MLB Bullets Is Under Suspicion, Again

I don't know why I'm bothering with more than one link today. I could save myself a lot of time and effort by just posting the first link. All anyone is going to notice is the first one.

• A report from ESPN's Outside The Lines says that MLB is considering suspending up to twenty players, including Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez, 100 games for violating the MLB Drug Policy in connection to the Biogenesis Clinic scandal. Hoo boy.
• Jeff Passan thinks the Biogenesis scandal is bigger than BALCO and that it represents a failure of the MLB drug policy. He thinks any victory MLB might get out of this will be Pyrrhic and that any PED policy is destined to fail.
• Craig Calcaterra thinks that by getting in bed with a "sleazy clinic owner" shows that they've learned nothing from their past. He says all MLB can accomplish out of this is an "Empty P.R. victory."
• Matthew Pouliot thinks baseball has little to gain and a lot to lose by pursuing suspensions.
• Ken Rosenthal doesn't think that the word of Tony Bosch will be enough to get any suspensions to stick. MLB has had better evidence in different cases and failed.
• Speaking of PED suspensions, Melky Cabrera says he's sorry to the fans and his teammates in San Francisco.
• Jon Heyman writes that the Yankees are secretly hoping that Alex Rodriguez never gets better.
• Heyman also thinks the contract that the Dodgers gave Andre Ethier last season is going to make him difficult to trade,
• The Dodgers also have to be patient with Yasiel Puig.
• Cliff Lee is ready to hit the road, Jack.
• Unlike Lee, Jake Peavy doesn't have a no-trade clause, and he feels his days with the White Sox are almost over.
• Nick Swisher is very happy to be with the Indians and doesn't want to dwell on the past.
• Mike Aviles was kicked out of last night's Yankees/Indians game after it ended.
• Russell Martin got a start in right field last night. It didn't cost the Pirates the game, but I hope that stuff like this will cause teams will stop thinking it's a good idea to carry 13 pitchers.
• In college baseball news, Cliff Corcoran reports on the best baseball game all year that you didn't see. Except that I did watch the game, or at least from the eighth inning on.
• Jay Jaffe remembers Ten-Cent Beer Night. I don't see how anyone who was there could actually remember anything.
• Former Umpire Union Chief Richie Phillips has died.
• Jeff Pearlman tells minor league concession stands to get off his lawn.
• A pregnant Angels fan is getting her child a head start in being a baseball fan. Or maybe a belly start.
• Domonic Brown hit twelve home runs in May without drawing a single walk. Not only is that a record, no hitter before Brown had even hit nine home runs in a month he didn't draw a walk.
• Two more pitchers refuse to make Al's case for the designated hitter.
• Two alumni of MLB's Urban Youth Academy in Compton, CA are expected to be first round picks tomorrow. One also participated in the RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) Program.
• Al Leiter is interested in being a United States Senator from New Jersey. Governor Chris Christie can appoint anyone he wants, but Leiter probably only has a slightly better chance that I do of getting the nod.
• Tom Verducci says that plate discipline may be a good thing, but passive at bats are not and that run scoring is down. Verducci actually does a lot of research on this and thinks the problem lies in college baseball. It's worth a read.
• Finally, in the movie Moneyball, a scout tells a young Billy Beane that "We're all told at some point in time that we can no longer play the children's game. We just don't know when that's going to be. Some of us are told at eighteen, some of us are told at forty. But we're all told." Unfortunately, Ramon Ortiz was (apparently) told Sunday night when he injured his arm. At forty, he's not likely to get another chance to pitch again and he was very emotional about it. Will Leitch shares his thoughts on it, and says that Ortiz was just doing in public what every other athlete does in private.

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