MLB Bullets Will Be Back

Good morning. Obviously. The Cubs are 15-5. I kind of miss waking up and having Ray Rayner tell me how the Cubs did the night before in-between cartoons.

• The Twins sent top prospect Byron Buxton back down to the minors after a rough start to the season. Grant Brisbee points out that many top major leaguers struggled in their first trip to The Show.
• Andrew Simon says that Buxton will be back and also points out that other players who struggled as rookies.
• Bruce Schoenfeld follows around Twins scout Mike Ruth as an example of a renewed focus on scouting after an era of analytics.
• But Rob Arthur and Ben Lindbergh argue that teams can make their best free agent acquisitions by hiring more statheads. Soon, scouts will be hanging around college dorm rooms and writing down things like "I put a 4 present, 7 future on his spreadsheet tool."
• Fivethirtyeight also did a neat ELO ranking of every major league franchise throughout their entire history. You could get lost for hours there.
• Matt Gelb looks at how the Phillies are making analytics understandable to their coaches and players.
• Yankees manager Joe Girardi thinks baseball needs to ban the shift.
• Craig Calcaterra looks at the debate over whether the Rockies should play with four outfielders at Coors Field sometimes.
• However, Rockies manager Walt Weiss thinks a 4-man outfield is a "ridiculous" idea.
• Tigers manager Brad Ausmus is under fire, but Ken Rosenthal thinks that the Tigers problems are too deep to be solved by replacing Ausmus. Maybe, but once you solve the other problems, you still have the problem that is Brad Ausmus.
• The Tigers other problem is that centerfielder Tyler Collins responded to booing fans at Comerica Park by telling them that they're number one. Or something like that involving an extended finger. But Collins will not be suspended for the gesture.
• Jay Jaffe has a short history of ballplayers "flipping the bird."
• David Schoenfield has more examples of ballplayers behaving badly.
• It's been a tragic season down in the minor leagues as Athletics pitcher Sean Murphy died on Monday. Murphy missed all of last season with Tommy John surgery, but he had pitched as high as Triple-A Sacramento.
• David Murphy retired. Good. Now I won't call Daniel Murphy "David" anymore. Nah. I'm sure I still will.
• Richard Justice lists the top ten active players over 35. Ten years ago, this list would have been a lot more impressive.
• Jesse Yomtov wonders if Albert Pujols can catch Barry Bonds' career home run record.
• Jerry Crasnick ranks the ten "new" leadoff hitters for 2016.
• Speaking of that, Eddie Matz points out that so far, the Orioles have survived the not-signing Dexter Fowler fiasco.
• The Blue Jays have not given up signing Edwin Encarnacion to a contract extension. The odds are still against him re-signing with Toronto though.
• Jon Tayler looks at the comeback of Rich Hill. And his curveball.
• Jonah Keri thinks the Dodgers made a wise investment in Kenta Maeda.
• Manny Randhawa on how Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson is finding success getting back to basics.
• Jayson Stark thinks Noah Syndergaard isn't human.
• Matthew Trueblood wonders why anyone would ever watch the 2016 Braves. Maybe like a gawker slowdown after a car accident? I'm not sure they're any worse than the 2012 Cubs though, and I kind of watched them.
• Defense has been a big reason for the Nationals hot start, writes Eddie Matz.
• Will Leitch has the WAR All-Stars through April.
• Some defensive porn, courtesy of the Indians' Francisco Lindor.
• David Davis tells the story of the people involved in the Rick Monday flag-burning rescue, except for two people: the ones burning the flag. They won't talk.
• Courtesy of official baseball historian John Thorn: Walt Whitman, baseball reporter. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• The Omaha Storm Chasers offered a discount for every fielding mistake an opposing player made, before someone told them that was in poor taste. (Although they always have a "strikeout batter" discount every game. I'm not sure why that's any different.)
• David Schoenfield ranks every team's bobblehead giveaways for 2016. Get to Wrigley Field early and often.
• The comic strip Pearls Before Swine thinks that baseball's "beard" trend has gone a little too far.
• You thought Giants outfielder Hunter Pence was the world's biggest Star Wars fan? Little did you know he's also the world's biggest Game Of Thrones fan. Just to let you know, Hunter, the Cubs are the White Walkers. Winter is coming.
• And finally, you've got to take a look at SB Nation's Random Minor League Team Name Generator. The favorite one that I got was the Fort Wayne Stone Bongos.

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