MLB Bullets Is Covered With A Foreign Substance

Still got nothing to go up here. I must live a dull life.

• Marlins pitcher Alex Sanabia was caught spitting on the ball in Monday night's Marlins-Phillies game. That's not quite true as none of the umpires saw it. None of the Phillies saw it nor did any of the broadcasters. But you can't fool fans at home with high-def video and replay capabilities. The pitch to Delmon Young was a ball, well outside of the strike zone. This, of course, raises the point that if you think you need to throw a spitball to get Delmon Young out, maybe you're in the wrong profession.
• Yahoo!'s David Brown comes up with ten nicknames for Sanabia's spitter.
• The Don Mattingly "Dead Man Walking" watch continues, as Jay Jaffe adds his voice to those who think his time as the Dodgers manager is nearing an end. He admits that injuries are the biggest reason for the Dodgers failures, but that Mattingly hasn't helped things with poor decisions. The biggest problem, according to Jaffe, is that there is a lack of good candidates to take the job. Tim Wallach, according to him, is the best of a bad lot.
• Mark Saxson of ESPN LA can't understand why Mattingly would want to watch this team play night after night. He says that the Dodgers are "standing around waiting to lose."
• Here's one wacky candidate to replace Mattingly: Phil Jackson. You'd have to pair him with a bench coach who knew the ins and outs of the game, but the Dodgers need motivation and leadership (and maybe a psychiatrist) more than anything else these days. This is the kind of outside-the-box thinking that I'd love to see someone try (just not the Cubs). It will never happen in a million years.
• Aroldis Chapman blew a save against the Phillies on Sunday, giving up back-to-back home runs in the ninth. Now Phillies Spanish-language announcer Rickie Ricardo (Really? That's your name?) took unintentional credit for the blown save, as he sent Chapman 100 Cuban pastries and he says Chapman ate 18 of them. "No Aroldis, you can't pitch in the show!"
• Yu Darvish says: "Pitch count? We ain't got no pitch count. I don't have to show you any stinking pitch count!"
• Montreal named a street after Expos great Gary Carter.
• Speaking of Montreal, Jon Paul Morosi says that Montreal is the most logical place (video) for either Tampa Bay or Oakland to move to, if necessary. He thinks Montreal is a better baseball market than either of those cities. I don't know about either the Rays or the Athletics moving, but I think he's right that Montreal is the only viable unoccupied market for a major league team at the moment.
• Morosi also says that the NL Central might be the best division in baseball right now. Not because of the Cubs, of course.
• Mike Trout became the youngest American League player to ever hit for the cycle last night.
• Joe Posnanski says that Albert Pujols doesn't matter anymore. I'm sure that breaks a lot of your hearts.
• The New York Yankees and the EPL's Manchester City are teaming up to own a second New York MLS team. The only issue to be worked out now is where they'll play. As the New York Times reports, the preferred site is in Flushing Meadows near Citi Field, where they can use the Mets parking lot. So all they need to do is convince the Mets to help out the Yankees and the team can start . . .oh crap. The team will likely start play at Yankee Stadium while they examine other sites.
• Baseball America reports on Marten Gasparini, a 15-year-old Italian baseball player who may be the first European to get a one million dollar amateur signing bonus.
• Is the pressure of his impending free agency getting to Jacoby Ellsbury?
• The Cardinals are hoping Chris Carpenter can join their starting rotation in July.
• The Orioles are calling up pitching prospect Kevin Gausman.
• Bob Brenly welcomes our new robot umpire overlords.
• Craig Calcaterra is upset that when Mariano Rivera retires, there will no longer be a major league player older than him. The end of Jamie Moyer's final comeback last season did that for me.
• The Rockies love Wilin Rosario's bat. His defense behind the plate? Not so much.
• Rob Neyer calls the recently-recalled Samuel Deduno is not going to fit in with the rest of the Twins rotation. For example, he actually strikes people out. The Twins current K leader, Pedro Hernandez, strikes out 4.7 per nine innings. Travis Wood has the lowest K rate of any of the Cubs starters, and he strikes out 5.8 per nine.
• Cliff Lee doesn't want to leave Philadelphia, but if that's what it takes to play for a winner, he's OK with a trade.
• The Braves had two strong left-handed relievers, Jonny Venters and Eric O'Flaherty. Two Tommy John surgeries later and they have none.
• Finally, in the past, people around Bleed Cubbie Blue in the past have been a little insensitive to women in posting rather revealing photos or gifs of models and actresses. I hope that's stopped. But to make it up to, if you want, Baseball Prospectus has several 1980s era baseball players as they appeared in the pages of Playgirl Magazine. Warning: you will never be able to un-see Phil Garner.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.