MLB Bullets Just Loves Baseball

Good morning, Monday. We’ll have game threads for all three of the World Baseball Classic games tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday.

• Bob Nightengale writes that Team USA found its identity in Saturday night’s win over the Dominican Republic.
• Ken Rosenthal argues that Team USA’s dramatic win on Saturday night created a legacy for the US and the WBC.
• Jonathan Bernhardt says that in spite of everything, Team USA is winning ballgames and winning over fans.
• As you can imagine, the Adam Jones robbery of a Manny Machado home run was the talk of the Orioles clubhouse the next day.
• Team USA is getting some reinforcements as Giants closer Mark Melancon is available to pitch in tomorrow night’s semifinal.
• Mike Axisa looks ahead to see what the Team USA 2021 WBC roster might look like.
• For all the drama of Team USA’s win on Saturday night, the best team of the WBC so far has been Team Puerto Rico. Ken Rosenthal notes that the team takes their personality and winning drive from their catcher, Yadier Molina.
• However, the MLB Network got a little confused about the flag of Puerto Rico and some fans weren’t happy to be confused with the Dominican Republic.
• And some Dominican fans are upset that MLB keeps confusing a native musical instrument for a cheese grater.
• While Team USA may have put the disappointments of past WBC performances behind them, Team Venezuela did not. Kyle Glaser explains what went wrong for Venezuela again this time.
• Joe Posnanski, in honor of the WBC, picks an all-time MLB “All-World” team with only one player from each country allowed on the team. So if you want Willie Mays on the team, that means no Babe Ruth. If you want Roberto Clemente, that means no Ivan Rodriguez, etc.
• Moving on to other topics, there is a report that with the disabled list being shortened from 15 days to ten this year, MLB will crack down on “phantom injuries” that have traditionally been used to get around roster rules. I’m not sure how they plan to do that, since a doctor can always find something wrong with a pitcher’s arm.
• Although hopefully they don’t find anything like this. Indians pitcher Cody Anderson will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss all of 2017. The butcher’s bill is always high this time of year.
• Sean Burnett actually intentionally broke his UCL so he could have Tommy John surgery a second time.
• Diamondbacks catcher Josh Thole could miss the entire year with a severe hamstring tear.
• The Tigers are getting a second opinion on the foot of outfielder J.D. Martinez, who left Saturday’s Grapefruit League game with the injury.
• In better news for Tigers outfielders, Justin Upton says he feels more comfortable this year as he looks to get off to a better start than he did last season.
• Bradford Doolittle lists the one player that every team should want at the plate with the game on the line. It’s Mike Trout, right? Oh, Doolittle means one player already on that team.
• Speaking of Trout, Anthony Castrovince notes that Trout is a quiet superstar who doesn’t like calling attention to himself. Unless he gets a chance to talk about the weather, of course.
• Buster Olney talks to several scouts, asking which upcoming free agent they would rather have on their team: Manny Machado or Bryce Harper?
• Jerry Crasnick profiles the Zimmer brothers, Kyle and Bradley.
• Dave Cameron looks at Adam Eaton’s defensive statistics and writes that they don’t make any sense.
• Chris Bahr writes “early epitaphs” for nine MLB teams with no shot of making the playoffs this year.
• Phillies manager Pete Mackanin explains why he fined every player on the team one dollar.
• Over at Twinkie Town, they remember the late “Mayor’s Cup” that was awarded to the winner of the most Spring Training games between the Twins and Red Sox. I personally think this was awarded just so that the Crosstown Cup could have something to mock and look down upon.
• Sean Newell remembers Derek Bell and “Operation: Shutdown” which started 15 years ago last Friday. And Bell is still in shutdown mode, 15 years later.
• An investigation of the 1906 movie “How The Office Boy Saw the Ball Game,” which is some of the earliest moving picture footage of a baseball game.
• Edward Kosner reviews a new biography of former Cubs (and a bunch of other teams) manager Leo Durocher.
• Kevin Kernan talks to a former NBA All-Star who now works as an usher for the Mets in Spring Training.
• The minor league Charlotte Knights are going to become the Charlotte Pitmasters for one game and Grant Brisbee thinks it will eventually become their permanent name. I will buy season tickets to any minor league franchise that permanently (or for at least one season) changes their name to the “[name of city] Head Cheese.”
• And finally, this bug in the new “MLB 17: The Show” videogame will give you nightmares.

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