MLB Bullets And The Hammer Of Thor

I am outraged at the disrespect that the British Government has shown towards the generations of McBoatfaces that have served the crown honourably in Her Majesty's Navy. Sir Boaty McBoatface served bravely under Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar and his family has continued to serve since then. Next thing you know, they won't be serving spotted dick anymore.

• Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard is off to a great start to the season and some people have noticed. Jon Tayler looked at his pitching statistics and they're pretty filthy. Averaging 93 mph on your slider? Not fair.
• His teammate David Wright compared his ability to a video game character using all the cheat codes.
• One person who has noticed Syndergaard's velocity is his catcher, Kevin Plawecki, who had the outline of his necklace imprinted onto his chest after blocking a Syndergaard fastball.
• Another guy off to a terrific start is Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper. David Schoenfield wonders if Harper has passed Mike Trout as the best player in the game already.
• It's not helping Trout's case that he's off to a slow start. Mark Simon explains what's behind Trout's troubles.
• Another guy off to a strong start is Marlins outfielder Christian Yelich. Grant Brisbee thinks that Yelich has (probably) benefitted by working with new Marlins hitting coach Barry Bonds.
• Dodgers hurler Kenta Maeda is off to a great start to his MLB career.
• Just because they can be fun, Will Leitch worked out some "on pace" stats for the early season. Yeah, Harper probably isn't going to hit 83 home runs. But what if he did?
• On a related note, Dave Cameron looks at the hot start of Trevor Story and how much of it is real and how much is the dreaded "small sample size."
• Here's an interesting piece by Flinder Boyd on Rafael Palmeiro and what has happened to him since his positive steroid test. It's a pretty melancholic story.
• Ken Rosenthal reports that there has been a lot of discussion at the Collective Bargaining Talks about how to market baseball players better. Essentially, they want Harper (or Trout or whomever) to be as recognizable to the public as LeBron James.
• Tom Verducci notes that the commissioner's office has sent around a memo explaining the new slide rules. Verducci believes the new rules are not hard to understand and that teams will soon adjust.
• Part of the problem with the new rules is the use of instant replay to enforce them. Billy Witz has a profile of Yankees video coach Brett Weber, whose job it is to watch the replays and call down to the manager to tell him when to challenge. His stats say he's the best in the game at this.
• The Pablo Sandoval injury saga just keeps getting weirder as he couldn't get a second opinion on his shoulder because it was too sore to examine.
• Adam LaRoche told "Good Morning America" that he has "zero regrets" about walking away from the game. (singing) "And much, much more than this. I did it Drake's way."
• Richard Justice offers his thoughts on the passing of Milt Pappas.
• The Phillies have acquired outfielder Alfredo Marte from the Orioles for a player to be named later. Giancarlo Stanton used to be called "Mike." I wonder if it's him.
• The Orioles have also reportedly made an offer to free agent pitcher Kyle Lohse. Just want to remind you that the Cubs drafted Lohse 20 years ago this June. And then later traded him for a broken-down Rick Aguilera in the middle of a 95-loss season.
• Jerry Crasnick reports that Josh Donaldson still thinks of himself as Rocky Balboa in a league full of Apollo Creeds. And yes, Donaldson is a huge fan of the "Rocky" movies.
• MLB has extended Hector Olivera's paid leave for two more weeks as they continue to investigate the domestic violence charges against him.
• August Fagerstrom notes that the Phillies are throwing an unusually-high number of curve balls so far this season. It seems to be a new team philosophy.
• The Red Sox brought closer Craig Kimbrel into the game in the 8th inning on Monday and lost. Phil Rogers thinks it was still the correct decision.
• I like this story from Jim Caple. It's the story of how Twins outfielder Max Kepler worked his way from the child of two ballet dancers in Berlin to the major leagues. I also love that his Polish father thinks baseball is "the chess of sport." He means that as a complement.
• David Schoenfield has an interesting short piece on the history of pitching motions.
• Here's another neat story on the new website that serves as an online Jewish Baseball Museum.
• Shane Tourtellotte has a look at the 29 players who have 3000 hits and those who might still yet join them.
• Eno Sarris gets the thoughts of some ballplayers about the difference between playing left and right field.
• Royals manager Ned Yost says that the things his team does well are "not stat-able." OK then.
• The Marlins gave Dee Gordon a pendant to celebrate his 2015 batting title. He was impressed. Watch just to see the look on Gordon's face.
• Speaking of looks, Adrian Beltre gave Elvis Andrus a dirty one after Andrus failed to run out a ball that he thought was a home run.
• And a Giants fan hid her face after her companion grabbed a fair ball.
• And finally, once again AT&T Park was attacked by seagulls. The birds are coming. They're angry. And there is nothing we can do about it.

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