Outside The Confines: For the love of baseball

The trade deadline approaches. Hall of Fame weekend approaches. The Moon Mammoths are born. And other news around MLB.

Good morning.

• Now that the All-Star Game is over, the trade deadline is the next event on the baseball calendar. Except for All-Star induction ceremonies this upcoming weekend. We’ll get to that later. But the ESPN dot com baseball writers have a roundtable discussion about the big questions surrounding the trade deadline.
• Chad Jennings and Tim Britton evaluate what’s likely to be available at the trade deadline. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Dayn Perry looks at who is likely to buy or sell at the deadline. And which teams are on the fence.
• Dan Szymborski evaluates which teams could improve the most at the trade deadline.
• R.J. Anderson explains why Pirates starter Mitch Keller will be much in demand at the deadline.
• Anderson also has four under-the-radar picks to get traded.
• Mark Bowman notes that the struggles of Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna is a problem for the team. The Braves would like to trade Ozuna but his value has never been lower and he can’t gain any value if he’s barely playing like he is now.
• The Royals know that how they play over the next two weeks will determine whether the team buys or sells at the deadline. Anne Rogers reports.
• Mark Sheldon asks if the suddenly-hot Reds will be buyers at the deadline? I mean, that falls under Betteridge’s law of headlines, doesn’t it?
• Matt Snyder writes that Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suárez is playing so well that he may take himself and other D-Backs off the trade market by getting them back into the postseason race.
• Phillip Martinez writes that the Yankees are among the teams interested in Suárez. Yes, the Cubs are listed as well.
• Ben Clemens has five second-half storylines.
• Mike Axisa has a “bold” second-half prediction for every team. His prediction for the Cubs is that they will make a stupid trade with the Royals where the Cubs will massively overpay.
• One prospect on each team to watch in the second half.
• The Phillies have agreed to a deal with free agent reliever David Robertson. Robertson will get a prorated $16 million deal, which works out to around $5 to $6 million for the rest of the season.
• Refusing to bow to political pressure, the Guardians are not planning to change their name back to the old one.
• MLB is investigating an incident between the Yankees Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Braves coach Eddie Pérez on Saturday. (The Athletic free reg. req., but here’s a different source.)
• Larry Williams looks at how, after a terrible start, the Yankees’ Devin Williams is a dominant reliever again.
• Ian O’Connor wonders if when Aaron Judge’s career is over, he’ll be considered one of the four greatest Yankees of all-time. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Evan Petzold examines the upcoming free agency of Tigers ace Tarik Skubal and the lure of the Dodgers.
• Now on to that Cooperstown stuff. Here’s the schedule and what you need to know for Induction weekend.
• Bryan Hoch looks at the time Ichiro Suzuki spent with the Yankees.
• That’s relevant as he was a teammate of fellow Inductee CC Sabathia during that time. Hoch writes that leadership and consistency were what defined Sabathia’s career.
• Davy Andrews looks at the breakout season of Red Sox center fielder Ceddanne Rafeala.
• Dayn Perry looks at how the Brewers have defied gravity and caught up to the Cubs in the NL Central.
• Sad news as former major league pitcher and longtime scout Jeff Bittiger has died at 63. Our condolences go out to his family, friends, former teammates and the Athletics organization.
• Benjamin Royer looks at how the Dodgers and the Rays are dealing with pitching injuries. One way is to just keep replacing the pitchers, comparing them to NFL running backs who burn out after a few seasons.
• Rough night for Mr. Met at a The Lumineers concert. (I will hold my tongue.)

• I assume you’ve seen this throw by Ronald Acuña Jr. already.

• David O’Brien has more on the throw, which manager Brian Snitker compared to Roberto Clemente. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Kara Alexander writes about the reveal of a new mural at Dodger Stadium honoring Fernando Valenzuela.
• And finally, for one night, the center of the baseball world was Erie, PA as the Erie Moon Mammoths took the field for the first time in a magical night hosted by Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver.
• Here’s more on the Moon Mammoths by Anthony Castrovince.
• And I hope we can all agree with this statement by Oliver.