Sorry I'm late.
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- The big news of the past two days has been the hacked Houston Astros database which contained notes about all their trade talks. Deadspin has published all the highlights. There's nothing in there that is really all that embarrassing, although it turns out that Astros GM Jeff Luhnow is that obnoxious guy in your fantasy league that keeps trying to trade you a mediocre player on a two-week hot streak for the best players you've got. Except in this case it was the other team's best prospects, like asking for Xander Bogaerts for Lucas Harrell.
- The Astros have made a statement condemning the illegal hacking and saying that some of the documents released were altered of simply fabricated by the hacker.
- Colin McGowan says that the Astros should just admit that the documents are real because 1) they're not really that big a deal and 2) they looks stupid for trying to claim that they're not real.
- The Marlins don't know whether the documents are authentic or not, but they are claiming that some of the information in them is false. Specifically, they say they never offered Giancarlo Stanton to Houston for Carlos Correa and George Springer. I don't know why they'd deny that. That would actually be a pretty awesome haul for Stanton. That's like asking for Bryant and Baez from the Cubs.
- The Astros did make some moves that didn't involve the FBI. They called up three more prospects from their farm system.
- As the trade deadline nears, we'll get more talk of deals like this. But Jon Heyman thinks that while it makes sense for the Dodgers to get David Price, they shouldn't offer any of their top prospects for him. So you're saying the Dodgers shouldn't get David Price? Yeah, pretty much that's what he's saying.
- This is a Cubs story, but it also involves trades, so I'll include it here. Rob Neyer thinks that if Jake Arrieta is for real, the Cubs should not trade Jeff Samardzija. Essentially, he thinks the Cubs could be contenders next season with Arrieta and Samardzija leading a rotation.
- There was one minor trade: the Red Sox sent Rich Hill to the Angels.
- So the Angels had to make room for Hill, so they released Joel Piniero. Later that same day, Piniero got suspended for 50 games for using a banned stimulant. And you think you had a bad day.
- The Phillies have put everything on sale! But the Phillies would prefer not to trade Cole Hamels. Plus Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins are 10-5 players and don't want to go anywhere. After that, there probably isn't anything anyone would want.
- Colin McGowan says that the Phillies unwillingness to undergo an Astros/Cubs-style complete rebuild is foolish, considering that they're going to have to do it sooner or later anyway.
- One of the great general managers of all time, Frank Cashen, has died. Cashen played a role in building the great Orioles teams of the 1960s and '70s and was the GM who built the 1986 Mets World Series championship team.
- Howard Megdall has an appreciation of what Cashen did for the Mets. When Cashen led the Mets, they were feared and hated. Since then, even when they've been good, the Mets been more a source of jokes than anything.
- The Yankees made a lot of big moves this past offseason. One of the biggest, Brian McCann, said that he has been "horrible" so far. Got to give him credit for his honesty.
- Ken Rosenthal explains why imports like Jose Abreu and Masahiro Tanaka are eligible for the Rookie of the Year Award. Essentially, it goes back to the first days of the award when some people argued that players coming over from the Negro Leagues shouldn't be eligible. Rosenthal thinks the rule should stay the way it is.
- As great as Abreu has been, Doug Padilla says he can't win games for the White Sox all by himself.
- Bryce Harper is back from the disabled list and he took the time to criticize the Nationals lineup.
- Jonathan Bernhardt writes that whether or not Harper's criticisms were valid (and Bernhardt thinks they probably are valid), he need to keep his mouth shut.
- With Harper coming off the DL, we can look at those going on. Evan Gattis is going to the DL with a bulging disc.
- Everth Cabrera has a left hamstring strain.
- Angel Pagan had a setback in his recovery from a back injury.
- Joe Mauer has a strained oblique.
- The Hardball Times has a two-part primer with everything you wanted to know about Tommy John surgery. Part One and Part Two.
- Today is the day that clubs can start signing international free agents. As Tim has noted, the Cubs are in a weird position with a ton of pool money to spend but they can't give any one international amateur more than $250,000 because they went so far over their pool limits last year.
- Mike Hessman is the new International League All-Time Home Run King. The league stretches all the way back to 1884, so this is kind of impressive.
- The Diamondbacks sent Trevor Cahill down to the minors and he agreed to go on the condition they call him back by a certain date. But Cahill has been terrible in the minors. So what should they do?
- For the second time this season, the Padres won a game in which they only had one hit. The 1965 Dodgers are the only other team to pull this trick twice in a season.
- After two replay reviews that went against the Dodgers, the Indians turned a 7-2-4 triple play last night.
- The Orioles are furious that Manny Machado's five-game suspension was not shortened.
- Joe Posnanski looks back at the remarkable career of Raul Ibanez.
- As it turns out, home plate collisions were incredibly rare throughout most of baseball history.
- Do you have an autograph from a Hall of Fame baseball player? Unless you saw him sign it personally, it's probably a forgery.
- Barry Bonds is getting a new hearing on his obstruction of justice conviction.
- Let's say you're a valuable minor league prospect, but the team you play for won't put you on the 40 man roster? How can you get them to do that? One solution is to smoke a lot of pot. Jeff Passan points out the absurdity of minor leaguers getting suspended for marijuana use and major leaguers not. He's found at least one minor leaguer who is trying to smoke his way onto the 40 man.
- Finally, Richard Sandomir looks back at the structure and meaning of the greatest speech in the history of baseball: Lou Gehrig's (and Gary Cooper's) "Luckiest Man On The Face Of The Earth" speech.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.