Mariners Moose Tracks, 7/25/21: Mitch Haniger, Olympic baseball, Ender Inciarte, Joey Gallo

Happy Sunday! I will not be recapping the game for you today because it’s my friend Ernest’s birthday celebration, and I will be watching the tiny genetic miracles that are corgis race around a track in honor of his special day. Run you corgis, run! John has got you covered for today, but you can check in on last night’s game here if you missed it, and also here is my links gift to you anyway, because like a baker, I rise at 5 AM to make these links hot and fresh for you for the mornings. Just kidding, I do them before I go to sleep and after I’ve taken my melatonin which is why sometimes the sense doesn’t syntax much make. Anyway, to the links!

In Mariners news:

• The Olympics for baseball are kicking off soon, and while we wish all Julioooo a very much success with Team DR, we also want to take a moment to cheer for Mariners coach Alon Leichman, representing Team Israel, and wish him good luck as well.

• I was curious if Mitch Haniger’s recent molten lava hot streak had encouraged other team sites to write about possibly acquiring him in a deal. I was not impressed with what I found.

Around the league:

• After re-instating him from the COVID list, Atlanta has DFA’d OF Ender Inciarte. Some people around here at lookout landing dot com (John) would tell you the Mariners should attempt to acquire Inciarte, a 2017 All-Star and winner of multiple Gold Gloves in the outfield. Those people (John) are wrong. We already have a COVID-ridden outfielder, and he’s younger and (currently) better than Inciarte, so no thanks to peeling off a part of the farm for him, however inconsequential it might be. (To be fair to John, his argument is the Mariners should take on Inciarte and his salary to get a good prospect out of Atlanta, not just out of a mania to acquire the player himself. But also, to be not fair to John, this is a bad idea and he should feel bad for it.)
• The Rangers are aggressively discussing a Joey Gallo extension, except they might also trade him to Toronto, except also, they might do nothing. That’s what I got out of this article, at least. In other news, I might eat this bag of Bugles, except I might also try to swap them for some Cool Ranch Doritos, or I also might put the Bugles on my fingertips and mime a New Orleans-style cakewalk to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Sources says any of these things are possible.
• Speaking of the Rangers, they almost got no-hit last night by the Astros, but were able to break up the no-hitter in the eighth. They’re still on a particularly rough stretch of losses (11) that ties their last-longest record for consecutive losses in almost 40 years, per Lone Star Ball.
• On the other side, the Angels almost no-hit the Twins behind the efforts of LHP Patrick Sandoval, who is edging closer to—well, I was going to say “staff ace” for the Angels, but that’s really not so impressive. He’s pretty good, though, and I could see him frustrating Mariners batters for years to come.