Chris Kyle (1974–2013) – Nicknamed the “American Sniper,” Chris Kyle served four tours in Iraq as a Navy SEAL and is credited with the most confirmed kills in U.S. military history. His precision and bravery saved countless American lives, and his bestselling memoir inspired a major motion picture. After retiring, Kyle worked to help veterans adjust to civilian life. Tragically killed while helping a fellow veteran, his story remains one of sacrifice, courage, and service.
In 2012, Kyle launched the FITCO Cares Foundation to help veterans dealing with PTSD, offering counseling and fitness programs to restore purpose and health. He often used his own story to encourage others not to give up and to seek healing through community and activity. His foundation reflected his belief that serving others never stops, even after the uniform comes off.
Notorious bank robber John Dillinger is killed by federal agents outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago. His death marks the beginning of the FBI’s public campaigns against crime.
Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today’s edition is brought to you by David Adler.
Tarik Skubal is the Very Big Obvious No. 1 starting pitcher on the trade market. But how to compare everybody else?
There are a lot of other arms out there. If you’re a contender on the hunt for pitching in the final weeks before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline, how do you decide which trade target best fits your team’s needs?
We’re here to help.
With Baseball Savant’s new Player Comparison Tool, we can stack up all the top trade candidates side by side and see who’s the best at what.
Check this out. Here are nine of the top starting pitcher trade candidates that could be available — non-Skubal division — and their MLB percentile rankings in a whole bunch of different pitching stats:
There are a lot of nuggets to be gleaned here. For example:
If you want a high-strikeout, low-walk ace, Joe Ryan fits the bill
The Twins ace leads our group in both strikeout rate and walk rate, which is a very good combination. (Yes, even after Ryan gave up six home runs to the Guardians in that crazy game the other day.) Ryan’s 27.8% strikeout rate ranks in the 83rd percentile of MLB pitchers, and his 5.3% walk rate ranks in the 93rd percentile. There’s a gap of over 20 percentage points between Ryan’s K% and BB%, which is top-10 among qualified starters.
For strong underlying numbers, look at Casey Mize
The other Tigers starter who might be traded is having a career year (even though he’s dealing with a couple of minor ailments after his last start). Mize is sporting a 2.79 ERA and striking out over a batter per inning. Statcast’s quality of contact metrics also like what Mize is doing, indicating that his success is deserved. Mize has the lowest expected ERA, 3.14, of any starter in our comparison, a mark that ranks in the top 10 among pitchers who’ve faced at least 300 batters this season, right behind Skubal and in the middle of a group of aces.
The Player Comparison Tool is fully customizable, by the way, so feel free to swap in your own favorite trade candidates in place of the ones we picked out, or pick out different stats you want to see.
And soon there’ll be even more good stuff in there — like pitch arsenal stats. We’ll give you a sneak peek of what that looks like for our starting pitcher trade candidates:
That gives you a whole new set of info, like:
In need of a breaking ball specialist? Go after Reid Detmers
Detmers ranks at the very top of the league in value generated from breaking pitches, and that all starts with his slider. The Angels lefty has thrown one of the nastiest sliders in the Majors this season — it comes in at 86.1 mph and drops five inches more than an average slider. We don’t want to discount his curveball, though, which has also been quite effective. Detmers’ 78 total breaking ball K’s this season — 63 on sliders, 15 on hooks — are sixth most in the Majors.
The Dodgers and Phillies split the first two games of this NLDS rematch, so the series comes down to tonight’s rubber game. The two biggest bats in the series, Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber, have yet to really come alive, so hopefully this is the day for some fireworks.
Today is the first time the Yankees have had a healthy Gerrit Cole and Max Fried in the rotation together. And wouldn’t you know it, they’re both pitching. Cole struck out 11 across seven innings of three-run ball in the first game of today’s split doubleheader, and Fried will try to follow his lead in the nightcap. Fried has been out since May 14 with a bone bruise in his left elbow. His return will be a big boost for the Yanks.
The Red Sox have now won 15 games in a rowafter beating the Orioles in Game 1 of today’s doubleheader at Fenway Park. It’s just the eighth winning streak of 15-plus games within a single season in the Expansion Era (since 1961). Boston’s win streak is also tied with the 1946 Sox for the longest in franchise history. The 2026 squad can break that mark in Game 2 tonight.
One of MLB’s streakiest teams early in the season, the Cubs have settled down and have been playing good baseball for a while now. They hold the top NL Wild Card spot, they’ve won eight of their last 10 series, and they’re looking for their fourth straight series win in tonight’s rubber game against Detroit. The Tigers, meanwhile, have to keep winning if they want to avoid dealing Tarik Skubal and more at the Trade Deadline.
She’s an Athletes Unlimited Softball League star, a former Team USA player, a national champion and collegiate All-American at Oklahoma and … a veterinarian?
We didn’t think there was any crossover between those two fields, but Maxwell is the exception. She’s a pitcher for the Portland Cascade — who play in the AUSL playoffs tomorrow night — and she also just completed her first year of veterinary school at LSU.
“I love science and medicine,” Maxwell said. “The pressure that comes from softball, I found it in medicine, too. Being able to diagnose, or if you’re in the operating room, you have to make quick decisions and problem solve. And I’ve always loved animals.”
Growing up in Friendswood, Texas, Maxwell spent hours on her grandfather’s small farm, surrounded by horses, cattle and family dogs. Her fascination with animals naturally evolved into an interest in veterinary medicine.
As you might imagine, things can get a little busy when Maxwell is juggling softball and veterinary school. But she makes it happen.
“There are some exam weeks I can’t make it to the field at all — just to the gym to lift,” she said. “But I do my best to stay consistent because softball has taught me time management, resilience and how to perform under pressure.”
The question of whether the Tigers will trade Tarik Skubal continues to dominate the rumor mill.
On the one hand, there seems to be “growing sentiment among rival executives” that Detroit will try to keep Skubal and make a playoff push. On the other, plenty of MLB insiders still think Skubal is more likely to be traded than not.
But ignore the “will-they-won’t-they” aspect for a second. If the Tigers did want to trade Skubal, what type of package would it take to land him?
A report today from The Athletic gives us a glimpse into what such a package might look like. Multiple rival executives briefed on the Tigers’ thinking told Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon that the Tigers could deal Skubal for a young, MLB-ready starting pitcher and multiple prospects.
The Athletic mentions the Yankees’ Ryan Weathers and the Phillies’ Andrew Painter as two names that could fit the “young, MLB-ready starting pitcher” bill. But other rival evaluators told ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez that the Dodgers might be the best match for the Tigers in a Skubal deal.
Here are the news and notes from around the Majors.
• The way last night’s Dodgers-Phillies game ended is too chaotic to fully explain here. The way too short version is: J.T. Realmuto’s baserunning gaffe produced an extremely chaotic, and game-ending, 5-2-6-4 double play. But you’re just going to have to go watch it for yourself.
• If that double play wasn’t enough for you … how about a triple play? The Marlins turned the first one of the 2026 season against the Astros yesterday. Jose Altuve was the victim, as his ground ball down the third-base line in the eighth inning was tailor-made for Miami to third-to-second-to-first for all three outs.
• Watching Fernando Tatis Jr. absolutely annihilate a 474-foot home run in Atlanta last night — the longest homer in MLB this year — it’s kind of funny to think back about how the Padres star didn’t hit a single home run for the first 55 games of the season.
• José Ramírez is back with the Guardians tonight. The star third baseman missed a little over a month after suffering a left hamate fracture on June 13 against the Tigers. The Guardians, who hold the second AL Wild Card spot and are just percentage points behind the White Sox in the AL Central race, have to feel good about getting J-Ram back for the playoff push.
• Bobby Witt Jr. is headed to the injured listwith lower back tightness, the first time the Royals superstar has gone on the IL as a Major Leaguer. “It’s just kind of one of those things where the type of way I play, I couldn’t be myself out there,” Witt said. “And I couldn’t even be 50% of myself.”
IRON HORSE TO SILVER SCREEN
It’s been 84 years since Gary Cooper’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of Yankees legend Lou Gehrig in “The Pride of the Yankees.”
But the Iron Horse is set to get the silver screen treatment once again — played by one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Actor Glen Powell is attached to play Gehrig in an untitled film about the baseball icon, according to a report by Deadline. The movie will be directed by Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater, and “Saturday Night Live” creator and lifelong Yankees fan Lorne Michaels is one of the film’s producers.
Every day offers a new chance to grow—so explore stories filled with real-life inspiration, practical wisdom, and ideas that fuel your next step forward. Discover uplifting content curated to support your personal growth, and join thousands of readers who visit our site daily for motivation, insight, and a positive boost.
“Peace isn’t a destination you finally reach — it’s a choice you return to, again and again, with growing ease.”
If today has pulled you away from the steady, settled feeling you were hoping for — that’s okay. Peace is not lost, just temporarily set aside. You can return to it as many times as you need. Each time you choose it, you’re building a habit of returning home to yourself. That practice is its own kind of wisdom.MORE INSPIRATION
You’re always one blessing away from a brighter day… and a bigger life. May these stories, affirmations, prayers, and insights lift your spirits and inspire you to lift others.
The longest recorded game of Monopoly lasted 70 straight days. It was played by four students at a Texas university in 1973, and they reportedly survived mostly on coffee and determination, occasionally pausing only to nap in shifts.
From first-round steals to under-the-radar gems, here are Pipeline’s favorite picks from each club’s 2026 Draft class. It’s a team-by-team look at the prospects who could become the stars of tomorrow.
Triple-A St. Paul pays homage to the life and legacy of Sister Ros, the beloved “massaging nun” who became an icon over three decades at the Saints’ ballpark. See how a simple promotional idea blossomed into a cherished tradition.
Rangers No. 1 prospect Sebastian Walcott wasted no time making his return to the lineup count, launching a solo home run for Double-A Frisco on Sunday. The 20-year-old was making just his third start of the season for the RoughRiders after offseason elbow surgery.
MiLB never disappoints when it comes to creative giveaways, often led by everyone’s favorite: bobbleheads. From pop-culture tributes to uniquely local creations, these collectibles showcase everything that makes the Minors an experience unlike any other.
The latest episode of The Show Before the Show recaps the busy All-Star week, from the Futures Game to the MLB Draft. The podcast also pays tribute to Sister Ros and her lasting impact on the St. Paul community.
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