
Jim Harding Moved Two Tackles To Guard And Put A Date On The Rest
Roster math

Draymond Green Declined $27,678,571 And Signed For $27,678,571

Green's 2023 contract paid him in four equal steps and the fourth step was a player option worth $27,678,571. He declined it to help Golden State chase LeBron James, the chase failed, and on July 30 he signed for $27,678,571. The term is where the actual decision is, and it points at the summer of 2027.

Grant LombardAug 6, 20266 min read
Draymond Green Declined $27,678,571 And Signed For $27,678,571
The contract market

Everybody Signed The Same Lease. The Rent Ran From $7.2 Million To $18.8 Million.

Clarke, Demidov, Carlsson, Mintyukov, Nemec, Bedard and Celebrini all signed between June 26 and July 29. Six of the seven landed on five years, three defensemen negotiated by three separate front offices landed within $200,000 of each other, and the term on the summer's biggest restricted free agent contract was written by a team that never employed him. What that leaves San Jose is a date in 2032 it did not pick.

Grant LombardAug 5, 20265 min read
Everybody Signed The Same Lease. The Rent Ran From $7.2 Million To $18.8 Million.
The deadline

San Francisco Sold Everything It Was Allowed To Sell

The Giants moved Mahle, Arraez, Ray, Ramos and Erik Miller and got eight players back, one of whom matters. What they did not move is the story: Adames and Chapman each hold a full no-trade clause, which means the salary relief everyone was pricing was never actually on the market. Plus an honest accounting of six deadline calls filed here on Sunday, two of which were right.

Grant LombardAug 5, 20267 min read
San Francisco Sold Everything It Was Allowed To Sell
Deadline forecast

The Giants Trade Arraez To Tampa Bay, And Five Other Calls I Will Answer For Monday Night

Six named predictions about what San Francisco does before Monday's deadline, each with a team, a return and a stated confidence. Arraez to the Rays, Ray to the Cubs, Mahle to Houston, and one call on a player nobody has written a sentence about all month. Every one of them filed to the ledger before the fact rather than after it.

Grant LombardAug 2, 20269 min read
The Giants Trade Arraez To Tampa Bay, And Five Other Calls I Will Answer For Monday Night
The offseason

The Warriors Spent The Summer In One Column

Gary Payton II is back at the minimum, joining Draymond Green, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and De'Anthony Melton. Five re-signings, no additions of consequence, and a roster nobody outside the building can even count exactly.

Grant LombardAug 2, 20264 min read
The Warriors Spent The Summer In One Column
The depth chart

Michigan's Backup Quarterback Has Never Thrown A College Pass

At his first Big Ten Media Days, Whittingham said Tommy Carr is Michigan's backup quarterback without a doubt, putting a true freshman who has never taken a college snap ahead of Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, who threw 969 passes at Colorado State. In the same session he said Bryce Underwood arrived not nearly as fundamentally sound as he needed to be, and pointed at how the position was staffed in 2025, when the offensive coordinator carried the quarterbacks title as well. Camp opens August 5.

Grant LombardAug 1, 20265 min read
Michigan's Backup Quarterback Has Never Thrown A College Pass
The offseason

Read The Collin Graf Contract From The Back

Collin Graf signed for three years and $12.75 million, a $4.25 million cap hit. The price is roughly the consensus. The term is a hedge, and it schedules his next negotiation for a summer San Jose already has bills in.

Grant LombardJul 31, 20264 min read
Read The Collin Graf Contract From The Back
The offseason

The $10 Million Macklin Celebrini Left On The Table All Comes Out Of 2031 And 2032

Celebrini's extension is five years and $94 million, an $18.8 million cap hit that is the highest in league history. A max deal would have paid $104 million. Every dollar of the difference is deferred to the last two seasons, the first three pay the maximum an NHL contract is allowed to pay, and $89.1 million of the total is signing bonus.

Grant LombardJul 29, 20265 min read
The $10 Million Macklin Celebrini Left On The Table All Comes Out Of 2031 And 2032
The deadline

The Giants Cannot Trade A Meniscus

Casey Schmitt tore the meniscus in his left knee, Trevor McDonald is having his elbow rebuilt, and Harrison Bader's foot got worse. A seller converts what it is willing to lose. None of this was ever for sale.

Grant LombardJul 29, 20265 min read
The Giants Cannot Trade A Meniscus
The offseason

Grier Says The Blue Line Is A Runway. Count The Spots.

Mike Grier says the veteran defensemen were added so San Jose would not have to rush its young ones. Six defensemen are under contract, four of them take 93.8 percent of the money, and the arithmetic decides whether that is protection or a wall.

Grant LombardJul 28, 20266 min read
Grier Says The Blue Line Is A Runway. Count The Spots.
Training camp

Vederian Lowe Lasted Three Snaps

The 49ers opened camp Sunday, signed a defensive lineman they have employed since 2019, and got three snaps out of the man they are counting on to stand behind a 38-year-old left tackle.

Grant LombardJul 27, 20266 min read
Vederian Lowe Lasted Three Snaps