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Anyone who wants to give me a tip can send me a shipment of Italian Beef.
- Jason Heyward had an emergency appendectomy on Monday night in Denver. The Braves say there's no timetable for his return, but it's not expected to be much more than the minimum 15 days on the DL.
- Last bullets I linked to an article about how worried the Orioles were about Jake Arrieta. Now they can worry about him in Norfolk, Virginia as that's where he's pitching for now.
- Albert Chen in SI.com writes about how much good young pitching there is in the majors right now. And more is coming up from the minors.
- But Jeff Passan at Yahoo! notices that the velocity of several established pitching aces is down this season. Justin Verlander is way down, although it's not affecting his results much yet.
- Frank McCourt made a $1.278 billion profit on the Dodgers. I just . . .just . . .I have no words.
- Tom Verducci thinks that today's hitters are too passive. With plate discipline, he's arguing there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Obviously he's not talking about Italian Beef.
- Dayn Perry at CBSSports.com says the much-speculated about Oscar Taveras/Jurickson Profar trade isn't going to happen. For one, the Cardinals won't have a logjam of outfielders after this season.
- Jose Fernandez was really, really excited to see snow for the first time.
- Anthony Rendon may have arrived in Washington with a lot of fanfare, but he's heading back to the minors as soon as Ryan Zimmerman is healthy.
- Did you know that in World War II, Stars and Stripes once printed the baseball standing upside down for the benefit of fans of the Philadelphia teams? Maybe they can do that for Chicago fans now. Because Adam Dunn says the White Sox couldn't be playing any worse than they are now. Dunn says that other than their pitching, the White Sox are "terrible."
- Stephen Drew isn't worried about the slow start to his season. He obviously doesn't have himself on his fantasy team.
- Jon Paul Morosi says the Dodgers slow start is not Don Mattingly's fault. I guess it's just one of those things.
- David Schoenfield thinks the Angels are disrespecting Josh Hamilton by moving him down in the lineup. It's going to be a long five years in Anaheim.
- Johnny Cueto and Sean Marshall are getting closer to returning to the Reds.
- The Astros starting rotation is approaching historic levels of futility. For example, over six games ending on Sunday, the Astros starters only threw 15.1 innings. That's the fewest since 1986.
- So far this season, the Padres have bunted more times in the first inning than the other 29 teams combined. And Bud Black doesn't even have a tournament. Yet.
- The Diamondbacks may have spent the off-season getting "grittier," but Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle says that it's the Giants that have True Grit. Barry "Rooster" Zito has volunteered to track down Tom Chaney.
- Jared Burton is one big reason why the Twins bullpen has been so good this year.
- Greg Holland was in danger of losing the closing job in Kansas City earlier, but his recent success has ended such talk.
- Finally, even Canadians are starting to wonder if the Blue Jays have a problem with drunk, obnoxious and unruly fans.
If Iowa Governor (for-life) Terry Brandstad has his way, Kinnick Stadium will be keeping the pink visitor's locker room.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Because the Cubs will be in Miami and if they can't beat the Marlins . . .