*Chandler Rome: How does MLB's shutdown hamper the Astros' individual milestones?
*Should the 2020 season start in neutral locations, Texas joins the list of possible sites.
*Jeff Luhnow spearheaded an MLB plan to streamline (i.e., contract) 40 minor-league teams. Sources told Baseball America that MiLB might be ready to agree to it. Then again, maybe not.
*File this under See, Things You Hate to: The silver-medalist Los Angeles Dodgers stand to lose the most from a shortened season.
*Brady Anderson hit a lot of homers and also raced people shirtless in the parking lot of restaurants.
*Fifteen moments that made Ken Griffey, Jr. an MLB icon.
*FanGraphs: Projecting team payrolls for 2021.
*In August 2019 a mysterious explosion took place in Russia. What really happened?
*Wired: A code-obsessed novelist built a writing bot. The plot thickened.
*Outside: How competition climbing went from niche to the Olympics.
*The Lyrid meteor shower will peak tonight.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith