MLB Bullets Wants To Be Immortalized

Sure, the night my daughter's school has a parents' night is the night the Cubs score 12 runs against the White Sox.

• The Yankees will add to their exhaustive list of retired numbers by retiring Joe Torre's number 6. This means that the Yankees have retired every number between 1 and 10 except for 2, which is currently worn by Derek Jeter. Unless Jeter shoots a man in Reno just to watch him die between now and the end of the season, that number is getting retired as well. Nah. Even then it's getting retired.
• The Yankees are also giving plaques in Monument Park to Torre, Paul O'Neill, Goose Gossage and Tino Martinez. Craig Calcaterra doesn't get why the Yankees are honoring Martinez.
• Steven Goldman goes much more in depth as to why "Mr. Meh" doesn't deserve a plaque in Monument Park. He also considers this a slap in the face to Willie Randolph, who doesn't have a plaque.
• Add the Yankees to the growing number of teams employing defensive shifts. In about five years, everyone will be doing this and we'll be laughing at how primitive we used to be.
• Is the National League just better at defense than the American League?
• Nolan Arenado of the Rockies extended his hitting streak to 28 games last night. He's halfway to DiMaggio.
• David Schoenfield has some background on Arenado and says that while this is fun, his aggressive ways will get to him eventually. But we do need to stand up and take notice anyway.
• Rob Neyer asks if the hot start that the Rockies and the Marlins have gotten off to are sustainable.
• Jay Jaffe just looks at the Marlins chances to stay in contention. He's not optimistic, but he doesn't completely write them off.
• The Blue Jays were supposed to be good last season. Maybe we were just one season early?
• One reason for the Blue Jays success is Melky Cabrera. On that topic, I didn't link to a Buster Olney article about Cabrera last time because its an ESPN insider article and I thought the whole thing would quickly blow over. (If you're not an ESPN Insider, you can read Craig Calcaterra's rather negative take on Olney's comments for free here.)
• The reason I'm bringing this up now is because the Blue Jays read Olney's comments and have rushed to Cabrera's defense. Jose Batista in particular has defended Cabrera.
• Anyway, if you're still interested in this topic, here's round two: Olney's response to Batista (and Richard Griffith, who wrote the Blue Jays article), again, ESPN Insider only. And here's Calcaterra's second response to Olney.
• The other big MLB controversy happened when iTunes removed several MLB-themed podcasts, apparently at the request of MLB.
• I say apparently because as Mike Bates writes, MLB denies that they made this request, although they did ask that titles and thumbnails related to their trademarks be removed. Bates says that what happened is murky, but MLB's previous heavy-handed attempts to control user-generated content means they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.
• Wendy Thurm says that MLB is not in the legal right anyway, and that podcasts would have a right to use team trademarks (That is, calling something "Cubs Korner") under fair use as long as they didn't use them to cause confusion (That is, if a reasonable person thought the Cubs themselves were publishing "Cubs Korner") and as long as they didn't tarnish the brand.
• Last time we addressed the issue "Is Ned Yost the worst manager in baseball?" Here's exhibit B in the case against Yost.
• Bob Nightengale says that things are rough for five teams that made the playoffs last season.
• The Pirates are one of the teams that are struggling and yet they still refuse to call up top prospect Gregory Polanco. Cliff Corcoran looks at the trend of locking up young players long term before they reach arbitration, and in particular the 7 year/$23 million deal that Polanco turned down.
• Dave Cameron tries to figure out what Polanco was worth and says the Pirates may live to regret their lowball offer to Polanco.
• Ben Lindbergh looks at the "Polanco Problem" and what it means that teams are leaving players who could help them now in the minors for long-term money reasons. He also looks at the Braves and the Marlins, two teams who took a different approach.
• The Rangers called up top prospect Rougned Odor to take over second base.
• The Braves are looking at alternatives to Dan Uggla.
• Speaking of the minors, the Burlington Bees lead the Clinton LumberKings 17-1 after five innings on Wednesday night in a Midwest League matchup. See how Clinton came back to win 20-17 in 12 innings.
• Marc Normandin lists four great new rivalries in baseball. I'd agree that all four matchups he listed have bad blood between them that didn't really exist five years ago.
• Jerry Crasnick has a long profile Felix Hernandez, and wonders if he'll ever get to play in the postseason.
• Mitch Moreland got to pitch for the Rangers in a blowout on Tuesday. Mike Oz thinks that Moreland ought to consider doing that full-time.
• Dan Rozenson explains the knuckle-curve and why it's becoming popular.
• Will Leitch is unhappy with the modern seventh-inning stretch and how long and tedious it's become. I got to say, we sing the Star Spangled Banner before the game. Why do we need to sing God Bless America in the seventh inning? Just in case someone in the right-field bleachers decided to join Al-Qaeda in the fifth inning?
• No one is ticketed for Tommy John surgery today, but Greg Doyel looks at the growing phenomenon of young amateur players seeking out the surgery, whether they need it or not.
• East Carolina University pitcher Jeff Hoffman, who was a strong possibility for the Cubs at #4 in the upcoming draft, will have Tommy John surgery. Jon Heyman says that even with the injury, Hoffman may go as high as picks 10-15.
• Joe Mauer may be heading to the DL.
• Time-Warner Cable talks about the SportsNet LA impasse and issues a non-apology apology.
• Dirk Hayhurst talks about what really goes on in an mound conference.
• The Padres got a dinosaur to throw out the first pitch at a game. No, not Dick Enberg.
• Finally, Yankees prospect Ty Hensley discovers that the video game "MLB 14 The Show" is much too realistic for his tastes.

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