MLB Bullets Needs No Special Provisions

I was on the DL for much of yesterday, so it's best to consider today's Bullets to be me on a rehab assignment in the minors. The results don't matter nearly as much as how I feel when I finish.

• The Josh Hamilton story got even uglier over the weekend, if that's at all possible, when Angels owner Arte Moreno suggested that there was special language in Josh Hamilton's contract that would allow the Angels to take action if he had a relapse.
• Also, when Moreno was asked directly whether Hamilton would play for the Angels again, Moreno declined to say that he would.
• Moreno's comments upset the Player's Association, who issued a statement that said that any such provision (if it actually exists) would be in violation of the collective bargaining agreement and thus unenforceable.
• In any case, the Angels have pulled all Hamilton merchandise from the team store.
• Ken Rosenthal says that it's "difficult to imagine" Hamilton ever playing for the Angels again.
• Bill Shaikin thinks the Angels are setting themselves up for a nasty fight with the union if Hamilton does not return to the Angels when he's healthy.
• C.J. Wilson, Hamilton's teammate with both the Angels and Rangers, continues to defend Hamilton and said that the Angels would welcome Hamilton back if he were hitting better.
• Also, Wilson said that the Angels hired a private detective to follow him around after he signed with the Angels.
• Mike Digiovanna writes that Moreno's comments are putting Angels players like Wilson in a bad situation.
• In another team versus player battle, the Yankees are planning to go to arbitration rather than pay Alex Rodriguez's home run milestone bonuses.
• In one more episode  of the hit reality show Owners Behaving Badly, Josh Leventhal has a look at the power lawyer lobbying Congress to exempt minor league ballplayers from minimum wage standards. You'd think MLB (and MiLB) might realize that young players might play better if they actually had enough money to eat healthy and sleep on a bed indoors at night. That's beyond just treating them like human beings.
• Mets closer Jenrry Mejia tested positive for steroids and was suspended for 80 games.
• Mejia says he doesn't know how the Stanozolol got in his body. C.J. Nitkowski says that it is plausible that Mejia was ignorant of what he was taking.
• Mejia was the fourth player to test positive for Stanozolol this year. MLB wants to know why so many are testing positive for this old-school PED. Stanozolol is the Commodore 64 of PEDs.
• Alex Rodriguez is back with the Yankees and hitting better than anyone expected, but his first game playing first base didn't go very well.
• Orioles catcher Matt Wieters won't be back until at least May.
• Matt Harvey is back with the Mets and Michael Baumann couldn't be happier.
• Everyone's choice to win the World Series, the Nationals. are off to a poor start, despite a win yesterday. Mark Zuckerman says the team's play is cause for concern, despite how early it is.
• Will Leitch reminds fans of teams who have gotten off to poor starts that the 1998 Yankees got off to a poor start too, and they ended up winning 114 games and the World Series.
• Jon Heyman explains what the Braves were thinking when they decided to deal Craig Kimbrel.
• John Axford went on the family emergency list to be with his son who had been bitten by a rattlesnake.
• Several pitchers, including the White Sox Hector Noesi, are wearing a kevlar insert underneath their caps.
• Doug Padilla looks at the up-and-down relationship between Ken Williams and former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Williams thinks Guillen will work in the game again. I think he should go into European soccer instead. I'd love to see the war of words between Ozzie and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.
• Grant Brisbee thinks the Rockies early season success is because the Rockies have a pretty strong lineup when healthy.
• Clay Buchholz got a letter warning him about stepping out of the box. Somehow, I don't think that's really going to be much of an issue this season.
• Twins broadcaster Bert Blyleven apologized for insulting Detroit. To be fair though, he just insulted its skyline.
• Thousands of fans in Colorado missed the first pitch of season because of metal detectors. I feel so much safer.
• In an NCAA Div II game, Minnesota State beat Bemidji State, 41-20. That's in baseball, not football.
• Jo Craven McGinty argues that baseball is more popular than people think and that the gap between the popularity of MLB and the NFL is not nearly as great as some claim. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• Doug Glanville remembers what Opening Day meant to him and the moments from his career that he treasures.
• Now the NSFW Fielding Porn section. Watch Andrelton Simmons rob Travis d'Arnaud of a base hit.
• George Springer robs Leonys Martin of what would have been a game-ending grand slam.
• Nowadays, broadcasting is the major source of revenue for teams. But 90 years ago, several teams wanted to ban broadcasts of baseball games. James Walker explains how broadcasting went from threat to cash cow.
• See Elvis Andrus touch Adrian Beltre's head and manage to leave Rougned Odor holding the bag.
• And finally, LaTroy Hawkins and Trevor Hoffman explain how they "pay forward" to the rookies the kindness that they were shown as young players.

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