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The news about the PED scandal coming out of Miami came close to pushing all other baseball news off of the sports pages. So today's bullets feel a little light to me. Maybe it needs to take something to bulk up.
- Expanding on the PED revelations, Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News wonders what the Rangers are going to do if Nelson Cruz is suspended for fifty games. Richard Durrent of ESPN Dallas has similar concerns. If Cruz is suspended, the Rangers don't have a good option to replace him.
- Jake Peavy doesn't use the word, but isn't he saying the White Sox choked last season? Not that I think he's wrong, but it's rare to hear an athlete admit that.
- Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic thinks the Diamondbacks didn't get enough for Justin Upton, and he's not alone.
- Kelly Shoppach is a Mariner.
- Albert Pujols was not cleared to play in the World Baseball Classic, so he's out of the tournament.
- Carl Pavano had to have his spleen removed. So if he said "Ow, my spleen!" when he fell, it wasn't meant to be funny.
- Trevor Plouffe wants to be the Twins everyday third baseman in 2013.
- Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun wonders which "undervalued asset" will pay off big for the Orioles in 2013. Looking at his list of players, I'll take "None of the Above" for $100, Eduardo.
- Bill Center of the San Diego Union-Tribune thinks the Padres have had a quiet and disappointing off-season.
- Jeff Moore of the Hardball Times says the Phillies window of contention is closing fast. One gets the sneaky suspicion that the Phillies are in the same place the Cubs were in during the winter of 2008-09.
- Finally, and there's a lot of complicated math involved, Russell Carleton of Baseball Prospectus studies the "Verducci Effect" and whether it exists or not. He concludes it does not. For those who don't know, the "Verducci Effect" is the idea that pitchers younger than 25 who increased their innings pitched more than 30 innings in the previous season will regress the next year. And all this time I thought it was that his hair hypnotized people.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.