MLB Bullets Is Taking A Break

Good morning. You've got no games that count until Friday.

• The Red Sox made a move to fill-in for injured closer Craig Kimbrel by sending two minor leaguers to the Diamondbacks for closer Brad Ziegler.
• Did I forget to mention that Kimbrel is out for 3-to-6 weeks after knee surgery?
• Christopher Smith has a profile of Ziegler for Red Sox (and other) fans, including how he developed his side-arm delivery.
• In other pitcher injury news, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw will not be back right after the All-Star break as was hoped. He has started throwing off flat ground, however, so he may only miss one more start.
• Gloom, despair and agony on me. Twins rookie Byron Buxton is injured yet again after running into a wall.
• Madison Bumgarner came within five outs of a no-hitter last night, settling for a one-hitter. A breakdown of his dominating performance.
• This is a nice piece: An oral history of how Theo Epstein and Pedro Martinez saved the career of David Ortiz.
• Former Cardinals catcher Cody Stanley has been suspended for 162 games for failing a second drug test.
• Stanley tells his side of the story to Ken Rosenthal. Stanley insists he didn't take what he tested positive for.
• Matt Snyder predicts the season-end awards for both the AL and NL.
• One guy who will be in the conversation is Orioles third baseman Manny Machado. Eddie Matz looks back at the first half for the O's and says they'd be lost without Machado.
• Mark Saxon looks at a mediocre first half for the Cardinals.
• Blue Jays pitcher Marco Estrada has dominated American League hitters in the first half. Joshua Howsam explains how.
• Please look at the story on the front page about Eloy Jimenez at the Futures Game. If you're like most people, Craig Calcaterra argues, you missed the game. Calcaterra wants the Futures Game moved to All-Star Monday. Agreed.
• Scott Lauber looks at Futures Game participant Andrew Benintendi, who Scott Lauber writes will be playing in the majors soon. I saw him play against the Pelicans on milb.tv. Ouch. He's good.
• Another Futures Game player who is likely to be in the majors soon is Astros infielder Alex Bregman, who came a home run short of the cycle yesterday.
• Although he's been in the majors a while now, Doug Padilla writes that Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager is still getting better.
• Michael Bauman examines the problems that the Rockies have had building a winner. Hint: it ain't Coors Field. It's something much more common.
• Angels infielder Yunel Escobar got ejected just for drawing something into the infield dirt. OK, what he drew was meant to insult the home plate umpire,
• Tigers outfielder Anthony Gose has had a tough season. First, he was demoted to Toledo. Next, he was terrible there. Now he's gone AWOL after getting in an argument with manager Lloyd McClendon.
• Someone else has a new plan to bring a major league team to Charlotte. Why? I'm pretty sure that's where fans are going to have to park to get to the Braves' new stadium anyway.
• Derek Jeter got married. He married a simple country girl who won his heart with old fashioned values and. . .just kidding. He married his supermodel girlfriend, of course.
• They're comparing Didi Gregorius to Jeter now. Maybe he'll call up that simple country girl.
• Retired US soccer superstar Landon Donovan is a baseball fan, but he thinks that baseball could take some ideas from soccer crowds to get fans more excited during games. I'm sure some of you will have an opinion about that.
• A 103-year-old Blue Jays fan got to "run" the bases with manager John Gibbons.
• A Dodgers prospect got in the news because of his unfortunate name. Thankfully, it appears that other than one person who decided to edit his Wikipedia entry, no one else mistook him for a mass killer.
• Manny Ramirez is not good at surfing. What are you doing, Manny? The Cubs need you right now!
• And finally, one foolish fan tried to catch a foul ball with their concessions tray and got a beer bath for her troubles.

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