MLB Bullets Presents The Hit King*

Good morning. It's summer. No school.

• Sometime in the next day or two, Ichiro Suzuki is going to pass Pete Rose in career hits if you include Ichiro's totals from Japan. I've been predicting that even mentioning this would drive some people, including Pete Rose, crazy. Sure enough, Rose complained that in Japan, "they're trying to make me the hit queen."
• C.J. Nitkowski thinks the hit title still belongs to Rose, although he does wish we could have seen what Ichiro would have done if he played his whole career in MLB. Nitkowski thinks Suzuki would have had a chance to pass Rose then.
• Claire McNear thinks we should appreciate the skills of Ichiro and even if we don't acknowledge him as "The hit king," we should acknowledge that comparing NPB to minor league or high school baseball is ignorant and insensitive.
• Craig Calcaterra thinks that we need to stop thinking in such binary terms and acknowledge both Rose and Suzuki for their records. As I side note, I completely agree with Calcaterra. It's one of the reasons I cover the Hall of Fame voting as little as I think I can get away with. It's silly to draw a line and say "The person is an immortal. This person, while almost as good, is not."
• Joel Sherman doesn't want Rose's little tantrum to distract from Ichiro's achievement.
• Grant Brisbee thinks the whole controversy is silly and therefore he is uniquely qualified to weigh in on it. I do like that he points out that three different teams gave Rose five years to add on 500 hits and get the record, despite the fact that he was a terrible, negative-WAR player. (Yes, I know the stat hadn't been invented yet. But people at the time were saying how bad he was from 1982 to 1986.)
• Barry Bonds thinks that instead of fighting over records, there should be a summit where Rose and Ichiro sit down and discuss the art and science of hitting. We'd all learn something. Barry makes sense now that he's retired.
• By the way, in case you couldn't dislike Rose more, he also says that while the 2016 Cubs are a very good team, "they'll find a way to screw it up" because they're the Cubs. I think Rose is just trying to make his old teammate Joe Morgan look smart by comparison.
• Cuban 32-year-old third baseman Yulieski Gourriel was declared a free agent by MLB. This would be huge news if it were still 2009. I guess it's still something.
• Jay Jaffe tells you everything you need to know about Gourriel.
• Mike Axisa lists six teams likely to be bidding on Gourriel.
• Cuban players are starting to get frustrated with the long waits before they've been declared eligible to sign.
• Ken Rosenthal questions whether the Yankees will really be sellers at the trade deadline. Plus a whole bunch of other stuff from Robo-thal.
• Steve Goldman thinks that the Yankees and the Cubs match up really well on the trade market, but admits that there are obstacles to getting a deal done.
• Andrew Marchand looks at the trade possibilities for the Yankees, and a few other questions the team faces.
• Rosenthal thinks that while the Giants could really use Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun, the money and prospects don't match up for the two teams.
• One guy they really could use is Reds outfielder Adam Duvall. Too bad they just traded him to Cincinnati for Mike Leake last season. Mike Oz thinks the Reds hit the jackpot with their breakout star.
• Time for the butcher's bill, I guess. It's particularly gruesome today. Rockies outfielder Gerardo Parra had to be carted off the field last night after colliding with shortstop Trevor Story. I'm afraid it looks like a Kyle Schwarber situation for Parra.
• Dodgers pitcher Kenta Maeda was helped off the field after taking a Paul Goldschmidt line drive off his leg. The good news is that the X-rays were negative.
• Just three starts into his comeback from Tommy John surgery, Rangers hurler Yu Darvish went back on the DL. His MRI was clean, so he probably didn't re-injure his elbow.
• Add Giants pitcher Matt Cain to the disabled list.
• Athletics starter Sean Manaea is going to have an MRI on his arm after he left Monday night's game with a sore forearm.
• Nationals closer Jonathan Papelbon went on the DL for the first time in his career. Mike Axisa thinks that could send the Nationals to the trade market to find another reliever.
• The Nats could use more than this if Dusty Baker keeps letting his starting pitchers go deep into games, but so far, they're happy with it. Ask Mark Prior and Kerry Wood about it, guys.
• Pirates ace Gerrit Cole went on the DL.
• The good news for the Bucs is that Jameson Taillon took Cole's place and had a no-hitter going into the seventh inning against the Mets.
• Michael Bauman points out that Robinson Cano is still a very, very good ballplayer. You know who could use a player like Cano? The Yankees. I wonder if they thought of that.
• Add Jose Fernandez to the list of pitchers who want in to the Home Run Derby. I hear that MLB is going to try to make this happen, but with a separate pitchers' Derby. Bumgarner, Arrieta, Wainwright, Syndergaard and Fernandez. That would be a good field. I'm sure Bartolo Colon would be a lot of fun, too.
• Home runs are what is keeping Max Scherzer from being an elite pitcher, writes Cliff Corcoran. Giving them up, not hitting them.
• Jeff Sullivan argues that Mets outfielder Michael Conforto is struggling because no one is throwing him a fastball anymore.
• Tim Healey thinks that Ryan Zimmerman needs to break out of his decline, or get replaced, if the Nationals want to make it to the World Series this year.
• Dear Cubs fans: Nolan Arenado thinks you're mean. And other thoughts about playing baseball from the Rockies star third baseman.
• Terence Moore writes that the Cardinals are not going away.
• The Rays will turn Friday Night's previously-scheduled Pride Night into a benefit for the victims of the Orlando nightclub massacre.
• The police have charged the man at Citizen's Bank Park who threw a beer bottle at Ryan Howard.
• Four Padres blogs (including Gaslamp Ball) have teamed up to jointly call for the dismissal of team CEO Mike Dee.
• If you like the physics of baseball stuff, David Kagan has something on the physics of making a great catch.
• Tim Brown explains why Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor is a role model.
• With all the big send-offs to retiring players in recent seasons, Roger Mooney has the stories of three players who went out with a whimper and not a bang. As one of them said, "everyone wants one more year."
• The Staten Island Yankees are giving out an ambidextrous Pat Venditte 'Bobble-arms" doll.
• And finally, Indians third baseman Juan Uribe was carted off the field after taking a Mike Trout scorcher off his groin. What's worse is that Uribe was not wearing a cup. However, that's also awesome because that meant Uribe got to tell us all why he doesn't wear a cup: He explained that "I don't think the trainers have my size." Seriously. Never change, Juan. Maybe the concession stand sells a cup in your size. It will probably cost $13, but it comes with free beer.

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