Last night’s Cubs game is still going on as you read this in the morning. I remember in the times before lights at Wrigley that a suspended game was a regular occurance.
- The Cardinals have taken the “interim” tag off of manager Mike Shildt and signed him to a three-year deal. I have to agree with Joe Sheehan here. Shildt may end up being the perfect manager for the Cardinals. But there is no way to make that determination based on 38 games and there was no reason this decision couldn’t have waited until the offseason. But hey, it’s the Cardinals so I’m fine with it.
- The other big news, I guess, is that the Mets traded Jose Bautista to the Phillies for a player-to-be-named-later or cash. It’s hard to say that’s big news when that’s the return for Bautista however. But he sure did have a great run in Toronto there for a while.
- Mark Feinsand has nine more players who could be traded by the August 31 deadline for postseason rosters.
- And Jesse Yomtov lists five players who could be traded by Friday, if you’re not up to reading a whole list of nine names.
- Travis Sawchik notes that about 15 years ago, the Athletics changed baseball with the Moneyball teams of the early aughts. Now the tactics they used to build a contender in 2018 are poised to change baseball again.
- On the other side, Cliff Corcoran compares the 2018 Orioles to the worst teams in baseball history. (Subscription req.)
- Gabe Lacques notes that the “frozen” free agents are still unhappy about how last winter’s free agent market went down. One of the players is the Orioles’ Alex Cobb. Cobb is not complaining about the money he eventually got, but he is upset about his “lost” off-season and thinks it affected the start to his season. Cobb was terrible in the first half. In seven starts since the All-Star break, Cobb has a 2.15 ERA.
- Craig Edwards looks at the strength of schedule for the remaining teams and how much impact it will have on the pennant races. One reason the Dodgers are still considered favorites to win the NL West is that the Diamondbacks have a brutal schedule the rest of the way, at least in comparison to the other National League contenders.
- The Phillies lost last night after pinch-running pitcher Vince Velasquez decided to advance to third base on a fly to center field with two outs and was called out for leaving second early.
- More social media gaffes as Red Sox DH J.D. Martinez said he “didn’t mean any harm” by reposting a false quote about guns and attributing it to Adolf Hitler. Yeah, who could possibly take offense to that?
- Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is going to miss all of 2018 and Jon Tayler tries to figure out what kind of a baseball future that Tulo will have going forward. He’s sees a big parallel to Nomar Garciaparra’s post-injury career.
- Jay Jaffe looks not just at Tulowitzki’s future, but also how the Blue Jays have managed in “A Year Without Tulowitzki.” That’s also the worst sequel to “A Year Without a Santa Claus” ever.
- The Mets have promoted rehabbing third baseman David Wright to Triple-A Las Vegas, but the team says that he won’t be activated anytime soon. Wright has not played in a major league game since May of 2016.
- While the Mets are claiming that Wright just isn’t ready to play in the majors (and to be fair, he very well might not be), there is no way the Mets are going to activate Wright because that would make it more difficult to collect on the insurance policy that they have on his contract.
- Nor are the Mets going to promote top first base prospect Peter Alonso and he and his agent are not happy about this decision.
- Dodgers pitcher Kenley Jansen says that the heart medication he was taking was responsible for his recent pitching problems so he stopped taking it. (He did ask his cardiologist first.)
- Jansen ended a game against the Rangers with a double play that he started on a ball he caught behind his back.
- Peter Keating has a nice look at Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts and Betts’ use of “disciplined aggression” at the plate.
- Angels DH/pitcher Shohei Ohtani joined Babe Ruth and 19th-century star Jimmy Ryan as the only players to hit 15 home runs and win two or more games as a pitcher in a season. Ohtani says he’ll pitch again this season as well.
- Vince Guerrieri takes a look at how maple replaced ash as the wood of choice for baseball bats. Two players—Joe Carter and Barry Bonds.
- Sam Miller ranks seventeen different types of double plays from best to worst. Subjective but fun.
- Jeff Sullivan doesn’t think that Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader is going to win the Rookie of the Year award, but he was surprised at how close Bader was to the perceived favorites, Juan Soto and Ronald Acuña Jr.
- Maybe it’s the tater tots? A young fan offered to share his tater tots with Bader and Bader took him up on it.
- Indians ace Corey Kluber shaved his beard off after his wife let him out of their bet.
- And Mariners manager Scott Servais had his hair cut like closer Edwin Diaz saved his 50th game.
- This seems as good a place as any to post Jorge Castillo’s piece about the close relationship that many major leaguers have with their barber.
- A minor league ballplayer set his bat down after a pitch, so the trained “bat dog” went to get it from him and hilarity ensued. Who’s a good dog?
- Here’s a look at some of the best players from the Women’s Baseball World Cup.
- Let’s finish up with movie night. Mary Craig looks at Ronald Reagan’s role playing Grover Cleveland Alexander in the film The Winning Team.
- And finally, he’s the story behind the baseball finale of the 1988 movie The Naked Gun. You get all the answers to your questions like “Why are the Angels playing the Mariners at Dodger Stadium?” And “Why does Reggie Jackson want to kill the Queen?” Ernie Banks makes an appearance too. (h/t Hardball Talk)
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.