MLB Bullets Is All About The Kids

Forgive me if I'm a little out of it. I'm under heavy sedation after contracting a terrible case of March Madness. And I think I might be coming down with a case of Aprilpox as well.

• I'm betting you've heard the reason that Adam LaRoche retired earlier in the week: White Sox president Ken Williams asked LaRoche not to bring his son around the clubhouse as much as he had been, which was all the time. Bob Nightengale thinks the White Sox request was fair.
• Jeff Passan thinks both sides are right in this confrontation that has gone terribly wrong.
• Jeff Sullivan agrees. Both sides have a point here.
• Dieter Kurbacher, an admitted White Sox fan, writes that LaRoche is being stupid. (He tries to say the situation is stupid, but it's pretty clear from reading the article that he places all the blame on LaRoche.)
• Doug Padilla thinks that LaRoche is just putting his family first. Reportedly, LaRoche signed with the White Sox last year after he was told that it wouldn't be a problem to have his son in the clubhouse.
• Tim Healy talks to Adam's dad Dave LaRoche, a 14-year major league veteran and a Cubs pitcher in 1973-74. Dave LaRoche points out that Adam has had family around him in a clubhouse his entire life.
• Red Sox infielder Travis Shaw, son of 12 year major-league pitcher Jeff Shaw, sympathizes with LaRoche and says he always spent his days in the clubhouse with his dad.
• Yesterday I pointed out that the irony of this situation is that Ken Williams, as White Sox GM, drafted three of his sons and presumably they then hung around a clubhouse all day. (Well, one didn't sign so he could play in the NFL instead.) Several people attacked me for calling Williams a hypocrite. I didn't respond to any of them because I didn't call Williams a hypocrite. The situations are different. I'm calling the situation ironic. I guess Alanis isn't the only one who doesn't know what that word means.
• The White Sox themselves are apparently pretty upset about the whole thing. Reportedly, they were planning on boycotting a Spring Training game before manager Robin Ventura talked them out of it.
• Chris Sale reportedly "lit up" Williams in an angry clubhouse meeting.
• Craig Calcaterra tries to figure out why all of this happened.
• Ken Rosenthal also tried to get to the bottom of the "why now" of this. Rosenthal thinks LaRoche's son wouldn't have been a problem if Adam had hit better last season.
• Rosenthal also wonders why it was team president Williams who confronted LaRoche. Rosenthal thinks this is a major violation of the lines of command in a team and is a sign that the White Sox have a dysfunctional organization. He pretty strongly hints that Williams should be fired, or more accurately, allowed/encouraged to find a job in different organization.
• After all this, Eno Sarris examines the possibility of the White Sox making the postseason this year.
• The Drake LaRoche story overshadowed another big story. Tyler Dunnington, who pitched one year in the Cardinals minor league system in 2014, announced that he's gay and that he quit baseball after years of hearing many extremely homophobic comments in clubhouses, including ones that talked about how to kill gay people. Some of the comments came from his college team and some came from his Cardinals teammates. Dunnington says he'd like to get back into baseball in a non-playing capacity.
• The Cardinals, to their credit, say that they take what Dunnington said "very seriously." They plan to investigate these incidents and talk with MLB vice-president for social responsibility and inclusion Billy Bean about how to proceed.
• Of course, this being the Cardinals, we need to hear from "The Best Fans In Baseball." (Yes, I know their views do not necessarily represent the majority of Cardinals fans. But it's too much fun.)
• Craig Calcaterra grew up a "solitary fan" who became a Braves fan because of TBS, despite not knowing any other Braves fans. He wants to know about the experiences of other "solitary fans." I grew up a Cubs fan in Brewers territory and while Brewers fans outnumbered Cubs fans by probably 5 to 1 (That ratio is undoubtedly lower today), it wasn't too hard to find another Cubs fan if you asked enough people. But I imagine Calcaterra's experience rings true with some of you.
• Back on the Cardinals, manager Mike Matheny says that Matt Holliday will be an option for the team at first base.
• Andrew Bailey may be the Phillies closer to start this season.
• Bronson Arroyo, who never went on the DL in a 15 year career before undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2014, was attempting a comeback with the Nationals. That seems to be over as Arroyo now has a torn rotator cuff. Arroyo admits that his career could be over.
• Bob Nightengale praises Arroyo for always marching to the beat of his own drummer.
• Rafael Soriano is also calling it a career.
• As is umpire Tim Welke after a 33 year career.
• The Reds signed pitcher Alfredo Simon, which comes as a shock to people like me who never realized he had left the Reds.
• MLB announced that Yasiel Puig will not be punished under the new domestic violence policies. Or any other policy, I guess.
• Tanya Bondurant writes that Goose Gossage is a symbol what's wrong with baseball today.
• David Schoenfield thinks Pirates outfielder Starling Marte is the most underrated player in the game today.
• The Marlins had a home run hitting contest and 51-year-old hitting coach Barry Bonds won it.
• Christian Yelich and Giancarlo Stanton want you to know that Bonds did not "beat" them in the home run hitting contest, but it sounds like a bit of a technicality. Bonds did hit more home runs than either Stanton or Yelich.
• Rob Arthur looks at how new data is changing sabermetric research.
• Mike Moustakas explains how he changed his swing to learn to go the other way and beat the shift.
• Scott Lauber thinks that Pablo Sandoval is too thin-skinned to play in Boston. Well, duh. He left San Francisco because he was tired of the Giants getting on him about his weight. Did he honestly think that Boston would be nicer?
• Brendan Gawlowski thinks the window of contention is closing for the Nationals.
• The story of the most famous baseball card of all time, the "McNall--Gretzky" Honus Wagner Card.
• Diamondbacks announcers were left clueless when a player came to bat for the Reds without a number or name on his jersey.
• It was in a drill and not a pitch from the mound, but Indians pitching prospect Casey Weathers hit 107.8 mph on the radar gun. I don't think any batter would be able to react fast enough to an actual pitch at that speed.
• And finally, If we're getting into the heart of Spring Training, it must be time for teams to release their funniest new commercials for the upcoming season. Three new good ones from the Mariners came out. Felix Hernandez is asked by his teammates what it's like to be the "king." Kyle Seager gets an image makeover and Nelson Cruz starts an auto glass business.

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