MLB Bullets and the wait is almost over

I hope everyone is having a nice three-day weekend. Unless you aren’t.

I always feel like my titles for MLB Bullets are just rejected Love, American Style titles with the phrase “MLB Bullets” substituted for the word “Love.” You know Love, American Style was mostly just a bunch of rejected sitcom pilots, right? Of course, one of those rejected sitcoms was Happy Days, which got un-rejected later when American Graffiti became a hit movie.

• Ken Rosenthal and Josh Tolentino are reporting that free agent pitcher Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel are expected to sign with a team shortly after midnight on June 2, when team will no longer lose a draft pick for signing them. The Rays and the Yankees are two teams expected to engage in a bidding war over Keuchel (The Athletic sub. req.) and the Rays are expected to make a big pitch for Kimbrel although there several other teams interested in Kimbrel. (If you don’t have an Athletic subscription, you can get a summary here along with some outside analysis.)
• Mike Axisa thinks the Yankees pretty much have to sign Keuchel.
• Danny Heifetz notes that the Yankees are in first place primarily because they’ve been feasting on the Orioles. The Boys from the Bronx are 10-2 against the Camden Crew this season.
• And no one is destroying the Orioles more than infielder Gleyber Torres. Octavio Hernandez Pernía breaks down all 20 hits Torres has against Baltimore and tries to assess whether Torres deserves the credit or the O’s the blame for each hit.
• Three ESPN.com baseball writers have a roundtable discussion of where the season stands at Memorial Day.
• The Pirates placed catcher Francisco Cervelli on the 7-day concussion injured list after the bat of Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson splintered and hit Cervelli.
• In a completely related story, Pirates general manager Neal Huntington thinks that players should be allowed to re-enter the game once they’ve been checked out for a concussion testing. This is a terrible idea. Huntington’s argument is that players will hide concussion symptoms to stay in the game, but as we’ve seen in the NFL, letting players back in the game puts tremendous pressure on the trainers to clear the player. And players would have just as much incentive to lie to the trainer off the field as they currently have on it.
• Pirates pitcher Joe Musgrove publically called on Huntington to acquire some more pitchers for the Bucs.
• The Pirates promoted pitching prospect Mitch Keller to the majors and Jonathan Mayo has a scouting report on Keller.
• Jonah Keri looks at the rise of the “cutter” as the new pitch that is changing the careers of pitchers who get good at it. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard has been very inconsistent this year and neither the Mets nor Thor have an explanation as to why.
• Astros outfielder George Springer, who is currently leading the American League in home runs, has gone on the IL with a hamstring injury. The Astros are saying he’ll miss more than the minimum ten days. Lucky for them the Astros are so good that they can keep winning without him. But I’m glad the Cubs are missing him.
• The Orioles put first baseman Chris Davis on the IL. That’s probably the end of his All-Star hopes.
• The Mets have signed outfielder Matt Kemp to a minor-league deal.
• The Athletics have designated reliever Fernando Rodney for assignment.
• Eddie Matz talked to former coaches and scouts going back as far as high school about the legend of the guided missile that is the arm of A’s outfielder Ramon Laureano.
• Richard Justice had nine players having breakout seasons that he thinks will last all season and beyond.
• This is something that many around here will agree with. Matt Snyder thinks it’s high time that MLB define what a “swing” is. Currently it’s just whatever an umpire says it is.
• Sad news as longtime Rangers sportswriter Gerry Fraley has died of cancer. He had covered the Rangers for The Dallas Morning News since 1989. He was 64.
• Blue Jays rookie Cavan Biggio got his first hit and his first home run with his Hall-of-Fame father in the crowd. I notice that Craig wasn’t wearing Blue Jays stuff.
• Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of Hall-of-Famer Carl Yastrzemski, made his major league debut with the Giants over the weekend. He also got his first hit, but was thrown out as he rounded first too far.
• Brewers manager Craig Counsell got in a heated argument with umpire Mike Estabrook. Counsell clearly made contact with Estabrook, so he’s likely looking at a suspension.
• As part of a war bond campaign in 1943, a group of sailors from the Norfolk Naval Station played the Washington Senators and beat the Senators 4-3. To be fair to the Senators, that naval base team had two future Hall-of-Famers in Phil Rizzuto and Pee Wee Reese on it, as well as Dom DiMaggio and many other major leaguers.
• In a West Coast Conference tournament game, St. Mary’s pulled of a routine 9-2-5-6 triple play. (Of course, it was anything but routine. It was odd and confusing, especially to the players.)
• Check out this slide by the Twins’ Willians Astudillo. Not exactly a work of art, but he hung onto that base for dear life.
• And finally, Charley Kershaw is only two years old but he can already get a hit off his famous father. Not only that, but he punctuated it with a major-league quality bat flip. So of course daddy Clayton put the next pitch in Charley’s ear. (That’s a joke. Of course he didn’t.)