MLB Bullets Takes One In The Ribs

Welcome to the special no A-Rod edition of MLB Bullets! Ah, who am I kidding. It's all about A-Rod these days. Except when it's about Ryan Braun.

• The weekend started on Friday with a report from 60 Minutes that Alex Rodriguez, or at least members of Rodriguez's inner circle, leaked documents to Yahoo! Sports implicating Ryan Braun and Francisco Cervelli in the Biogenesis doping scandal. Rodriguez denied that he had done any such thing.
• Then on Saturday, Rodriguez's new lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, alleged that the Yankees hid Rodriguez's medical diagnosis of a torn labrum and continued to play him in order to aggravate the injury and end his career. I'm not up on the New York legal scene, but apparently such bomb-throwing is par for the course for Tacopina and is probably why ARod hired him. Yankees president Randy Levine angrily denied the charges.
• Rodriguez's legal team then started to procedures to make a formal grievance against the Yankees for their handling of Rodriguez during last season's playoffs.
• Tyler Kepner implies that Rodriguez is alleging that the Yankees intentionally threw games in order to end Rodriguez's career and that's an absurd lie. Now he doesn't actually come out and say that because this is The New York Times and I'm sure their lawyers wouldn't permit him to make such a charge, even if Rodriguez would let his lawyers make the charge in the first place. But that's essentially the point of that article.
• Then on Sunday, it came out that Rodriguez's camp made two wire transfer payments to the attorney for Biogenesis head Tony Bosch. One was a $25,000 retainer that was accepted, and the second was an unsolicited $50,000 that was rejected. Rodriguez's lawyers say the second transfer was a mistake and that they did ask for it to be returned.
• After all of this, Yankees GM Brian Cashman says he's not comfortable talking to ARod, because of all the legal proceedings taking place.
• A report from Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal on Sunday said that Rodriguez was offered a deal for significantly less than 211 games that was rejected. Rosenthal said that his sources say that MLB floated the possibility of a suspension as short as 50 games at one point, but Rodriguez rejected it. MLB denies they ever made such an offer.
• So on Sunday Night Baseball, as you are all probably well aware by now, Ryan Dempster threw three pitches at Alex Rodriguez, hitting him with the third one. Dempster was not ejected for this blatant action, so Joe Girardi was ejected for rather animatedly arguing that Dempster should be ejected.
• So in the sixth inning, Rodriguez homered off Dempster and the Yankees won the game.
• So why did Dempster throw at A-Rod? The assumed explanation was that he was throwing at him for his PED use. However, there are other explanations. Keith Olbermann believes it was not for PED use, but for Rodriguez being a rat.
• A Canadian journalist who recently interviewed Dempster thinks it has nothing to do with the Biogenesis scandal, but rather that Dempster was upset that Rodriguez snubbed him at a public event that they both had attended. If that's the case, that makes Dempster look a lot worse than A-Rod.
• John Harper of the New York Daily News thinks Dempster did Rodriguez a huge favor. By hitting him, he rallied the whole Yankee team around him.
• Moving on to Braun, he apparently called other players before his previous suspension was overturned, arguing that the sample collector was a Cubs fan and an anti-Semite. Wow, I don't know which of those charges is worse. Actually, I do. And I resent being lumped in with anti-Semites, Ryan.
• Kirk Gibson ripped into Ryan Braun, claiming that he cheated his Diamondbacks out of a trip to the 2011 World Series.
• Gibson is taking a stand against PED abuse throughout the game. Except when it comes to Matt Williams, who admitted taking steroids from 2002 to 2005. Gibson only made him his third base coach. How many runs did the Diamondbacks score in the 2011 NLDS because Williams's PED use allowed him to wave more runners home, Gibby?
• Miguel Tejada was suspended 105 games for testing positive twice for amphetamines. Tejada says he was taking the drug for a medical condition, but admits that he did not follow proper procedure in getting a medical exemption.
• Matt Snyder says, considering the circumstances of Tejada's life, he's not going to judge him for using Adderall.
• I don't think the news in baseball could get any worse. Oh yeah, it can. Former outfielder Chad Curtis was convicted of sexually assaulting three high-school girls.
• Well, it can't get any worse than that. Oh, yeah it can. The son of former Red Sox player and current broadcaster Jerry Remy was arrested for murdering his girlfriend. Remy, for his part, issued a statement that he was filled with "disgust and remorse" and that he was "heartbroken" for the woman who died.
• Now, moving on to less depressing stuff. More people weighed in on the new replay system. Joe Posnanski feels that MLB is missing the chance to do instant replay right. His best point is that the "challenge" system makes the manager responsible for getting the call right and not baseball and the umpires.
• Ben Lindbergh looks at the new system and reminds us that half a loaf is better than no loaf.
• Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News warns us that baseball is relying on the television feeds, and there will be the temptation to "lose" footage that would go against the home team. As he points out, this has already happened once in the NHL. But in baseball, aren't there usually home and road feeds, as opposed to the NHL cameras that are planted by the league above and around the goal?
• Buck Showalter welcomes our new robot, instant-replay camera overlords. Anything is better than Angel Hernandez, right?
• Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs asks "Is Andrelton Simmons having the best defensive season ever?" The answer is "Probably not." But he is really, really good.
• In case you need to be convinced of the genius of Andrelton Simmons, take a look at this 6-3 double play.
• Rany Jazayerli looks at the resurgence of his beloved Royals and thinks the secret is their defense. He's still mad about the James Shields for Wil Myers trade though.
• Christina Kahrl takes a look at Clayton Kershaw's historic season. She thinks it's not nearly getting enough attention during this hot streak by the Dodgers.
• On the other hand, the Dodgers ten-game winning streak was snapped when Hanley Ramirez made two errors in the ninth inning. It was Ryne Sandberg's first win as a major league manager.
• Jon Paul Morosi thinks the Dodgers can't tolerate Yasiel Puig's mental mistakes anymore because they're going to cost them in the postseason. Also, he says he might end up like Starlin Castro. (Ouch. That hurts.)
• Bryce Harper hears your boos and he loves them.
• Stephen Strasburg has been much better this year than you probably think.
• Joe Posnanski looks at the AL MVP race and says once again, Mike Trout is the better player even if Miguel Cabrera is going to win the award. On the other hand, Christina Kahrl thinks Cabrera is the easy and correct choice.
• The Cardinals are upset with the current playoff format. They, and others, think the teams with the three best records, regardless of division, should avoid the one-game play-in game.
• The Yankees are discovering that Alfonso Soriano can go on hot streaks. They seem to think it's Yankee magic or something. They'll learn when he goes into one of his cold spells.
• The Rangers are still looking for more starting pitching.
• Pablo Sandoval's brother went to culinary school and the Panda has lost 22 pounds because of it.
• Shutouts in baseball are up this season. It's the scouting, writes Nick Cafardo.
• Max Scherzer has tied the record for best winning percentage in a season. Of course, if he loses another game this season the record will go out the window.
• Here's some good news. Television ratings for baseball on ESPN are up.
• And finally, here is the most amazing first pitch in baseball I've ever seen. Unless you like the one at the bottom better. My vote is for the first one. Frankly, I've got to admit that the Koreans are way ahead of the US in first pitch abilities. Really, this is the best you could do, Shawn Johnson?