MLB Bullets invades Europe

Can we just make Cookie Monster the permanent “7th-inning stretch” singer?

• The Red Sox and Yankees are off to London and several players on both teams shared their thoughts on the trip and what they’re expecting.
• The Red Sox are traveling to London in style in a luxurious chartered Boeing 777.
• While the trip is getting a lot of attention here and elsewhere in America, Bob Nightengale notes that most Londoners aren’t really paying attention.
• Michael Clair has a history of baseball in the UK and notes that it has a much deeper history than many might believe. World War II kind of killed off the interest.
• Baseball is actually much bigger in other European countries and Steve Wulf has a profile of Twins outfielder Max Kepler, who is the first real star ballplayer to come out of a European development system. Wulf looks at the issues that Kepler, who has a Polish father and American mother, faced growing up in Germany and also talks to some other European players who are currently toiling in the minor leagues.
• It doesn’t look like Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton will make the trip as he’s out until at least August with a sprained posterior collateral ligament. Stanton has only played nine games this season.
• David Schoenfield looks at the Red Sox bullpen issues and thinks they need to add an arm at before the trade deadline. You know who the Red Sox could use? Craig Kimbrel. I wonder why they didn’t think of that when he was available all those months. It wouldn’t have even cost them a draft pick.
• Emma Baccellieri has three proposed trades she thinks should happen.
• Stephanie Apstein speaks with Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman, who knows he’s very likely to get traded this summer.
• Jay Jaffe finally cries “uncle” and admits that there are too many home runs in the game today.
• Hunter Pence is starting as the DH for the American League in the All-Star Game. Ben Weinrib thinks Pence is one of the best stories of 2019.
• Zach Kram is excited by the amazing development of Angels DH Shohei Ohtani as a hitter. Kram is even wondering whether the Angels should consider having him quit pitching and become a full-time position player.
• The Marlins were awful at the beginning of the season, but Brendan Gawlowski thinks they’ve improved enough to now be a pretty interesting team.
• It’s been a bad year for the Orioles, but Tony Wolfe thinks that Baltimore has reason to be optimistic about the development of first baseman Trey Mancini.
• Blue Jays outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. looks like a future star, writes Mike Axisa.
• Tim Brown talks with Angels second baseman Tommy La Stella about his career and his breakout season.
• Neil deMause believes that Rays owner Stuart Sternberg is employing the “madman theory” with his plan to split the team’s home games between Montreal and Tampa Bay.
• Congratulations to Vanderbilt, who won the College World Series over Michigan, two games to one. I have to say I don’t make it a habit to cheer for Michigan, but the idea of a Big Ten team winning the CWS sucked me in. The last one to win was Ohio State in 1966. The last Big Ten team to finish second, until Michigan this year, was Ohio State in 1965.
• The Brewers have called up infielder Keston Hiura from Triple-A and sent down Travis Shaw.
• The Rays are calling up two-way player Brendan McKay.
• The Tigers signed recently-released reliever Trevor Rosenthal to a minor league deal.
• Kelsey McKinney spoke to people hit by foul balls about the damage that a foul ball can do to the human body.
• The Twins and Rays went from the second inning to the 18th inning without scoring any runs, the longest stretch in one AL game since 1906.
• The Grand Junction Rockies are not changing their name to the “Chubs” and they’re angry at people for even suggesting it.
• And finally, the Yankees and Red Sox got a lesson in “respect” from no less an authority than Big Bird.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Let’s go, USWNT.