MLB Bullets is a failure to act

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• I don’t usually cover Cubs news, but since this is more about the Cardinals and Brewers, I’ll lead with it. Dan Szymborski writes that Milwaukee and St. Louis’ failure to do anything meaningful at the deadline is allowing the Cubs to slowly pull away in the NL Central. You all can agree or disagree with that.
• Matt Ehalt believes that the Yankees failure to sign free agent pitcher Patrick Corbin this past winter could lead to failure in the postseason.
• Andrew Simon has ten players on ten contenders who need to “step up their game” down the stretch. Although his Cubs suggestion is Yu Darvish, whom he admits probably already has stepped up.
• Gabe Fernandez argues that the Orioles should be relegated to the minors. The entire team, just like in European soccer.
• And yet, just like in European soccer, a team from a lower division can upset a top division powerhouse in a cup match. According to the Las Vegas oddsmakers, the Orioles win over the Astros on Sunday was the biggest upset in MLB in at least 15 years.
• Orioles first baseman Chris Davis blamed frustration over his own performance for his outburst last week at manager Brandon Hyde.
• The Indians have caught the Twins in the AL Central and this can’t help the cause of Minnesota as DH Nelson Cruz has gone on the injured list with a wrist injury.
• The Twins did make a trade, acquiring outfielder Ian Miller from the Mariners. Yes, you can still trade minor leaguers after the deadline.
• There’s speculation (I guess that’s the word for it) that the Red Sox will try to deal outfielder Mookie Betts this winter. Betts can be a free agent after the 2020 season and resisted Boston’s efforts to sign him to a contract extension.
• Yankees general manager Brian Cashman had guns drawn on him by Connecticut police officers who mistook him for a car thief.
• The Mets finally lost on Sunday, but they still have played themselves back into the postseason hunt over the past two weeks or so. One week spot has been closer Edwin Diaz and manager Mickey Callaway announced that Diaz will have to share closing duties with Seth Lugo from now on.
• Infielder Asdrubal Cabrera was released by the Rangers last week and now he has signed a free agent deal with the Nationals. His former team, the Mets, had wanted to sign him but Cabrera chose the Nats because the Mets hurt his son’s feelings by not re-signing him in the offseason, so Cabrera said.
• The Mets signed free agent infielder Joe Panik, which meant they designated infielder Adeiny Hechavarria for assignment just one day before he was to earn a $1 million bonus. Of course, Hechavarria has been so bad this season that it’s been a gift to him that he’s been on the team this long. Plus, he still will earn $3 million guaranteed salary this year.
• I don’t normally write about 31-year-old minor leaguers who are hitting .163 this summer, but Mets minor leaguer Tim Tebow is done for the season with a finger injury.
• Michael Baumann profiles Blue Jays rookie Bo Bichette, whom Baumann believes has all the tools to become a superstar.
• Jon Tayler writes that between Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and others, the Blue Jays have the most promising young core of talent in the majors right now.
• Next year the rules about position players pitching are going to change and a position player will need to have 20 innings on the mound this year to be considered a “two-way player” next year. Will Leitch has one position player on each team who needs to be a pitcher as well.
• Major League Baseball is coming to Iowa next season and Bradford Doolittle explains why he’s so geeked out about it. He also talks to the actor who played Kevin Costner’s ghost father in Field of Dreams.
• Ben Clemens has an appreciation of Rangers rookie reliever Emmanuel Clase and his 100 mph cutter. Cripes, I’ve got to watch more Rangers games after reading this piece. This guy was the Rangers #27 prospect coming into this season. It’s fair to say he’s taken a huge step forward.
• Craig Edwards notes how good Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty has been over the past month, finally showing why he was so highly-regarded as a prospect coming through the Cards’ system.
• Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg has passed Expos pitcher Steve Rogers as the all-time strikeout leader in franchise history.
• This is a fascinating piece by Ben Lindbergh in which he introduces the concept of an “umpire perfect game,” or a game in which an umpire calls every ball and strike correctly against one team, at least according to the tracking system. (No one has ever called every single pitch against both teams correctly in one game.) Believe it or not, Joe West called a perfect game against the Cubs on July 4. Also, Lindbergh talks to former umpire Dale Scott about why umpires sometimes miss calls.
• Kyle Glaser talks to some current All-Star pitchers about whether high school pitchers should turn pro immediately or whether they should go to college first. Unsurprisingly, Max Scherzer, who went to college, says they should go to college. Clayton Kershaw, who didn’t, thinks pitchers who can handle it should turn pro immediately. (Kyle Boddy of Driveline Baseball had some interesting thoughts on this issue as well in a Twitter thread.)
• Here’s a quick diversion the NFL, but it’s MLB-related. The Oakland Raiders are moving to Las Vegas because that city was dumb enough to give him a billion-dollar stadium. The problem is that stadium isn’t ready yet, so they had to keep playing in Oakland. But the Raiders’ lease with the Oakland Coliseum ran out last year and the team looked to play in a temporary home until their Vegas home was ready. So the Athletics immediately remodeled the Coliseum to make it more friendly for baseball and their fans. In the end, the Raiders couldn’t find a temporary home and had to come crawling back to the Coliseum for at least the 2019 season (and maybe more). Well, Raiders owner Mark Davis, despite the fact that he’s abandoning Oakland, is angry that the A’s aren’t accounting for his wishes and called the A’s front office “[f-word]-ing totally dysfunctional. It’s that [f-word]-ing bad over there.” Davis apologized for the profanity, but not for his arrogance that the A’s and the Alameda County should take his every wish into consideration as he leaves town because he’s in the [f-word]-ing NFL. And of course, Davis has earned that respect because he won the [f-word]-ing genetic lottery.
• Benches cleared after a game between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers on Saturday night.
• If you watched Sunday Night Baseball last night, you know broadcaster Jessica Mendoza was missing after being involved in a car accident. ESPN said she was not seriously injured and is expected to be at the Cubs/Pirates game this coming Sunday in Williamsport, PA.
• A basketball legend both on the court and in the broadcast booth, Bill Walton will take a turn being the color man for the White Sox game in Anaheim this Friday. That should be interesting.
• Brewers pitcher Adrian Houser threw up on the mound again. But he stayed in the game and got a six-inning no-decision in a game that the Brewers eventually won, so the Brewers are probably OK with that.
• An Angels fan, wearing a full Mike Trout uniform and cap, got into an elevator in Boston this weekend. Who should then get on the elevator but Mike Trout himself? Of course he got a photo with Trout but as that article points out, even Red Sox fans were trying to get photos with Mike Trout.
• And finally, you think you had a bad day? Braves reliever Sean Newcomb kicked a garbage can in the clubhouse after a bad outing. The garbage can then punctured a fire extinguisher, spewing out chemical dust that was then spread all over by a large fan. The rest of the team was unable to enter the clubhouse in Miami until it was cleaned up. Yeah, I think I saw that episode of I Dream of Jeannie. (And yes, Newcomb apologized and offered to pay for the damages.)

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