MLB Bullets Heads To Houston

It's another Monday. By the way, before someone points it out, Yulieski Gurriel changed the spelling of his last name recently, removing the "o."

• The Astros have signed Cuban third baseman Yulieski Gurriel to a five-year, $47.5 million contract.
• Cliff Corcoran notes that it's an odd signing since the Astros already have a a lot of depth at third base.
• August Fagerstrom explains what we know about Gurriel already and looks at where he fits in the Astros lineup. He agrees--this makes for a crowded infield.
• After this weekend, Marlins outfielder Ichiro Suzuki is now just six hits away from 3,000 in MLB.
• Dustin Palmateer looks at how Ichiro has become a different kind of hitter this season. A better one than he has been in a while as well.
• Bob Nightengale looks at this year's Marlins and declares that they're not clowns anymore.
• Drew Pomeranz talks about his season and how he's handling the challenge of pitching for the Red Sox.
• Grant Brisbee believes that the Pomeranz-for-Anderson-Espinoza trade is one that both sides had to make.
• Paul Swydan notes that Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski has a very good track record when it comes to dealing away prospects.
• Ken Woolums notes that the Pirates have a starting pitching problem this year, and has some ideas about how to fix it.
• MLB executive Joe Torre sent out a memo to teams telling them to quit their bellyaching about balls and strikes. Pitchers should also throw the ball over the plate and not scratch their tummy on the mound. Torre said the first rule of baseball is that we want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher.
• Rob Neyer wonders whether the Athletics' small, tight-knit front office is large enough to be competitive in today's game.
• The Yankees have a tough rest of the season schedule ahead of them.
• Ken Rosenthal notes that the Yankees are, for the first time in about 25 years, going to be sellers at the trade deadline. The only year since George Steinbrenner bought the club in 1973 that I can find the Yankees having sold at the trade deadline was 1989 when they dealt Rickey Henderson and Mike Pagliarulo, and even then, both players were having down years and Steinbrenner probably just wanted to get rid of them.
• Speaking of Rickey, Mike Oz asks Rickey "Did Rickey actually say that?" (Video)
• Jeff Passan has a roundup of trade rumors and why the Yankees want Kyle Schwarber so much (and why they won't get him for Andrew Miller.)
• Will Leitch lists five teams that should go-for-broke in 2016 because their window of competitiveness is closing.
• Jonah Keri has the goals for every AL team at the trade deadline.
• Neil Paine looks at why has Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy gotten so good lately?
• The Nationals lost to the Pirates in 18 innings yesterday.
• Mike Piazza held a conference call on the eve of his induction into Cooperstown and somehow they let Murray Chass ask the first question. Really? One guess what "Mr. Back Acne" asked Piazza about.
• Jay Jaffe looks at which current major league veterans will end up in the Hall of Fame.
• Indians pitcher Tommy Hunter injured his back when he fell carrying his child.
• On day after the Tribe sacrificed a Boston Market chicken to Jobu, Indians catcher Yan Gomes got injured. Jobu wants rum. The chicken sacrifice things is from Bull Durham. They got their 80's baseball movies mixed up.
• "No relation" Jonny Gomes is disappointed that the Royals didn't ask him to accompany the team to the White House.
• Meg Rowley thinks minor league ballplayers have a sympathy problem.
• Mallory Rubin has a guide for picking a team to cheer for in the second half. As if any of you have that problem. But those are always fun anyway.
• Mike Trout is having a blast playing Pokemon Go.
• At the All-Star Game in Korea's KBO league, they had a bunt derby. Maybe this would work in MLB? Although you don't want to give Chris Berman any ideas. ("Down, down, down, down, down!")
• On Saturday, the Padres beat the Giants on the 20th "walkoff balk" in major league history.
• And finally, that wasn't even the weirdest thing from that game. Padres third baseman Yangervis Solarte went into the stands to catch a foul ball. Not only did he catch the ball, he got a whole serving of nacho cheese as well. Somehow he managed to get the cheese on the ball and his glove while he caught it.

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