MLB Bullets Examines The Knife

Last night was hard work jinxing that no-hitter.

• The biggest news story in baseball this year, unfortunately, has been the number of pitchers undergoing Tommy John surgery. The American Sports Medical Institute released a position paper on the subject on Wednesday. Their position? That pitchers should throw less often, with longer breaks and that they should not throw regularly at full velocity.
• David Schoenfield looks at the study and notes that pitchers traditionally did not pitch at maximum velocity on each pitch, saving the best "stuff" for critical moments.
• Jorge L. Ortiz has another take on the position paper, noting that proper mechanics play a big role and that pitchers should not pitch in the offseason.
• J.J. Cooper looks at the issues surrounding high pitch counts in the NCAA but notes that college pitchers only throw once a week.
• Cooper also looks at the numbers surrounding TJS and concludes that college pitchers are more likely to have Tommy John surgery in the pros than pitchers who turned pro straight out of high school.
• And with that, we introduce today's butcher's bill, which adds three names to the casualty list this season. First up, Dodgers pitcher Chris Withrow needs Tommy John surgery.
• The Angels Sean Burnett will likely undergo the procedure a second time. He missed most of last season after he underwent surgery to clean up scar tissue from the first Tommy John surgery.
• Nationals prospect Matt Purke will need Tommy John surgery.
• Here's a list of all the pitchers who have had their UCL replaced so far this season. It doesn't include those who are likely to need it but who haven't gone under the knife yet.
• The next biggest story is probably instant replay. Zachary Levine looks at the numbers behind the all the challenges and concludes that replay is working as it's supposed to, except that it could be a bit faster.
• Ken Rosenthal doesn't look at any numbers at all and comes to the same conclusion. But he thinks that there has to be a different way for managers to make a challenge in order to speed up the process.
• The third biggest story is likely the use of defensive shifts. Jayson Stark looks at five hitters you should not put the shift on for.
• I don't know where it ranks in the story hierarchy, but the Braves move to Cobb County is a big story that keeps getting worse. Opponents of the stadium were barred from speaking before the county commissioners voted to approve the funding. This is just a few days after Braves president John Schuerholz said negotiations over the stadium had to be kept secret so that opponents would not be able to mobilize against it. Disgusting.
• This is sort of a Cubs story now, but it's really a Red Sox story. Manny returned to Fenway Park and apologized to everyone for his bad behavior there. Ramirez was warmly welcomed by the Boston fans for the tenth anniversary of the 2004 World Series title.
• Gordon Edes says that Ramirez's "redemption song" resonated with everyone involved with the Red Sox and that people believe he's a changed man.
• Except Dan Shaughnessy. He's having none of it and you shouldn't either.
• Staying in the AL East, the Blue Jays are in first place, thanks in part to Edwin Encarnacion tying the AL record for home runs in the month of May.
• Jeff Sullivan looks at the changes Encarnacion made to go from one home run in April to 16 in May.
• David Schoenfield says that Encarnacion, Jose Bautista and Melky Cabrera are a trio to be feared. The Blue Jays may have the best lineup in baseball.
• Dave Cameron looks at two factors that have turned the Blue Jays into contenders: getting more production out of the lower half of the order and a pitching staff that has cut down on the number of home runs allowed.
• Cliff Corcoran isn't convinced. He still thinks the Blue Jays are just an average team. (Although he does admit that might be enough to win the AL East this year.)
• Jose Bautista threw Billy Butler out at first base on an hard hit one-hopper to right field. That's embarrassing. It looked like Butler did hustle.
• Phil Rogers has already pencilled in division titles for the Athletics and the Tigers. It is in pencil, though.
• Mike Axisa says that the Tigers closer Joe Nathan could be the team's Achilles heel, however.
• Encarnacion isn't the only AL hitter on a tear. The Astros George Springer has seven home runs over the last seven games.
• Will Leitch writes that despite Derek Jeter being in the public eye for almost 20 years, we still know nothing about him. He also notes that this has caused the press to have a kind of creepy, semi-stalker-ish attitude towards him. (my words)
• It's not Tommy John surgery, but Mark Teixeira is out with a bad wrist again.
• Ken Rosenthal, in a not unrelated thought, thinks the Yankees should make a play for Kendrys Morales.
• The story of how the Yankees batting practice coach made it to the majors is a pretty darn good story.
• The Kansas City Royals made Dale Sveum their fifth hitting coach in the past two years. Ask Starlin Castro how that went for him.
• This is a Cubs story, but since Erik doesn't publish Cub Tracks until Sunday, I'll run it here. Erik can run it again if he wants. Stephen Mast says the Cubs are having a great season. Really. He's not kidding. Stop laughing. And stop looking at the W-L numbers.
• Here's another Cubs link: Do you want to see a picture of Jose Cardenal riding an old-timey bicycle at Wrigley sometime in the 70s? Of course you do.
• Eno Sarris has a fascinating discussion with Chris Young (the pitcher) after Young tells him to "go look at the research again." He thinks Young may have a point about pitching velocity and location.
• Thousands of people signed up for a free, online course about Sabermetrics.
• For those of you insisting that the Cubs are the worst drafting team of all time: yep, you're right. The Athletics are the best.
• The late Maya Angelou was supposed to receive an award from MLB this week at a luncheon connected to the MLB Civil Rights game.
• Bryan Curtis wants to know why so many books about baseball get published.
• The teenage girl who cries every time she sees Carlos Gomez got to throw out the first pitch at a Brewers game, with Gomez catching.
• Craig Calcaterra thinks Gomez is an "utterly horrible monster who doesn't respect the game."
• Following up last time's big story, this chart seems to prove that 50 Cent did indeed have the worst ceremonial first pitch in baseball history. The girl who cries at Carlos Gomez threw a strike.
• This article is fascinating and I could argue with it for hours, but who is the greatest hitter ever against each team? They've got Mark McGwire as the Cubs worst foe, and McGwire did destroy the Cubs whenever he came to the plate. But he also only had about 150 plate appearances against the Cubs, whereas Mike Schmidt did almost as well in about 1000 more PAs. So I have a methodological dispute with this one.
• Finally, Tim Kurkjian does a long-form article in which he talks to people involved in the game and tries to write down all the unwritten rules of the game. Very long, but worth your time.

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