FeaturedThe Friday 5

The Friday 5: July 19th

By July 19, 2019 No Comments

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

 

The MLB All-Star game is behind us and the trade deadline is a couple weeks away. That means it’s time to take baseball seriously. Other than in the NL Central, where the Chicago Cubs have a two game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers, the first place teams have comfortable leads.

 

The Los Angeles Dodgers have won almost 68% of their games and their incredibly hot bats have been complimented with some pretty epic pitching. Over in the American League, the New York Yankees have a team rating of 91 as they continue to get healthier for their playoff run.

 

Anyone else rooting for a Dodgers vs. Yankees World Series? It can’t just be us. (It means we get Cody Bellinger until late October if that’s incentive to root for it. Just saying.)

 

NFL Vacay is Over

 

Start brushing up on your fantasy football! Football is back in 48 days. We. Can’t. Wait.

This week, the Denver Broncos reported to training camp, as their first preseason game is the Hall of Fame Game in Canton on Aug. 1. They will play the Atlanta Falcons, whose rookies reported yesterday and vets report on Sunday.

The rookies for the Arizona Cardinals, the Seattle Seahawks and the Baltimore Ravens also reported this week and the rest of their squads join them July 24. By July 26, all 32 teams will be at camp.

Are you ready for some football? Obvi.

Madden NFL 20

With a new NFL season comes a new edition of Madden NFL. Madden 20 will be released on August 20 and my-homes and your-homes Patrick Mahomes graces the cover. He also threw a football out of Arrowhead Stadium the other day, but that’s an aside (add appropriate emoji here). The QB phenom is the first member of the Chiefs to be on a Madden cover.

Madden 20’s Top 10 rookies are below. Is it September yet?

Quinnen Williams

DT

New York Jets

80

Ed Oliver

DT

Buffalo Bills

79

Nick Bosa

DE

San Francisco 49ers

78

Marquise Brown

WR

Baltimore Ravens

77

Josh Allen

DE

Jacksonville Jaguars

77

T.J. Hockenson

TE

Detroit Lions

77

D.K. Metcalf

WR

Seattle Seahawks

76

Dexter Lawrence

DT

New York Giants

76

Irv Smith Jr.

TE

Minnesota Vikings

75

Christian Wilkins

DT

Miami Dolphins

75

Brian Burns

DE

Carolina Panthers

75

Byron Murphy

CB

Arizona Cardinals

75

Show Me the Money

 

The NBA’s summer of fun and big money continued, as Ben Simmons agreed to a 5-year $170 million maximum contract extension with the Philadelphia 76ers. Looks like trusting the process paid off for Simmons (puns intended all around).

 

The Memphis Grizzlies are the champions of the Summer League, with their rookie Brandon Clarke taking both Summer League MVP and Championship Game MVP honors. The #21 overall pick in this year’s draft had 15 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and three blocks in the Championship game.

 

Love-Love

 

Tennis fans saw an epic Wimbledon performance on Sunday, when Novak Djokovic won a blockbuster match over Roger Federer in 4 hours and 57 minutes. That’s right folks. They played tennis for just about FIVE hours. We needed a nap just watching it. It was Djokovic’s fifth Wimbledon title.

 

Serena Williams was stopped short of her eighth Wimbledon singles title when she was defeated by Simona Halep, 6-2. It was Halep’s first Wimbledon title. Congrats!

 

Tracy Sandler

Tracy Sandler

I created Fangirl Sports Network as a place for female sports fans to follow their favorite teams with content and coverage that speaks directly to females. It started with one and then eight and now 32 NFL Fangirls and 15 NBA Fangirls.