MLB Bullets And Welcome Back, Hamilton

I've been going through my old CD collection. There's stuff in there that I look at and go "huh?" I simply have no memory of that artist. And yet I bought the CD at some point.

• The Josh Hamilton in Anaheim saga will reportedly come to an end as the Angels have come to an agreement to send Hamilton back to the Rangers.
• The full details haven't been announced and reportedly both the Players' Association and the Commissioner's office still have to sign off on the deal. But according to reports, Texas will only have to pay $7 million of Hamilton's salary over the next three seasons, making him a pretty good gamble.
• Jean-Jacques Taylor thinks the Rangers and Hamilton are better together than they are separated.
• His once-and-future teammates in Texas will welcome back Hamilton. Your dreams were your ticket out.
• Evan Grant explains how the deal makes sense for all parties involved.
• Pedro Moura thinks that the Rangers are the beneficiaries of Angels owner Arte Moreno's arrogance.
• Matthew Pouliot thinks Hamilton is back where he belongs.
• Buster Olney thinks the Angels could regret the decision to part with Hamilton. (ESPN Insider Only) He contrasts it to the way the Yankees gave Alex Rodriguez another chance with great benefits so far.
• David Schoenfield, on the other hand, thinks that Hamilton's time as a productive major leaguer is over.
• And unsurprisingly, commissioner Rob Manfred said that MLB just wasn't able to track down who leaked Hamilton's story to the media. Which is interesting because just two weeks ago Manfred said that they weren't going to investigate the leak at all.
• Turning to a team that has gone from loveable Cinderellas to The Most Hated Team In Baseball™ in six months, suspensions were announced for the Royals and the White Sox following their recent brawl.
• White Sox pitcher Chris Sale was suspended for five games. I don't know if that's because of or in spite of the fact that he attempted to get into the Royals clubhouse to confront Yordano Ventura long after the fracas had ended. Sale's former teammate Alex Rios reportedly kept the peace between the two sides.
• Mike Oz says that Ventura is now baseball's newest villain.
• Christina Kahrl says that by virtue of being both a hothead and the Royals number one starter, Ventura is now a target, and that's not good news for Kansas City.
• Jerry Crasnick lists five players who let their tempers ruin their careers as a warning to Ventura. Yeah, you can probably guess who's on the list.
• Ken Rosenthal is reminded of Earl Weaver's wisdom when it came to such matters: "Emotion must take a back seat to common sense."
• Just so you don't think it's all negative news for the Royals, check out this fantastic grab by Alex Gordon.
• And Jeff Sullivan points out that opponents aren't the only thing the Royals are good at hitting: They're pretty darn good at making contact with baseballs as well.
• Turning to the Cardinals, you've no doubt heard by now that Adam Wainwright is likely out for the season after injuring his Achilles tendon while stumbling in the batter's box.
• Cards GM John Mozeliak says that the Birds will try to replace Wainwright from within.
• Chris Towers looks at the options and says that there is just no replacing Wainwright.
• Dayn Perry does a pretty good analysis of what this injury means to the Cardinals and the NL Central. I agree with him. Even without Wainwright, the Cardinals are still the favorites in the division. But the gap between them and the Cubs and Pirates just narrowed.
• Max Scherzer thinks that Wainwright's injury is a reason for the NL to adopt the DH.
• Other pitchers disagree with him. Even some in the American League.
• He won't replace Wainwright, but he's a good story anyway. Cardinals rookie pitcher Mitch Harris became the first graduate of the Naval Academy to play in the major leagues since 1921. That was Nemo Gains, in case you were wondering, who pitched for the Nationals while on leave that June.
• One reason the Cardinals are still the favorites in the NL Central is because Matt Carpenter has become one of the elite third basemen in the majors, writes Tim Kurkjian.
• Alex Rodriguez homered last night against the Mets, leaving him just one short of Willie Mays' career home run total. The Yankees plan to contest the bonus they agreed to pay him for reaching that milestone.
• Jay Jaffe tries to project how many home runs Rodriguez would have hit if he hadn't taken PEDs and he stayed healthy. Pretty speculative if you ask me, since we don't know how much PEDs help and we don't know how long Rodriguez took them. But maybe you'll enjoy arguing with Jaffe.
• Forget Lon Chaney. (Actually, since he's been dead 85 years, you probably have forgotten him.) Bryan Curtis says that it's A-Rod who is truly the man of a thousand faces.
• Rob Neyer looks at the Mets hot start and asks how much we should re-evaluate our expectations for the Queens Quicksters. (Hey, if the Yankees are the Bronx Bombers, then the Mets should have a similar nickname.)
• Dave Cameron says that the Mets have been helped by a weak schedule this April, but they've exceeded expectations anyway. I'd also add that weak schedule is called "The NL East" so they'll be playing that all season long.
• Part of the reason that the schedule has been so weak is that everyone's pick to win the World Series, the Nationals, have been miserable this season, according to Jon Heyman. Scouts he talked to describe the Nats as "flat" and "lifeless." That's got ot reflect poorly on manager Matt Williams, doesn't it?
• Maybe the return of Anthony Rendon will spark a fire under them. He started his minor league rehab on Friday.
• A lot of players have complained about the turf in Toronto, but only the Orioles were willing to do something about it. The O's reportedly considered forfeiting (they called it "boycotting") rather than play in Toronto.
• Owen Watson says the data doesn't indicate that there is anything unusual about the turf in Toronto.
• Ichiro Suzuki's combined career runs scored passed Japanese legend Sadaharu Oh.
• Former Expos manager and Cubs catcher Jim Fanning has died.
• Cy Brown lists the teams with the best and worst run differential already this season.
• Will Leitch ranks interleague rivalries.
• Adrian Gonzalez challenged a radio host who kept calling him "slow" to a race. Gonzalez won the footrace easily.
• And finally, Adrian Beltre has decided that he's not going to put up with broken bats anymore. After going 0 for 4 and breaking three bats Friday night against Garrett Richards, Beltre sent Richards a bill for $300 to pay for breaking his bats. Richards reportedly got a huge laugh out of it and sent Beltre one autographed bat.

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