MLB Bullets Was Late To The Game

I'm thinking of changing the name of this column to "Puig Bullets." Do you think if I was late in posting this, Al would get someone else to write it for a day?

• As you know doubt have heard by now, Yasiel Puig was benched for the Dodgers home opener because he was late arriving at the ballpark.
• Puig accepted his benching and said it was all his fault and that he didn't know what time he was supposed to be there. Michael Martinez writes that the Dodgers have been patient with Puig, but for how long?
• Ramona Shelburne says that Puig needs to understand that his chaos affects more people than just himself.
• Steve Dilbeck says that while this incident isn't a big deal, Puig needs to demonstrate that he's learned his lesson.
• Jill Painter says, au contraire, everything Puig does is a big deal and these incidents could derail the Dodgers entire season. Well, it would certainly provide a scapegoat if the Dodgers don't win the World Series, and every team needs one of those.
• Craig Calcaterra has been one of Puig's defenders and says that while Mattingly was right to bench Puig, this still isn't a big deal. He also notes that it's the media, not the Dodgers, that are making this a big deal.
• Dan LeBatard puts Puig's incidents in the context of a man who has been in a free country for only a little under two years.
• Puig played on Saturday, but then had to sit on Sunday with a strained thumb. He's day-to-day.
• I guess this is as good a time to go through the butcher's bill as any. Mets closer Bobby Parnell will have Tommy John surgery.
• As will top Pirates prospect Jameson Taillon.
• Christina Kahrl says that the Pirates will miss Taillon the most come playoff time when you need an ace. This assumes that they make the post-season again. It also discounts that I will miss Taillon as I've been carrying him on my fantasy team in a minor league spot for two seasons now.
• In other Pirates news, the team announced that they have extended the contracts of GM Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle.
• Nick Bond says that Huntington and Hurdle were rewarded for making the Pirates "pretty good." He also notes that the Pirates team they inherited was so backwards, they didn't even have an analytics department as recently as 2008.
• Richard Justice thinks the future is bright in Pittsburgh.
• After he went 6 for 6 with two doubles and a home run on Saturday, David Schoenfield wants to know "Who is Charlie Blackmon?" I'll tell you who he is. He was my final draft pick in my fantasy auction, that's who he is. OK, I know. No one gives a crap about my fantasy team. I'll stop.
• You know who else is good? Giancarlo Stanton. Just watch this mammoth home run.
• Mark Trumbo is hitting a lot of home runs too. Tracy Ringolsby writes that Trumbo has done everything the Diamondbacks wanted out of him.
• Another guy who is pretty good is Yu Darvish, who set a record for the fastest pitcher to 500 strikeouts, as measured by innings pitched. The pitcher whose record he broke? Kerry Wood. Second, now third, on that list? Mark Prior. Sigh.
• Chris Girandola writes that Darvish was the spark necessary for the Rangers to emerge from their early season funk.
• Ron Washington was unusually blunt in his criticism of a Prince Fielder TOOTBLAN.
• Cliff Corcoran looks at Masahiro Tanaka's first major league start and said it was impressive, although not some blemishes.
• Bryce Harper, on the other hand, is struggling the first week of the season. Harper admitted "I'm pretty lost right now." Yet in his third season, he's still the youngest player in the National League.
• Thomas Boswell thinks that Nationals manager Matt Williams has turned the Nats into an aggressive team. Perhaps a little too aggressive.
• It doesn't look like the Nats are going to get much help at the trade deadline. Owner Mark Lerner says that the team's payroll is "beyond tapped out."
• Ron Gardenhire became just the tenth manager to win 1,000 games with one team. His predecessor, Tom Kelly, also accomplished the feat. The Twins last fired a manager in 1986. Think about that for a while. Of course, the Dodgers fired Chuck Dressen (actually he quit when the Dodgers wouldn't give him the three-year contract he wanted) in 1953 and didn't fire another manager until Bill Russell got the ax in 1998. If you don't count Dressen as a firing, you can go back to Burt Shotton getting canned after the 1950 season. (Don't tell me about Connie Mack. He wasn't going to fire himself. That doesn't count.)
• In other good news for the Twins, their hitters look better this season, writes Jim Souhan.
• Christina Kahrl has an appreciation of Chris Sale. She also uses Sale as an opportunity to talk mechanics, injuries, and the White Sox approach to Sale.
• Jeff Sullivan has a wonderful breakdown of Mark Buehrle's first start of the season, complete with lots of GIFs.
• The Athletics and Mariners game on Friday was rained out without rain. The grounds crew did not put the tarp on the game the night before, and the rain soaked the field and made the infield unplayable. It's their second rain-out in Oakland this week, after not having had one since 1998.
• And today's home opener in Philadelphia has already been postponed.
• There was a protest outside Progressive Field calling for the end to Chief Wahoo.
• Seriously, dude. If you want to make a point that Chief Wahoo is not a racist caricature, this is not the way to do it.
• Matthew Kory has a profile of the "forgotten" Clay Buchholz.
• The problems with instant replay in last Tuesday's Giants/Diamondbacks game show that the rule is still a work in progress.
• The Mets are trying to trade Ike Davis, but they apparently turned down an offer of Zach Britton for him.
• MLB is reviewing the "shoving incident" between a fan and Matt Adams.
• And I thought the bottled water that they sell at the grocery store was a major rip-off. For only $19.99, the Royals will sell you a bottle of water from the fountains at Kauffman Stadium.
• An Ole Miss batter hit a walkoff home run in an intentional ball.
• Jim Caple goes through David Letterman's long history of baseball on late-night television. Because of Dave, Terry Forster will forever be known as "The Fat Tub of Goo." But Letterman's love of baseball worked its way into many gags through the years.
• Finally, please oh please let this not be a hoax. It probably is, but it's pretty funny anyway. And really funny if a kid actually wrote that.

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