Three Up, Three Down: The MLB hot/cold report

The Dodgers did it again. They reached into their vast ocean of resources to pull off a big-time trade and picked up the trade market's biggest name in the form of Manny Machado. Machado has been on the market for quite some time, and there were plenty of teams that had the assets and ambition to try to pick him up. In the end, it ended up being the Dodgers that got him.

This acquisition comes at a great time for the Dodgers as well. Despite getting off to a slow start, Los Angeles has gotten back to playing the kind of baseball we all expect from the reigning NL pennant winner and managed to sneak into first place in the NL West by the time the All-Star break came around. While they only have a slender half-game lead over Arizona, this acquisition is a game-changer for the Dodgers.

Not only can they now try to fortify their lead in the West, but they can once again start dreaming of getting all the way back to the World Series and taking another crack at bringing that trophy back home to Chavez Ravine. There's still a long way to go between now and October, but when you have Manny Machado in tow, it's totally reasonable to start dreaming of big things.

Harper does it for the District

While one Beltway team lost its star over the All-Star break, the other saw its star player put on a show Monday night. Despite having a relatively disappointing batting slash line on the season, Bryce Harper not only made the All-Star Game, but also made it into the Home Run Derby as well.

He didn't disappoint in the Derby, as he put on a show for the hometown fans. Harper hit four of the five longest dingers in the tournament and went through the gauntlet of Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Kyle Schwarber to lift the trophy in front of his adoring fans. While plenty of players have blamed the Home Run Derby for messing up their swings, maybe Harper will buck that trend and actually use this to go on a tear. Who knows what could happen?

All-Star Game turns into Home Run Derby, part 2

If you missed the Home Run Derby Monday, you probably didn't sweat it too much since you got to see plenty of bombs during the actual All-Star Game Tuesday. The AL picked up yet another victory in the Midsummer Classic, and Aaron Judge's first-inning homer ended up setting the tone for what was an incredibly prolific night for power.

The previous record for home runs in an All-Star Game was six, which happened on three occasions in the past. That record was destroyed by this year's crew of sluggers, who smacked a whopping 10 dingers into the seats. This included back-to-back homers from Astros George Springer and Alex Bregman, which helped propel the AL to victory in extras and also brought back terrible flashbacks for Dodgers fans.

If you dig the long ball (and really, who doesn't?), Tuesday night was a grand spectacle for you. However, if you enjoyed action on the basepaths, other than seeing various home run trots it wasn't exactly a thrilling contest.

Three Down

Josh Hader's past goes public

One of those aforementioned dingers came in the eighth inning. Jean Segura went deep on Josh Hader to put the AL in front. This also ended up being the start of what was a bad night for Hader as he became the latest athlete to have his problematic tweets from his younger days come back to haunt him.

Shortly after surrendering the homer, all sorts of racist, homophobic, misogynistic and just plain distasteful tweets began to surface and make the rounds on Twitter, and the reaction was incredibly swift. It got to the point where fans in the stadium were turning their Hader gear inside-out, and Hader's family and friends were given generic jerseys to wear while their Hader jerseys were swapped out.

Hader was forced to apologize on the spot, but it also made a bad situation even more awkward when his Milwaukee teammates Jesus Aguilar and Lorenzo Cain were among the people who had to give their thoughts on Hader's racist tweets. It was a bad look for Hader, as his on-the-spot apology could have been described as generic at best, and it's a bad look for the game in general when stuff like this happens during one of baseball's marquee events. It's a shame, but Hader was at fault for even having that type of garbage on his page in the first place.

Manfred makes error with Trout

During the All-Star Game, Mike Trout was mic'd up for half of an inning, and we learned that he likes weather. Sweet! It's not really a shock that Trout is kind of boring off the field, but that doesn't really matter when the stuff he does on the field is so amazing that it makes up for everything else.

With that said, maybe someone should share that with Rob Manfred, who basically blamed Trout for not marketing himself. This resulted in both the Los Angeles Angels and Trout himself issuing statements on the matter, which is really amazing when you sit back and take a moment to think about it.

Way to go, commissioner! In trying to help spur on your game's best player, you managed to make the player's team mad and tweaked said player as well. That's a surefire way to get one of the best players to ever put on a pair of cleats get the respect that he deserves! You really nailed it this time!

Mike Matheny won't join the Cardinals for the second half

Thursday, the Cardinals and Cubs are the only two teams in action. However, the Cardinals go into that game with an interim manager after they finally cut ties with Mike Matheny last weekend. The Cards are only two games over .500 and still have a lot of work to do if they want to pull off a miracle and make the playoffs.

Still, Matheny's record and failure to make the postseason in the past two seasons probably weren't the sole reasons he got fired. His handling of clubhouse matters clearly left something to be desired. We only got two public examples of this — his treatment of Dexter Fowler and the reports of Bud Norris harassing other players in a "sheriff" role — but if that was just the tip of the iceberg, then it's clear that Matheny had lost the clubhouse and the situation was untenable.

Now the Cardinals are going to have to find a new man to lead them into the future, and we won't know who that will be on a permanent basis until the offseason. For now, they'll have to band together and make the best of a bad situation in order to hopefully salvage what has already been a rough season in St. Louis.