MLB Bullets Is A Nationals Disgrace

Good morning. School starts, at least for my daughter, this week, so we're getting to the end of the summer.

• In an article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Brewers minor leaguer David Denson has announced that he's gay. Denson is the first active player in affiliated baseball to announce that he's gay. He had help from MLB's Ambassador For Inclusion Billy Bean in making the announcement. (And to be frank, this why MLB hired Bean in the first place.)
• Just in case you were wondering how good a player Denson is, he's probably a longshot to make the majors, but he has tremendous power potential. Jim Callis breaks down Denson as a player and says he's the 27th-ranked player in the Brewers minor league system.
• The Brewers front office and several of their current stars expressed their support for Denson.
• Rob Neyer shares his thoughts on Denson. He thinks that MLB's first openly-gay player will probably come out first in the minors.
• Christina Kahrl writes that Denson's revelation is a sign of progress in MLB and sport in general.
• Red Sox manager John Farrell has been diagnosed with stage 1 lymphoma. He's stepped away from the team and bench coach Torey Lovullo will manage the team for the rest of the season. His cancer is categorized as "highly-treatable" however so the odds are very good that he will be back in Boston soon.
• Gordon Edes points out that the Red Sox organization is no stranger to cancer. Former Red Sox and current Cubs pitcher and cancer survivor Jon Lester has spoken with Farrell already.
• The Nationals have lost six in a row, are now under .500 and are sinking fast in the weak NL East. Erin Flynn says the Nats need to turn things around ASAP.
• Dayn Perry analyses what has gone wrong for the Nats. A lot, apparently, according to Perry.
• Erick Fernandez writes that the Nationals only have themselves to blame for their predicament.
• Max Scherzer says there's "no magic pill" to turn the Nats season around.
• David Huzzard doesn't think manager Matt Williams is to blame for the Nationals collapse, but that he probably should be fired anyway.
• The Royals are cruising to the A.L. Central title, but Christina Kahrl notes that some cracks are starting to appear in their once-invincible bullpen.
• Jay Jaffe agrees with Kahrl about the Royals pen and offers some solutions.
• Grant Brisbee thinks the Yankees made a mistake in not getting more aggressive at the trade deadline.
• Christina Kahrl (who really was working hard this weekend) explains why the Padres won't make a move out of desperation and are likely to stand pat through the waiver-trade period as well.
• Jon Heyman says that the Giants and the Angels are viewed as the most-likely destinations for Phillies second baseman Chase Utley.
• Kahrl breaks down where Utley would fit in with the Giants.
• The Astros have expressed interest in trading for Utley as well.
• The Giants gave Dan Uggla his World Series ring over the weekend. And no one ever did more to earn a ring. 0 for 11 with a walk before getting released. But it was a loud 0 for 11 with a walk. (But seriously, if Uggla was even just ordinary lousy, the Giants never would have panicked and given the job to Joe Panik.)
• More good news for the Giants: Madison Bumgarner is starting to look like he looked last October again.
• Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart wants to make Paul Goldschmidt a Diamondback for life.
• Ichiro Suzuki collected his 4,192 hit combined between MLB and NPB, which unofficially passes Ty Cobb's lifetime total. And Pete Rose will go ballistic if Ichiro plays next season. Unofficially, of course.
• Christina Kahrl (man, she's everywhere) wants to remember how great Ichiro was when he first came to America.
• How many current 2015 NL rookies would have won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1999, when Scott Williamson won it? Most of them, I assume.
• Henry Druschel notes that what's remarkable about Pirates rookie Jung Ho Kang is just how unremarkable he is. Besides just being good, that is.
• If you're like me, you can't get enough Mike Hessman stories. Here's another one.
• Dirk Hayhurst explains how David Price and Mark Buehrle use pitch selection to get hitters out.
• Bernie Lincecome, whom I honestly had no idea was still alive, tells the stats geeks to get off his lawn.
• Jayson Stark has some history that could be made in MLB in August.
• The Yankees will have a ceremony honoring Alex Rodriguez's 3000th hit. What's that old saying? A 144 OPS+ heals all wounds?
• A mistake by a coach ended his team's run in the Little League World Series.
• Kansas City is claiming a baby boom nine months after last year's World Series. I'm skeptical--most of these supposed "baby booms" nine months after an event tend to have nothing to them on further examination--but I pass it along.
• I've never seen the television program "Full House," so this is completely lost on me. But people who are fans of the show seem to love this Giants promo commercial.
• And finally, Craig Calcaterra wanted to come up with his own version of "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain." So here are his best suggestions of things that rhyme with Kershaw and Greinke.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.