MLB Bullets is cooler than you are

Good morning. The Rays are like the Velvet Underground. Maybe only 8,000 people have seen them, but every one went out and founded their own baseball team.

The Cubs are back above .500 for the first time since Opening Day.

• I often refer to the injured list as “the butcher’s bill,” which is a colorful term from military history that refers to the cost in blood that armies pay. Baseball players don’t get killed playing the game, but they do get wounded a lot. And as Michael Baumann notes, no team in recent history has put more talent on the IL/DL than the 2019 Yankees.
• Pirates pitcher Nick Burdi had a very scary looking injury on the mound on Monday night and Emma Baccellieri uses Burdi’s injury to remind us that baseball can be a cruel sport and that “There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.”
• The somewhat good news is that Burdi’s injury is not nearly as bad as feared and he won’t need surgery. He is out indefinitely with rest and rehabilitation.
• Indians starter Carlos Carrasco left last night’s game in the fourth inning with “left knee discomfort.” Maybe nothing, maybe something. The Indians didn’t want to risk anything and he’ll have an MRI.
• Red Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi had surgery to remove “loose bodies” from his elbow. He’ll miss four-to-eight weeks.
• The Reds put outfielder Matt Kemp on the IL with a broken rib.
• Rockies lefty Kyle Freeland went on the IL with a blister.
• The good news is that the MRI on the elbow of Mets ace Jacob deGrom came back clean. He’s scheduled to come off the IL and pitch on Friday.
• Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was ejected from Monday night’s game and MLB is investigating whether or not Harper needs to be further disciplined.
• Harper’s teammate Jake Arrieta called out Harper after the game, saying that he’s “got to understand that we need him in right field.”
• Alden Gonzalez profiles the Padres as they are on the verge of what they hope will be a dynasty. And they hope that they will get more Padres fans at Petco Park. The early returns are encouraging, Gonzalez writes.
• Travis Sawchik writes about how the Rays have managed to better than everyone thought they’d be once again
• Chris Landers argues that the Rays are the best and coolest team in baseball. Yeah, but the band playing in a tiny club with 30 fans is always “cooler” than the band playing before a giant stadium audience.
• Eno Sarris tries to find the “trendiest” teams in the game, at least by the numbers. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The Angels may be the least trendy team, since strikeouts are way up in the game everywhere but with the Angels.
• Tom Verducci profiles the Pirates and writes about the secret to their early-season success.
• Tim Keown has a look at Giants team president Farhan Zaidi and his journey from academia to the front office. Also the resistance that people with Zaidi’s background still face in the game today.
• Before we leave the Bay Area, Zaidi’s first team, the Athletics, got good news as the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to agree to a term sheet that is a big step towards the A’s buying the Oakland Coliseum. And the A’s buying the Coliseum is the next step towards them getting a new stadium at Howard Terminal.
• Mike Axisa notes the big comeback season that Royals outfielder Alex Gordon is having this year.
• R.J. Anderson offers some reasons pitcher Dallas Keuchel is still a free agent.
• Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw isn’t the same pitcher he was in his prime. Craig Edwards explains what kind of a pitcher Kershaw is today.
• Dale Murphy says that he played with and against a lot of great players in his day and that Mike Trout is better than all of them. (The Athletic sub. req., but a free summary is here.) Murph is also very impressed with Javier Baez, among others.
• Jeff Seidel speaks with Tigers rookie Dustin Peterson about his journey from the bus crash in the minor leagues that almost killed him in 2015 to the majors. I remember that crash. No one was killed, but we were very lucky to not lose an entire minor league team.
• For all the talk about juiced baseballs in MLB, Sung Min Kim notes that Korea’s KBO seems to have deadened the baseball. To be fair, offense had been really high in KBO previously.
• Sheryl Ring examines what the Players Association can do about the contract extension that Braves infielder Ozzie Albies signed.
• Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi scored from second base on a wild pitch.
• Orioles outfielder Dwight Smith Jr. robbed Adam Engel of a home run. Also, it still upsets me that Dwight Smith’s kid is a grown major leaguer.
• Reds outfielder Yasiel Puig has turned that now-famous photo of his fight with the Pirates into a t-shirt. Where can I buy one, Yasiel? I guess #PuigNotMyFriend.
• A few years ago I complained about how Korean baseball had passed America in their first-pitch technique. Well, thank god for gold-medal winning Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin and her flip first-pitch maneuver.
• Former MLB outfielder Eric Byrnes smashed a 48-year-old record when he played 420 holes of golf in 24 hours. This is apparently a thing. The old record was 401 and it had survived many challenges. No, it doesn’t matter how many strokes you take, but you do have to finish every hole. Also, you can’t use a golf cart.
• And finally, Mets minor leaguer Tim Tebow accidentally kicked his first base coach in the groin. Tebow. His groin. It works on so many levels.

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