MLB Bullets Is Going To Need A Hug?

USA! USA! USA!

I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. Probably not as good as Carli Lloyd.

• Here are your All-Star Game starting rosters, or at least the players that won the vote. A few are on the DL currently. But I imagine if you care about the All-Star Game, you probably already know the rosters already. The reserves will be announced today.
• ESPN.com is doing an interesting series on MLB managers. They polled 50 scouts and executives on who they thought was the best manager in baseball. (Hint: He's won 3 of the last 5 World Series) But they also polled on a lot of interesting subcategories as well as asking which manager players most wanted to play for. You probably won't be surprised to know a guy with glasses did well in the player's poll.
• Steve Wulf talks to Bruce Bochy and traces how he became the best manager in baseball. I think it's because he has the biggest head. Literally, not metaphorically.
• Wulf also traces every current manager in baseball back to Ned Hanlon, who managed the Detroit Wolverines (and a couple other teams) in the 1880s. Then to either John McGraw, Connie Mack or Miller Huggins, who all played for Hanlon. A neat managerial family tree.
• Now that we're coming to the All-Star break, it's time to think about the trade deadline. Cliff Corcoran breaks down every American League team into buyers and sellers and examines what they need and what they have available.
• Jon Heyman looks at all the sellers at the trade deadline and proposes trades for each team. I think I might actually approve of his Athletics/Cubs trade proposal.
• Bob Nightengale puts the White Sox in a state of limbo between trading and standing pat. I think they're pretty clearly in the "Trade" group, Bob. Yes, they're "only" 5 1/2 out of a wild card spot, but they've got 8 teams to climb to get there. But he may be right that the White Sox don't think that way.
• Tim Healy does give some reasons for hope to MLB teams who suffered a poor first half.
• Christina Kahrl thinks the Royals should go for broke and acquire Johnny Cueto.
• Jeff Sullivan ranks each major league team by how much they would improve after trading for Cueto. The Royals are near the top of the list.
• The Phillies and Diamondbacks made a trade in which the Phillies got the number one international bonus pool slot for a couple of unexceptional minor league pitchers. Looks like the Phillies are getting smarter and the DBacks are still the DBacks.
• The Yankees made two deals, neither one of which involved major league players changing teams. The Yankees bought Alex Rodriguez's 3000th hit for a charity donation and solved the dispute with A-Rod over his bonus by agreeing to donate the money to charity.
• Rob Neyer tries to answer three questions facing the Yankees going forward this season.
• None of the three are Stephen Drew. Andrew Marchand says the Yankees are keeping Drew on the roster for the lack of any better options.
• Rob Arthur writes that it has been decades since there was so much good young talent in the major leagues as there is this year.
• Alex Goot argues the Mets owners are to blame for their current problems.
• The Dodgers released Brandon League. Rob Neyer says that this further demonstrates that the new Dodgers front office understands the concept of a "sunk cost."
• Miguel Cabrera is going on the DL for the first time in his career.
• Buster Olney interviews Madison Bumgarner.
• David Ortiz played first base yesterday and accomplished something no Red Sox first baseman had ever done in the history of the franchise. Ortiz played the entire game at first base without recording a put out.
• Ever wonder what it would be like to watch a ballgame with Scott Boras? Tim Rohan got the chance and found it quite enlightening as they watched Boras' client Matt Harvey together.
• Eno Sarris explains the rare "submarine riseball."
• Students at the University of Toronto built a pitching machine that throws knuckleballs. They found it a lot more difficult than they thought it would be. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost (Season 3 in 2016!) visited the Baseball Hall of Fame. Frost is also the uncle of Lucas Giolito, probably the top prospect in baseball still left in the minor leagues.
• Rob Neyer looks at the popularity of bobblehead giveaways at the park and why some teams give them out to every fan and some only give then to the first 10,000.
• And finally, in the Reds/Brewers game on Saturday, Carlos Gomez left a note and a present for Billy Hamilton in center field. Hamilton seemed to get a kick out of it.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Because I will not be intimidated.