MLB Bullets is weighing its options

It’s very late and the Giants and Mets are still playing as I write this. I guess the Giants don’t want Madison Bumgarner’s (probably) last game in a Giants uniform to ever end, even if MadBum has no doubt gone home and gone to bed hours ago.

• The trade deadline is fast approaching and that’s probably what we’re going to be talking about from now until July 31. Especially since it’s now a “hard” deadline with no more waivers deals going on in August. Jeff Passan has ten things to look for as we get closer to deadline day.
• Buster Olney writes that if you’re a team that wants to trade away a starting pitcher, you’d better do it quickly because there are more sellers than buyers. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Richard Justice has nine players who could make a big impact on the pennant races if they get dealt.
• Matt Ehalt looks at some Mets players who might be traded and what kind of a return they would bring.
• The Giants have been winning a lot lately, but even though they’re on the fringes of the wild card chase, the Giants still plan to be sellers and not buyers at the deadline.
• The Rangers are also on the fringes of the wild card chase, but Dan Szymborski still thinks that Texas needs to deal pitcher Mike Minor. Would that be a Minor trade by definition?
• Minor has made it clear, however, that he doesn’t want to be traded and that he’s bothered by all the trade talk.
• Will Leitch has seven teams that should stand pat at the trade deadline.
• The Yankees acquired Terrance Gore, who had recently been designated for assignment, from the Royals for cash. Craig Edwards takes a quick look at Gore’s (relative) problems stealing bases this season.
• Michael Baumann has three minor league prospects who could have as much impact as a trade acquisition if their teams would call them up.
• The other big news coming up are the induction ceremonies for the Hall of Fame. One inductee who won’t be there in person is the late Roy Halladay. Stephanie Apstein takes a look at Halladay and his love of flying and airplanes. As Apstein writes in this touching piece, Halladay learned two things from his dad: how to pitch and how to fly. One gave him life and the other one killed him.
• Sam Miller argues that new inductee Mariano Rivera was good enough to be two Hall-of-Famers—one for the regular season and one for the postseason.
• Alex Rodriguez talks about what it was like to be Rivera’s teammate and how Mo was both a team leader and a friend.
• Alex Rodriguez also talked about being a teammate of new inductee Edgar Martinez and Rodriguez says that he learned more about hitting from Martinez than any other player.
• Back to the games. Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg had a big game in a win. That’s not news, except that he was better at the plate than on the mound, going 3 for 3 with a home run and five RBI.
• The Nats are back in the postseason hunt and Thomas Boswell notes that the team believed in manager Dave Martinez even when everyone else (including Boswell) didn’t.
• The Athletics are in the hunt for a wild card spot and Devan Fink thinks you should pay more attention to the A’s, because they’re doing this second-half surge to the playoffs thing again.
• The Phillies are struggling to stay in the pennant race and Buster Olney notes that the Phillies “tanking” strategy from previous seasons doesn’t seem to have paid off. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Zach Kram thinks the NL Central could be the closest division, top-to-bottom, in history this year. Or, you know, the Cubs could just run off 18 wins in their next 21 games and put the division out of reach by late-August. At least that’s what I’m hoping for.
• Angels pitcher Noé Ramirez was suspended three games and manager Brad Ausmus was suspended one game after Ramirez intentionally hit Astros outfielder Jake Marisnick with a pitch.
• Phillies pitcher Hector Neris was suspended three games for throwing at Dodgers infielder David Freese
• The bad blood between Neris and the Dodgers continues as the Dodgers are upset that Neris screamed an obscenity at the Dodgers dugout after a save on Thursday.
• This appears to be the part of the program where we have baseball players airing their grievances. Padres infielder Manny Machado complained about the way he was being treated by MLB Network personalities Eric Byrnes and Dan Plesac. (NSFW video — although if you don’t play the video it’s fine.)
• Red Sox pitcher David Price made it clear that his feud with Red Sox analyst Dennis Eckersley is not over.
• Peter Gammons marvels at how good Padres rookie Fernando Tatis Jr. is now and will be in the future. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Lance Brozdowski explains how Braves closer Luke Jackson remade his slider into a “gyroscopic” slider and turned his career around.
• Yankees broadcaster David Cone has a new book coming out and he looks back on his career on the field and in the booth. Throughout his career, Cone always wanted to know more.
• R.J. Anderson looks at the efforts of Montreal, Portland and Raleigh to bring a Major League Baseball team to their cities.
• Umpire Mike DiMuro has retired because of back problems. He’d been a major league umpire since 1999.
• Pumpsie Green, the first black player on the Red Sox, has died at age 85. The Red Sox were the last team in MLB to integrate in 1959. If you want to know the real reason that the Red Sox didn’t win a World Series for so long, this is the reason. It wasn’t any curse of Babe Ruth.
• Jacob Bogage reports on the FBI investigation into fraud in the baseball card collecting industry.
• It’s the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing on Monday and baseball teams are finding ways to commemorate the event, including the Astros wearing the Apollo 11 caps for the day.
• Back in 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, baseball stopped for several minutes so fans could follow the event.
• Here’s some fielding porn as Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain absolutely robs Diamondbacks third baseman Eduardo Escobar of a home run with a spectacular catch.
• And finally, is there anything that Phillies outfielder Andrew McCutchen can’t do? I don’t think so. McCutchen can even pull off wearing socks with sandals.

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