MLB Bullets is getting ready for a break

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. Me? I had an earthquake.

I hope that one day, July 4 will be known as “Robel Garcia Day” among Cubs fans.

Let’s bring it all home on Sunday, USWNT.

• Neil Paine believes that 2019 is the Yankees’ best chance to win a World Series since 2009, although you’d still take the field (or just the Dodgers) over the Bronx Bombers. If the Yankees don’t win the World Series, the 2010’s will join the 1980’s as the only decade that the Yankees haven’t won a World Series since the 1910s. And if they don’t make the World Series this year, it will be the first decade since before the sale of Babe Ruth before the 1920 season without the Yankees playing in the Fall Classic.
• Bradford Doolittle looks at how the Twins built their best team ever in 2019 (and that even includes their Senators days) and if they can keep it up all the way to the end of October. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• David Schoenfield looks at how many teams still have a realistic shot at the postseason.
• Jon Tayler ranks the top ten MLB home runs of 2019 (so far).
• People in and out of baseball who knew Tyler Skaggs talk about a man known for his humor and his heart.
• Former Reds pitcher Jon Moscot, who was a Little League teammate of Skaggs, remembers the guy he grew up with. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Rays pitcher Ryan Sherriff also played Little League with Skaggs and he was touched by this graffiti mural tribute to Skaggs on Venice Beach.
• Emma Baccellieri looks at the National League Cy Young Award race between Dodgers pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu and Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer.
• Seeing Max Scherzer in an Expo uniform is pretty cool. The Nats will wear Expos throwbacks for Saturday’s game.
• Bob Nightengale has another story of the incredible post-career turnaround of Alex Rodriguez and how he’s gone from pariah to mentor in just a few short years.
• Matt Snyder has noticed that this season, Coors Field has been a lot more like Coors Field again. Maybe not all the way back to its pre-humidor days, but close.
• One day after Yankees manager Aaron Boone said “it’s a joke” that infielder Gleyber Torres wasn’t on the All-Star team, Torres was named as an injury replacement to the All-Star Game. Plus all the other injury replacements at that link.
• Here are all the contestants in the Home Run Derby and their chances to win.
• Eno Sarris looks at the numbers and concludes there is no Home Run Derby “curse.” (The Athletic sub. req.) That is, hitters do not have poor second halves after participating in the Derby.
• Jay Jaffe checks in on Padres third baseman Manny Machado and notes that so far, his first half-season after signing a big free agent deal has been “good” although not great.
• Ben Clemens notes that Machado’s teammate in San Diego, Wil Myers is both hitting the ball harder than ever before and having one of the worst seasons of his career. He tries to explain how both of those things could happen at the same time.
• Mike Petriello has five players who are likely available at the trade deadline who could be real bargains.
• Assault charges were dropped against Phillies outfielder Odubel Herrera. He still faces possible discipline from MLB, however.
• Mark Townsend looks at the upcoming MLB Network special on Sunday about the 1995 Mariners and how they saved baseball in Seattle.
• Tim Rohan speaks with former major league pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim and discovers that Kim feels that much of his career was “lost in translation.”
• I mentioned this in the Minor League Wrap yesterday, but the DSL Yankees beat the DSL Twins 38-2 this week for a new minor league record for runs scored. Not only that, but one of the Yankees pitchers got a save in this game.
• And finally, it’s a big draw for minor league teams to have big fireworks displays after games. But the Port St. Lucie Mets may have to rethink that after their fireworks show set off a huge brushfire outside the stadium. Not only that, but it’s the second time in three years their fireworks started a fire outside the park.

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