MLB Bullets Blames Hanley Ramirez

I'm tired. It's late. Boise played to 11 pm Pacific Last night. Let's roll.

• We'll get to Kershaw in a second. I want to lead with Jason Turbow's longform piece on "Effective Velocity." Nor just because it's an SBNation piece (although that's nice) but it is certainly causing a bit of buzz in the baseball blogosphere and I don't want you to miss it. Among the adherents to this theory is Trevor Bauer, and that's just one of the reasons he got into trouble with the Luddite Diamondbacks. But another believer, according to the article, is Cubs minor league pitching coordinator Derek Johnson. So there's a Cubs reason to be familiar with the piece, and I didn't want it to get lost among all the Kershaw-worship, as deserved as it is.
• So yeah, Clayton Kershaw threw a no-hitter.
• Mark Saxson writes that it was inevitable that Kershaw would eventually throw one.
• David Schoenfield says that even though it wasn't a perfect game, Kershaw tossed the greatest no-hitter ever. (And he has the 1998 Wrigley Field Official Scorer to thank for that.)
• Steve Dilbeck agrees.
• Cliff Corcoran says that when you put it in historical context, it wasn't the greatest of all time, but it was still awfully, awfully good. (And who really wants to compare it to Nap Rucker's 1908 gem anyway?)
• Jeff Sullivan tracks the development of Kershaw's curve and slider to explain why he's so dominant.
• Dylan Hernandez asks Don Mattingly why was Hanley Ramirez, whose error cost Kershaw the perfect game, still in the field with the Dodgers leading 8-0?
• Ken Rosenthal asks how much Ramirez's terrible defense is costing the Dodgers and will cost him when he hits free agency next season.
• Cindy Boren says that while Kershaw may not have been perfect, Vin Scully was.
• Speaking of great pitchers, here's the followup to that "Who's the greatest hitter against each team" piece from last month. It's "Who is the greatest pitcher against each team?" Randy Johnson earns top honors against the Cubs, which doesn't surprise me at all, although he barely edges Rick Reuschel. (Say what?) What depresses me is that there is only one Cub pitcher on this list from over the past century, and that's Hippo Vaughn against the Pirates.
• The Royals are in first place after a ten-game winning streak that was snapped yesterday. When Joe Posnanski closes his eyes, it's 1985 again.
• Jon Paul Morosi thinks to keep the KC dream alive, the Royals need to trade for a pitcher, preferably Jeff Samardzija.
• The Royals were scouting Shark, as were the Giants.
• The Royals moved into first place because the Tigers are reeling. Cliff Corcoran blames it on The Curse of the Zubaz. Well, that and the starting pitching has been pretty terrible. But mostly on bad fashion choices.
• The Giants huge lead in the NL West is down to a small lead now. Wendy Thurm writes that the Giants' flaws are showing. A lot of their early lead was based on being "Clutch" too, and we all know how that can go. She still picks them to win the NL West, though.
• Jon Heyman thinks the Rangers need to wake up and smell the coffee: they're not competing this season and they need to start dealing assets.
• Since we're talking about the Rangers, this is as good a time as any for the butcher's bill. Gavin Floyd broke his elbow in last night's game. The Braves pitchers have been just as devastated as the Rangers, although their offense has stayed pretty healthy.
• If you want to see a picture of his elbow, look here. Not for the squeamish, although it's not Joe Theismann bad or anything.
• David DeJesus hit the DL with a broken hand. No, he did not punch a chair. He broke it on a check swing.
• Hands are big today. Yonder Alonso hit the DL with wrist tendonitis.
• The man the Padres traded Anthony Rizzo to make room for may not have a job when he comes off the DL, either.
• Mark Trumbo and the Diamondbacks disagree on a timetable for his return. Trumbo says he's ready to start a minor league rehab assignment. Arizona disagrees.
• Was Leo Durocher referring to the DBacks when he said "Gritty teams finish last"? Oh, he didn't actually say that? He said "Gritty Team. Finish Last" or something like that. And he died four years before Arizona was awarded a franchise.
• Tony Campana won the game with a walkoff hit. His reward? A trip to Reno.
• MLB apologized for the replay umpires making an incorrect interpretation of the new home-plate collision rules in the Pirates/Reds game on Wednesday.
• Following up on a piece from last time, the Cardinals have absolutely no sense of humor. But we all knew that, right?
• Maybe it would be a lot better if Brad Ausmus didn't have a sense of humor, however.
• So for a second time, Ausmus apologized for joking about beating his wife.
• Mike Bates wants to see Ausmus use this as a chance to raise awareness of domestic violence. Don't just apologize. Do something.
• Andrew Heaney is the newest phenom to come through the Marlins farm system. Before the season began, I was telling people the Marlins would be a lot better than people thought. I didn't think they'd contend only because I thought the Braves and the Nationals would be a lot better than they turned out to be. But they're an example of a team going from terrible to good pretty quickly using just the farm system.
• Billy Hamilton is becoming more than just a base stealer. Look out.
• Mike Scioscia still believes in Raul Ibañez, despite him hitting .153 and being 42 years old.
• Ken Rosenthal says the Athletics will make a trade to improve their team this summer.
• MLB and the MLBPA are creating the Puerto Rican Summer League.
• David Ortiz is whining again about an official scorer not giving him a hit.
• Bartolo Colon hit a double and scored a run. No really, this is worth mentioning.
• Peter Gammons really likes the way Travis Wood can swing a bat and thinks it's time that we start letting pitchers do more than just pitch.
• And finally, if Tommy John surgery is the number one story in baseball this summer, the influx of Cuban baseball talent is probably number two. Jonah Keri traces how we got to where we are today in regards to Cuban baseball players.

When you're a Cubs fan, just think. It could be worse. You could be a fan of the England National Football Team. Oh, unless you are. In which case, how do you get out of bed in the morning?

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