MLB Bullets and the trusty Scooter

Scooter Gennett has been suspended for 80 games after testing positive for genie wishes.

• Last night, Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett became the 17th player and the first Red to hit four home runs in one game. As Jeff Passan pointed out, he’s also the first player named “Scooter” to accomplish the feat.
• Ken Rosenthal has eight things to know about Gennett.
• Jay Jaffe looks at how Gennett’s performance ranks among the greatest single game performances of all time.
• David Schoenfield asks the same question: Just how good was Gennett’s big night?
• Zach Kram says Gennett hit four home runs because the ball is juiced. I’ve read the article three times and I’m not sure if he’s joking or not.
• Will Leitch has the ten biggest surprises of the 2017 season and Gennett isn’t even on the list. (So he published this before Gennett hit four home runs. That’s not an excuse.)
• In an interview on Philadelphia radio, Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt thought that Phillies outfielder Odubel Herrera couldn’t be a team leader “because of the language barrier.” It should be noted that Herrera speaks English well enough to give some live interviews in his second language.
• Schmidt called Herrera to apologize and issued a statement saying he was sorry about how his words were interpreted. Meghan Montemurro isn’t buying it, noting that the apology claimed he was “misrepresented” (which is silly since it was a live radio broadcast) and that he only said he was “sorry if he offended anyone” which isn’t actually an apology. Montemurro does admit that Herrera isn’t exactly a “team leader” type, but that has nothing to do with his language skills.
• Liz Roscher agrees that Schmidt was way off base, pointing out the many, many Latin players who have been team leaders.
• Will Leitch agrees that Schmidt doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but he ties it in to how much the game has changed since the 1980s.
• Then there is another guy who hasn’t played since the 1980s. Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy thinks that Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka should not be allowed to have a translator and that he should “learn baseball language.” That’s funny, because I think rich, privileged people who make excuse after excuse for their no-good son and shield him from all consequences of his criminal actions until he ends up murdering the mother of his child shouldn’t be allowed to broadcast baseball games. But that’s just me.
• And MLB failed to get a lawsuit against Indians mascot “Chief Wahoo” thrown out of an Ontario court on jurisdictional grounds. The lawsuit now goes forward and if MLB loses, the Indians would not be allowed to use any Chief Wahoo-imagery when playing in Toronto.
• The hits keep coming. A minor-league baseball team cancelled an “hourglass appreciation night” after receiving an online backlash.
• The Astros 11-game winning streak came to an end last night when the Royals scored four runs in the eighth inning and two in the ninth. Sam Gardner has five reasons why the Astros have been so good this year.
• Grant Brisbee says the scary thing about the Astros is that they could end up getting even better.
• Kate Morrison asks if having the best record in baseball really makes the Astros the best team in baseball.
• Ben Lindbergh thinks that while the Astros may be the best team in baseball, it’s too early to consider them among the best teams in history.
• Jeff Passan looks at who might be the next ballplayer to hit 600 home runs.
• It won’t be Ryan Howard, as it looks like his career is over. Rob Arthur makes the case that increased use of defensive shifts killed Howard’s career.
• Bill Baer counters that while shifting didn’t help, it wasn’t the primary cause of Howard’s rapid decline.
• Neil Paine looks at how the Mets went from having the best starting rotation in the game to one of the worst in just a few short months.
• R.J. Anderson examines how the use of Statcast data has changed the game over the past few years, and not all of it for the better.
• Sam Miller has an interesting idea that where a player drops his bat could give his team a (tiny) strategic advantage if done correctly. Most of the players he talks to think he’s nuts though. A few don’t.
• David Schoenfield notes that the complete game is nearing extinction.
• Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis has rejoined the team after cancer surgery. He’s still not ready to pitch, but he’s making his way back and hopes to be ready by the All-Star break.
• There was a trade as the Rangers sent their former closer Sam Dyson to the Giants for a player to be named later. I still don’t get where MLB keeps finding baseball players whose parents couldn’t be bothered to give them names.
• In case you were wondering about the (probably ridiculous) Bryce-Harper-to-the-Cubs rumor, Eddie Matz tries to figure out how much Harper is worth now. One nameless (see, there it is again! Bad parents!) American League general manager told Matz that Harper “is going to get paid. Like, paid, paid.”
• Ken Rosenthal thinks it’s time to revisit the idea of a 26-man roster.
• Paul Lebowitz looks at who the Braves could be shipping out of Atlanta at the trade deadline.
• The Dodgers are reportedly looking for pitching at the deadline, both starters and relievers.
• Evan Davis looks at what happened to Blue Jays first baseman Justin Smoak that made him so good this season?
• Tom Verducci warns teams against picking hard-throwing high school pitchers high in the draft.
• Wily Mo Pena has signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines of NPB.
• Who’s a good doggie? Oh yeah, who’s a good doggie at Miller Park?
• Someone found a treasure trove of old baseball (and other sports) cards in unopened packaged from the 1940s to early 1960s in his late uncle’s attic. The find is estimated to be worth close to a million dollars.
• Some teammates of Memphis Redbird Ryan Sherriff moved his locker into the bathroom stall as a prank.
• And finally, I don’t think you’ll see another defensive play like this. A third baseman in Korea’s KBO made a barehanded catch on a ball that made a bad hop after hitting a broken bat that was heading towards him. Just watch it if you haven’t already. He even got the runner at first.

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