What is the story about?
Happy Friday, everyone! We’re still knee-deep in Trade Deadline rhetoric, so plenty of grades and discourse to get into below. But we’ll also look at some MVP contenders from last year. First up we have Yankees’ superstar Aaron Judge who has missed the last several months, but signs are starting to point to him making his way back before the end of the year. And the Yankees couldn’t be happier, because their offense has been struggling since he got injured. Then we’ll also check in on Mariners catcher
Cal Raleigh, who can’t seem to rekindle the home run spark he had going last season.
We’ve got all that and plenty more below, so let’s just jump right into it.
- Davy Andrews assesses how true the stories of the Brewers being in on a Tarik Skubal trade are.
- Karl Rasmussen tries to explain how the Brewers could have outbid the Dodgers for Skubal.
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was sidelined on Thursday due to hamstring tightness. It was his second game in a row that he sat out. Story by Keegan Matheson and Andy Martinez.
- Thomas Harrigan grades the Trade Deadline.
- Karl Rasmussen looks at the biggest missed opportunities of the Trade Deadline.
- Tim Capurso determines which farm systems got the biggest level-ups after the Deadline.
- Jayson Stark shares his post-deadline thoughts and assesses which team he thinks is the biggest threat to the Dodgers. (The Athletic subscription required.)
- Sad news for Giants fans.
- Eric Longenhagen and Brendan Gawlowski try to rank the prospects who were moved at the Trade deadline.
- Sonja Chen determines what the Dodgers’ playoff roster could look like.
- Tom Verducci tries to figure out why Cal Raleigh can’t seem to catch up to fastballs this season.
- Dan Gartland looks at how Tarik Skubal fared in his Dodgers’ debut.
- Brittany Ghiroli shares why she doesn’t think teams should rely so heavily on competitive windows. (The Athletic subscription required.)
- Aaron Judge has been cleared for light activity and has expressed his confidence that he will return this season. Story by Jorge Castillo.
- Some World Series betting odds.
- Kiri Oler recaps the first week of the WPBL.
- Seattle reliever Gabe Speier will serve a suspension for intentionally throwing at Tigers’ batter Gleyber Torres. Story by Daniel Kramer.
- Zach Powell shares the story of a retiree who won an auction to be in the Phillies’ broadcast booth and totally knocked it out of the park. (The Athletic subscription required.)
- Jimmy Traina thinks that MLB’s partnership with NBC this season has been a home run.
- Jefry Yan, the Mets’ rookie pitcher, has been garnering a lot of attention for his strikeout celebrations. Story by Andy Nesbitt.
- Where do all teams line up in the Power Ranking after the Trade Deadline? (ESPN)
- Will Sammon reports that the Pirates have parted ways with struggling DH Marcell Ozuna. (The Athletic subscription required.)
- How did she even get that into the stadium?
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.
