NFL
Dolphins Make Move With Wide Receiver
The Miami Dolphins waived Willie Snead IV off injured reserve Saturday after reaching an injury settlement with the journeyman wide receiver, according to a league source. The Dolphins also learned that wide receiver Anthony Schwartz, injured in Friday night's game against Tampa Bay, tore a knee ligament in his left knee, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Snead, meanwhile, signed with the Dolphins on July 31st and had an underwhelming stint with the team before his injury. He dropped passes in practice sessions and also had drops against Atlanta and Washington this preseason. Snead did catch one pass for 13 yards in two preseason games. The wide receiver from Ball State was a long shot to make the team, as the receiving corps had great depth at the position before injuries beset it. Snead saw the field in the preseason in place of receivers ahead of him and did nothing to stand out amongst the crowd. Snead was placed on injured reserve last Monday after tearing a ligament in the game against the Commanders. Since he has reached an injury settlement with the team, he can sign with any other team once he becomes healthy. Snead made waves at the end of last season when he posted negative comments on social media about quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. He called him "soft" after the Dolphins' 26-7 loss at Kansas City in a wild-card game in January. Snead said he was rooting for the Dolphins and got caught up in the emotions of the game. Snead maintains the two have reconciled as he apologized to Tagovailoa upon his arrival in Miami. Meanwhile, Schwartz, who was also not expected to figure into the Dolphins' plans this season, will likely end up either on injured reserve or waived with an injury settlement similar to Snead.
WNBA
Fever star Caitlin Clark reaches another remarkable milestone
Another game, another milestone reached by first-year WNBA star Caitlin Clark. Clark surpassed the 500-point mark on Saturday. Having already topped the 200-assist plateau, the incredible rookie became the fastest player to do both, doing so in only 29 games. Unsurprisingly, Clark's record-making achievement came in a standout performance. She scored 23 points (8-of-18), with three three-pointers, eight assists and five rebounds — though it wasn't enough to get past the Minnesota Lynx, who defeated the Indiana Fever, 90-80. For Clark, the effort marked her eighth game this year with at least 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds. That's the most in WNBA history, rookie or otherwise, and three more than the second-most (Alyssa Thomas), per Stathead. Saturday also saw Clark's 13th 20-point game of the season. Only two rookies have more than one this season, including Angel Reese (3) and Rickea Jackson (2), according to StatMamba. Etching her name into the record books is becoming very, very common for Clark. Her most recent brush with history prior to this weekend came on Aug. 18, when the former Iowa star set the mark for the most assists by a rookie, which now stands at 240 and counting. Clark could make even more history if she stays consistent through the final 11 games of the regular season. She's only 76 assists away from the league's all-time record (316) and with 517 points and a 17.8 points per game average on the year, she could become just the 20th player in WNBA history to surpass 700 points in a single season. Clark is the front-runner to earn Rookie of the Year honors, but has even slowly crept into the MVP conversation. According to the latest odds from BetMGM, she's second (+8000) behind two-time winner A'Ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces.
College Football
Watch: Georgia Tech upsets No. 10 Florida State with walk-off FG
Georgia Tech kicker Aidan Birr had a forgetful moment in the first half of Saturday's game against No. 10 Florida State, missing a 51-yard field goal at the start of the second half. But when it mattered most, Birr and the unranked Yellow Jackets needed the luck of the Irish in Dublin to clinch the first upset of the 2024 college football season with a walk-off 44-yard field goal as time expired. Just moments before the game-winning kick, Georgia Tech nearly turned over the ball when quarterback Haynes King fumbled but recovered for a loss of 10 yards back to Florida State's 38-yard line. Georgia Tech's final drive of the game was a massive response to what appeared to be a momentum-shifting drive by Florida State just minutes earlier, in which the Seminoles converted two straight fourth downs to score a touchdown and tie the game at 21-21. Yellow Jacket fans were reminded of the last time their team upset a Florida State squad ranked in the top 10. In 2015, Georgia Tech returned a missed field goal attempt for a touchdown to defeat the then-No. 9 Seminoles. Georgia Tech is now 5-0 under head coach Brent Key against ranked ACC opponents. The loss for Florida State could be a significant blemish on its resume as it now attempts to recover and reestablish itself as a team worthy of qualifying for the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. Georgia Tech, on the other hand, just established itself as a force to be reckoned with moving forward, blowing the race for the ACC crown wide open. Florida State will travel back home to Tallahassee to face Boston College on Sept. 2, while Georgia Tech will host Georgia State on Aug. 31 in Week 1.
MLB
'About as tough a decision I’ve had to make': Diamondbacks…
The Diamondbacks made the tough decision to take Jordan Montgomery out of the rotation and move him to the bullpen to finish out the season. It was a decision dictated by performance, as the veteran left-hander had a 6.44 ERA in 19 starts. Manager Torey Lovullo went on The Burns Gambo Show for his weekly Friday appearance to talk about that decision. “It’s been about as tough a decision as I’ve had to make since I’ve become the manager here. Jordan Montgomery’s reputation obviously spoke for itself. He won a world championship and he’s had some good moments, but you know, with 34, 35 games left in the season, I have to make these tough decisions and I’ve got to, I’ve got to do them in the best interest of this team.” Considering how Montgomery carried the Rangers down the stretch and through the postseason in 2023, it’s an outcome very few expected when they signed him to a one-year deal in March. The expectation was the 2024 Diamondbacks would feature one of the best starting rotations in baseball headlined by Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodríguez, Jordan Montgomery, and Brandon Pfaadt. Thanks to injuries and poor performances, the team’s two most reliable starters have been Pfaadt and Ryne Nelson. Nelson has turned his season and career trajectory around in the last seven weeks. The right-hander has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over that stretch, pitching to a 2.76 ERA in his 10 appearances (9 starts) with 62 strikeouts and 12 walks in his last 62 innings. Entering play on August 23, Nelson has the fourth-highest fWAR (1.7) amongst major league pitchers since July 1. The three pitchers ahead of him? Left-handers Chris Sale, Blake Snell, and Framber Valdez. “If it was April, we might have a different conversation, but for right now, I have Nelly throwing the ball as good as anybody, and I have to make this decision.” When Lovullo made the decision, he called Montgomery into his office. He told Dave Burns and Tim Ring that the veteran left-hander handled the news “as good as I could have imagined”. He told Montgomery the decision comes down to performance, as right-hander Ryne Nelson has earned the opportunity to close out the season as the team’s No. 5 starter. This isn’t the first time the Diamondbacks demoted a struggling starter to the bullpen. They did something similar last season with Nelson, who had struggled to a 5.44 ERA with ugly peripherals in 29 appearances (27 starts), moving him to the bullpen for the postseason. They got mixed results, but the right-hander finished it out strong with a Herculean effort in Game 4 of the World Series with one run allowed in 4 1/3 innings. Ironically enough a year later, he finds himself on the other side of a similar decision. The silver lining to having Montgomery in the bullpen is the Diamondbacks will now have three left-handers in their bullpen for the final five weeks. Right-handers have crushed him to a .327/.383/.539 slash with 12 home runs but he has kept left-handed hitters to a .250/.318/.333 slash. He’ll serve as an innings-eater out of the pen to take some innings off pitchers in a mop-up scenario. With four of the team’s projected five starters being right-handed, there will be opportunities against some left-handed heavy lineups. The bullpen is still relatively uncharted territory for Montgomery, who has one career relief appearance in the regular season and two in the postseason. Being a starter for his entire career, there’s a much different routine for getting ready for games. Instead of the 35-minute warmup routine he would have as a starter, he’ll need to be able to get loose in seven to ten minutes. “By the time the phone rings, you’re getting ready to go into a game. You’ve got a two-minute transition. You’ve got a batter or two that you might have to get ready to. So it could be up to seven minutes, but the hard part is getting ready quickly. And normally when you fill a role as a long man, you know the target, you know when you’re going to come in the game. So I’ve averaged it out to be the six, seven-minute range.” How quickly Montgomery can adjust to his new role will likely determine if the team considers him for postseason action, especially if they get deeper into the postseason where having someone who can eat innings may be more valuable with a longer series.
