MLB Update: 7/24 | Padres Deal Two Stars

I'm back from playing baseball in Spain, so I'll do my best to catch up on what I've missed.

History of Baseball: 1934
World Series Champions: St. Louis Cardinals (95-58, .621 WPCT).
     Before the 1934 season even got started, a legend was born.  On February 5th in Mobile, Alabama, Henry Louis Aaron was born in the "Down the Bay" section of of the city.  Hank would go on to set a new major league home run record.  Casey Stengel was named the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, beginning what would become one of the greatest managerial careers in history.  Later, one man would have a Fourth of July that would top all of your best Independence Day stories.  Satchel Paige no-hit the Homestead Grays in Pittsburgh, then drove all the way to Chicago to throw twelve shutout innings against the Chicago American Giants.  In total, he threw 21 shutout innings in two different states on the same day.  Six days later, at the All Star Game at the Polo Grounds, Carl Hubbell put on one of the greatest All Star performances in history.  Tasked with shutting down a daunting AL lineup, Hubbell proceeded to strike out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin, all in a row.  Each of those five would end up in the Hall of Fame, and Hubbell got the best of them all at once.  Despite Hubbell's efforts, Earl Averill's three RBI would lead the AL to a 9-7 victory.  Continuing an eventful July, Babe Ruth became the first of only three players in history to hit 700 home runs, doing so on July 13th.  Though no Hall of Famers debuted in 1934, the Cubs brought up an 18 year old kid named Phil Cavarretta on September 16th.  The Chicago native would spend 20 years in a Cubs uniform before closing out his career across town with the White Sox in 1954 and 1955.  Hack Wilson, who hit 244 home runs and drove in 1063 over just a 12 year career, hung up his spikes after the season.  Four years earlier, he had set a record with 191 RBI, despite standing only 5'6".  On September 30th, Charley O'Leary, who hadn't appeared in a game since 1913, pinch hit for the St. Louis Cardinals.  He knocked a single, and at 58 years old, became the oldest player ever to play in the major leagues.  To this day, he remains the oldest position player ever, though it was not known at the time, as he claimed to be 51.  In December, Matsutaro Shoriki founded the Yomiuri Giants, beginning professional baseball in Japan.
     The Detroit Tigers ended up running away with the AL pennant, finishing 101-53 and seven games ahead of the New York Yankees (94-60).  The National League was much closer.  Up until the final days of the season, the New York Giants held onto a slim lead, but five straight losses to end the season, combined with four straight victories from the St. Louis Cardinals, brought the NL pennant to St. Louis (95-58).  The Giants finished two games back at 93-60.  The Tigers and Cardinals met in the World Series, which went back and forth.  St. Louis took Game One, but Detroit responded by taking Game Two in twelve innings.  The Cardinals won Game Three, but the Tigers won both Game Four and Game Five to come one victory away.  The Cardinals won Game Six, setting up a classic Game Seven.  While most of the games in the series had been close, the Cardinals treated the final game like the Seattle Seahawks treated Super Bowl XLVIII, winning 11-0.  The Gashouse Gang, the nickname given to the powerful Cardinals team of 1934, beat the Tigers with a steady offensive attack, as Joe Medwick, Pepper Martin, and Ripper Collins each pounded out eleven hits in the series.  Jack Rothrock drove in six runs, and Martin scored eight times.  Detroit's Charlie Gehringer also had eleven hits.  On the mound, brothers Dizzy and Paul Dean combined to shut down Detroit, going 4-1 with a 1.43 ERA over their combined five starts.
       The Tigers had acquired catcher Mickey Cochrane from the A's before the season, and the move turned out to their benefit as the AL MVP led the Tigers to the World Series by batting .320 with 32 doubles and 76 RBI.  Oddly, Lou Gehrig, who led the major leagues in home runs, RBI, and batting average, missed out on the award.  The Iron Horse had batted .363 with 49 home runs and 165 RBI, leading the Yankees to a 94 win season.  Pittsburgh's Paul Waner won the NL batting title, clocking in at .362 while hitting 14 home runs and scoring 122 times.  The A's' Jimmie Foxx continued his offensive rampage, batting .334 with 44 home runs and 130 RBI.  Detroit's Hank Greenberg put up a breakout season, batting .339 with 26 home runs, 139 RBI, and a major league leading 63 doubles.  To this day, the 63 doubles remain the fourth highest single season total ever.  The next closest player to Greenberg in doubles was his teammate, Charlie Gehringer, who hit 50 doubles while batting .356 with a major league leading 135 runs scored.  Babe Ruth played his 15th and final season as a Yankee, batting .288 with 22 home runs and 84 RBI.  Even at 39 years old, he finished eleventh in the majors with his 22 home runs.  The NL MVP was crowned on the mound, as the Cardinals' Dizzy Dean went 30-7 with a 2.66 ERA, a 1.16 WHIP, and 195 strikeouts to lead St. Louis to the World Series.  Dean was the first player in the Live Ball Era to win 30 games, with the last 30 game winner being Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1917.  Perhaps just as dominating as Dean was Lefty Gomez over in New York, as he went 26-5 with a 2.33 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP.  Leading the majors in ERA and WHIP was the Giants' Carl Hubbell, who went 21-12 with a 2.30 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP in his follow up season to his historic 1933.  Hubbell also led the league with eight saves.

News
Padres traded Huston Street (1-0, 1.09 ERA, 0.76 WHIP, 24 SV, age 30) to the Angels for minor leaguers Taylor Lindsey(8 HR, 31 RBI, .248 AVG, 7 SB at AZL, Rookie, and AAA, age 22), Jose Rondon (0 HR, 24 RBI, .321 AVG, 10 SB at AZL and High Class A, age 20), R.J. Alvarez (0-0, 0.33 ERA, 0.85 WHIP at AA, age 23), and Elliot Morris (5-4, 3.27 ERA, 1.25 WHIP at Class A and High Class A, age 22).
Padres traded Chase Headley (7 HR, 32 RBI, .229 AVG, 4 SB, age 30) to the Yankees for Yangervis Solarte (6 HR, 31 RBI, .254 AVG, 0 SB, age 27) and minor leaguer Rafael De Paula (6-5, 4.15 ERA, 1.42 WHIP at High Class A, age 23).
Rangers traded Joakim Soria (1-3, 2.70 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 17 SV, age 30) to the Tigers for Corey Knebel (0-0, 6.23 ERA, 1.62 WHIP, age 22) and minor leaguer Jake Thompson (7-4, 3.06 ERA, 1.22 WHIP at High Class A and AA, age 20).
In his first game as a Yankee, Chase Headley knocked a walk-off single.Rays won their seventh straight game.

In the most recent of the three highlighted trades, Detroit finally acquired the closer it was looking for when it signed Joe Nathan and Joel Hanrahan.  Nathan has a 5.89 ERA, while Hanrahan hasn't appeared in a game this season.  Joakim Soria, who holds a 2.51 career ERA and is in the midst of a big time comeback year, will take over at the back end of the struggling Detroit bullpen and try to help the Tigers past his old team, the Royals.  Soria, one of the best closers in baseball over the first four years of his career from 2007-2010, has struggled with injuries and inconsistency since, and has just seemed to have found himself in Texas this year.  After saving 43 games in with a 1.78 ERA in 2010, the Mexico native struggled to a 4.03 ERA and just 28 saves in 2011 before missing 2012 entirely.  He made just 23 appearances as a Texas set-up man in 2013 before taking over as closer in 2014 and saving 17 games with a 2.70 ERA thus far.  He's done much better keeping runners off the bases, having issued just four walks in 33.1 innings and limiting opponents to a .198 average.  For his seven year career, he is 15-18 with a 2.51 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP, and 177 saves in 359 appearances.
The main prospect going back to Texas is Jake Thompson.  A native of Rockwall, just outside of Dallas, Thompson has put up big numbers throughout his three year minor league career.  Reaching the middle levels this year, Thompson went 6-4 with a 3.14 ERA for High Class A Lakeland before earning a promotion to AA Erie, where he is 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA over two starts.  Just 20 years old, he could be in the majors as soon as next season, and he figures to be a part of the Rangers rotation for a long time.  The Rangers also picked up another Texas native in Corey Knebel, a 22 year old reliever out of Georgetown, Texas.  Knebel only has 73 professional innings under his belt, but he's already pitched in the majors.  A former Texas Longhorn, Knebel went 2-1 with a 0.87 ERA and 15 saves at Class A Western Michigan in 2013 before earning a promotion to AA Erie in 2014.  Combined with his time at AAA Toledo, he's gone 4-1 with a 1.62 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP over 25 appearances in the minors.  He reached the majors for the first time this season, posting a 6.23 ERA through 8.2 innings.  

Game Scores
Rockies (41-60) beat the Nationals (55-44) 6-4.
Blue Jays (53-49) beat the Red Sox (47-54) 6-4.
Yankees (52-48) beat the Rangers (40-61) 2-1 (5 innings).
Giants (57-44) beat the Phillies (43-58) 3-1.
Rays (49-53) beat the Cardinals (54-47) 3-0.
Pirates (54-47) beat the Dodgers (56-47) 6-1.
Padres (44-56) beat the Cubs (41-58) 8-3.
Tigers (56-42) beat the Diamondbacks (44-58) 11-5.
Top Scorer: Tigers beat the Diamondbacks 11-5.

Standings
AL East: Orioles (55-45, .550 WPCT).  AL Central: Tigers (56-42, .571).  AL West: A's (62-38, .620).
NL East: Nationals (55-44, .556).  NL Central: Brewers (57-45, .559).  NL West: Giants (57-44, .564).
AL Wild Cards: Angels (60-40, .600) and Mariners (53-48, .525).  NL Wild Cards: Braves (55-46, .545) and Dodgers (56-47, .544).
Bottom Team: Rangers (40-61, .396).  Longest W Streak: Rays, 7 games.  Longest L Streak: Reds, 6 games.

League Leaders
Offensive: AVG: Troy Tulowitzki (Rockies), .340 (107-315).  Home runs: Jose Abreu (White Sox), 29.  RBI: Miguel Cabrera (Tigers), 80.  Stolen bases: Dee Gordon (Dodgers), 45.
Pitching: Wins: Madison Bumgarner (Giants), Rick Porcello (Tigers), Alfredo Simon (Reds), Masahiro Tanaka (Yankees), and Adam Wainwright (Cardinals), 12.  K's: David Price (Rays), 173.  ERA: Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers), 1.92 (103.1 IP, 22 ER).  Saves: Craig Kimbrel (Braves) and Trevor Rosenthal (Cardinals), 30.

Top Performers
Offensive: Mark Reynolds (Brewers): 3-4, 2 home runs (16), 3 RBI, 2 runs, AVG up .008 from .199 to .207, hitting streak to 1 game (3-4, .750 AVG).
Pitching: Madison Bumgarner (Giants): Win (12-7), 8 shutout innings, 5 hits, no walks, 6 K's (141), ERA drop: 0.19 runs from 3.38 to 3.19.
Worst Pitching Performance: Brad Peacock (Astros): Loss (3-7), 3.2 innings, 7 earned runs, 7 hits, 5 walks, 2 K's (77), ERA jump: 0.54 runs from 4.39 to 4.93.

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Teams followed in this update: Washington Nationals, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers
If your team is not included, please leave a comment.
HR: home runs.  RBI: runs batted in.  AVG: batting average.  SB: stolen bases.  ERA: earned run average. WHIP: walks/hits per innings pitched.  K's: strikeouts. WPCT: winning percentage
Zack Silverman