MLB Bullets Wants Special Treatment

I'm going to waive my doctor/patient confidentiality to bring you a conversation I had with my physician.

"I'm going to ask you some questions to check you for depression. Are there things that you used to find pleasure in that you no longer find enjoyable?"

"Yes."

"And what is that?"

• The Tampa Bay Rays swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox yesterday, but they weren't happy about it. I don't mean they weren't happy about winning two games. They were unhappy that they had to play a day/night doubleheader when there were available mutual off-days later in the season.
• In fact, all of Tampa Bay was upset by the move, as indicated by this tweet

This is currently on the front page of the Tampa Bay Times' website. pic.twitter.com/mJYnRYrnyr

— Ryan Hannable (@Hannable84) May 1, 2014

• Strangely enough, if you read the Tampa Bay Times article linked to in the first bullet, MLB says the rules about rescheduling games don't apply to the Red Sox or the Cubs. Wow. Who would have thought the Cubs would have ever gotten the Red (Sox) carpet treatment by MLB?
• In any case, the Rays themselves tried to be gracious guests anyway. Manager Joe Maddon gave his Rays cap to a freezing young Red Sox fan in the front row.
• Jonah Keri looks how the Brewers engineered their turnaround this season.
• Dave Cameron says that the Angels record may only be .500 so far (they're actually a game over .500 now), but that their performance in April indicates that they'll likely be a playoff contender this season.
• The Angels beat the Indians on Wednesday night, thanks in part to a key replay reversal. Who does Cleveland manager Terry Francona have to blame for this reversal of fortune? Francona's own son Ryan, whose responsibilities with the Angels include watching the video and deciding which plays to challenge.
• Rob Neyer notes that despite both teams having multiple injuries to their starting rotation, both the Braves and the Athletics have the best team starting pitcher ERA in their respective leagues. Neyer also examines their chances of keeping this trend going.
• The Braves actually now have more starting pitchers than they know what to do with.
• When they were coming up through the Braves system, Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman were supposed to be Atlanta's "Batman and Robin." That's has happened. The only thing is, Heyward was the one supposed to be Batman. Ben Reiter looks at how Heyward and Freeman have gone in different directions.
• The Braves have agreed to a three-year extension with third baseman Chris Johnson. I wonder which Superfriend Johnson is?
• The Mets and Yankees have identical 15-12 records. The Mets say that they expected to be a playoff contender this season.
• Marc Normandin says that the Mets are doing pretty well, but they still need Stephen Drew.
• The Mets wrote an awkward open letter for "True New Yorkers" to support the Mets.
• Craig Calcaterra thinks the letter was dumb, but that all the people who are taking offense to it are even dumber.
• Grant Brisbee looks at five good players having bad seasons and how likely they are to turn it around.
• One of the players Brisbee examines is Prince Fielder. Richard Durrett is starting to worry when or even if Fielder is going to turn it around.
• The butcher's bill almost has more good news that bad news today. Clayton Kershaw will pitch for the Dodgers on Monday.
• Hisashi Iwakuma is scheduled to start for the Mariners on Saturday.
• Aroldis Chapman hit 101 mph in a rehab appearance yesterday. He felt "normal" afterwards.
• It's not all good news though. The Reds shut down Tony Cingrani with shoulder tendonitis.
• Staying with the Reds, Billy Hamilton sprained his knuckles punching out Mr. Red in an drug-crazed delirium making a diving catch.
• Bruce Chen is likely to hit the DL with lower back pain.
• A new University of Florida study say that a pitcher's hips might be the reason they injure their elbows.
• Ken Rosenthal says not to worry about Bryce Harper's injuries, he's still going to be a superstar one day. He also adds we should stop measuring Harper against Mike Trout, saying that even Mickey Mantle might look bad against that measuring stick.
• While Clayton Kershaw was out, you might not have noticed that Zack Greinke is having a Kershaw-like start to the season. Seems like forever ago that Greinke won the AL Cy Young.
• The Dodgers became the fourth MLB team to win 10,000 games. Maybe. The team was stripped of 18 wins from 1899 for using an ineligible player. So it depends on whether you count those games. In any case, they'll get to 10k some time this season.
• Steven Goldman looks back at Reggie Jackson's return to Yankee Stadium in 1982 and notes he was warmly received, unlike Robinson Cano this week.
• Back in 1978, MLB had a crisis not unlike the one the NBA had this week with Donald Sterling when Twins owner Calvin Griffith made racist comments at a Lion's Club dinner. Let's just say this is another big black mark on Bowie Kuhn's disastrous tenure as commissioner.
• After alleged improprieties in MLB's handling of the Alex Rodriguez/Biogenesis case, MLB has restructured its investigative unit and fired some of its members.
• Tom Verducci says more teams are using the defensive shift because it works. But if it works (and Verducci believes it does), why are major league teams getting worse at turning batted balls in play into outs?
• Eric Benson has the story of Jeremy Barfield's move from the outfield to the pitcher's mound.
• Rare footage of the 1919 World Series. It appears to be from Game 3, the one that the White Sox won because starting pitcher Dickie Kerr was not in on the fix.
• Finally, a high school senior was looking for a memorable way to ask a girl to the prom. So he had Gio Gonzalez do it. (h/t Hardball Talk)

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