MLB Bullets escapes from New York

Is it time for hugs already?

• The Athletics are buying this year and on Saturday they picked up Mets reliever Jeurys Familia for two minor leaguers.
• Dan Szymborski looks at what the trade does for both teams.
• Keith Law say that the Mets got an embarrassingly-poor return for Familia. (You can read that one for free thanks to abcnews.com reprinting the ESPN Insider story.)
• Zach Braziller gets the Mets explanation as to why they made this deal now and what they think they’re getting back.
• Even more bad news for the Mets comes from the return of their outfield star Yoenis Cespedes, who may end up needing surgery on his foot. The Mets say that surgery would be a last resort.
• Stephania Bell writes that while the Mets have not disclosed Cespedes’ complete diagnosis, it certainly sounds like he could need surgery that could put him out of action for 8-to-10 months. You’d think the Mets would just want him to go have it now.
• Richard Justice has nine more players who could be on the move this summer who could make a big splash in the rest of the season and playoffs, such as they are.
• The Mariners are interested in Mets infielder Asdrubal Cabrera. Remember, Robinson Cano cannot play in any playoff games they might have this season.
• At least six teams are interested in Orioles reliever Zach Britton. The Cubs appear to be one of them.
• As if things couldn’t get worse for Baltimore, Adam Jones and Chris Davis got stuck in an elevator at the team hotel in Toronto.
• R.J. Anderson has a collection of things to watch for as the trade deadline approaches.
• The Giants may have to trade a veteran at the deadline to stay under the salary cap luxury tax threshold this season. They definitely can’t add anyone unless they do.
• Mike Axisa weighs the pros and cons of trading for one big prospect (the Padres approach) or several mid-level ones (the Orioles way).
• The Angels need to trade some players, but they will never go into full-rebuild mode as long as Mike Trout is an Angel.
• Speaking of Trout, Whitney McIntosh tells MLB to stop blaming their marketing issues on Mike Trout.
• In last night’s Sunday Night Baseball rainout, Buster Olney got a weather opinion from Mike Trout. And who says Trout isn’t willing to promote himself? You got to admit, Trout’s weather hobby is adorable. I don’t know why MLB doesn’t play with that more.
• If you haven’t been watching the Marlins this season (and honestly, I don’t know why you would be), you’ve probably missed that Brian Anderson is having a Rookie-of-the-Year-caliber breakout. Anderson’s bWAR is 2.7 as I write this. I’d say that’s pretty good.
• Ben Lindbergh explains why the 2018 pennant races may not be boring after all, although there is a lot of math involved. I had a high school math teacher who explained his mathematical proof why all numbers are interesting. It kind of feels like that.
• The Pirates are making things interesting at least and after a nine-game win streak, David Schoenfield is willing to declare them wild card contenders at least. Which means they won’t sell at the trade deadline which will look really bad if they then lose 13 out of 20 games in August.
• S. L. Price has a profile of Kirk Gibson that is worth your time to read. Price traces how Gibson went from being a complete and total jerk (actually worse than that, but that’s as nice as I can write) to slowly deciding to become a better person over the course of his career. His current struggles with Parkinson’s Disease has forced him to completely slow down life and reflect on how to be a better person.
• In one of the scariest events that I’ve ever covered, at least as much as one can through the magic of internet video, Cardinals minor leaguer Daniel Poncedeleon was hit in the head by a Victor Caratini line drive last summer in Des Moines. He easily could have died. Today, fourteen months later, Poncedeleon makes his major league debut. Forgive me for cheering for a Cardinals player today.
• Rodger Sherman argues that Rafael Palmeiro is showing up his own kid. The 53-year-old Palmeiro and his son are teammates on the independent league Cleburne Railroaders and the elder Palmeiro is totally outplaying his son. Of course, the four-time All-Star is also outhitting pretty much every other player in the American Association as well.
• Speaking of independent ball, there’s an interesting experiment going on in the same league (American Association) that Palmeiro plays in. The Texas AirHogs have the entire 30-man Chinese National Team on their roster this summer, although only 13 are active at any one time. The goal is to get the team the experience they need to compete with Japan, Korea and Taiwan in the Asia Games and in Olympic qualifying. Former Rockies pitcher Tyler Matzek is one of their teammates.
• Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia had mentioned possibly retiring after this season but now says he’d like to play in 2019. He doesn’t sound like he’ll stick around much longer than that though.
• Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner could be heading to the disabled list after aggravating a groin injury.
• Mets ace Noah Syndergaard went on the DL with hand, foot and mouth disease. The Mets must not have passed out the flier that my daughter’s school sent home with her.
• Nationals closer Sean Doolittle won’t be coming off the DL anytime soon.
• If you were watching Thursday’s Cubs-Cardinals game, you know that ESPN broadcaster Matt Vasgersian asked “Is there anything more obnoxious than the bachelorette party at the ballpark?” I can think of one thing. It’s men with a national platform telling women (or anyone, but especially women) the correct way to be a fan at the ballpark.
• The Reds bullpen was attacked by giant spiders on Sunday. Or maybe they were just regular-sized spiders who looked huge because they were on the camera lens.
• And finally, Brewers infield Hernan Perez got to pitch on Saturday and he threw a 48-mph slider. It hit Austin Barnes.

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