MLB Bullets is thinking of a new address

Good morning.

• Jeff Passan reported on Thursday that MLB has given the Tampa Bay Rays permission to explore playing half their games in Montreal. Basically, it’s the Jonah Keri dream scenario.
• And we have questions. Passan does his best to answer them. Clearly this seems to be a longshot at the moment and the mayor of St. Petersburg has declared it a dead issue. But of course he’d say that. But there are many, many obstacles to overcome before this could happen. Passan also gives some ways that the Rays (or Ex-Rays, as some are calling them) would have to overcome.
• Hannah Keyser argues that the move would not help the Rays’ attendance problems in St. Petersburg.
• Sources in MLB are saying that this is the only way to save baseball in Tampa Bay—and that the Rays ownership doesn’t think Montreal would support 81 games a year. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Michael Baumann calls the idea bold, visionary and complete nonsense.
• Gabe Lacques calls this plan the beginning of the end of baseball in Tampa Bay.
• Jon Tayler believes it’s simply another cynical attempt to get a publicly-funded stadium in Florida.
• Speaking of baseball being played under unusual circumstances, the London Series is coming up. Craig Calcaterra has a terrific interview with the leader of a “UK Baseball Fan Movement” about what it’s like to be a baseball fan in the UK. The man Calcaterra interviewed became an Astros fan because he liked Mike Hampton, which is just plain weird. Don’t worry. While he says the Red Sox and Blue Jays are the two most popular teams, he says the Cubs and Dodgers also have big fanbases.
• In a new development in the David Ortiz shooting, authorities in the Dominican Republic have announced that Ortiz was the victim of a case of mistaken identity and that he was not the intended target of the shooting.
• Michael McCann is skeptical of the statements made by the Dominican authorities.
• The Mets fired pitching coach Dave Eiland and named 82-year-old Phil Regan as their new pitching coach. Regan, in case you didn’t know, was a member of the 1969 Cubs along with Ernie, Fergie, Billy and Ronnie. Not only that, he was 32 at the time. When he was a rookie, he gave up a hit to Ted Williams. No word on whether Cleon Jones will be joining Joe Maddon’s coaching staff.
• Matt Ehalt has the reasons the Mets decided to fire Eiland.
• Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer took the mound on Wednesday with a broken nose and a huge black eye. He threw seven scoreless innings, gave up four hits and two walks while striking out ten. Even John Shaft thinks Max Scherzer is a bad mother-shut-your-mouth.
• Neil Greenberg writes that with $210 million contract, Scherzer has been an absolute steal for the Nationals.
• The Nats and Mets were expected to be one of four good teams competing for the NL East title this year. But as Neil Paine points out, it turns out the Braves and Phillies were the only actual good teams in the division this year.
• Bradford Doolittle returns to his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska and looks at the state of baseball in this Midwestern city. It’s a essay worth your time about baseball on all levels: majors, minors, college and youth. Doolittle concludes that maybe the health of the game is a little stronger than we’ve been led to believe in recent years.
• Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner faced the Dodgers for the first time since Max Muncy told him to “go get it out of the ocean” and San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy warned the Dodgers that they were “poking the bear” with their taunting of Bumgarner. I’d say chasing Bumgarner in the fourth inning was “poking the bear” even more, but the Giants did almost come back in that game. (If I was Bumgarner, I’ll I’d say was that I couldn’t read the t-shirts through the glare coming off of my three rings.)
• The staff that runs Dodger Stadium continued to “poke the bear” throughout Bumgarner’s start with nautical-themed jokes.
• Speaking of the Dodgers, pitcher Rich Hill hits the injured list again, this time with a flexor tendon strain. He says he’s optimistic that he’ll pitch again “this season,” which sounds bad.
• Craig Edwards details how Rangers pitcher Lance Lynn has managed to become one of the best pitchers in the American League this year. (The best, according to Fangraphs WAR, at least.)
• Bradford Doolittle and David Schoenfield break down the race for the end-of-the-season BBWAA Awards.
• Jon Tayler divided every team into buy, sell or hold at the trade deadline.
• Yankees outfielder Cameron Maybin is having his best season in years and kept the Yankees afloat while much of their outfield was out injured. But Coley Harvey asks whether the Yankees will still have room for Maybin when everyone is healthy?
• The legend of Vanderbilt freshman starting pitcher Kumar Rocker just continues to grow, writes Elizabeth Merrill. MLB teams will be fighting to finish last in 2020 so they can draft Rocker.
• For the first time since he left after the 2011 season, Angels first baseman Albert Pujols is returning to play at Busch Stadium this weekend.
• Speaking of the Cardinals, they lost to the Marlins Thursday Night when pinch-running pitcher Jack Flaherty was picked off second base to end the game. Flaherty was so devastated by his mistake that he stayed sitting on the infield dirt long after everyone else had left and the grounds crew had started their work. Honestly, I feel bad for the guy. I mean, I’m glad he got picked off. But I feel bad that it had to happen to him. (Here’s the whole video if MLB hasn’t taken it down by the time you read this.)
• Speaking of mistakes, that’s nothing compared to Norfolk Tides right fielder Anderson Feliz made Wednesday night. Feliz, an Orioles farmhand, fielded a double in the bottom of tenth inning that scored the tying run. However, Feliz actually thought that was the winning run and threw the ball over the fence, allowing the batter to circle the bases with the actual winning run.
• Reds outfielder Jesse Winkler reached third base thanks to a miracle slide, leaping over the third baseman.
• Phillies pitcher JD Hammer is making players wearing giant eyeglasses cool again. I’m not sure when it ever was cool, but good for him.
• And finally, Craig Goldstein notes that the headline writers at MLB.com seem to think that baseball is being invaded by wild herds of “mammoths.” Also “towering” and “monster.” And I’d hate for anyone to analyze my adjective choices like this.

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