The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.

Good morning! Don’t be intimidated by the greatest of all time today. Inside:

Statistically Speaking: Has Ohtani finally met his MVP match?

Shohei Ohtani’s run of three straight MVPs is probably about to end at the hands of some guy who plays a mere one position and was carrying a .572 OPS three weeks into the season. If it happens, Pete Crow-Armstrong will have earned it.

The Cubs center fielder is now likelier than not to win the award Ohtani won going away in 2024 and 2025. (Ohtani also won the AL MVP in 2023, his last year with the Angels.) Crow-Armstrong is the public’s favorite (per BetMGM), with an implied chance north of 60 percent.

The numbers say PCA has indeed been the most valuable. The 24-year-old has been worth 8.3 WAR so far, per FanGraphs. That almost doubles up any other NL hitter and is well clear of Ohtani, who’s derived 4 WAR as a hitter and another 3 as a pitcher. PCA has dramatically improved both his walk rate and his performance against lefties. Mix those things with his superb defense, power and base-running, and you get a season for the ages.

Ohtani is not slouching. At the plate, he has gone from superhuman to, well, still superhuman but slightly less so this season (a 152 wRC+ entering the weekend, compared to 172 last year). On the mound, he’s been dominant, but in just 85 innings.

In many years, that would get Ohtani the MVP. It’s just that PCA is covering so many bases, literally and figuratively. Do you like traditional benchmarks? Neat; PCA reached the 30/30 mark last week. Do you like detailed defensive stats? Very good; he’s converted 23 outs above average so far, giving him a decent shot at the most productive defensive season since at least 2016. Do you yearn for the clutch gene? Crow-Armstrong has been even better in big moments, with one of the best lines in baseball in high-leverage plate appearances. Durability counts, too. Crow-Armstrong has played in every single Cubs game. He’s fielded his demanding position for nearly 1,100 innings, or more than 1,000 more than Ohtani has worn a glove.

It just feels like one of those special years. Jon Greenberg likens it to another Chicago sports season, the one in which Derrick Rose won NBA MVP. There’s also just a certain magic to what PCA is doing, leading a team that’s had more or less an entire big-league pitching staff on the injured list for much of the season.

When Crow-Armstrong was off to a strong start last year, I talked with our Eno Sarris about the potential for him to develop into a Hall of Fame player. It felt fanciful, but I’d made a silly bet on an expensive dinner with a friend that he’d get into Cooperstown someday. Eno was receptive but careful. But now PCA looks like a solid bet to get to 40 WAR by his age-30 season, and that would give him a shot.

I want your input. Who’s going to buy those steaks in, say, 2045?

If I’m right, I will be getting an appetizer.

News to Know

Bruce Bennett / Getty Images

The NHL’s Texas expansion timeline

The NHL could award its 33rd franchise to either Houston or Austin by the end of this year, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic, with that team possibly playing by 2029-30 even if there’s not a 34th team to balance out the numbers. Less-advanced discussions are continuing with Phoenix and Atlanta, said Daly, who added that while Houston is a ginormous market, Austin has its advantages, too. Read his full comments here.

Butker’s big boot

Should preseason field goals count toward NFL records? Nah, but if they did, this 69-yarder yesterday from Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker …

… would rank second to a 70-yarder in last year’s preseason from the Jags’ Cam Little, who holds the games-that-count record at 68. Still … foot go boom. More on Butker’s kick here.

Stanton’s woes continue

Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton could miss the rest of the season after his third separate calf strain this season — two coming during rehab. You have to feel for him; it’s like he angered Zeus or something. In other concerning news for New York: Ryan Weathers left last night’s 4-3 loss to the Blue Jays in the middle of an at-bat due to forearm discomfort. Yikes.

More News
Deshaun Watson was booed in his first appearance in front of Browns home fans since they cheered his being carted off with a torn Achilles in October 2024. Afterward he said the boos were “disrespectful.”
Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz are teaming up for mixed doubles at the U.S. Open, where Novak Djokovic and women’s No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka are a team, too. Doubles hasn’t been Alcaraz’s thing, but it’s still fun.
We were somewhat close to witnessing a double cycle, with Reds outfielder JJ Bleday accomplishing the feat as teammate Elly De La Cruz fell a triple short.
Kade Anderson was solid in his highly anticipated debut for the Mariners, giving up three runs in 5 2/3 innings before Seattle walked off the Cubs.
The Bills announced that DT Ed Oliver is mourning the death of his 2-year-old son in what a medical examiner’s report describes as an accidental drowning. Awful.
Alabama named its starting quarterback, opting for high-upside sophomore Keelon Russell. More on him here.
A 55-year-old Jeff Gordon won his first individual race in 10 years. “The dog has still got some bite in him,” said Kurt Busch.
Boxer Zolani Tete, a two-time champion who holds the record for fastest knockout in a world title fight, was shot dead by masked gunmen outside his South Africa home.
More weirdness in the Ketel Marte situation as the Diamondbacks slugger was seen gambling at a local casino Friday while his teammates played across town. Manager Torey Lovullo: “It’s not a choice I would make.”

📰 Find more news here 24/7.

Golazo: Goal of the season contender

Even with a whole season yet to be played, this backheel volley from Bristol City newcomer Dom Ballard is going to be hard to beat for next year’s FIFA Puskás Award, given to the (male) player with the most beautiful goal:

Like … what on earth? That’s stupid. Main things going against it Puskás-wise: It’s the English second division, and one wishes for a better replay angle.

Watch Guide

📺 EPL: Newcastle United vs. Liverpool
11:30 a.m. ET on USA
The Premier League’s opening weekend continues. Our writers project Liverpool will sit right on the edge of the Champions League and Newcastle will be midtable. More here.

đź“ş WNBA: Fever at Sky
7 p.m. ET on NBC
The second game of a back-to-back for Indiana, which lost to the Liberty last night.

đź“ş NFL: Seahawks at Titans
8 p.m. ET on Fox
Football on a Sunday? What will they think of next? (This is today’s one preseason game.)

Get tickets to games like this here.

Pulse Picks

Luke Hales / Getty Images

Most-shared stories on The Athletic last week:

Lakers sold to Bob Iger, Joshua Kushner, one year after Mark Walter bought team
An Arkansas football player practiced with a snake in his helmet. He found out later.
A playboy NFL agent was in line to run the Seahawks. Then came the crossbow killing.
“It was a bit surreal”: When World Cup star Olise joined a New York pick-up game … in socks
Exclusive: Spending a day with Bears coach Ben Johnson at training camp

🎧 The latest “Starkville” episode featured a great conversation between our Jayson Stark and beloved Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow, who’s retiring after 36 seasons in San Francisco’s booth. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

We ranked the best college football programs without a national title in the past 50 years.

After taste-testing more than a dozen kinds of frozen waffles, my fellow kitchen experts at Wirecutter and I found four toaster-ready winners worthy of soaking in syrup, slathering in butter and sprinkling with cinnamon sugar. Spoiler: None of them are Eggo. — Ciara Murray Jordan

The perplexing times continue for eligibility in college sports. Think you’ve got it all figured out? Try our quiz.

I love a Honey Deuce, but I might love a Melon Ace more. The signature cocktail at the Canadian Open, the Melon Ace has an official recipe, but just blend watermelon, lime juice and sugar, then add vodka. Garnish with three green grapes on a skewer and a sprig of mint. Enjoy with live tennis. — Alex Iniguez

A story that almost feels too good to be true: A dad caught his son’s first professional home run after calling his shot.

My friend Chelsea Brasted wrote a book about the food history of New Orleans as told through the lens of its chefs, bartenders and creatives. You should buy it to both read and make your coffee table look cool afterward. — Chris Branch

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: The Athletic’s quiz to choose your favorite Premier League team.

📫 That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic.com, and check out our other newsletters.