MLB Bullets Says Goodbye To Another Legend

Writing this three times a week is becoming more and more depressing.

• White Sox great Minnie Minoso died yesterday. The death of "Mr. White Sox" follows the death of "Mr. Cub" by just over a month. It's been a truly sad start of the year for Chicago baseball fans. We at Bleed Cubbie Blue send our condolences to Minoso's friends and family and to all members of the White Sox family. Baseball has lost another one of the true all-time greats. The link above also includes a statement by the White-Sox-fan-in-chief, President Obama.
• Tim Healy looks at the case for Minoso's induction to Cooperstown. For me, the honor was long overdue and is now too late.
• Staying with the White Sox, Chris Sale has a broken foot and is expected to miss the next three weeks. He reportedly injured it in a home accident.
• Last time's big story on Josh Hamilton's relapse is still up in the air. Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi report that Hamilton will be suspended, although commissioner Rob Manfred wants to be lenient and understanding.
• Morosi explains how complicated l'Affair Hamilton is for the commissioner.
• Richard Justice is pulling for Hamilton to recover.
• More on the happy topic of addiction. Torii Hunter talks about his father's lifelong battle with drugs and how it that affects Hunter. Also, Hunter says he'd like to be the GM of the Twins one day.
• Twins manager Paul Molitor has laid down the law and said all electronic devices have to be turned off a half-hour before the game and they have to stay off until the game ends. As much as I like to mock silly manager rules, this one actually seems like common sense to me.
• The first game of the exhibition season was yesterday as the Philadelphia Phillies took on the University of Tampa. Yep, the Phillies lost. It's good the Phillies are practicing that now.
• We laugh, but as Jeff Sullivan points out, every team has a chance to win the World Series this year and every year. Even the Phillies. He also argues that while it's a small chance, it's not a "oh, theoretically there is a chance" but an actual real chance.
• Matt Schiavenza in The Atlantic has an article on how the changing Cuba-US relations could affect Major League Baseball.
• MLBPA head Tony Clark talks about playing baseball games in Cuba as well other international venues like London or Taiwan.
• Clark also said that he had reservations about any kind of international draft. Honestly, I don't know why they don't just institute a hard bonus cap and then eliminate the draft altogether. If one team wants to spend all their money on one player, let them. He's going to be lonely in the minors though.
• Juan Pierre retired and he revealed the one regret about his career on Twitter. He (jokingly) says he'll come out of retirement to reach 20 home runs if someone offers him a three-year deal.
• Jimmy Rollins said he was open to a trade to the Mets and that they were his second choice after Los Angeles.
• Former Mets shortstop Jose Reyes says there is something wrong with current Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada. Manager Terry Collins doesn't argue.
• The second-oldest player in baseball, Bartolo Colon, is expected to be the Mets Opening Day starter.
• Bad news and good news for Blue Jays outfielder Michael Saunders. His injury to the meniscus in his left knee was a lot worse than first thought. But that means that instead of trying to repair it, the doctors just removed it and now he'll be able to play in 5 to 6 weeks instead of four months.
• Looking for outfield depth, the Jays signed Dayan Viciedo to a minor-league deal.
• Angels ace Garrett Richards will not be ready of Opening Day.
• Rangers ace Yu Darvish says he'll be ready for Opening Day.
• Marlins ace Jose Fernandez threw off a mound for the first time since Tommy John surgery.
• We now have the details of the insurance policy Max Scherzer took out when he turned down the Tigers $144 million extension.
• Yoenis Cespedes would like to sign an extension with the Tigers.
• Ken Rosenthal writes that although the projections for Dee Gordon is that he'll suffer a setback this season, Rosenthal thinks Gordon will take a step forward. All these arguments get trotted out every time someone wants to argue against regression. Sometimes the player doesn't regress, but most regress anyway.
• Now on to the Tampa annex to the Bronx Zoo. Craig Calcaterra thinks that Franz Kafka would be the perfect Yankees beat writer this spring. "Yesterday, Alex Rodriguez woke up and discovered he had been turned into a bug. Now back to Amy in our New York studios."
• It has been observed that the A-Rod circus means that few people are paying attention to the fact that Didi Gregorius is replacing Derek Jeter as the Yankees shortstop.
• Chad Jennings does get one story on Gregorius in print.
• It's been photo day for the players and we've got lots of good shots. First, the Diamondbacks warned their players "Don't look like A.J. Pollock in your photo."
• SB Nation has collected a bunch of fun photos.
• And here's a shot of Carlos Correa with a python.
• Craig Kimbrel had T-shirts made up for all the Braves with name tags on them.
• Anthony Castrovince lists pitchers who live on the bottom part of the strike zone. Presumably, these would be the guys hit hard if they redefine the strike zone.
• Here's a video you should all watch. Carlos Peña did a piece on the MLB Network with one of the best explanations of "effective velocity" around. So if you want to know what effective velocity is or even if you already do, Peña explains it for you.
• And another video you should all watch. Here's newly-found film of a baseball game from 1915. You've seen film of games from 1915 before, but you've never seen one played in London at Lord's Cricket Grounds from that time, however.
• And here's some audio of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig trying to tell jokes.
• And finally, we have a wealth of videos today. Here's an ESPN 30 for 30 short film about Ted Williams' quest for immortality. No, they don't mean getting into Cooperstown. That was easy. This is about Williams having his head frozen for a future revival. That kind of immortality.

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