It was the moment I had been waiting for all week.

Sure, it took a little longer than I wanted, but that didn’t detract from the wonderful experience of seeing it live.

Aaron Judge reached his 300th^th Career home run last night.

The New York Yankees led the Chicago White Sox 6-2 in the eighth inning, but Judge sealed the victory with a three-run shot and put the game out of reach.

The third time around, it worked for those of us who paired Judge in a same-game parlay for all three games in Chicago so that he hit a home run with the Yankees’ run line.

Even though the wait was longer than any of us really wanted, Judge still reached 300 home runs faster than any other player in MLB history.

In fact, it wasn’t particularly close, as he beat the previous record by 127 games.

That is a remarkable number.

Judge was also the seventh different player to hit 300 home runs for the Yankees, joining Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Alex Rodriguez.

The FanDuel favorite for AL MVP is on pace to hit 57 home runs this season, which would mark the third time in his career that he has hit at least 50 home runs in a season.

In addition to being the major league’s home run and RBI leader, Judge ranks second in all of baseball in batting average.

It should come as no surprise that the Yankees’ star hitter drops to -1100 on FanDuel and becomes AL MVP.

With the MLB postseason just around the corner, I’m excited to see how far Judge and Juan Soto can ultimately wear the pinstripes.

This is the morning coffee for Thursday, August 15^th2024.

Preseason setbacks reinforce doubts about the Vikings’ playoff potential

The Minnesota Vikings debuted on FanDuel as the fourth pick to win the NFC North.

Since then, nothing has happened to suggest that they will finish ahead of the Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers or Chicago Bears in their division this season.

On Wednesday, the situation in Minnesota got even worse.

Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell announced that rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy will miss the entire 2024 season after undergoing a full meniscus repair in his right knee.

Initially it was hoped that the injury was not serious enough to keep him out for the entire year, but surgery revealed that a full repair was necessary.

Veteran Sam Darnold was always expected to start for Minnesota, but with Nick Mullens as his backup, the team is brutally loaded at that position.

As if McCarthy’s injury wasn’t bad enough, wide receiver Jordan Addison had to be carried off the field during practice after injuring his ankle.

Fortunately, the injury does not seem to be as bad as it first appeared.

With Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, the Vikings have a solid pair of starting receivers.

However, the squad strength is questionable, as Jalen Nailor and Trent Sherfield Sr. are next in line to play at that position, which could become a problem if Jefferson or Addison were to be out for an extended period of time.

At full strength, an offense with Darnold, Jefferson, Addison, running back Aaron Jones and tight end TJ Hockenson looks pretty good on paper.

For the Vikings to remain competitive in the NFC North, all of these key players must stay healthy.

They have already suffered some important losses on both sides of the football.

In short, Minnesota cannot afford any more injuries.

The Vikings are the sixth pick and finish the season with the worst record in the NFL (+1200).

However, their schedule is particularly challenging early on, as they face the New York Giants in Week 1. For this reason, Minnesota is the fourth pick to replace the rest of the winless team at +850 odds.

At FanDuel, the odds of the Vikings getting more than 7.5 wins are +134.

Under 7.5 wins is -168.

The possibility of Minnesota finishing with exactly five, exactly six, or exactly seven wins is +600 in FanDuel’s exact win total market.

The odds of the Vikings making the playoffs are +270 at FanDuel.

While I’m not willing to pass them up on the under 7.5 win market at -168, it might be worth betting on them at +850 to be the last remaining winless team in the league.

If they lose to the Giants in Week 1, things could get dicey.

On the other hand, New York is currently at -1.5 for this game, meaning it’s essentially a gamble.

It was a difficult start to the season for Vikings fans.

Unfortunately, the situation in Minnesota may get worse before it improves.

Hopefully the team and its fans can be there until Sunday, September 8th.^th without any further significant injuries.