MLB Bullets is out of date in Kansas City

Let’s just roll the videotape!

• The Brewers acquired third baseman Mike Moustakas from the Royals.
• Moustakas explains his feelings about leaving the only team he’s ever played for and going to Milwaukee. Mostly, he’s excited because the Royals are a burning dumpster fire right now.
• Rahul Setty breaks down the trade and how Moustakas fits in with the Brewers and whether Travis Shaw can make the transition to second base.
• The Mets traded infielder Asdrubal Cabrera to the Phillies.
• The Diamondbacks got infielder Eduardo Escobar from the Twins.
• Jon Tayler grades both the Cabrera and Escobar deals.
• Carson Cistulli thinks the D-Backs needed Escobar to replace the injured Jake Lamb.
• The Twins made another deal, sending reliever Ryan Pressly to the Astros.
• The Braves got reliever Brad Brach from the Orioles in exchange for international bonus pool money. Pretty clever of the Braves trading something they were banned from using.
• Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre has a decision to make about whether to waive his no-trade clause to go to a contender. He doesn’t want to leave Texas, but he also wants to win a World Series title before he retires.
• Mark Townsend goes through the trade deadline needs of all the contenders.
• Buster Olney believes the Yankees need to make a trade to fill-in for the injured outfielder Aaron Judge.
• Matt Snyder does a “butterfly effect” on what might have happened had outfielder Yoenis Cespedes been traded somewhere else the three different times he’s been dealt.
• In an ominous comment that we’re no doubt reading way too much into, Bryce Harper said that Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto would not have gotten the game-winning hit had the Nationals traded for him. Realmuto has been rumored as a trade target for the Nats pretty much since the end of last season.
• The good news is that the Hall of Fame inducted six new members. Here are all the speeches the new immortals gave.
• David Schoenfield outlines why each player who gave a speech in Cooperstown on Sunday got inducted.
• Maija Varda writes an essay about her favorite ballplayer of all-time, Jim Thome, on the occasion of his induction into Cooperstown.
• Thome’s daughter sang “The Star Spangled Banner” before the induction ceremony and in a very sweet moment, Thome got all choked up. Another famous “old-school” ballplayer in Jack Morris cried during his induction speech as well.
• Steve Wulf has the sweet story of the 87-year-old man who served as the batboy for the games on Hall of Fame weekend.
• How about a current Hall-of-Famer? Buster Olney retells the story of Mike Trout and how he became an Angel. I’ve heard this story before (Trout’s dad played in the Twins’ organization with the Angels scout who advocated that the team draft him) but Olney adds in a lot more details.
• You want even more details about Mike Trout? Olney has a lot more stories about Mike Trout and only one of them has anything to do with the weather. The best is a practical joke that Torii Hunter played on Trout when he was a rookie. Hunter said that Kirby Puckett played the same joke on him when he was a rookie, so you know, he’s just paying it forward.
• Braves pitcher Sean Newcomb lost a no-hitter on Sunday with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when the Dodgers’ Chris Taylor singled on a 2-2 fastball.
• And then, in what is becoming all too predictable, someone dug up some old Tweets of Newcomb’s where he repeatedly uses an anti-gay slur.
• Newcomb apologized for the comments saying it was “stupid stuff” a long time ago and he didn’t mean anything by it. Honestly, I don’t think we should be fining or suspending anyone for stuff they wrote on social media as a college freshman, but this doesn’t even really qualify as an apology. So I’m sure he’ll get a standing ovation before his next home start.
• And Newcomb wasn’t the only one. Old internet comments made by Nationals shortstop Trea Turner were also dug up with racist and homophobic comments. Turner’s apology seemed much stronger, saying the comments were “insensitive and offense” and that there were no excuses for what was written. Of course, he said that through a press release issued by the Nationals.
• Josh Peter doesn’t know if Newcomb or Turner harbor bigoted feelings, but he does know they’re both “morons.” I’m just going to editorialize a bit and say that while apologies are important first steps, what’s really important is how Newcomb and Turner, along with Brewers reliever Josh Hader, behave going forward. If they’ve truly grown and learned, then these comments should be forgotten. But you can’t just say “I was young” and “that’s not who I truly am.” You have to demonstrate it.
• And then there is Braves announcer Joe Simpson, who called the Dodgers “unprofessional” and that they should be embarrassed because the team wasn’t in full uniform during batting practice. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts wasn’t happy with the comments and called them “a cheap shot.” What Simpson said was ridiculous and he’s wrong to question the Dodgers’ professionalism, but Simpson has been the Braves color man since 1992 and this is probably the first time anyone ever listened to anything he’s ever said. Everyone should go back to ignoring Joe Simpson now.
• And then there is new Rockies reliever Seunghwan Oh, who may have chosen his uniform number to send out an obscene message in Korean. Or maybe he was just given the number. He’s never going to admit to the former, though.
• Getting back to the pennant races, Greg Bishop spent a week with the Mariners and got the inside story of their Wild Card chase from several different people.
• You may not know this unless you’re a fantasy baseball player, but Mariners closer Edwin Diaz has a shot at recording only the second 60-save season in MLB history. He’s on pace for it.
• Michael Baumann explains why the second American League Wild Card spot between the Mariners and Athletics could come down to just two players: James Paxton and Sean Manaea.
• And ruining all this good press for the Mariners, the team has announced that they won’t sign a long-term lease on Safeco Field unless they get $180 million in taxpayer funds. I’d say sure, as long as Safeco could be used as a homeless shelter and classroom as well.
• Sheryl Ring looks at the rulebook to determine whether or not pitch-framing is cheating. I’d say Willson Contreras is the most honest man in baseball.
• Obviously anything written by Doug Glanville is worth reading, but this one is about what goes through a player’s mind as they come to the end of their career. In particular, he’s writing about Chase Utley, who is one of the last players still playing who was a teammate of Glanville’s. (I think Ryan Madson is the only other of Glanville’s former teammates still playing, but I’m not 100% sure.)
• Speaking of designated for assignment, the Cardinals DFA’d reliever Greg Holland.
• For the first time in his career, Astros second baseman Jose Altuve went on the disabled list.
• No pitcher likes to be taken out of a ballgame, but Cardinals rookie Dakota Hudson got pulled from his game with Memphis over the weekend as his manager told him he was going to the majors.
• And finally, a quiz. How many of these ballparks can you identify from a portion of their minimalist artwork?

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