MLB Bullets is making a move

Happy Friday. I always thought it would be cool to be a lawyer that specialized in the 3rd Amendment. “NO! You may not quarter those soldiers in this fine woman’s home!” I’d probably go broke pretty quickly, but you’d certainly have something to talk about at parties. (There was one case in semi-recent history partially decided on 3rd amendment grounds.)

• Last time, we at MLB Bullets (and by “we” I mean me, since this is a one-person operation) told you about the Braves announcement that they may move Freddie Freeman to third base when he returns from the disabled list. Today, we have Freeman talking about the move and him saying the whole thing was his idea.
• Liz Roscher believes that this is a dumb idea and if the Braves are gung-ho on keeping Matt Adams’ bat in the lineup, they should have Adams play third base instead. Or just let Freeman use Adams’ bat while he’s on the bench, I suppose.
• Grant Brisbee says history tells us that Freeman’s move to third is almost certain to fail. #thatsbarves
• Jeff Sullivan isn’t so negative. He doesn’t really think Freeman can play third, but he reasons that what do the Braves have to lose by letting him try?
• Michael Baumann notes that Craig Kimbrel is having a comeback year and is re-establishing himself as the best reliever in the game.
• Unless it’s Kenley Jansen. Mike Petriello looks at the respective cases of Kimbrel and Jansen for baseball’s top reliever.
• The case of Jansen v. Kimbrel makes one of Anthony Castrovince’s five fun baseball debates.
• Scott Lauber notes that the Red Sox problem is that their bullpen need more than one Kimbrel.
• Jonathan Bernhardt believes that Mike Moustakas is the missing piece that the Red Sox need. The only problem is that he plays for the Royals.
• Now we have to deal with some unwritten rules issues, forgetting if they aren’t written then they aren’t actually rules. Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig admired a home run and the Mets weren’t happy about it.
• R.J. Anderson puts Puig before a “kangaroo court” and the CBS writers rule in Puig’s favor.
• The other unwritten rule broken is that the Mariners’ Jarrod Dyson broke up Justin Verlander’s perfect game with a bunt single. Mike Oz tells us why no one should be upset about this. After all, Verlander isn’t. It was also the sixth inning and the Mariners were still trying to win. And they did.
• Will Leitch goes back to 1997 and looks at how much the game has changed in the last 20 years.
• Rob Arthur comments on MLB’s disappearing middle class, with teams either contending or tanking.
• David Schoenfield looks at the three power teams at the top of the NL West and how we can expect the rest of their seasons to play out.
• The Brewers are surprising contenders, thanks in part to the Cubs rough start to the season. Bob Nightengale asks what if the Brewers are for real?
• Adam Rygg reports that the Brewers don’t care if everyone thinks they’ll eventually crash to earth. Nor should they. The Cubs were contenders a year ahead of schedule.
• Brewers third baseman Travis Shaw keeps playing despite a newborn daughter in the hospital with a heart ailment. Shaw essentially spends every moment he’s not at the ballpark at the hospital.
• One last bit of Brewers-related news. Their Triple-A affiliate in Colorado Springs is moving to San Antonio in 2019 where they will become a Rangers affiliate. The Brewers are likely heading to Fresno, thus finally bringing together Baseball Prospectus’ quest for “beer and tacos” in baseball.
• The Orioles have now gone 19 straight games of allowing 5 runs or more. That’s just one short of the record.
• Travis Sawchik argues that the time is now for the Orioles to start a teardown and a rebuild.
• Tom Verducci looks at the Astros rebuild and notes that it was mostly done with shrewd trades rather than high draft picks, Carlos Correa notwithstanding. He also notes that the Astros will be looking to add a starting pitcher over the next month.
• Eno Sarris notes that the Astros pitchers throw fewer fastballs than any other team and their hitters face fewer fastballs than any other team.
• The Marlins are looking to trade shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria.
• One other bit of Fish news: Derek Jeter is reportedly falling short of raising the money to buy the Marlins. He hasn’t given up, however.
• Ken Rosenthal writes that the Phillies are undergoing a full rebuild, but that there is no guarantee that they will come out of it as a contender, as most of the current young talent on the team looks to be more future solid major leaguers than future stars.
• Apparently Phillies manager Pete Mackanin and reliever Pat Neshek are having some issues communicating with each other.
• Jon Heyman looks at 13 teams that will have to choose between being buyers and sellers this July.
• Bradford Doolittle picks one “unsung hero” from each contending team. And they really are “unsung,” unlike a lot of similar lists. Eddie Butler gets the nod for the Cubs.
• Speaking of unsung, the Athletics designated catcher Stephen Vogt for assignment.
• Over at Athletics Nation, they write that just because it’s the right move to DFA the popular Vogt doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. Baseball is a cruel game sometimes.
• A’s fans sitting behind home plate dressed as Vogt in tribute.
• As if the Dodgers needed any more help, Jeff Sullivan reports that they are getting more favorable calls behind the plate than any other team.
• Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is already halfway to breaking the rookie home run record.
• Sam Miller uses different methods to guess what Judge’s chances of hitting 763 career home runs are. Pretty slim, but what if we’re wrong?
• MLB announced that the Twins and Indians are going to play two games in Puerto Rico next year and Francisco Lindor is pretty excited.
• Maria Bustillos explains what baseball and the Dodgers meant to several generations of her Cuban-American family.
• Awful Announcing released the results of their poll, ranking all MLB local TV broadcasting teams. I’d say other than ranking the Yankees way too high, I’m surprised to see that it’s a pretty good list. I could quibble a little on the margins, but nothing is too egregious. Also, it’s pretty amazing that California has five MLB teams and the lowest-ranked broadcast team is the Athletics at 11th. That’s even after Vin Scully retired. (And I’d also argue the A’s are a few spots too low. They’ve ranked higher in previous years.) You should stay up and watch late-night baseball just for the broadcasters.
• That unopened box of baseball cards from 1948 sold for $514,000.
• The Orioles had a 14-year-old one-armed catcher catch a first pitch from Jim Palmer.
• And finally, Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman bring you everything you need to know about where your bat should land after a proper bat flip. Korea, ideally, but that’s a long throw from any MLB park.

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