Test match batting is in decline. Those are the words of India's captain Virat Kohli in an age when pitches have become result-oriented and bowlers have raised their game several-fold.

In just the last two years, various teams have suffered outrageous collapses. England were knocked over for 58 by New Zealand's swing and seam. New Zealand were sucker punched from 61 for 1 to 90 all out by Pakistan's spin. India themselves were brushed aside on a lush green pitch at Lord's, making only 107 after promising so much more during their tour of England in 2018.

Pitched a question by Ian Bishop during Cricket West Indies' awards night about whether modern-day batsmen are doing enough, Kohli replied: "Well, if I have to be brutally honest, I don't think us batsmen have lived up to the standard. We have travelled a lot over the past year and a half and it's been challenging. We lost in England but won in Australia because the batsmen pulled up."

"People have been talking about Test cricket not being relevant or dying down but for me the competition has gone up at least two-fold over the last couple of years" Virat Kohli

That was when Cheteshwar Pujara, the team's mainstay at No. 3, had the series of his life, scoring 521 runs in seven innings, including three centuries, against a bowling attack that featured Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.

"As much as individuals standout," Kohli said, "I think it's about batting well as a team and every team wants to put up a strong total on the board for the bowlers to come in and capitalise."

Meanwhile, West Indies captain Jason Holder hoped he and his fast bowling team-mates could continue the good work shown during their last Test series, a 2-1 victory over England in February 2019.

"I think over the last two-three years, our fast bowlers have really led us. They've done everything I can ask of them, particularly Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel, who have probably led our bowling attack for the last two-three years. It's just a matter for them to stay hungry and stay fit and I think they've set a really good example for the other fast bowlers to follow.

"We've had young Alzarri Joseph playing in the last series. Unfortunately he got injured, but even he came into his own and really showed some promising signs as a very very young fast bowler. You know, I had an interesting conversation with a few other team-mates before about how impressive he was and the maturity he showed in that series and I think it's all due to the fact that people like Kemar and Shannon have been really leading the way for them, nurturing them in their journey in Test cricket. So once we continue to build as a side and players get more confidence and obviously the experience of playing Test cricket, then we can probably keep rising and go up the rankings."

Kohli responded with the batsman's perspective, saying there were tough times ahead. Case in point is the ongoing Ashes series, which has shown that bowlers who are still very early in their careers have mad skills. Twenty-four-year old Jofra Archer looks every bit the leader of England's attack after only one Test while on the opposite side 26-year old Pat Cummins is ranked No. 1 with 914 rating points. Only four other men in the history of Test cricket have managed to accrue more.

"As you rightly said the bowlers have really come into their own," Kohli said. "And as Jason mentioned their bowling attack is as lethal as anyone's in home conditions. So we know we're up against a big challenge here in red-ball cricket. It's always going to be hard work, especially in Test cricket, when the bowling group knows what they're doing and that happens to be the case with all teams around the world.

"People have been talking about Test cricket not being relevant or dying down but for me the competition has gone up at least two-fold over the last couple of years. It's really up to the players to take the challenge up and go for victories. That's obviously going to be the essence of this Test championship as well. There'll hardly be any boring draws, there'll be exciting draws because everyone is gonna want those extra points. So yeah, I think batsmanship is always going to be hard at Test level but even harder now in the Test championship because every decision is going to count in the larger scheme of things."

Australia's coach Justin Langer insists his team will refuse to allow themselves to be drawn into a battle of fire-and-brimstone pace for the Ashes in the wake of Jofra Archer's trail of destruction at Lord's, forcing Steven Smith out of the Headingley Test with concussion and generally shaking up the touring batsmen in ways they had not fully expected prior to the series.

Langer's words underlined how deeply Australia have committed to a blueprint for winning the urn in England for the first time since 2001, and also suggested that Mitchell Starc's fiery spell in the nets at Leeds, clean bowling David Warner and then striking Marnus Labuschagne in the helmet grill after the fashion of Archer on the final day at Lord's, would not push him ahead of James Pattinson in the queue of fast men to refresh the touring attack.

At the same time it also offered the possibility of retention for Cameron Bancroft as Warner's partner, with Labuschagne's fully fledged inclusion the only change to the batting line-up. "We know what our plans are to beat England. What we're not going to do is get caught up in an emotional battle of who's going to bowl the quickest bouncers," Langer said. "We're here to win the Test match, not to see how many helmets we can hit. And that's the truth, we are literally here to win the Test match and we have our plans on how we think we can beat England.

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"Mike Atherton said a really interesting thing to me the other day: 'It seems a really different Australian team, in the past you puff your chests out, you grow your beards and you're all tough and see if you can bowl as fast as you want. This isn't as macho as before.' We're here to win the Test match, not to see how many bruises we can give, that's not winning Test matches, trust me, you can't get out with a bruise on your arm.

"So we'll pick the team we think will win it, this is a different ground, we think the wicket will be quite slow, it's not going to be as fast as some of the other wickets we've seen, my understanding of everything we've been told about playing here. So I'm sure the bouncer will still be part of every bowler's armoury, if it helps us get batsmen out then we'll use it, otherwise we'll keep sticking to the plan."

One of the hardest things for a touring team to do in an Ashes series is to stay the course of whatever plans had been set, in the face of on-field pressures, internal demons and the unrivalled level of outside "noise" emanating from former players, media and the public. "We keep talking about it ... you've got to play on skill, not emotion,' Langer said. "And it's hard for young players, even senior players.

"You can get caught up in the atmosphere, you can get caught up in the contest. But it's not an ego game - you've got to just keep trusting your skill, keep watching the ball like a hawk. I keep saying simplify as much as possible so we're winning on skill not emotion. But it is a challenge. That's the challenge of mental toughness, that's the challenge of concentration, that's the challenge of what the champion players do over the good players. The only way you get better at it is by being exposed to it and I'm sure we'll be exposed to it this series."

That being said, Langer did concede that Archer's pace had made a difference to the series in that it now meant Australia's batsmen in particular would need to, at times, fall back on the lessons learned from playing many matches against fast bowlers on bouncy pitches back home, as opposed to the seam and swing challenges billed before the series as being the touring team's biggest obstacle to success.

"Our guys play a lot of short-ball cricket in Australia. We tend to play on bouncy wickets. We play on the WACA, we play on the Gabba," Langer said. "So they're used to playing off the back foot, and I'm sure they'll prepare accordingly. England will be the same, I'm sure they've got plans how they'll get our batsmen out, not just knock them out, so they're working hard on it. We know Jofra's a very good bowler, we saw what he can do the other day.

"We know Stuart Broad's a brilliant bowler, we know Chris Woakes is really hard work, we've seen how Stokes comes in and runs in with that energy and passion every time he plays, so we know we're up against it, and we're really going to be ready for that. We have to be, otherwise we won't win the series. We're expecting James Anderson to swing the ball, seam the ball and we're going to have to be really tight in our defence.

"He [Archer] certainly brings a different dimension to the game and we saw he bowled quick, but also his economy rate was incredible, I think he went for just over one run an over, that is unbelievable bowling, it's skilful bowling and he bowled some fast bouncers in between. That's Test cricket, that's what we love about it, that's what gets you, you know you're awake, you know you're alive when you're facing fast bowling. That's what Test cricket's all about, it's bloody brilliant."

The other significant change to the series at Lord's was the inclusion of Jack Leach as England's spin bowler, with his resultant combination of economy and wickets allowing Joe Root to turn up the pressure on the Australians to a huge degree. Moeen Ali's eclipse by Nathan Lyon had given Australia a marked advantage both batting and in the field, but Leach's Lord's effort meant that Lyon was outbowled by an England spinner for a rare occasion since the retirement of Graeme Swann.

"He gives them another dimension, England, with a specialist bowler," Langer said of Leach. "I mentioned before the second Test match I thought the Lord's wicket looked very dry. I think this will be similar actually. With the footmarks that will come at our left-handers they're going to have to be on top of their game. Again, like facing Jofra's bouncers, we're going to have to have a really good plan of how we're going to face him bowling out of the rough. That's all part of the test of playing Test match cricket."

Mark Robinson is to leave his role as head coach of England women's team. Robinson oversaw England's victory in the 2017 World Cup but has subsequently seen his side overwhelmed by Australia in the Ashes amid criticism that few young players have established themselves in the side.

Appointed in late 2015, Robinson created waves with his decision to drop Charlotte Edwards, his side's captain and senior player, after a disappointing showing in the 2016 World T20. But when his new appointment, Heather Knight, led the side to victory at Lord's in 2017, it seemed English cricket could be at the start of a bright new era.

It was not to be. A lack of depth in the game and improvements in the development programmes of other nations saw England's results falter, with a 12-4 defeat to Australia this summer suggesting a chasm had grown between the sides. Like many coaches before him, Robinson has found that Ashes failure will not be tolerated. England are currently third in the ODI rankings and second in the T20I rankings.

"Mark can reflect on his time as England coach with a great deal of pride," Clare Connor, the ECB's managing director of women's cricket, said. "Winning the Women's World Cup in 2017 in front of a packed Lord's was a landmark moment for the whole game and his leadership and professionalism were an integral part of our success.

"He drove high standards across young players to become the best team in the world as well as coaching them to understand the demands of professional sport.

"Mark passionately championed the development of the women's game during his time in this role and we thank him for all he has contributed to England women's cricket during such an exciting stage of our journey. However, after discussions with Mark, we have agreed that now is the right time for him to step down as England Women's Head Coach.

"It is important that we give Mark's successor time to shape the team's future direction and to begin to develop strong relationships with the players as we plan for the next phase of our international calendar."

Assistant coach, Alastair Maiden, will take temporary charge of the team, whose next commitment is an ICC Women's Championship series against Pakistan in December. The first task for Robinson's successor will be to oversee England's campaign at the 2020 Women's World T20, taking place in Australia early next year.

"Although the recent Ashes was a difficult series, a few hard weeks doesn't take anything away from what has been a wonderful four years," Robinson said. "I've had so many highlights and memorable moments with the team.

"Nothing could ever surpass winning the Women's World Cup on home soil, but from a pure coaching perspective, reaching the T20 final last November - with a depleted team, three non-contracted players and three players twenty years old or younger - is a huge personal highlight.

"It's been exciting to watch so many players grow and to watch so many records broken, but it feels the right time for me to take on a new challenge and to allow a different voice to come in before the next T20 World Cup in Australia. We have put a lot of groundwork in place, and this, coupled with the new investment into the women's game will make a huge difference in time.

"I would like to thank everyone associated with England Women for all the kindness and support they have shown me and wish Heather and the team all the best for the future."

Worcestershire 186 (Leach 53*, Hutton 6 for 57) and 48 for 4 (Sanderson 4 for 13) trail Northamptonshire 376 (Wakely 102, Pretorius 111) by 148 runs

Moeen Ali resorted to bowling two overs of medium pace as he endured a difficult return to first-class cricket following his omission from England's Ashes squad.

After a torrid Test match at Edgbaston, Moeen took a "short break" from cricket - which lasted all of two Vitality Blast matches - having been left out of England's squad for Lord's.

He bowled 39.1 overs, but only managed three tail-end wickets against Northamptonshire, and surprised many by bowling two overs of seam-up swing bowling with the wicketkeeper standing back shortly before tea.

As Moeen struggled, centuries from Dwaine Pretorius and Alex Wakely and an irresistible new ball spell from Ben Sanderson set Northamptonshire firmly on course for victory.

Pretorius made 111 on his Championship debut and Wakely 102 - his first hundred of the summer - to help Northants take a first-innings lead of 190 before Sanderson claimed 4 for 13 in nine overs to leave Worcestershire 42 for 4 at the close, trailing by 148.

It was a second dominant day for the home side who ground out 123.1 overs with the bat to make 376 before Sanderson seized his chance with the new ball in 17 overs Worcestershire were left at the end of the day.

He drew edges from Daryl Mitchell to second slip for 4 and from Jack Haynes to the wicketkeeper for 19. Another one nipped away to flick the off stump of Callum Ferguson for a four-ball duck before he brought one back to pin Alex Milton lbw for an eight-ball duck.

It was a wonderful spell of nine overs, five maidens, 4 for 13 which left Worcestershire with much to do to avoid an innings defeat.

Northants' day was set up in the morning session by Wakely and Pretorius, who arrived at the wicket for the start of play after Nathan Buck was removed from the game after being struck on the head on the first evening.

Pretorius got off the mark straight driving Wayne Parnell for four and went back to cut Moeen's first ball of the day past extra-cover. He slog-swept Moeen over midwicket for six but then should have been held on 25 when he lifted the offspinner to mid-off but Joe Leach spilled a straightforward chance.

Moeen then went round the wicket and Pretorius sent him over deep midwicket again and drove him wide of point to put Northants into the lead. A short-arm pull past mid-on for four and a flashing drive through cover point brought him a seventh four an fifty in 67 balls.

Resuming after lunch on 70, Pretorius lustily drove Parnell through cover point and next ball flicked him past midwicket for another boundary. Leach bowled short and wide and was cut hard past extra cover to take Pretorius into the 90s.

A flick against Parnell past mid-on for four brought him closer to three figures, which he reached with a push into midwicket in 136 balls with 14 fours and those two slog-swept sixes against Moeen. He swung Ed Barnard to point soon after, becoming Worcestershire's third wicket with the second new ball.

The first of those was Wakely but only after a hard-earned ninth first-class century.

Wakely resigned the captaincy back in May and has enjoyed some reasonable form since but this was his first major contribution to a Championship match.

Returning on 63, he began his work for day two with a crunching back-foot drive for four off Parnell and two clipped threes through midwicket. An on-drive against Parnell took him past his highest score this season before a nudged single wide of mid-off brought him three figures.

It was a grinding effort on a slow wicket in 233 balls with nine fours and a six and Wakely's delight was obvious. But he could only add one to his lunchtime score before shouldering arms to a Parnell inswinger and losing his off stump.

Adam Rossington also lost his off stump for 1 from a beauty from Leach and after losing Pretorius, Northants got stuck, failing to reach a fourth batting point despite only needing 26 in 11 overs. It was the only disappointing element to their day.

MLS announced on Tuesday that it has awarded an expansion team to the city of St. Louis, swelling the leagues ranks to 28 clubs.

St. Louis' ownership group includes Enterprise Holdings Foundation president Carolyn Kindle Betz and other female members of the Taylor family, making it the first female majority-owned team in MLS history. The investor group is rounded out by World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh, and Enterprise Holdings Executive Chairman Andy Taylor. The team will begin play in 2022 and the process for selecting the team name, badge and colors will begin immediately.

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"It is with great pride that we welcome St. Louis to Major League Soccer," MLS commissioner Don Garber said. "St. Louis is a city with a rich soccer tradition, and it is a market we have considered since the league's inception.

"Our league becomes stronger today with the addition of the city's deeply dedicated soccer fans, and the committed and innovative local ownership group led by Carolyn Kindle Betz, the Taylor family, and Jim Kavanaugh."

The announcement caps a process that amounted to a rollercoaster ride. The St. Louis bid looked dead back in 2017 when a city referendum that would have directed $60 million in new tax proceeds towards the construction of a stadium was defeated by voters. That setback led Paul Edgerley, who headed the investment group at the time, to cease his efforts to bring a team to St. Louis.

But last October, Kindle-Betz and other members of the Taylor Family got on board alongside Kavanaugh, who was part of the previous investor group. Thanks to a willingness to fund stadium construction almost entirely with private funds, and with a site located in the Downtown West district, St. Louis was back in the game. MLS announced in April that it had entered exclusive negotiations with St. Louis, and following a series of presentations, the last of which came three weeks ago at the MLS All-Star Game in Orlando, the decision was made to bring the Gateway City into the MLS fold.

"Our ownership group has come a long way since we first announced our bid last October at Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club, and it's an incredible feeling to now be able to say, St. Louis is home to the first official majority female-led ownership group in MLS," Kindle Betz said. "Our MLS team and stadium will only add to St. Louis' renaissance currently underway and will provide us with a great opportunity to bring together many different segments of the community, uniting people in their love for the game."

The stadium is part of a major development project, which will include mixed-use retail and restaurants. According to the ownership group, no Tax Increment Financing (TIF) or any direct citywide tax investment will be needed to finance the stadium project. The stadium proposal specifies that only those purchasing tickets and items at the stadium will be paying any tax. The team will pay for all stadium maintenance, repair and upkeep.

MLS has long desired to have a team in St. Louis, given the sport's long history in the Gateway City. Five of the 11 players that defeated England at the 1950 World Cup were from St. Louis, and the city has produced 29 players and coaches who have been inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

The area's youth programs have helped develop several players into professionals, including MLS players Will Bruin (Seattle Sounders) and Joe Willis (Houston Dynamo), Tim Ream (Fulham) of the English Championship, rising star Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen) of the Bundesliga, and Becky Sauerbrunn (Utah Royals) of the NWSL and the FIFA World Cup champion with the U.S. Women's National Team.

In addition, many former MLS players are from St. Louis, including Taylor Twellman, Brad Davis, Chris Klein and Steve Ralston.

Include Baker Mayfield as another person surprised by the New York Giants' decision to draft quarterback Daniel Jones earlier this year.

"Blows my mind," the Cleveland Browns quarterback told GQ in a wide-ranging interview released Tuesday. "Some people overthink it. That's where people go wrong. They forget you've gotta win."

Jones finished with a 17-19 record at Duke before the Giants made him the No. 6 overall pick.

Mayfield wasn't the consensus No. 1 overall quarterback prospect before the 2018 draft despite going 34-6 at Oklahoma. But he was at the top of the Browns' draft chart as they selected him No. 1 overall and watched him lead the franchise to a 7-8-1 record after going 0-16 the previous season.

"Either you have a history of winning and being that guy for your team or you don't," he told GQ.

Mayfield covered several other topics in the interview, including when he planted the Oklahoma flag at midfield in Ohio Stadium after the Sooners defeated Ohio State in 2017. Mayfield said that the "higher-ups" at OU asking him to apologize for it was "just jaw-dropping" to him.

"Actually we won. That's what we're about. I had done so much and worked so hard to play for that school, I was just kinda ... almost embarrassed for them to tell me to apologize," said Mayfield, who, when asked how heartfelt that apology actually was on a scale of 1 to 10, replied, "zero."

"Which might hurt some Ohio fans' feelings," he added. "But I think we're all good now."

Mayfield wasn't the only Browns player to criticize the Giants in a story published Tuesday.

Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who has been outspoken about the Giants since they traded him to the Browns in March, told Sports Illustrated that he believes the trade was "personal." Beckham told the magazine that he believes the Giants had better offers from other teams but traded him to the Browns hoping to stifle his career.

"This wasn't no business move. This was personal. They thought they'd send me here to die," he said.

The Giants declined to comment when contacted by SI about Beckham's remarks.

In the aftermath of DeMarcus Cousins' knee injury, the Los Angeles Lakers are bringing in two former All-Star centers -- Joakim Noah and Dwight Howard -- to evaluate in individual workouts in Los Angeles, league sources told ESPN on Tuesday.

The workouts will also include veteran Mo Speights, league sources said.

Another center under consideration, per sources: Marcin Gortat, who is currently overseas in Europe.

Howard is under contract with the Memphis Grizzlies, but the team has given him permission to explore opportunities elsewhere in the NBA. He has a $5.6 million expiring contract that could be useful as a trade asset, or he could work out a contract buyout with the Grizzlies. It is unlikely that he will play a game for the franchise, league sources said.

Cousins suffered a torn left ACL in a workout last week, likely leaving the Lakers without him for the duration of his one-year, $3.5 million deal with the franchise.

The Lakers have JaVale McGee and will try to cobble together a center rotation that will include Anthony Davis, with the organization still preferring that he play a majority of his minutes at power forward and not center.

ATLANTA -- Braves reliever Jacob Webb is likely done for the season after being placed on the 60-day injured list with an ailing right elbow.

Webb, 26, had been one of the most effective pitchers in Atlanta's bullpen, with a 4-0 record, 2 saves and a 1.39 ERA in 36 appearances. But he had not pitched in the big leagues since going on the 10-day IL with an elbow impingement July 13.

Webb began a rehab assignment at Triple-A Gwinnett on July 31, but he struggled in 10 appearances, posting a 6.97 ERA.

He was recalled from Gwinnett and shifted to the 60-day IL to make room on the 40-man roster for outfielder Billy Hamilton, who was claimed off waivers Monday from Kansas City.

The New York Yankees have become the latest team to attempt to revive the career of reliever Trevor Rosenthal, reaching a minor league deal with the former All-Star, sources told ESPN's Buster Olney, confirming multiple reports.

After missing all of last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, Rosenthal signed a deal with the Nationals that could have been worth up to $30 million over two years.

But Rosenthal struggled with Washington, going 0-1 with a 22.74 ERA in 12 games before being released on June 23. The right-hander joined the Tigers six days later on a minor league deal and returned to the majors with Detroit on July 15.

Rosenthal also struggled with the Tigers, however, posting a 7.00 ERA in 10 appearances before being released Aug. 11. He has allowed 23 earned runs, 11 hits and 26 walks in 15 1/3 innings combined this season with Washington and Detroit.

The 29-year-old had 121 saves in six seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals from 2012 to 2017 and was an All-Star in 2015. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017.

Rosenthal is the latest veteran reliever added after the July 31 trade deadline by the Yankees, who also have signed right-hander David Hernandez and claimed right-hander Ryan Dull off waivers from the Giants in the past week.

The incredible story of the 2019 Yankees has been told and retold, because it just keeps happening: A star-laden roster that was projected, before Opening Day, to win as many as 100 games has seen star after star get injured, yet has somehow gotten better.

Injuries hit early and often and to many of the best players. At various points this season, they've set records for most players unavailable at one time, as well as best players unavailable at one time (as measured by previous season's WAR on the injured list). They've spent more money on injured players this year than the Rays have spent on players, by some accounting. When star players have returned from rehab, others have promptly replaced them. That was true in April, in May, in June and in July, and it's true today: This month, they've activated Gary Sanchez and Brett Gardner, while losing Edwin Encarnacion and Aaron Hicks. There are 16 players currently injured, including the first-, second- and third-string first basemen. And the Yankees are on pace to win 107 games.

Undeniably, this has been a triumphant season for the Yankees organization as a whole. That's the plot. What's the theme, though? Is this incredible story one of depth -- a roster Brian Cashman & Co. built before the season that was astoundingly deep and able to win a war of attrition? Or is it one of surprise, of overachievement, of player development -- a roster of nobodies who became heroes when the moment called upon them?

To answer that, let's spin the dial back four months and consider what the Yankees' preseason previews would have looked like if we'd gotten the playing time estimates exactly right.

Here is a list that we'll be referring back to as we go. The first number for each position is Projected WAR followed by Projected WAR, If We'd Known and Actual WAR (prorated):

• Catcher: 2.8 | 3.7 | 2.5

• First base: 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.9

• Second base: 3.1 | 1.2 | 3.7

• Shortstop: 2.0 | 3.3 | 4.1

• Third base: 2.2 | 1.1 | 5.8

• Left field: 2.6 | 1.8 | 6.2

• Center field: 4.0 | 3.1 | 4.3

• Right field: 5.3 | 3.9 | 3.0

• DH: 2.7 | 0.5 | 1.1

Projected WAR is what the ZiPS projection system forecast for the Yankees at each position, given the best estimates at the time of Yankees playing time. For example, at left field the Yankees projected to produce 2.6 wins. That was assuming Gardner would play around three-quarters of the time and Giancarlo Stanton would play one-quarter (while spending most of his time at DH).

Projected WAR, If We'd Known is what the projection would have been had ZiPS known with perfect accuracy who would actually play, and how much. (But not knowing how well they'd play; you can't predict baseball.) The If We'd Known projection for left field would include some Gardner -- he has played about a third of the Yankees' games there -- and almost no Stanton. It would also include weighted shares of the projections for Mike Tauchman, Clint Frazier and Cameron Maybin, who have collectively started most of the Yankees' games in left, but who projected to be not great.

Actual WAR is what the Yankees have actually gotten at each position. Which, for left field, has been both expectedly (because we figured it would be Gardner and Stanton) and unexpectedly (because we didn't figure it'd be Maybin/Tauchman/Frazier) great:

• Frazier, as LF: .390/.409/.732

• Tauchman, as LF: .298/.378/.626

• Maybin, as LF: .337/.413/.500

So in the case of left field, we get:

Step 1: The Yankees project to be pretty good (2.6 WAR). Step 2: The Yankees get hurt, and project to be worse -- but not too bad (1.8 WAR). They had pretty good depth there. Step 3: The replacements end up being way better than expected, and in fact considerably better than even the original plan (6.2 WAR). The replacements got better as ballplayers, and they overachieved.

There are nine positions on the offensive side. In three of these, the Yankees' projections would have either stayed about the same or gotten better had we known how playing time would really be distributed.

At first base, this is a testament to their depth: They went into the season with two seemingly qualified first basemen fighting for playing time (and, indeed, each homered on Opening Day). When Greg Bird was injured in mid-April, it didn't hurt the collective projection. And with Luke Voit having mostly escaped the carnage this year -- although he's on the IL now with a sports hernia -- the Yankees have been about as good as expected.

At catcher, this is a testament to their depth and the lack of any real surprises. Sanchez has twice gone on the IL, but for short stints, and he'll actually play a little bit more this year than ZiPS had projected. His backup (Austin Romine), meanwhile, is one of the best backups in baseball. Together (and individually), they've done about what would have been expected of them.

At shortstop, this is a testament to overall infield depth. ZiPS didn't think Troy Tulowitzki would be very good but did think he'd play until Didi Gregorius returned midseason from Tommy John surgery. When Tulowitzki was injured a week into the season, Gleyber Torres -- who projected to be much better than Tulowitzki, but as the second baseman -- moved over, actually boosting the shortstop projection (but weakening the second base projection). This was possible because the Yankees had a very qualified major league starter in DJ LeMahieu as a backup infielder; and because they had a second baseman (Torres) who could capably move up the defensive spectrum.

So those are three positions where things went either as expected or where injuries weren't too frequent or too harmful. Everywhere else has been gutted ... and, yet, everywhere else (other than DH) has ended up actually better than the pre-gutting expectations:

At second base, LeMahieu mostly took over in the first half, with Torres having gone to shortstop. LeMahieu, who began the year as a superutility backup, projected to be about three-quarters as good as Torres.

At third base, Gio Urshela mostly took over when Miguel Andujar was hurt on March 31, and then when he was hurt for good on May 12. Urshela, who began the year in Triple-A, projected to be about 40% as good as Andujar.

In center field, Gardner frequently slid over from left field to replace Hicks, who has missed 63 days. Gardner projected to be about half as good as Hicks. More important, when he was playing center field, the Yankees had to backfill left field.

In left field, the aforementioned combo of Frazier, Maybin and Tauchman took over for Gardner. Tauchman and Frazier both had fairly strong projections, at least relative to Gardner, and the trio collectively projected to be about 90% as good as Gardner.

The drop-off was larger in right field, where Frazier, Maybin and Tauchman also filled in for Aaron Judge, who missed 62 days. The trio collectively projected to be about one-third as valuable as Judge.

And at DH, they neither had a great replacement for Stanton nor had anybody (including trade acquisition Encarnacion, who was injured early this month) overperform.

One could applaud the Yankees for their depth: LeMahieu and Frazier would have slotted in as starters on many teams' rosters this spring, and Tauchman's projections suggested he could have, too. The Yankees could have been caught completely flat-footed at four positions -- center field, right field, third base and second base -- but they had credible (if seemingly inferior) replacements at three of them. That's pretty good depth.

At the same time, Urshela and Maybin were more desperation plays -- Maybin having been "purchased" in April from Cleveland, Urshela a seeming afterthought who had been "purchased" last summer. You wouldn't have called either one of them depth, knowing what you knew at the time. Every team has random names ready to replicate replacement level, or whom they pick up for almost nothing when everybody gets hurt.

But the names we just put in bold -- the primary replacements -- share something in common: They've all performed far, far better than expected. Pretty much every player who had to take on a bigger role because of injuries has outperformed expectations:

LeMahieu

• Projected .274/.332/.393, 2.6 WAR

• Actual .338/.386/.538, 4.7 WAR

Urshela

• Projected .243/.280/.349, 0.5 WAR

• Actual .338/.379/.580, 3.1 WAR

Tauchman

• Projected .281/.344/.438, 1.9 WAR

• Actual .290/.372/.551, 2.4 WAR

Maybin

• Projected .255/.329/.368, 0.8 WAR

• Actual .309/.391/.522, 1.4 WAR

Gardner

• Projected .246/.333/.380, 1.8 WAR

• Actual .251/.333/.478, 2.8 WAR

Torres, who was pushed into a bigger role by Tulowitzki's injury, also outperformed his projections. Frazier outhit his, although he also got injured, his defense wasn't very good and he has since spent about half the season in Triple-A.

The pitching staff hasn't been so blessed. Their pitchers have collectively underperformed preseason projections, even accounting for injuries:

• Pitchers: 24.5 (Projected WAR) | 20.7 (If We'd Known) | 17.5 (Actual WAR)

But their dominant bullpen has been both mostly healthy -- with the exception of Dellin Betances -- and fantastic, with the most relief WAR in baseball. As a pitching staff they have the highest "clutch" score in the AL, which for team pitching mostly reflects the ability to successfully leverage the best pitchers in the biggest situations (and to pitch well in those situations).

So to add it all up: Had we known before the season exactly how much playing time the Yankees would distribute to the Urshelas and Tauchmans and Mike Fords and Thairo Estradas and the rest, ZiPS would have projected the Yankees to win somewhere around 84 games -- around where the A's, the Rays and the Twins were before the season. The Yankees' front office built a team that, even with $60 million to $80 million of talent on the IL, projected to be a competitive team in the American League. If you told almost any other team in baseball that a dozen high-impact players would miss a couple thousand games, they would probably conclude they had no chance; they might conclude they were better off using the season to rebuild. The Yankees, though, were still, even on paper, contenders. What an incredible roster.

But ultimately, the bigger story is less the depth than the projection-busting performances. The Yankees will outperform their "true" projection by 15 to 20 games this year. That's incredible. Only the Twins will compare for unexpectedness.

There have been a lot of great Yankees teams in our lifetimes. There's sometimes a tendency to think about great Yankees teams as "because they're so rich" or "because they're so smart." The homegrown 1990s Yankees get more credit for smart, and the purchased early-2000s Yankees are dismissed a bit as just rich. If these Yankees were able to withstand injuries without wavering merely because of depth -- if they'd signed every player in baseball, as that old Onion article proposed -- then maybe we'd talk about the advantage of playing in a big market.

What actually happened is more like what we typically file under "because they're smart." They identified players who were about to dramatically outperform expectations, perhaps, or they developed new skills, swings and approaches to help those players dramatically outperform expectations, or they set up a culture and environment where players would flourish. Of course, that's because they're rich, too: Few teams have bigger staffs, a larger analytics department and more tools to help their players (along with $24 million to spend on a seemingly redundant infielder like LeMahieu).

But none of this happens by accident. As Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik write in "The MVP Machine":

Between the springs of 2011 and 2018, the average size of the staffs assigned to player development by MLB teams increased by 51%, from an average of 51 in 2011 to an average of 77 in 2018. (The deep-pocketed Yankees led all teams in 2018 with 102 PD personnel.)

And, they continue,

Some of the early practitioners of progressive development were also the teams with the greatest resources, including MLB's bicoastal behemoths, the Yankees and Dodgers.

In other words: It's a lot easier to be smart when you're rich. If you resent the Yankees for their constant financial advantage over your favorite team, by all means, indulge that. But ultimately, this Yankees story really is what you thought it was: A bunch of second-stringers, some pretty good, some just OK, some barely hanging on in the sport, got their chance to save the most first-string franchise in baseball -- and they did it! They made themselves better, and they became heroes. Really, what could be a cooler story than that?