Here are 10 moments from July that reminded us baseball is great

By the time you read this, the Trade Deadline will be nearly upon us. Madness, having begun to creep into the corners of the baseball universe with David Price, Cole Hamels and Carlos Gomez just some of the names that have already been moved, will be widespread across the league as teams realize they only have a few short hours left to make their moves. It's an exciting day, one filled with baseball chatter filling our Twitter feeds and our holosuites. 

But that doesn't mean the 30 days before were any less wonderful, any less perfect. These, my friends, are the 10 best moments from the month that was. 

(All stats as of July 30) 

10. Chris Davis can't buy a home run

OK, that headline isn't exactly right. After all, the slugger still has 24 home runs this year with six coming in July, but he nearly had nine. 

Instead, three different defenders teamed up to pick his home run pocket. Avisail Garcia, apparently not in a very Freedom and Independence-type mood, robbed him of a game-tying home run in the top of the ninth inning on July 4.

One day later, J.B. Shuck brought another one back from the breech. And Davis could only wave a towel in surrender. 

Thinking he was finally free of these defenders at the wall, Davis tried once again before being foiled by J.D. Martinez. At this moment, it's more like Davis is some kind comic book villain, constantly having his great schemes stopped before trying another one a few days later. 

We also shouldn't be shocked if Davis is caught sneaking into stadiums under the cover of darkness, slyly pushing in the fences when no one was looking.

9. The Japanese pinch-hitter with the greatest of moves

There are some things in life people are naturally gifted with. Skills that dictate whether you will be a doctor, a Naval officer, a dancer, or a baseball player. It's kind of like The Giver -- but real life. Usually you're lucky if you get one of these. 

This Japanese player not only got dancer, but baseball player, too. We're pretty sure he could be a dancer/baseball/doctor if he wanted to.

どこの高校の誰か気になる（笑） "@kiwami_douga: 噂の代打やばい�� たくさん種類あるwww pic.twitter.com/hGMxo4wFU3"

- ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) July 23, 2015

It's OK, though -- while this player was seemingly born with all the abilities in the world, I doubt he could blog as g-- no, you're right, he is probably better at that, too. 

8. Carlos Correa will not be stopped

People were excited for Carlos Correa to come to the Majors. That was obvious. After all, here was a 6-foot-4 shortstop with 10 home runs between Double- and Triple-A in only 246 PA when he was called up to make his debut on June 8. And while Correa was good in his first month in the Majors -- hitting .287/.309/.543 -- when the calendar flipped over, Correa has been on an absolute tear. This month he has a .312/.389/.532 batting line with four home runs and a surprising batting eye for a rookie with 10 walks and 16 strikeouts. 

Of course, that also gives Correa nine homers at the Major League level and 19 on the season, which would put him ahead of Brandon Crawford, who leads shortstops with 15. That number would also have been good enough to rank third among shortstops across a full season last year. 

Not surprising when you watch his swing. Look at the fluid application of raw power, every muscle contracting and releasing in one moment of baseball perfection. 

I also like to believe that Evan Gattis, who you can see a bit of in the background, dropped his bat and his jaw fell open as he watched the ball soar over the wall. 

Of course, Correa is also a superlative shortstop of supreme skill as evidenced by this play he made with runners at the corners that forced the game into extra innings. 

Who needs Taylor Swift when there's a chance you can be watching Correa perform his David Copperfield-like magic in October? 

7. The Home Run Derby was super fun

I tried to come up with a witty title for this one, but it was impossible. Because the Derby was simply the most fun event of the year. The introduction of the clock added an element of drama previously unseen in the tourney, corresponding with a surprising increase in dingers. Even better: There were buzzer beater long-balls! Watching dudes jack bombs with a clock ticking down was like the baseball episode of 24. 

Albert Pujols took down Kris Bryant with a buzzer beater and Todd Frazier advanced to the finals with the clock ticking down: 

The hometown fans freaking out for Frazier to a level never before seen outside of a T-shirt gun shooting into the stands certainly didn't hurt. Nor did this adorable moment between Bryant and his dear old dad who, being a dad, wasn't completely paying attention to what was going on. 

6. While the Home Run Derby had dingers, the All-Star Game featured hard heat

And while the Home Run Derby was fun, it was still just prep for the All-Star Game -- that halcyon day when baseball's best join to play each other and show off their flashy cleats. 

And sure, Mike Trout won another MVP award, giving him back-to-back All-Star Game MVP's. He also completed a career All-Star Game natural cycle along the way, but we are going to get to him later. 

No, the real standouts were the pitchers. Like Jacob deGrom and his wild, untamed hair striking out the side on 10 pitches. Probably because they were too busy wondering how deGrom gets such soft, smooth and silky hair rather than paying attention to the pitches. 

Given his 2.05 ERA on the season and 1.40 ERA since June 1, his hair (and fastball) has been quite a successful combo this season. 

And at the tail end of the game, Aroldis Chapman came in and blew away the opposition with one hard, stinky limburger after another. 

Again, considering that there have been 353 pitches thrown at or over 100 mph this year and Chapman has thrown 238 of them, this is not all that surprising. 

5. Hall of Fame Induction Day 

Of course, if you take an All-Star and they continue playing at that level for a decade and sometimes more, then, chances are, they'll be getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. This year's class did not disappoint. 

Craig Biggio paid homage to the legendary Yogi Berra while Randy Johnson offered to peg him with a pitch one more time at Monday's roundtable. 

We also learned that John Smoltz was supposed to be the next accordian player. And, as someone suffering from male pattern baldness, I appreciated his entrance in a wig. 

And Pedro, being Pedro, not only gave an amazing speech -- in two languages, no less -- but stole the show thanks to a dedicated supporter's section, an appearance by Juan Marichal and the transformative power of dance. 

For players who we watched and loved and idolized for so many years, it was not just a fitting cap to their careers, but proof that while they were great on the field, they could be great at the podium, too. 

4. Cole Hamels throws a no-hitter in his final start for the Phillies

For 10 years, Cole Hamels was a key cog in the middle of the Phillies rotation. Since making his debut in 2006, Hamels has won a World Series and World Series MVP, has been a part of the Phillies super rotation featuring Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt and has made three trips to the All-Star Game. Oh yeah, he also moonlit as a security guard. 

With Philadelphia looking to rebuild though, Hamels was too tasty of a prospect-fetching morsel and he was reportedly traded to the Rangers in exchange for roughly every player in Texas' Minor League system. Before he left though, he had one thing he needed to do: Throw a no-hitter. Though he had been part of a combined no-no in 2014, he knew he needed to go out with one that he did all on his lonesome. 

And he really did it on his own, too. In addition to his 13 strikeouts and nine innings of shutout, hit-free baseball against the Cubs on July 25, Hamels made a nice play on a comebacker to the mound in the eighth and even picked up a double. 

Not a bad farewell to Philadelphia. 

3. The Pirates and Cardinals are turning the NL Central into a battle for the ages

When the Pirates and Cardinals first squared off this season at the beginning of May, the Cardinals won three straight games on walk-offs. 

And when the teams met up for a four-game series starting on July 9, they lived up to that billing. After the teams split the first two games of the series, things got wacky for game three. After already featuring a questionable foul call leading to a Mark Reynolds homer and A.J. Burnett's first home run since 2005, the Pirates were trailing 3-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning. The Pirates then tied the game thanks to an Andrew McCutchen single, an error that let him advance to second, and RBI base hits by Jung Ho Kang and Pedro Alvarez. 

However, the Cardinals would take the lead once again in the top of the 10th thanks to another Reynolds home run. And once again the Pirates came back, this time thanks to a hustle triple from Kang and an RBI single from Chris Stewart. 

Still this one would not end. To the 14th inning it went when the Cardinals took a 5-4 lead with a Jhonny Peralta RBI single. That had to be it, right? 

Nope, sorry. After Neil Walker singled, McCutchen came to the plate. And, well, why don't we let the Pirates broadcast crew take it away. It features the most excited screaming this side of fans at a Taylor Swift concert. (For those counting, that is T-Swift reference number two.) 

The next night, the two teams did it again. And once again the Pirates came back in extra innings to win it, 6-5, though this one only needed ten innings to be completed. Headed into extras tied at 3, the Cardinals took the lead on Randal Grichuk's two-run double in the 10th. But in the bottom half, the Battlin' Bucs used five singles and a walk to win the game. 

As of this writing, the Pirates trail the Cardinals by 4 1/2 games in the NL Central, but the teams have nine more games to play against each other -- including the second-to-last series of the season. If you enjoy crazy, white knuckle pennant races between rivals, well, I think you got your wish. 

2. Don't forget: Mike Trout is the best

At times, it's hard to remind ourselves that Mike Trout is not a person from this planet or galaxy. After a while, his amazing, unbelieveable performances become routine. It's a sad fact of human life -- no matter how great something is, we eventually become accustomed to it. It's why we don't stare at the sky every time we see an airplane and scream, "OH MY GOD! THAT'S THE COOLEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN!!!!!"

However, there are times when we simply must step back and appreciate Trout. Now is as good a time as any. Beyond just his impressive All-Star Game performance, Trout hit .361/.459/.833 in the month of July. That's not a mistake on my part either -- that .833 is his slugging percentage -- not his OPS. That came complete with 11 home runs, the most he's ever had in a single month. 

That included two on his mother's birthday, a grand slam into a Mike Trout superfan's net (after he had already hit another dinger earlier in the game) and the walk-off home run in a 1-0 game that saw the Red Sox's Wade Miley take a no-hitter into the seventh:    

And though it happened at the end of June, it's still worth mentioning: Beyond his normal defense, Trout is a hitter's worst nightmare. We're guessing Chris Young wasn't very happy after the Angels center fielder decided to play pretend baseball tarp and just cover the entire field. 

His performance also helped the Angels narrow a five-game deficit behind the Astros in the AL West. 

1. Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke are cruel to hitters

There is an unwritten rule in baseball that, no matter how good the pitcher is, he will occasionally surrender a run to his opposition. Whether on accident or simply to boost the hitter's confidence, it's this subtle game of give and take that keeps baseball balanced. Even Taylor Swift occasionally shares the stage with other people! (Rule of Threes in action.) 

This past month has seen Greinke and Kershaw break that secret oath. 

Before finally giving up a run on July 26 thanks to a Jacob deGrom ground ball, Greinke had run his streak of scoreless innings to 45 2/3 -- never really even coming into danger before letting a run cross the plate. 

Even after giving up two runs against the Mets, Greinke's ERA on the season is 1.37. Which is so close to zero, we may as well count it as such. 

Meanwhile, Kershaw has been putting together his own little streak. The last time he let someone cross the plate was in the fourth inning on July 3 against the Mets (seriously, what's up with them and scoring on the Dodgers?). Since then, Kershaw has worked 29 scoreless innings, picking up two shutouts along the way. Perhaps most terrifying is that Kershaw's ERA is a sparkling 2.51 -- somehow that's his highest mark since 2012. 

Which is probably all the proof we need that batters will never score off of Kershaw for the rest of the season. 

Will that hold true? Will Mike Trout turn into a ball of fire and ascend into the heavens as Earth's second sun? Will more pinch-hitters take up dance lessons? We'll have to tune in for the stretch run to find out.