MLB Bullets heart sank

Good morning fans of a first-place team.

• Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was placed on the disabled list yesterday with a lower back injury. There is no expected return date at this time.
• Michael Bauman writes that if any team can afford to lose Kershaw to an injury, it’s the Dodgers. That assumes, of course, that he’s back in time for the playoffs.
• Another injured ace, Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard, admits that maybe he bulked up too much in the offseason and that he should have spent more time working on flexibility and endurance.
• The Cardinals and the Mariners made a deal as St. Louis sent pitcher Marco Gonzales to Seattle for outfielder Tyler O’Neill. Grant Brisbee thinks this is a fun trade that will blow up in the Mariners faces, because that’s what always happens to the Mariners. He adds that Mariners fans won’t even get angry at him for writing that.
• Mike Oz wonders what exactly is the plan in Seattle?
• Dave Cameron thinks the Cardinals got upside and the Mariners got depth in this deal.
• Kate Morrison notes that Jean Segura is quietly having a terrific season in Seattle.
• Ryan Davis argues that the Cardinals need a better plan going forward. Also a better manager.
• Jonah Keri thinks that there was less than meets the eye to that Yankees/White Sox deal last week. Also lots of other thoughts on the trade deadline.
• Michael Baumann has ten things you should know about the 2017 trade deadline before next week.
• Buster Olney wonders what the Yankees could do to trade Jacoby Ellsbury (and his contract.) He’s suggesting dealing one bad contract for another.
• One of the contracts that Olney suggests taking on is Jeff Samardzija’s, but as Tony Blengino notes, Samardzija is having a deceptively good season. Deceptive in that his ERA is 4.86. Good in that he leads the majors in K/BB ratio.
• Eno Sarris talks to Samardzija and wonders if he’s being too predictable in his pitch location.
• Pablo Sandoval returned to the Giants, but not before apologizing to the fans and his former teammates for things he said after signing with the Red Sox.
• Before we move on from the Giants, outfielder Michael Morse has been out since Memorial Day with a concussion suffered in a fight with the Nationals. Now Morse revealed that his career may be in jeopardy from the concussion.
• With Sandoval gone, the Red Sox called up top prospect third baseman Rafael Devers to make his major league debut.
• The Red Sox need a third baseman and their deal to send Travis Shaw to the Brewers looks worse and worse. But Alex Smolokoff writes that while that deal has blown up in the Red Sox face, it was a trade that made sense for the Red Sox at the time and shouldn’t be second-guessed.
• Tim Brown suggests that the Red Sox should try to make a deal for Adrian Beltre, although he admits that this might be impossible if the Rangers don’t want to deal him or if Beltre (who has 10-5 rights) doesn’t want to go.
• Buster Olney reports that the Rangers are debating whether or not to deal pitcher Yu Darvish. Also an update on the Marlins sale.
• The Dodgers are reportedly interested in Mets closer Addison Reed.
• Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes said that he wants to finish his career in Oakland.
• You probably remember this if you’re old enough, but Mike Oz recalls the time 20 years ago that Greg Maddux beat the Cubs on a 76-pitch complete game.
• Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper both hit tremendous home runs over the weekend. Cliff Corcoran adds those two home runs to a list of the “most majestic” home runs of all-time. There are four Cubs home runs on this list, including ones by Dave Kingman and Glenallen Hill that get discussed around here from time to time. Also two by current Cubs.
• Hall-of-Famer Mike Schmidt has been calling home runs “rally killers.” Joe Posnanski shows why that’s ridiculous. Posnanski actually uses a stronger word than “ridiculous.” Also, he notes that Mike Schmidt calling home runs “rally killers” is like Elton John saying that pianos ruin songs.
• Astros third baseman Colin Moran went on the DL after he hit a foul ball off his face, fracturing it.
• Alex Putterman talks to broadcasters about whether or not they believe they should say the words “no-hitter” on the air. Yes, he does speak to noted jinx Len Kasper.
• Speaking of that, the Nationals rookie league teams in the Gulf Coast League threw (seven-inning) no-hitters against the Marlins in both ends of a doubleheader yesterday.
• Jeff Passan notes that baseball players are taking the lead in speaking out against the government in Venezuela. It’s a bad situation down there at the moment.
• A five-year-old Reds fan kicked Dee Gordon in the shins at the urging of an umpire. (Don’t worry. It was all planned ahead of time and Gordon was in on it.)
• Following up from Friday, Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon got to meet his two-year old superfan. The kid was much more subdued in person.
• In a further sign that Chief Wahoo is heading towards the dustbin of history, Topps no longer is putting him on baseball cards. They’ve also eliminated the Braves’ “screaming Indian” logo on throwback cards, although the Braves themselves haven’t used that logo since the 1980s.
• And finally, in a terrific essay, Indians fan Kelly Smith tells the tale of how no far she and her father were apart, it was always the Indians that kept them together. Her father finally succumbed to cancer in June. And I’m glad that the one World Series game she got to go to with her dad was Game 1. (I can say that now.)

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