MLB Bullets and the cycle

Man, chocolate-covered espresso beans are such a great late-night snack!

• Angels designated hitter Shohei Ohtani hit for the cycle last night. He’s the first Japanese-born player to hit for the cycle in MLB.
• Jon Tayler notes that as a hitter, Ohtani is as good as he ever was. And he was very good.
• David Schoenfield says the public had forgotten what an incredible wonder that Ohtani is.
• Fabian Ardaya writes that Ohtani is just a player who is destined to make history. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Not only that, but as this article points out, Ohtani did it against a Rays pitching staff that has been the greatest pitching staff since the Cubs’ teams of 110 years ago.
• Ohtani hit for the cycle in a game that was delayed for 36 minutes in the fourth inning by a power outage.
• Here’s a general update on the happily improving condition of Red Sox great David Ortiz. Ortiz. His wife thanked the “guardian angels” who were the medical staff that treated Ortiz both in the Dominican Republic and in Boston.
• Hannah Keyser has a profile of Reds super-utility player Derek Dietrich and asks why we’re just learning about this veteran player just now. Hint: it’s because he played for the Marlins before this season. Also, Dietrich has a great Marlins burn. When asked if he felt disrespected in Miami, Dietrich said yes. When asked the follow-up question of “By the front office or the fans?”, Dietrich simply answered “What fans?”
• Ken Rosenthal argues that MLB has to do something about the ball and home runs. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• David Schoenfield looks at all the times in baseball history when people claimed that offense was way up because the ball was “juiced.”
• Marly Rivera explains how the Twins stopped worrying and learned to love the (home run) bomb. And they’re in first place.
• Michael Baumann notes that the Indians were expected to run away with the AL Central. Instead, the Twins are running away with it. Baumann writes about what went wrong and whether or not the Tribe should wave the white flag on 2019.
• Ben Lindbergh notes that while Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw isn’t the same pitcher he was a few years ago, he’s nowhere close to being washed up. Lindberg looks at the adjustments Kershaw has made to stay on top of the game.
• Mike Petriello has the ten most improved pitchers of 2019.
• Emma Baccellieri ranks the nastiest curves and sliders in MLB.
• Sam Miller has a quiz about when pitchers throw with peak velocity.
• Anthony Castrovince has seven trade target pitchers who are more than just a rental (meaning they’re under team control for more than the rest of the year.)
• Craig Edwards explains why every contender should want to trade for Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman.
• The Blue Jays may be struggling, but Jays rookie Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is succeeding and not acting like a rookie at all, writes Gabe Lacques.
• There were a pair of minor trades. The Phillies picked up infielder Brad Miller from the Yankees for cash.
• And the Blue Jays got pitcher Nick Kingham from the Pirates for cash. Man, this cash guy must be tired from moving around all the time.
• The Padres sent Rookie-of-the-Year candidate Chris Paddack down to High-A. Chris Cwik outlines why the Padres said they did it and why other people think the Padres did it.
• David Laurila speaks with Rangers slugger Joey Gallo about his approach to hitting.
• Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke took a no-hitter into the seventh inning last night. He said he didn’t mind losing it because throwing a no-hitter “would probably more of a hassle than anything.” On the one hand, what kind of an attitude is that? On the other hand, he’s right. A no-hitter doesn’t do your team any more good than any other complete game shutout.
• The Dodgers put shortstop Corey Seager on the injured list with a hamstring strain, but the good news is that the injury is not as severe as first thought. Seager is more likely to miss a few weeks instead of a few months.
• We just finished the 2019 draft, but David Schoenfield wants to inform you that next year’s draft looks like one of the strongest in many years. This year’s draft was kind of the opposite of that. Although we really won’t know for another 4-to-6 years.
• Major leaguers remember their time playing in the College World Series.
• Rays outfielder Tommy Pham notes that the All-Star Game voting has never been fair and it never will be fair. Pham naturally thinks Rays players should be getting more votes. He’s right on that point.
• Sarah Langs has the latest a player has hit .400 into a season, by year.
• And finally, Mets catcher Wilson Ramos found out that his wife was expecting their third child when she held up a sign while he was in the on-deck circle.

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