MLB Bullets Still Has No Games To Talk About

This is awkward. They're haven't been any games since the last MLB Bullets, so the pickings on stories is slim. In the absence of major league games, I started watching Orange Is The New Black and I'm halfway through it and I'm only now realizing that it's not about the Giants new alternate uniforms. I mean, she could have gone to prison for those, couldn't she?

• The only real news has been the trade market, and the news there is . . . that there is no news. Maybe there will be by the time you read this. But one rumored trade, Tim Lincecum to the Tigers who would then make him their closer, is "far-fetched" according to people who've talked to Jon Heyman. But the the Tigers are not on Lincecum's no-trade list.
• Mike Axisa makes a strong case that the White Sox should trade Chris Sale.
• The Twins are looking to move Justin Morneau, but so far, no one is interested. And the Twins aren't interested in dealing Glen Perkins. Which makes so much sense coming from a team that held on to Joe Nathan too long.
• John Erardi of the Cincinnati Enquirer thinks the Reds should use Aroldis Chapman as trade bait, in particular for Giancarlo Stanton. Or maybe he just really wanted to write a story with the headline of "Cuban Missile Crisis."
• On Monday, Alex Rodriguez will take the field for the New York Yankees, assuming nothing goes wrong before then.
• Paul Hoynes of the Plain-Dealer says the Indians need to overcome their inconsistency issues if they want to contend in the second half. He doesn't really have a solution other than play better, get healthy and trade for some pitching.
• The Nationals disappointing first half means they have a lot of work to do in the second half and they know it.
• The Mets and the Yankees both have big decisions to make, according to Andrew Keh of the New York Times. The Yankees need to trade for help soon because they start a ten game stretch against contenders. For the Mets, it's a matter of who they can trade away without sabotaging the progress they've made lately.
• The fates of Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik and manager Eric Wedge are at stake in the last 67 games of the season. John McGrath puts out the pros and cons of firing each one.
• Carlos Beltran says he wants to play three more seasons. He admits that he thinks about getting into Cooperstown, and I'd guess the extra seasons wouldn't hurt his case. That would probably get him to 400 home runs and 2500 hits.
• The future is now for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• A Cuban pitcher defected in Des Moines, where Team Cuba lost the first game of the five-game "Friendship Series" against Team USA in 11 innings.
• People have been asking me if the Cubs are going to sign Misael Siverio, and I have no idea. I have no idea if he's even a prospect, although his listed height of 5'9" makes me dubious of his chances. But his former manager, Victor Mesa, doesn't have a very high opinion of him, at least publicly. He says he's a Double-A or Triple-A talent and that he was only on the team because he was their only left-hander.
• Matt Kemp bought a pair of $250 headphones for each and every one of his teammates. Sure, dropping that kind of money for Kemp is like me buying pizza for a classroom of kids, but it's the thought that counts. It's still a nice gesture. I also wonder if he got them in bulk from Costco.
• Michael Weiner of the MLBPA says the union will not protect players with "overwhelming evidence" against them in the Biogenesis scandal. I do suspect that the MLBPA's definition of "overwhelming evidence" does not match up with Bud Selig's, however.
• A study says 124 current major league pitchers have undergone Tommy John surgery. That's about one in three.
• There's also a disturbing pattern of brain cancer among players who played for the Phillies in Veterans Stadium. However, with the small sample size, it might just be a random fluctuation.
• I'm really enjoying the Diamondbacks new broadcast team of Steve Berthiaume and Bob Brenly. But over on the Spanish language side, the trend of Diamondbacks announcers getting into trouble with the law continues.
• Miami Dolphins CEO Mike Dee has left the team to take the same position with the Padres. Score one for MLB.
• Bud Selig says the attendance issues in Tampa Bay are "not okay" and the situation is "economically not tolerable." He'll take care of that right after he takes care of the Athletics situation.
• Jair Jurrjens elects free agency over going to the minors.
• Finally, Rob Neyer doesn't like Citi Field. That's too simple, but he doesn't like the philosophy behind it--that it's more designed to get you to look at ads than baseball games.

And tomorrow will be a better day that today, Buster. We'll be playing games again.