MLB Bullets can’t believe it’s already Wednesday

Let’s get this Wednesday started off with something a little bit fun, since the rest of the early-week news cycle has been dominated by stories of failed negotiations and some teams potentially cutting off pay for minor leaguers.

MLB announced today that they’ll be doing a “What If” Derby in place of the usual pre-All-Star Game Home Run Derby. The “What If” Derby is a fan-voted bracket featuring some of the all-time best hitters of the past and present era, and it might be cheesy, but I’m still very here to watch the Vlad vs. Vlad showdown.

• Baseball may like to keep things static when it comes to training, but Ron Morris shares the story of a unique pitching lab that’s helping one university team excel.
• Did Barry Bonds help Christian Yelich become the superstar he is today?
• Last season, Detroit Tigers catching prospect Chace Numata died in a tragic skateboarding accident. This year, his memory is being honored with a new scholarship.
• Joe Maddon has is own show on YouTube now!

• It can’t be easy taking pitching advice from your dad, especially if your dad is Greg Maddux, reports David O’Brien. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• We talk a lot about the difficulty baseball has in promoting its players, but as Louis Menard shows us, there was a golden age of baseball players as celebrities.
• Stephen J. Nesbitt explores a little known rule that could have seen some major signing changes for some of baseball’s best known stars. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• KBO star Kang Jung-ho has been banned from playing for one year, as reported by Yoo Jee-ho.
• Andrew Baggarly takes us inside the life of one of the Brewers racing sausages. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• On Monday we shared a look at the Nationals World Series rings, but Mark Zuckerman takes a deeper look into all the meanings of the design choices.
• Year after year we see incidents of bees invading stadiums and delaying games. Well this time it happened to Rays outfielder Austin Meadows and his teammate pitching prospect Shane McClanahan while they were out golfing.

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