MLB Bullets is happy to be in St. Petersburg

Good morning. This is the biggest marriage of baseball and weather since Mike Trout was born. It’s also good to see two bitter rivals come together at a time like this. I’m referring to the rivalry between Minute Maid and Tropicana Orange Juice. The Rangers and Astros still hate each other.

• You’ve no doubt heard that the Astros series with the Rangers was moved to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida and that the next series against the Mets will likely be played there too. Eric Adelson was there to catch the game and notes that baseball is pretty meaningless at a time like this. So I won’t even mention the score of the game.
• Mark Feinsand writes that the Astros hearts are still in Houston.
• Rangers manager Jeff Banister grew up in Houston and admits he feels guilty playing baseball at time like this.
• Bradford Doolittle notes that the Astros hope they can provide a distraction for suffering Houstonians and also keep winning.
• The Rays did their best to make the Astros feel like the home team, and most of the locals who showed up were cheering for Houston. (Of course, the Rangers losing is better for the Rays Wild Card chances too.)
• The Rays are donating all revenues to hurricane relief.
• Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter, a native of Galveston, is donating $10,000 for every home run he hits the rest of the season. That is being matched by his teammate Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals for a total of $30,000.
• Of course, the issue became why the series wasn’t played in Arlington. The Rangers agreed to let the series be played at Globe Life Park, but they refused to switch home series with the Astros because of the problems with ticket holders and that the Rangers would have to end the season with a 12-game road trip in that case. This led to some more bad blood between the two rivals.
• Bill Shaikin writes that there were limits to how far the Rangers were willing to help the Astros.
• Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. took the turn of events to blast the Rangers, saying they “should be ashamed.”
• Rangers general manager Jon Daniels defended his team.
• Ranger Delino DeShields published a lengthy defense of the Rangers actions.
• Bob Nightengale agrees that the backlash over the Rangers actions is misguided. If baseball doesn’t matter at a time like this, then it shouldn’t matter that they’re playing in St. Petersburg.
• And in good news, Astros president Reid Ryan says Minute Maid Park is in good shape currently.
• Giancarlo Stanton hit his 51st home run last night and shows no signs of slowing down.
• Ben Lindbergh lays out how Stanton has personally carried the Marlins back over the .500 mark and into the Wild Card chase. It reminds me very much of what Sammy Sosa did for the Cubs in 2001.
• While Stanton has a very good chance of hitting 62 home runs, 74 seems out of reach. While many argue that 61 is the “real” home run record, Jeff Passan says he’s changed his mind on this and explains why he believes the “real” home run record is Barry Bonds’ 73 in 2001. Seventy-three is more than 61, for example.
• Matt Snyder agrees and tells baseball fans that like it or not, Barry Bonds holds the single-season and career home run records.
• Joe Posnanski talks about the “curse” of the single-season home run record and how no matter who breaks it, the new record is never good enough.
• Bob Nightengale writes that the new Marlins front office wouldn’t dare trade Stanton after this season.
• Grant Brisbee agrees and thinks that Stanton’s surge has made a difficult offseason decision easy.
• Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield hit a home run in the third inning to end the Royals’ scoreless streak at 45 innings.
• They fell just three innings short of the MLB record, accomplished by the 1906 Phillies and 1968 Cubs. Whitney McIntosh thinks it would have been more fun if they’d have broken the record, although she admits it wouldn’t be much fun for the Royals.
• Joe Posnanski tries to explain the Royals hitting futility and comes up short, by his own estimation.
• Jay Jaffe looks at the Royals “roller-coaster” season and thinks the front office should add one more player before the deadline to send this team out with a bang.
• More bad news for the Royals in that pitcher Danny Duffy was arrested on DUI charges after he was found asleep at a Burger King drive-through.
• If this story couldn’t get weirder, when asked about Duffy’s DUI, GM Dayton Moore talked about the evils of pornography, which no one asked about.
• Grant Brisbee asks if the wild American League Wild Card chase is wonderful or wretched?
• The Twins are hanging on to a Wild Card spot thanks in part to center fielder Byron Buxton. Travis Sawchik goes over the various approaches the Twins took to turning Buxton into a productive major leaguer. Eventually they told him to “sink or swim” and he learned to swim.
• Dave Cameron notes that the surprising season Matt Belisle is having this year is another reason the Twins are contending.
• Will Leitch says whether or not the Brewers make the playoffs, this year has been a big win for Milwaukee.
• Rob Arthur breaks down how the Dodgers are exploiting the new 10-day disabled list to gain an edge. They aren’t the only team doing it, but they’re probably the team best positioned to take advantage of it and they aren’t passing on the opportunity.
• Jay Jaffe has a profile of Phillies outfielder Rhys Hoskins, who has taken the National League by storm this month.
• J.A. Adande connects the decline of African-Americans in MLB to the decline of stolen bases. He agrees that steals are not as effective at scoring runs as home runs, but he believes steals are a lot more entertaining.
• There’s a report that the trade market for Tigers ace Justin Verlander is picking up, with a “mystery team” emerging. I hope Verlander doesn’t mind getting paid in Scooby Snacks.
• David Schoenfield lists the World Series matchups he most wants to see and those he’d least like to see.
• Jay Caspian King asks why some new baseball stats get embraced by the general public and why some get ignored?
• A member of the Cubs first World Series Champions in 108 years, Joe Nathan, will retire this Friday.
• Barry Zito says he’s having more fun in his current music career than he ever did playing baseball.
• Here’s a fantastic catch by Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar.
• And finally, an Orioles fan dad caught a Manny Machado home run with his baby in a carrier and the two of them did a cute happy dance together.

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