In today’s SportSense Entertainment Newsletter…

There were plenty of predictions to go around yesterday across the MLB, with our model focusing in on one of those predictions and making it a 3-star play. That prediction went 1-0 overall, and you can see how the rest of the model performed below.

Money Line Predictions: 10-3

Over/Under Predictions: 5-7-1

Run Line Predictions: 5-8

3-star Predictions: 1-0

☀️ Bradley Beal traded from Washington to Phoenix. A few months ago the Phoenix Suns made a blockbuster trade for Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, but the move still resulted in the Suns being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. After that series it was clear that Phoenix needed more fire power on the offensive end, leading the Suns to officially trade for Wizards star Bradley Beal on Sunday. Per Adrian Wojnarowski, Phoenix will send Chris Paul, Landry Shamet and several second-round picks to Washington in exchange for Beal, a surprisingly underwhelming package for the three-time All-Star. To make things even more interesting, it is being reported that Chris Paul will likely be traded again as the Wizards enter a rebuild, with the Clippers being a potential destination. Beal spent his entire 11-year career as a member of the Wizards, but will be packing his bags and moving out West to join one of the more intriguing teams in the NBA.

🐝 Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller to workout for Charlotte a second time. Top NBA Draft prospects Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller will reportedly have a second workout with the Charlotte Hornets on Monday. Charlotte owns the No.2 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, but there appears to be some debate over who to select with the pick. Henderson chose to bypass the NCAA, instead electing to play for the G-League Ignite, while Miller was one of the NCAA’s best players at the University of Alabama and won the SEC Player of the Year award in 2023.

There are 10 MLB games scheduled to take place on Monday, with the first beginning at 4:05 PM Eastern. However, due to some gaps in the season data and lines being unavailable at the time the model was run, our model has predictions for eight of today’s matchups.

Colorado Rockies @ Cincinnati Reds

Model Predicts- Reds ML, OVER 10, Rockies +1.5

The Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds will begin a three-game series on Monday in the great state of Ohio.

Colorado enters this matchup on a five-game losing streak, which includes getting swept by the Atlanta Braves over the weekend. Meanwhile, Cincinnati owns the longest active winning streak in the MLB at eight games following a 9-7 extra innings victory over the Houston Astros on Sunday.

These teams are trending in opposite directions as we approach the halfway mark of the 2023 season, and our model likes the Reds to stay in the win column today. Will we see that prediction come to fruition, or will Colorado get back on track?

Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies have played their last seven games on the road, with three more coming in this series to close out a ten-game roadtrip.

The roadtrip started out great for the Rockies, taking the first two games in their series with the Red Sox at Fenway Park. However, things began to fall apart shortly after those two victories, calling into question if Colorado is capable of getting back into the win column before returning home.

As previously mentioned, the Rockies have lost five consecutive games entering today’s matchup, making Colorado 2-5 on its current roadtrip. The struggles at the plate in those five games, which include scoring just three runs per game and posting a 68 wRC+, are partly to blame, but the real reason Colorado hasn’t won many games is largely due to the pitching staff.

According to Fangraphs, Colorado’s Team ERA in the last five games sits at 10.35, the worst in the majors by exactly 3.00 runs. The starting pitchers shoulder most of the responsibility for the collapse, posting an abysmal 15.05 ERA in that five-game stretch.

Austin Gomber (4-6 record, 7.29 ERA) will try to create some stability on the mound today for Colorado as the starter. However, stability isn’t exactly Gomber’s strength while on the mound.

Opposing hitters are lightning Gomber up this season, posting a .316 xBA (expected batting average) against the 29-year-old. That ranks him in the bottom 2% of the majors, per Baseball Savant, and it comes as a result of striking out just 14.5% of the batter he faces while simultaneously posting a 10.0% Barrel rate.

Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds have had quite the turnaround in recent weeks, winning eight straight games. That is the longest active win streak in baseball, showing that the Reds may no longer be a pushover in the NL Central.

Finding the win column so often can be attributed to a handful of different things, but the addition of Elly De La Cruz, the No.4 prospect in baseball, has transformed the Reds offense.

De La Cruz made his MLB debut back on June 6th. In that span of time the Reds have posted a 105 wRC+, up from 91 before he entered the lineup. Cincinnati also owns a .301 BABIP since De La Cruz made his MLB debut, the 12th best in the majors in that time.

Elly De La Cruz has clearly provided this offense with a boost, a huge reason why Cincinnati is the hottest team in baseball. However, the Reds could find themselves in trouble today with Brandon Williamson (1-0 record, 5.40 ERA) set to take the mound as the starter.

Williamson’s 5.40 ERA is already concerning, but according to Baseball Savant his xERA comes in much higher at 7.26. That ranks the rookie in the bottom 3% of the majors this season, and his 13.7% Barrel rate puts him in the bottom 4%.

What’s the Play?

Today’s starting pitching matchup makes predicting the winner of this game a tall task. However, we agree with our model that the Rockies and Reds can combine to score more than 10 runs this evening.

A huge reason Austin Gomber is so easily sized up is because of his predictability on the mound. Gomber throws his 4-seam fastball 42.2% of the time, while no other pitch in his arsenal gets thrown above 21%, per Baseball Savant. Hitters know exactly what is coming when he is on the mound, leading to a .398 xBA, 12.5% Barrel rate, and 61.4% Hard Hit rate against his 4-seamer in 2023.

Williamson has much more variety with his pitch arsenal. However, his two most commonly thrown pitches, a 4-seam fastball and cutter, have resulted in a .319 and .375 xBA, respectively this season. His 4-seamer also owns a 13.5% Barrel rate.

Both starters are easily sized up by opposing hitters, and we expect that to lead to plenty of runs in today’s matchup. We agree with our model on the over in this spot.

3-star play: Over 10 (-120)

Money Line Trends💰

• Cincinnati Reds- 37-35 overall this season, have won eight consecutive games

• Houston Astros- 39-33 overall this season, 20-18 as the home team

• San Francisco Giants- 39-32 overall this season, 18-17 as the home team, have won seven consecutive games

Over/Under Trends ⬆️⬇️

• Miami Marlins- Under is 38-32-2 this season, 19-13-2 as the home team

• Cincinnati Reds- Over is 41-31 this season, 19-16 as the home team

• Arizona Diamondbacks- Over is 34-33-5 this season, 18-12-1 as the away team

Run Line Trends➕➖

• San Francisco Giants- Run line is 37-34 this season, 8-3 as a home underdog

Various injuries around the league. See full injury report at MLB.com.

🧹 San Francisco sweeps Los Angeles for first time since 2012. The San Francisco Giants are in the midst of a seven-game win streak following a sweep of their NL West rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, over the weekend. The Giants dominated in almost every aspect offensively, posting a +21 run differential across only three games, which included a 15-0 shutout win on Saturday night. The sweep also catapulted San Francisco above Los Angeles in the standings, with the Giants sitting in second in both the NL West and the Wild Card race.

🎣 Marlins move to 10 games over .500. The Miami Marlins have found themselves in the basement of the National League over the last several seasons, but the fish have flipped the script in 2023. Following a sweep of the Washington Nationals over the weekend, Miami sits in second in the NL East with a 41-31 record, the first time the team has been 10 games above .500 since 2011. The weekend sweep also gave Miami its second-best start in franchise history through 72 games, with the first being the 1997 Marlins who began the season 43-29 and went on to win the World Series.

☎️ Henry Davis gets called up to the big leagues. The No.1 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, Henry Davis, received a call from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday saying that he would officially be joining the team in the big leagues. Davis, a catcher, is ranked as the No.44 overall prospect in baseball and No.3 on the Pirates, and is being called up to the majors just 11 days after being promoted to Triple-A. He will make his MLB debut tonight against the Cubs.

🏆 Wyndham Clark wins U.S. Open. 29-year-old Wyndham Clark held off Rory McIlroy down the stretch at yesterday’s U.S. Open, winning the event at Los Angeles Country Club by one stroke. Clark ended with a score of 10-under par after 72 holes, shooting an even-par round of 70 on Sunday to capture his first major title in only his seventh major appearance. Rickie Fowler, who was tied with Clark entering Sunday, shot a five-over par round of 75 in Round 4, putting him out of the running for what would have been his first major victory. Scottie Scheffler and Cam Smith finished third and fourth, respectively, while Tommy Fleetwood and Min Woo Lee were tied with Fowler in fifth.

🐆 Bryce Young is already making a good impression in Carolina. The No.1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, is already receiving tons of his love from his Panthers teammates. Per David Newton, Carolina edge rusher Brian Burns said Young, “walks around with this kind of, ‘humble but I know I’m the shit’ type of swag.’” Wide receiver DJ Chark reiterated Burns’ comments, stating, “Everybody is here for Young, and we believe he can take us to some really high places.” Young ended his college career with 8,356 passing yards and 80 touchdowns, and it appears that his teammates think that talent will translate to the pro level nicely.

🏎 Max Verstappen wins Canadian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen won his sixth race of the season on Sunday, defending his Canadian Grand Prix title from 2022. The win was also Verstappen’s fourth consecutive victory, and has now made Red Bull the winner of all eight races this season. It was Verstappen’s 41st career win, moving him into a tiew ith Ayrton Senna for fifith in Grand Prix victories.

Today’s trivia requires you to dig into multiple pockets of your brain, testing your knowledge of recent events as well as those that happened decades ago.

See how many of the below questions you can get correct. Answers are provided at the end of the newsletter.

Question #1- Jason and Travis Kelce are just one of the many sibling duos to grace the NFL. However, before their NFL stardom the brothers played college football at the same university too, something that not many other duos can say. Where did the Kelce brothers play their college football?

Question #2- The three-pointer is often the biggest difference maker between winning and losing in today’s NBA. Klay Thompson is just one of the many NBA players who have come close to mastering the three-point shot, even setting the NBA record for the most three’s made in one quarter back in 2015. How many shots did Klay make from behind the arc in that quarter?

Question #3- Landry Shamet entered the NBA in 2018, drafted 26th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers out of Wichita State. Despite his three-point shooting ability, Shamet has often been a fill-in player in many trades, including Phoenix’s trade for Bradley Beal yesterday. How many times has Shamet been traded during his five NBA seasons?

Anyone know what has happened on June 19th throughout history? We didn’t have a clue either, but it appears that it has been a busy day.

On June 19th…

1943- The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers merge, forming what many fans called the “Steagles”. The merger came about because of a player shortage throughout the NFL, mainly due to World War II, and half of the team’s games were played in Pittsburgh while the other half were played in Philadelphia. The Steagles went on to finish the season in third place in the NFL’s Eastern division with a 5-4-1 record, but the team would only stay together for one season before a new influx of players came to the NFL in 1944.

1973- Pete Rose and Willie Davis record their 2,000th career hits on the same day. Rose would reach the mark with a single in a 4-0 win over the San Francisco Giants, while Davis accomplished the feat in more dramatic fashion, hitting a home run in 3-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves. Rose currently ranks first on the MLB’s all-time hit list with 4,256, while Davis ranks 92nd with 2,561.

2011- Rory McIlroy wins the U.S. Open, holding off Jason Day and setting multiple records in the process. McIlroy was in complete control down the stretch, beating the rest of the field by eight strokes on his way to a U.S. Open record 16-under par performance. At one point McIlroy was 12-under par in the second round, the lowest score at any point in U.S. Open history at the time. The victory was McIlroy’s first win at a major in his career, and he would only have to wait until 2012 to win his second (PGA Championship).

2016- The Cleveland Cavaliers win their first title in franchise history following a 93-89 victory over the Golden State Warriors. Cleveland entered the series as the No.1 seed in the Eastern Conference with a 57-25 record, while Golden State was the No.1 seed in the West, winning an NBA record 73 games in the regular season. The Warriors jumped out to an early 3-1 series lead, but Cleveland stormed back and became the first team in NBA Finals history to overcome a 3-1 deficit.

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1. University of Cincinnati

2. 9

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