MLB Bullets Says We'll Never Be Royals

It's been a long week, but now it's Friday.

• The orthopedic surgeon who invented ulnar collateral ligament surgery--better known as "Tommy John surgery"-- Dr. Frank Jobe has died. I think it is safe to say that only a small handful of men have had a greater impact on the sport of baseball over the past 40 years than Jobe had. He was 88.
• Commissioner Bud Selig made a statement on Jobe's passing.
• mlb.com has a collection of Twitter comments from people in the game on Jobe. I'd also suggest just going to Tommy John's Twitter account directly.
• Speaking of the UCL, Luke Hochevar is going to miss at least the first two month of the season with a strained UCL. Right now, the doctors are just recommending rehabilitation for Hochevar, but of course, Tommy John surgery is always a possibility.
• Rick Ankiel underwent Tommy John surgery back when he was a pitcher, but he switched to the outfield when his comeback was unsuccessful. Ankiel announced his retirement on Wednesday. Despite all his troubles, Ankiel had an 11 year major league career.
• Cameron Maybin has a ruptured biceps but won't need surgery. That means instead of missing at least half the season, he might only miss April.
• No one seems to know what is wrong with Cole Hamels, but something is wrong and he's going to miss some time. He hasn't pitched yet this spring.
• Getting back to last time's big story, Ian Kinsler said his comments were taken out of context when he said Rangers GM Jon Daniels was a "sleazeball." Silly rabbit. Reporters make recordings of interviews these days. Listen for yourself and see if you think Kinsler was taken out of context.
• Ken Griffey Jr. apologized for a really awful interview he game ESPN. Junior did not claim he was taken out of context. Just that he was sick.
• Manny Ramirez is telling everyone that he's not retired. Ramirez is still looking for a team willing to take a chance on him.
• Maybe he ought to give the Sugar Land Skeeters a call. The New York Times has an update on Tracy McGrady's attempt to have a baseball career after his basketball career. If he does end up playing for the Skeeters, his manager will be former Cubs third baseman Gary Gaetti.
• Albert Pujols took exception to a question asking him if he needs Mike Trout to motivate him.
• Anthony Castrovince says that Brandon Phillips is awfully chatty for a guy who says he's no longer talking to the media.
• One guy whom the media has no trouble getting a quote out of is Pete Rose. Sports Illustrated has an excerpt from a new book on Rose. I'm betting I won't buy the book.
• ESPN.com has a recap of "This Day in Baseball Instant Replay," with information on every reviewed play on Thursday. And the one in the Phillies game that wasn't reviewed because there was a power outage just before the play Ryne Sandberg wanted reviewed. Poor Ryno. He finally gets a managerial job and it's this team. It's going to be a long season in Philadelphia.
• Braves president John Schuerholz is confident instant replay will work.
• Giancarlo Stanton is ready to be a team leader in Miami.
• Colby Lewis prefers to lead by example. Of course, when your example is emulating the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, maybe it's just time to call him a loony and move on.
• The Cardinals are close to signing Matt Carpenter to a six-year extension.
• Justin Masterson wants to sign an extension with the Indians and he's willing to give the team a discount to sign. Ken Rosenthal thinks Cleveland would be foolish to say no.
• Dave Cameron looks at Masterson's offer and examines whether its really a discount or just one of those things where the store marks the price way up and then gives you 30% off to make it look like you're getting a deal. I hate that.
• For Billy Butler, life is just a Lorde song. He says he can't imagine playing for any team other than the Royals. (And yes, I know the song was inspired by a picture of George Brett.)
• Bob Nightengale talks to players and says there is unhappiness about how the free agent compensation rules are playing out.
• Ervin Santana, one of the unsigned free agents, is considering changing agents.
• Jon Paul Morosi says to watch the 2017 World Baseball Classic for hints about the upcoming labor negotiations. If MLB starts talking about moving the tournament up to 2016 (before the current CBA expires rather than after), look out.
• Adam Dunn doesn't care if he hits 500 home runs. He just wants to play in one playoff game. I didn't realize Dunn had never made the post-season, but yeah, of course he hasn't.
• Torii Hunter vehemently denies that he's dating an alligator. Or that he even kissed one.
• Ben Lindbergh wonders why no general manager has been fired in over two years and tries to come up with an explanation.
• Richard Griffin thinks that Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos needs to add some players, stat.
• Masahiro Tanaka pitched three innings against the Phillies yesterday. Gabe Kapler writes that Tanaka wasn't fooling anyone. Kapler then goes on to say "But hey, it's only spring training."
• Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu are pencilled in to start for the Dodgers two games in Australia.
• Frank Jackson looks at the baseball careers of "Bing" and Kurt Russell. I did not know that Russell was going to play Crash Davis in Bull Durham before the studio insisted upon Kevin Costner.
• David Kagan has a history of the physics of the curveball. That means he looks at all the debates over the past 150 years about whether or not a curve actually curves, and how they went about trying to solve that question. (Yes. It does curve.)
• The Astros are considering moving to the Cactus League. Those Astros just can't stay in one league, can they?
• Finally, Rays manager Joe Maddon doesn't want to talk about batting practice. Practice. Not a game. Practice.

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