MLB Bullets Has Found Something Sticky

I'm not going to be able to write MLB Bullets today because I've been suspended for having a foreign substance on my keyboard. I think it's coffee.

• Just two starts after getting away with using pine tar in a game against the Red Sox, Yankees hurler Michael Pineda was ejected for using pine tar on the ball in a game against the Red Sox.
• Yesterday, Pineda was suspended for ten days for his transgression. Or maybe just for stupidity.
• The stupidity angle is the one Jon Heyman is going with, or to use his nicer term, "goofball." He says the league tolerates the use of pine tar as long as it is discrete, which is what the League Office told the Yankees to tell Pineda. And apparently what the Yankees told Pineda. So instead, he puts a huge smear on his neck.
• Several pitchers said that "most" pitchers use pine tar. Just not so obviously.
• Ken Rosenthal blames the Yankees, arguing that it was their responsibility to make sure that Pineda didn't do it again. Or, as it has been explained, to not do it where people can see.
• Richard Justice says this is a learning moment for Pineda and that Joe Girardi needs to teach, not punish.
• Gordon Edes is worried that the Red Sox decision to challenge Pineda could make their pitchers the next target.
• Ian O'Connor says Yankee fans can laugh about Pineda now, but the team won't be laughing in October if the team misses the playoffs by one game.
• David Schoenfield is worried about the difference between the "unwritten rules" and the actual written rules. He wonders how baseball can let one rule go unenforced and then expect to enforce the others.
• Peter Tosh says "Legalize it!" Sorry, that's not Peter Tosh. It's Cliff Corcoran. Peter Tosh has been dead for 25 years. Although Tosh did say "Legalize it!" I don't think he was referring to pine tar.
• MLB is not discussing decriminalization yet. But the Rules Committee is currently discussing how to reform the "transfer rule" that has everyone up in arms this season and has been called an unfortunate side-effect of instant replay.
• Commissioner Bud Selig blasted the rooftop owners and said he'd do "anything he can" to help the Cubs in their fight. Of course, here we find out that baseball commissioners don't really have a lot of influence over the legal system.
• It's time for the injury report. In what can't be surprising news to anyone, Padres pitcher Josh Johnson will need Tommy John surgery. Did anyone actually know Johnson pitches for the Padres? Or rather, that Johnson doesn't pitch for the Padres, since he's never thrown a pitch in a game for them.
• Tommy John himself says that the number of pitchers undergoing the surgery is "unreal." He says that MLB isn't at fault and that the cause is the number of pitches thrown when the players are still in high school.
• Mark Trumbo was leading the NL in home runs, but that's likely to change as he goes to the DL with a stress fracture in his foot.
• The oldest living ballplayer, Conrado "Connie" Marrero has died at the age of 102. Today would have been his 103 birthday.
• Rob Neyer says that Marrero's story goes far beyond the five years he pitched in the majors. If you need any evidence, Marrero was 39 years old during his rookie year of 1950. He made his first all-star team at 40.
• The Diamondbacks may have escaped Chicago with two wins, but Marc Normandin thinks they've already dug themselves too big a hole to escape from.
• With the D-Backs bad start, there have been calls for the firing of GM Kevin Towers and manager Kirk Gibson. But as Ken Rosenthal explains, there really isn't anyone available to replace them at the moment. When your best option is your team's broadcaster who hasn't managed in a decade, you know Gibson is going to be safe for at least a while.
• One team that isn't out of it already is the Brewers, who have the best record in the majors. Ken Rosenthal says that it's safe to hate the Brewers again. Actually, I don't think we ever stopped around here. Some of us hate them even more than the Cardinals.
• Jon Paul Morosi has had enough of the "decorum police" enforcing a ban on celebrations in baseball. Instead, he thinks players like Carlos Gomez should be celebrated, within reason. That reason being that you don't do anything that costs your team, like admire an inside-the-park home run into a triple. But that's a matter for his teammates, not the opposing team, to deal with.
• Miles Wray uses a lot of classical literature to explain that the Astros are offending our sense of the Warrior Ethos that permeates sports. Great reading for classics majors who would rather be at the ballgame.
• Zack Greinke is awesome.
• B.J. Upton is not. However, Upton is trying to put failure behind him, even as he realizes that failure is part of the game.
• Howard Megdal asks just how great Andrelton Simmons can end up being? He's already the greatest shortstop since the Wizard of Oz, so I guess that makes Simmons Harry Potter or something,
• Christian Yelich is thriving as a leadoff hitter. He's got a 17 game hitting streak going into tonight's game.
• David Schoenfield asks "Who has had the better career: Derek Jeter or Ichiro Suzuki?"
• Ben Lindbergh thinks that Albert Pujols has a lot of home runs left in him. He also apologizes to Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA forecasting system, that predicted a big season for Pujols. Lindbergh thought PECOTA was drunk when it spit those numbers out.
• Grant Brisbee says that Rafael Palmeiro ruined 500 home runs for everyone.
• Mike Trout and Bryce Harper finally took the field in the same game and Trout wins round one by robbing Harper with a fantastic catch.
• Chris Colabello hit a home run. OK, that's not all that special. What is special is that he did it while his mom was being interview on TV and the cameras caught her reaction. It was also his mom's birthday.
• Grantland has an excellent look at the history of minor league ballparks in El Paso and the new stadium for the Chihuahuas. Did you know that El Paso demolished their own city hall to build the new Chihuahuas stadium?
• Tracy McGrady has signed with the independent Sugar Land Skeeters. He made the team. What I love about this is that he's not doing it for the money and his chance of making the majors is as close to zero as you can get without actually being zero. He's doing this because he loves the game of baseball.
• Finally, Steven Goldman explains why "Field of Dreams" is the worst baseball film of all time. As many of the commentators to his article have explained, he's clearly never seen "Trouble With the Curve."

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