MLB Bullets Is Thinking About The Next Move

Opening Day (or middle of the night) in Australia is just two days away.

• Paul White sums up spring training by writing that the biggest name in baseball these days is Tommy John.
• It's official. Kris Medlen was scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery yesterday, but I haven't found any on-line confirmation that he did have the operation. I assume that he did. His teammate Brandon Beachy is going for a second opinion, he's likely facing the same fate.
• The Athletics' Jarrod Parker will also have the operation.
• Christina Kahrl thinks Parker's injury is just more bad news for the Athletics rotation. She also says that teams need to go into the season with eight starting pitchers to account for the expected injuries.
• Ray Ratto thinks A's general manager Billy Beane won't be able to "moneyball" his way out of this mess.
• Tyler Kepner writes about the growing number of pitchers having Tommy John surgery, and notes that around 1/3 of major league pitchers have had the operation at some point in their lives. He also notes that some, like Red Sox manager John Farrell, never successfully come back from the procedure.
• Peter Gammons believes that the time is coming that no small market team will be able to assume the injury risk to a high-priced pitcher over thirty. He says that injuries are hurting the game although I'd ask him what he expects baseball to do about that.
• Matt Harvey is upset with the way the Mets are handling his rehabilitation from Tommy John surgery. He wants to stay with his teammates in New York while the Mets want him in Port St. Lucie. There's more going on than just that and at one point, Harvey mentioned going to the Player's Association. Just another day in Mets world. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• It's not all bad news for the Mets and pitchers with injuries. Jonathon Niese got a clean bill of health and can resume throwing a baseball. It sounded like he might be headed for TJ surgery as well, but he just had some tendonitis.
• After missing the past two seasons with a torn labrum (a much more serious operation than TJ surgery), Michael Pineda is pitching again and looking good in spring training.
• Francisco Rodriguez isn't going to need surgery, but a week after he stepped on a cactus, he's still pulling needles out of his foot.
• Phil Rogers says the Tigers are looking at their options to replace shortstop Jose Iglesias.
• Cliff Corcoran also looks at all of Detroit's options and says the Tigers need to sign Stephen Drew.
• Dave Cameron says the Tigers don't need to sign Drew, at least not now. His argument is that the Tigers are good enough to win the AL Central without Drew, who very well could still be on the market in June. The Tigers could then evaluate Iglesias' rehab and their place in the standings and then decide whether to trade for another shortstop or sign Drew. (Corcoran also thinks the Tigers are good enough to win without Drew, but he doesn't think that's a risk they need to take.)
• Turning to actual games, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks have arrived in Australia.
• Adrian Gonzalez hit the beach with some new friends.
• The Sydney Cricket Ground has been transformed into a baseball diamond. Current Diamondbacks and former Iowa Cubs pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith, who is Australian, was impressed with the transformation of the historic grounds that he visited as a boy. One thing. They will have to make announcements to the Australian fans to tell them they can keep foul balls and to not throw them back onto the field. Maybe they could try that in the Wrigley Field bleachers.
• Despite the vast foul territory, the Dodgers think the Cricket Grounds are going to play as a big hitters park. There has been some grumblings about how close MLB made the outfield fences.
• Dylan Hernandez details all the work that went into transforming SCG into a baseball field. One note, Dylan. It was the Chicago White Stockings, not the Chicago White Sox, that played at SCG in the 19th century. The White Stockings were never called the "White Sox" and everyone around here knows that team is today the Cubs. In fairness, a dumb copy editor may have changed it on Hernandez.
• A lot of Dodgers fans in Southern California aren't going to be able to see their team this year because of the price that Time-Warner is demanding for other systems to carry SportsNetLA. (More than ESPN gets, by some accounts.) Craig Calcaterra says that putting Dodgers games on pay TV was one of the big reasons that Walter O'Malley moved the team to Los Angeles. It just took longer than O'Malley expected. The move turned out OK anyway.
• Grant Brisbee wants to know "Where have all the good first basemen gone?" Long time passing. There simply aren't enough to go around these days.
• The Mets have Ike Davis available, if any one is interested. Probably not.
• The Mets first baseman job was supposed to be a spring training battle between Ike Davis and Lucas Duda, but both players have been unable to get on the field this spring.
• The Astros would like to trade for a first baseman. Doesn't sound like they're interested in Davis, though.
• With all the pitching injury news, here's some good pitching news. The next baseball pitching phenom may be here as Yordano Ventura has won a spot in the Royals opening day starting rotation.
• Ken Rosenthal notes that Ventura has been really, really impressive in spring training.
• Speaking of impressive, David Schoenfield thinks it's scary that Mike Trout could get even better by being just slightly more aggressive at the plate.
• If the Angels want to compete, Josh Hamilton is going to have to get back to something closer to what he once was.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks the Angels still don't have enough pitching to compete.
• In an ESPN insider article, Paul Swyden thinks Andrelton Simmons has a chance to be the greatest defensive shortstop ever. ($) Even better than Ozzie Smith.
• Buster Olney talks to sources inside the Phillies organization that say that Jimmy Rollins either needs to take on a leadership role or he'll be traded.
• There's one problem with that ultimatum, however, in that Jimmy Rollins is a 10-5 player who has full no-trade protection. And he says he doesn't want to go anywhere because he wants to pass Mike Schmidt's career record for hits as a Phillie. Anthony Castrovince says that Rollins is going to have to adapt to manager Ryne Sandberg's ways or go on to another team. He also notes the irony that Rollins is under criticism for not being a team player as Rollins cites breaking an individual record as a reason he doesn't want to leave the Phillies.
• Barry Bonds finished his week as a hitting instructor by taking batting practice. Yep, he's still got it. It doesn't sound like he could run the bases anymore, even enough to be a DH.
• As if their contests weren't long enough as it is, the Yankees-Red Sox game yesterday was delayed by bees.
• Giancarlo Stanton is happier in Miami than he was last season, but he still wants to take at least another year before deciding if he wants to stick around long-term.
• Glen Perkins gave the Twins a huge discount when agreeing to a long-term extension, but the St. Paul native wanted to spend the rest of his career with his hometown team. He also says that he'll be able to live quite comfortably on $22 million dollars anyway. Yeah, but he probably won't be able to afford HBO and Netflix.
• Tom Verducci tries to figure out why it is so difficult for World Series champions to repeat these days.
• The FAA is upset with the Washington Nationals and their use of drones. The Nationals Air Force has been grounded before it even really got a chance to take off.
• Some team just spent $500k on a Cray supercomputer. From the description, it could be the Cubs, although it could also be the Yankees or half a dozen other teams as well. Or maybe Ruben Amaro Jr. wants a really nice paperweight.
• White Sox pitcher Jose Quintana had a really bad day in spring training. Like historically bad.
• The Diamondbacks are selling a $25 corn dog.
• Nick Swisher and Kenny Lofton got into a huge fight over whether the Indians can claim that they were in the playoffs last season.
• So someone had enough time on their hands on St. Patrick's Day to write this. Or at least get James Joyce to write it for them.
• This is interesting. Noah Woodward looks at using decision trees to try to figure out what pitch a pitcher is going to throw next. It sounds like a useful idea for coaches, but there is no way that I'd want any hitter on my team carrying all that data in their heads while they're trying to hit.
• Joe Posnanski looks at the history of the Cleveland Indians nickname, Lou Sockalexis and the legend that the team was named after him. The story does have a kernel of truth to it, even if it is mostly bunk. But not totally bunk, says Posnanski.
• Finally, Bruce Markusen has the moving story of the last year of Reds manager Fred Hutchinson's life. Hutchinson managed the Reds throughout most of the 1964 season despite knowing the whole time that his cancer was terminal.

I got this link from Keith Law, but it's not baseball-related. Corporate mergers have the potential to wipe out the world's supply of bananas.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. With bananas, I hope.