Mariners Moose Tracks, 7/18/17: Shae Simmons, iPad Destruction, and J.D. Martinez

Good morning everyone! The Mariners are on fire after stealing one from the Astros last night. Let’s hope they can keep it rolling tonight against dumb ol’ Houston. Here are some links to get your day going.

In Mariners news...

• Shae is on his way up!

• The Mariners are going to need a healthy and effective King Felix to make a run for the playoffs, writes Bradford Doolittle.

In Mariners minors news...

• D.J. Peterson, Mark Lowe, Pat Light, and Dan Vogelbach took a super long Uber trip to get to a game.
• Tyler O’Neill cannot be stopped.

• Nick Neidert also continued his dominance on the mound yesterday. The kid is in High-A, can’t even legally drink in the states yet, and he has just 17 walks in 104 innings this year!

Around the league...

• Oops.

• The Toronto Blue Jays — who started out on an awful tailspin — may have a shot at the playoffs after all.
• Michael Pineda will officially undergo Tommy John surgery today. Good luck, Michael!
• Ryan Zimmerman became the all-time leader in home runs for the Washington Nationals with No. 235 yesterday.
• In case you missed it, the Astros held a funeral for Carlos Beltran’s glove before yesterday’s game. Maybe they should hold a funeral for their bullpen’s ERA too.
• This is old but I uncovered its brilliance yesterday and thought you should all see it.

• FiveThirtyEight took on a cool experiment: how far could all of the home runs in the last decade take you in the world? They also single out Nelson Cruz. Despite his large number of career home runs, the combined distances would not get you very far.
• Starling Marte is finally back from his 80-game PED suspension.
• Popular trade target J.D. Martinez was removed from yesterday’s game due to back tightness, although everyone thought he was pulled because he was being traded.

Anders’ picks...

• This is gorgeous.