What is the story about?
Good
morning.
- The Giants beat the Athletics last night, but other than that, things have been a whole bunch of awful for the team by the Bay. Grant Brisbee writes that the Giants are somehow making losing baseball look even worse (Free The Athletic reg. req.), including the Rafael Devers incident where he refused to leave for a pinch runner.
- Devers apologized to first-year manager Tony Vitello over the incident.
- However, Devers also blamed the media for making a big deal out of it all. (Free The Athletic reg. req.) Giants team president Buster Posey also defended Vitello, and said he still had the respect of the players. Ouch.
- On top of that, facing threatening letters from a US Senator and a threatened Civil Rights investigationfrom the Department of Justice, commissioner Rob Manfred blamed the Giants for not making clear that players were not required to wear Pride Caps. Manfred also reiterated that players are not allowed to write messages of any kind on their uniforms.
- Posey issued a statement about the Pride Night controversy, but then refused to answer any questions about it, despite repeated questions from reporters. (Free The Athletic reg. req.) Andrew Baggarly and Grant Brisbee report.
- Sarah Borus called the Giants “a stinking cesspool of bad vibes and bad baseball.”
- Maria Guardado reports that the Giants are open to trading pretty much any veteran other than Logan Webb.
- As long as we’re on the trade front, Jake Mintz, Jordan Schusterman and Russell Dorsey look at what kind of trade packages could land Tigers ace Tarik Skubal.
- Red Sox pitcher Sonny Gray said he would consider waiving his no-trade clause. Dayn Perry reports.
- Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll said the team has “no plans” to trade center fielder Byron Buxton. Combined with Buxton saying he won’t waive his no-trade deal and it looks like he’s staying in the Twin Cities another year at least.
- Dayn Perry examines the slumping Braves and where they might get help in the trade market.
- Jay Jaffee looks at how bad the Freddy Peralta trade has been for the Mets.
- Jake Rill goes back over the trades the Orioles made this past winter and shows how much the team has benefitted from them.
- If you want to feel better about Cubs bullpen meltdowns, the Phillies were down two to the Nationals with two outs and no one on in the top of the ninth. The Phillies, who had been down to their final strike, then exploded for eight runs and won 14-9.
- Slightly better pitching news for the Nats comes from Spencer Nusbaum, who takes us inside their brand-new pitch design team. (Free The Athletic reg. req.) The article in particular looks at their work with Cade Cavalli.
- Anthony Castrovince has what we’ve learned through half a season already.
- Jeff Passan hands out his own original mid-season awards.
- David Schoenfield looks at the biggest strength of every playoff contender and whether those strengths will continue.
- Jason Foster has a few thoughts on the All-Star balloting.
- Travis Sawchik looks at the owners draft proposals and while he doesn’t like all of it, he does have some thoughts about what a better draft system might look like.
- Dan Szymborski estimates exactly how much money the owners’ draft proposal would cost the players. (Answer: a lot.)
- The Brewers released Luis Rengifo, who was their Opening Day starting third baseman.
- Davy Andrews tries to answer what’s wrong with Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan?
- A’s third baseman Zack Gelof had his 24-game hit streak end when he left the game after Giants third baseman Matt Chapman stepped on his hand with his spikes.
- Yankees manager Aaron Boone is upset that his second baseman, Jazz Chisholm, went out into the field with a lollipop in his mouth.
- Chisholm is also in the news for dealing with an exposed infield dirt camera by kicking dirt on it.
- This is an interesting article. Kiri Oler looks at which situations you should never use an ABS challenge.
- Cody Stavenhagen has the story of Tigers rookie Trei Cruz, who became a third-generation major leaguer after his grandfather José Cruz and father José Cruz Jr. (Free The Athletic reg. req.) The two younger ones all credit grandfather José’s determination and character for their success.
- Finally, let’s move on to the World Cup. Rays outfielder how much he idolizes Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi. Mesa has three Messi tattoos.
- Matt Slater went to Citizens Bank Park to ask Phillies fans about what they think of the World Cup.
- And finally, how do you get a loud, lively crown at a Marlins game? Just fill LoanDepot Park with Scotland’s “Tartan Army” fans. Since the Marlins were playing the Rangers, I’m almost surprised the Scotland fans didn’t come to blows with half of them cheering for the Rangers and the other half cheering for the Marlins, whom they insist on calling “Celtic” for some reason.
