Three up, three down: Pardon the Royals for wishing on a wild card

A look at what is trending this week in Major League Baseball:

THREE UP

Royal way: Fantasy leagues and the statistical revolution have generated tremendous interest in baseball, but they also have led to the disturbing trend in which transactions are covered with more depth than actual games. The rush to classify teams as “buyers” and “sellers” has led to criticism of the Kansas City Royals for not breaking apart a team with pending free agents Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Jason Vargas. Heaven forbid the Royals “play to win” in 2017 rather than “collect controllable assets” for future years. The Royals’ best hope might be a wild card. Worked OK in 2014, when they revived deep but dormant interest in a proud franchise with an unlikely World Series run.

Freddie Freeman: Who doesn’t love Freeman, the franchise player for the Atlanta Braves? In 2013, he promised hugs to fans casting ballots for him in the “Final Vote” for the NL All-Star team. And won. In May, Freeman suffered a broken wrist, and the Braves acquired Matt Adams to replace him at first base. With Adams hitting well, Freeman said, “No worries. I’ll play third base.” Freeman hadn’t played third base in 10 years, but that’s where he played when the Braves activated him last Tuesday. They better hurry up and trade Adams for a prospect or two, because woe would be the team that keeps its home-grown first baseman through a long rebuild, owes him $96 million through 2021 and loses him on an awkward play at third.

London calling: MLB staged a July 4 home run derby in London, where the league would like to play regular-season games in two years. MLB enlisted grass-roots support — including the British bloggers at “Bat Flips and Nerds” — to explain such baseball subtleties as why “it is considered acceptable to throw a rock-hard baseball at 100 mph deliberately at a player’s torso if he is deemed to have celebrated excessively,” the Guardian reported. All jolly good, except for MLB’s top London executive saying, “I think the stars of our sport are actually the teams.” So now the league can’t market Clayton Kershaw and Mike Trout at home or abroad?

THREE DOWN

That’s so Cub: The Chicago Cubs are stuck in a .500 gear, and team President Theo Epstein said before Thursday’s game that the defending World Series champs should not expect trades to be a salvation. “The talent rests inside our clubhouse, inside players who are wearing Cubs uniforms right now,” Epstein said. “We’ll do what we can to look to augment that, but there’s not going to be a fundamental shift in the player personnel that we have.” Then the Cubs went out and got pounded by their divisional rival, the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers, 11-2. The last Cubs pitcher: outfielder Jon Jay, whose pitches were clocked from 46 to 66 mph.

Go Lo Mo: The field for next week’s Home Run Derby includes four players ranked among the top 10 in the major leagues in homers — and Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees, who entered the weekend tied for 74th, with 13. “I remember when I had 14 home runs,” said Logan Morrison of the Tampa Bay Rays. “That was a month and a half ago.” Morrison noted that the league snubbed him and Milwaukee’s Eric Thames, each of whom ranked in the top 10. Slighted in a small market? “That’s the most obvious answer to a question in the history of the world,” Morrison told the Tampa Bay Times. The Yankees and Boston Red Sox play a doubleheader next Sunday, and obviously both games will be aired nationally (TBS first game, ESPN second game.)

Good riddance: Miami Marlins President David Samson told USA Today that the team misses late pitcher Jose Fernandez in part because attendance jumped by 8,000 to 13,000 fans whenever he started. Fact check: Fernandez started two of the Marlins’ three lowest-attended games last season, and their average attendance was higher when he did not pitch (21,512) than when he did (20,975). It’s that kind of data sorcery that drove Samson and his stepfather owner, Jeffrey Loria, to ask $1.8 billion for a team barely worth half that much. When they lied about losing money, they got the taxpayer-funded ballpark that will host Tuesday’s All-Star Game. Sell already, and be gone.

SERIES OF THE WEEK

Philadelphia Phillies vs. Milwaukee Brewers

Friday through Sunday at Miller Park

The Brewers, ahead of schedule for contention, are in first place in the NL Central, with this series providing the chance to fatten their lead over the allegedly mighty Chicago Cubs. The Phillies have the worst record in the major leagues, and even their hope of flipping veterans for more prospects has flopped with Clay Buchholz and Howie Kendrick on the disabled list. The Brewers lead the NL in errors and home runs. Outfielder Ryan Braun, the only household name in the lineup, has nine homers. First baseman Eric Thames, repatriated from the Korean league, leads with 23. Shortstop Orlando Arcia made the best play last week by eating a spoonful of ice cream from the cup of an unsuspecting front-row fan.

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

Follow Bill Shaikin on Twitter @BillShaikin