MLB Bullets returns to Progressive Field

I’m pretty much beat after two days of the draft.

• The big news is the MLB Draft and I should have a recap of that on Thursday or Friday, along with the other pieces I wrote on the Cubs and more coverage from Tim Huwe. But Grant Brisbee finds his inner Harold Reynolds and gives each team a grade for the first day of the draft.
• The Athletics drafted Oklahoma outfielder Kyler Murray with the 9th pick, and now Murray has a choice between the A’s and playing football for the Sooners this fall. Or both.
• And that’s what Murray says he’s going to do—play football this fall and then report to Oakland. The A’s say that they are OK with that. (The Cubs did this with both Jeff Samardzija and Matt Szczur.) One wonders, however, if Murray will feel pressured to change his mind as the time to report to Norman draws closer.
• One first-round draftee, the Angels’ Jordyn Adams, won’t be making the same decision as he’s informed the North Carolina football team that he won’t be a Tar Heel this fall. Or maybe he just told his dad, who is a coach on the team.
• Kids, don’t write stupid stuff on Twitter or Facebook because it’s going to come out when you’re a first-round draft pick of the Rockies years later.
• The Mariners beat the Astros and now have a two game lead in the American League West. David Schoenfield examines whether the Mariners can keep it up.
• After their terrible start, the Dodgers are just two games out of first (admittedly at 30-30) in the National League West. Jon Tayler looks at the surprising contributors who have kept the Dodgers in the playoff hunt.
• One of those contributors is outfielder Matt Kemp, and Jeff Sullivan is shocked that Kemp has actually been a good player this season on both sides of the ball.
• Stephen Loftus examines whether young teams are more likely to fade down the stretch of a pennant race than a veteran one.
• Even though things are going south in a hurry for the Mets, general manager Sandy Alderson says the team will likely never undergo a teardown and rebuild.
• The Yankees have whined their way out of Sunday Night Baseball. Jeez, maybe the Cubs should have just thrown a tantrum last week like the Yankees.
• Yankees slugger Aaron Judge just set a major-league record he’d like to forget: Judge struck out eight times in a doubleheader.
• Phillies manager Gabe Kapler responded to pitcher Jake Arrieta’s complaints about the team shifting by saying the problem isn’t the shifting, it’s the team’s execution of the shifts. Kapler also said he had no problem with Arrieta complaining to the media after Sunday’s loss.
• Jay Jaffe notes that Nationals superstar Bryce Harper has been pretty poor over the past 30 days and notes how defensive shifts are a big reason for this.
• On the flip side, add Ben Lindbergh to those who are saying that Angels outfielder Mike Trout is having his best season ever.
• Mike Petriello looks at how Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett has transformed himself into a power hitter. He’ll need a new nickname as only banjo hitters can be called “Scooter.”
• Bad news for the Angels in that shortstop Andrelton Simmons sprained his ankle in Tuesday night’s game.
• Mike Axisa picks an All-Star lineup for the AL and one for the NL.
• The Rangers have released Tim Lincecum, thus derailing, at least for now, his comeback attempt. The Rangers were on a deadline to promote him or release him.
• Now it’s time for the Butcher’s Bill. Yankees lefty Jordan Montgomery will have Tommy John surgery.
• Rays left-hander Anthony Banda will also have Tommy John.
• Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang is getting closer to returning to the major leagues.
• Marc Normandin explains why minor league baseball players are not unionized.
• My least favorite ballplayer of all-time is former Mets and Phillies outfielder Lenny Dysktra, and that was before his criminal life after baseball. Now he’s been arrested again after telling an Uber driver he’d “blow your [expletive] head off” unless he drove him to Stanton Island. (Seriously. I have a friend who used to be a Mets fan and he and I would play whiffle ball as the Cubs and Mets. I’d take the mound as Greg Maddux and he’d say “Leading off, Lenny Dysktra.” I always hit him with the first pitch when it was “Dykstra’s” turn to bat.)
• I have no problem with Braves Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz, except when he broadcasts a Cubs game because it’s so obvious he’d rather be golfing. But that golfing has paid off as Smoltz has qualified for the U.S. Senior Open.
• You know the song “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano”? Well, you would if you’re familiar with the Great American Songbook. When are they going to write one called “When the Midges Come Back to Progressive Field”? Because we need one now. I think it would be a hit. Maybe Taylor Swift will sing it.
• Rangers outfielder Delino DeShields made a great catch crashing into the wall and showed of his ‘do at the same time.
• And finally, in honor of the MLB Draft Grant Brisbee, Marc Normandin and Whitney McIntosh decided to draft teams out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe because . . .I have no idea why. I don’t know why I’m linking to it either. It’s not a baseball story. I guess it’s because I lack a lighthearted story to end it here. So have at it. And how Thor wasn’t the first pick outrages me. As Normandin writes, if the team ever gets behind, he can just cause a rainout.

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