MLB Bullets won the battle of Britton

I decided to turn on some music while I type this and instead of going through the rigamarole of setting up my own music, I tune to a digital music channel on the TV. I put it on the “FolK” channel because it will keep me up without waking the rest of the house. On comes a song by the New Christy Minstrels and I wonder “Who were the ‘Old’ Christy Minstrels?” Yeah, that was unfortunate. Next I’ll find out that the “Old” Zoo Revue featured cockfighting and bear baiting.

• Zach Britton went to the Yankees for three prospects. So there.
• Coley Harvey has more on the deal and why the Yankees made the trade.
• The deal left Britton a bit distraught as he left the only team he’s ever played for.
• Tim Brown writes that the Yankees needed a starting pitcher more than a reliever, but hey, pitching is pitching.
• Jon Tayler calls the Yankees bullpen with Britton as “terrifying.” He does know it’s not 2016 anymore, right? Of course, you could call the Yankees bullpen “terrifying” even without Britton, so Tayler ain’t lying.
• Of course as good as the Yankees are, they’re still five games behind the Red Sox. Gabe Lacques explains why the Red Sox are so much better than every other team in the American League this year.
• But Buster Olney thinks that the Indians are the favorites to win the AL Championship Series and he shares his reasoning.
• So that’s why Mike Axisa wonders whether it is worth it for the Yankees to deal one of their “untouchable” young prospects to get that player they need to get past Boston, Cleveland and Houston.
• Michael Baumann looks at the critical “challenge trade” that turned the Mariners into contenders, as well as Seattle’s general rebuild that has them in playoff contention.
• But bad news for the M’s is the hard-charging Athletics. David Schoenfield believes the A’s will catch the M’s for the final Wild Card spot.
• Then there is the Pirates, who have now won 11 straight games.
• The worst-kept secret is out: the deal to send Manny Machado to the Dodgers was done on Sunday, but not announced until Wednesday so Machado could wear an Orioles uniform at the All-Star Game.
• Bradford Doolittle offers his assessment of the new and improved Dodgers with added Machado.
• Teams calling the Giants about the availability of ace Madison Bumgarner are told to get lost. They’re not trading Bumgarner.
• Grant Brisbee has seven trades that he thinks definitely should happen. He doesn’t even have Mike Trout going to the Giants, just Adam Duvall in order to placate those Giants fans who are still upset he was traded in the first place.
• The Mets put outfielder Yoenis Cespedes back on the disabled list. It’s still possible that he’s out for the season and part of next year as well.
• Brisbee thinks that for all the LOLMets jokes, it’s hard to see what the team could have done differently since the 2015 World Series. Well, they could have released Jose Reyes a long time ago, for one.
• Speaking of the Mets, Orioles and Marlins (OK, no one mentioned the Marlins but that’s because we were unsure they still existed), Sam Fortier talks to players on miserable teams about what keeps them motivated during a terrible year. There’s some Starlin Castro quotes in there.
• Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez was accused of loafing after not running after a passed ball, but it turns out he was hurt and now he’s back on the DL.
• One person who doesn’t have such an excuse is Nationals shortstop Trea Turner, who didn’t run to first on a bad bunt. Chris Cwik notes that this is just another symbol of a season gone wrong in DC. Also, Turner was named the recipient of the team’s “Heart and Hustle” award for this season.
• I got my wish! Cardinals rookie Daniel Poncedeleon made his first major-league start on Monday, just 14 months after he was nearly killed by a Victor Caratini line-drive in Iowa. Poncedeleon threw seven no-hit innings in his major-league debut. Even better, the Cardinals bullpen blew the game.
• Poncedeleon’s reward for such an incredible debut? A free trip to Memphis! That sounds good until Poncedeleon realizes he’s back in the minors.
• Then on Tuesday, yet another Cardinals pitcher making his first major-league start, Austin Gomber, took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before the fire alarms went off at Great American Ballpark, delaying the game for several minutes. Joey Votto then broke up the no-hitter in the seventh.
• As if things couldn’t go worse for the Mets, minor league outfielder Tim Tebow is out for the season with a broken hamate bone. So now they don’t even have their living publicity stunt to sell tickets in September.
• Gabe Lacques thinks that Tebow’s window to play in the majors may have just closed. Oh, I don’t know. The Mets will need to sell tickets in September next year, too.
• On to real players who are injured. Brewers pitcher Brent Suter has a torn ulnar collateral ligament, and is most likely going to need Tommy John surgery.
• He can join the A’s Kendall Graveman, who is definitely having Tommy John surgery.
• Padres top prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. (who is arguably the top prospect in all of baseball—yes, even better than Vlad Guerrero Jr because Tatis actually plays defense.) is out for the year after thumb surgery. Of course, there’s only a little over a month left of the minor league season.
• Joey Votto wants to drive a school bus when he retires.
• And finally, retired Dodgers first baseman Ron Fairly tells the story of the lucky pebble that he credits for bringing Los Angeles their first World Series title in 1959. Pee Wee Reese gave Fairly the pebble and he still has it to this day.

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