MLB Bullets Asks If The Captain Is Sinking

It's been kind of a boring week so far. No news is good news, I guess.

• The Yankees activated shortstop Brendan Ryan off of the DL and put Michael Pineda on it.  Matt Snyder says that while Ryan can't hit much at all, his defense alone would be a bonus for the Yankees in the middle infield.
• Why is this big news? Maybe because Derek Jeter has been killing the Yankees with a prolonged slump. Plus, I don't think even the hardest core members of the Bronx Jeter Cult (BJC) would claim that Jeter is a better defender than Ryan these days.
• Rob Neyer asks if the Yankees might do the "unthinkable:" Bench Jeter in his final season farewell tour. As manager Joe Girardi said, he wasn't hired to run a farewell tour.
• Jon Heyman's stock watch compares the sky-high Troy Tulowitzki to Jeter and thinks it would take close to a miracle for Jeter to have a productive season at this point.
• The Braves snapped a seven-game losing streak last night, but this article is still relevant since they only scored two runs in the win. The Braves are trying to figure out what the problem is with their offense.
• One problem is certainly second baseman Dan Uggla . David O'Brien wonders how much longer can Atlanta leave Tommy La Stella in Triple-A.
• Will Leitch loves Andrelton Simmons, but he uses two of his miscues to rant about hometown biases in official scoring of errors.
• Ken Rosenthal has a list of top prospects who are still in the minors for one reason or another.
• One of them is the Pirates Gregory Polanco, who reportedly turned down a seven-year, $25 million deal.
• And why is Oscar Tavares still in the minor leagues?
• One prospect Rosenthal didn't mention is Mookie Betts, who has gone from "Who?" to "Wow!" in record time.
• One former top prospect isn't in the minor leagues: he's in prison. Gabe Kapler talks to Matt Bush behind bars.
• Umpire Laz Diaz tossed Yankees manager Joe Girardi after Girardi felt Diaz taunted him.
• David Schoenfield thinks Diaz needs to be suspended.
• Mariano Rivera caused a bit of controversy by claiming that Dustin Pedroia is a better second baseman than Robinson Cano.
• Andrew Marchand says that while Pedroia is a great player, the only thing he does better than Cano is get grass stains on his pants.
• Jeff Sullivan goes looking for a reason to be worried about Mike Trout and sort of finds one.
• Clayton Kershaw came off the DL and dominated the Nationals.
• Aroldis Chapman is expected to come off the DL this weekend.
• Matt Wieters is off to see Dr. James Andrews. (cue eerie music)
• Billy Hamilton is expected to hit the DL with his sprained knuckles.
• Cliff Corcoran notes that the injuries to Hamilton, Chapman, Jay Bruce, Tony Cingrani, Mat Latos, Devin Mesoraco, Tony Perez, Ernie Lombardi, and Mr. Met leave the Reds rather short-handed.
• The Marlins released Greg Dobbs, just 13 plate appearances into his $1.7 million contract.
• The Pirates beat the Giants last night on the first ever walk-off replay review.
• Russell Carleton runs the numbers and says instant replay appears to be working properly.
• What isn't working well is the unbalanced scheduling, which meant that the Dodgers and Nationals had to wait out a 3 hour 17 minute rain delay on Monday night.
• Mike Bauman says the Athletics have advanced from their "Moneyball" days. They've moved on to Moneyball 2.0.
• The Brewers would like to be patient hitters who wait for their pitch and draw walks, but they're not and they've just got to be themselves. But their swing first, ask questions later approach seems to be working for them so far.
• If the inside-the-park home run is the most exciting play in baseball, what's the most boring? A ranking of baseball plays.
• Finally, if you've ever wondered what happened to the ball that Carlton Fisk hit in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, Keith Olbermann has it.

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