MLB Bullets Is Ready For The Show

And a happy belated Father's Day to all you fathers out there. My daughter is at the age where she wants to give you all kinds of homemade presents. So there's that.

Oh, where to start. It's all so depressing and I'm not even mentioning Carlos Marmol.

• Alex Cobb was hit in the head with a line drive off the bat of Eric Hosmer on Saturday. However, he was released from the hospital on Sunday, so that's good news.
• Jerry Crasnick says that MLB needs to do something to protect pitchers before it's too late. He doesn't exactly offer a solution, however. Just put the bell on the cat, I guess.
• Getting back to the Diamondbacks/Dodgers brawl, it sounds like the feud isn't over yet. Miguel Montero took to twitter to blast what Arizona thinks is the unfair disparity in how the two teams were punished, especially that Eric Hinske was suspended and Yasiel Puig was not. What I'm surprised about is that few, if any, seem to mention that former Dodgers manager Joe Torre is part of the commissioner's office that hands out discipline. And of course, this isn't the first time this season that there's been a fight involving the Dodgers.
• Oh, and the Dodgers Triple-A team in Albuquerque got into a bench-clearing brawl with the Memphis Redbirds on Saturday.
• Tom Verducci doesn't think the brawl will "inspire" the Dodgers to turn their season around. He also doesn't think baseball can ban players leaving the bench, like they do in other sports, for the simple reason that there are usually nine of one team and one of the other on the field at one time. Also, the situation might have been avoided had a fill-in minor league umpire not been behind the plate.
• Jay Jaffe thinks MLB needs to do something about these beanball wars and by something he means "harsher punishments." He also got an interesting fact from MLB historian John Thorn who says these bench clearing brawls really only date back to the famous Pete Rose/Bud Harrelson fight of 1973, which just happens to be one of my oldest baseball memories.
• Last time we wondered why Wil Myers was still in the minor leagues. Wonder no longer, because he's not there anymore.
• The Dodgers are nearing completing a seven-year contract extension with Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw is not happy that you know about this.
• Seriously, last Dodgers story. A scout takes a look at Yasiel Puig and makes suggestions about how to get him out.
• The Baltimore Sun has a long feature on Chris Davis and his long journey to baseball stardom.
• Cardinals closer Edward Mujica is back in Miami for the first time since being traded, but he's happy in St. Louis.
• The Yankees had a good day on Sunday. They needed it.
• Scott Miller is writing another one of those "End of the Yankees Era" stories that various baseball writers ran all last off-season. Miller might even be right this time.
• More on Mariano Rivera's farewell tour. He's going around meeting the "unsung heroes" in every city he plays in. But he says that it's as much a thrill for him as it is for them. As I said last time, Mo is a cool dude.
• Rob Neyer does not feel sorry for Cliff Lee.
• As the Phillies fall out of contention, Corey Seidman of CSNPhilly.com looks at five trades that worked for teams trading away an ace like Lee and several more that backfired. Note: three of the backfiring trades involved Cliff Lee.
• A sewage backup in Oakland Coliseum forced the Athletics and Mariners to share the Raiders locker room. Dionne Warwick just has one question for the A's.
• The Rockies had four consecutive batters hit for the cycle.
• MLB is on pace for a record number of extra-inning games this season. No kidding.
• The Tigers are in the market for a closer. One guy who might be available, Steve Cishek, is bouncing back nicely in Miami.
• Jeff Baker has a sprained thumb after a teammate high-fived him. That's what knocked Javier Baez out of the Arizona Fall League last year.
• Just the Pirates luck. The one year they manage to be good is the year the NL Central decides to be the best division in baseball and they're stuck in third behind St. Louis and Cincinnati.
• The Blue Jays have a problem when Josh Johnson returns. If he pitches well, they can trade him away before losing him to free agency. But if he pitches well, he might just pitch the Blue Jays back into contention.
• Cracks are starting to show in the Red Sox rotation.
• After stinking for two months, B.J. Upton is finally starting to play like what the Braves expected.
• "College" is one word you never want to misspell.
• Finally, a British comedian tries to explain baseball. It's OK, but it's no Andy Griffith trying to explain football.

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