MLB Bullets Is Upset And Embarrassed

Good morning Monday. I’ve got nothing to say up here. Slow weekend everywhere.

• Following up on Friday’s link from Keith Law about how the Diamondbacks front office should all be fired, Jon Heyman reports that Arizona managing partner Ken Kendrick is "upset" and "embarrassed" by the Snakes and is considering making a change. One problem is that they have to make a decision on GM Dave Stewart and his top lieutenant by the end of August, and Kendrick would prefer to wait until the end of the season.
• Bob Nightengale comes to the defense of team president Tony La Russa and Stewart.
• One man who apparently won’t be losing his job is Angels manager Mike Scioscia. Both GM Billy Eppler and owner Arte Moreno say that they expect Scioscia will be managing the team again in 2017.
• Angels outfielder Mike Trout and Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper often have their names linked together as the future of the game. But Jay Jaffe notes how the two stars have gone in different directions this year.
• Michael Baumann notes that just like most everything Harper has done in his career, his slump this season is something we’ve never seen before.
• Joe Posnanski argues that the legacy of Alex Rodriguez is better served by retiring with 696 home runs than going for 700.
• In possibly sad news, retired Mets great Darryl Strawberry said that his former teammate Dwight Gooden is a "junkie-addict" and says that he’s tried to get Gooden to go for help before it’s too late.
• Gooden, however, says he’s "fine" and is just dealing with a minor illness. He disputes Strawberry’s diagnosis of his condition.
• Athletics DH Billy Butler has missed the last three games and now there is a report that he was injured in an "altercation" with teammate Danny Valencia.
• The Royals may be 8 games out of first place at the moment, but Will Leitch notes that the fans haven’t complained as they are still celebrating last year’s first World Series title in 30 years.
• Mike Axisa notes that the Royals have managed to get back into the Wild Card chase and he has three reasons why.
• The Pirates have managed to play themselves back into Wild Card contention and Craig Goldstein debates whether or not the Bucs should regret not going for it at the trade deadline.
• The Rangers signed recently-designated Carlos Gomez and announced that Gomez will be their regular left fielder once he gets in a few games in Triple-A.
• Mike Bauman thinks the Rangers had nothing to lose by giving Gomez a chance.
• The Blue Jays sent Aaron Sanchez, who has been one of the leading candidates for the AL Cy Young Award this year, down to the minors. Mark Townsend explains why this temporary move makes sense.
• Mark Simon explains how Carlos Correa has improved his game by adjusting to the pitches on the outer-half of the plate.
• MLB has cleared Ryan Howard and Ryan Zimmerman in connection with the Al-Jazeera PED report.
• Friday night, left-hander Brent Suter started for the Milwaukee Brewers. Incredibly, it was the first game started by a left-handed pitcher for the Brewers since August 28, 2013. That’s almost three years.
• Andrew Marchand thinks that Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez has won himself a job on the 2017 team.
• On the other hand, Marchand notes that Yankees fans and the team seem to be running out of patience with Aaron Hicks.
• The Phillies extended their netting behind home plate before the season started, but shortstop Freddy Galvis thinks they didn’t extend it far enough after one of his foul ball struck a little girl.
• Dodgers manager Dave Roberts praised Philadelphia fans for the reception they gave Chase Utley.
• Eddie Matz has an interview with Giants outfielder Hunter Pence. Pence admits to being a real fantasy novels and gaming fan.
• This week in unusual statistics.
• Larry Brunt has a terrific profile of Carlos Paula, a Cuban who was the first black ballplayer on the Washington Senators. It’s a reminder that baseball didn’t end it’s racism problem the day Jackie Robinson took the field. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• David Kagan has a piece on the physics of hard-hit baseballs. It’s mostly beyond me, but I’m sure some of you can figure it out. Maybe write a paper on it in school.
• The Indians Tyler Naquin had an amazing walk-off inside-the-park home run.
• And finally, it was a tough week for Reds pitcher Michael Lorenzen, who went on the bereavement list after the death of his father. But in his first game back, he hit his first career home run in what was a very emotional game for the reliever.

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