MLB Bullets Parties Like It’s 1992

Who would have thought that most of the news would have come from a rematch of the 1992 World Series?

• Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman had his wrist broken when he was hit by a pitch by Blue Jays pitcher Aaron Loup. Freeman is expected to miss ten weeks. The Braves also signed the recently-released James Loney to fill Freeman’s spot.
• Michael Baumann notes that Freeman was on an MVP-pace before getting hurt.
• David Schoenfield agrees: Freeman was the NL MVP up to this point.
• In the same game, Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista flipped his bat after hitting a home run—even though the home run only cut the Braves lead to 8-4. Why would anyone think the Braves, of all teams, would object to this?
• So of course, Braves pitcher Julio Teheran drilled Bautista with a pitch the first time he came to the plate.
• Tommy Stokke thinks that Teheran should be suspended for throwing at Bautista. As Stokke said, the proper response to Bautista is not an act of violence but rather to point and say “Scoreboard.”
• Oh, we’re not done with Wednesday’s Blue Jays/Braves game. Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar responded to being “quick pitched” by Jason Motte by calling him a homophobic slur. I’m pretty sure you can guess which one and please don’t put it in the comments. Anyway, the Blue Jays suspended Pillar for two games.
• Both the Blue Jays and Pillar issued an apology for his words. And it does seem like a sincere apology.
• David Schoenfield says that Pillar deserved his suspension.
• So does Michael Baumann, who adds that the suspension sends a good message.
• Jesse Spector agrees that Pillar deserved to be suspended but that MLB needs to enforce the rules already on the books against quick-pitching.
• This is actually a Cub Tracks item, but since that doesn’t publish again until Sunday, I decided to run it today. Stephanie Apstein has a piece on how Jon Lester beat “the yips” by not caring about it.
• And Rob Neyer has the oral history of how David Wells threw a perfect game with a hangover. It can’t beat throwing a no-hitter on LSD, but it might be the next best thing.
• Mike Trout is the best baseball player on the planet. This year, Trout has done what we thought was impossible: he’s even better. Ben Lindbergh explains how Trout has done it.
• Matt Snyder notes that while America wasn’t paying attention, Mike Trout has become Mickey Mantle. That is, Mantle without all the drinking and injuries.
• Mike Lupica uses Trout’s trip to Citi Field to make that Mantle comparison and also wonder about what Trout will do when he can become a free agent after the 2020 season. Do ya think he wants Trout to play in NYC?
• Speaking of the Mets, Bob Klapisch wonders how bad can they get? And how that celebrated starting pitching rotation is now terrible.
• Jerry Crasnick has a pretty damning piece about the Mets and how all their injuries may be the result of a dysfunctional organization and not just bad luck.
• Meanwhile, over in the Bronx, Andrew Marchand posits that Starlin Castro’s great start to the season is not a fluke.
• And over in Trenton with the Yankees Double-A affiliate, they’ve got Gleyber-mania over Gleyber Torres. You’re welcome.
• The Pirates are in trouble and things aren’t getting any better soon as Jung Ho Kang has lost the appeal of his DUI sentence in Korea. That may mean he’s done for the year.
• Mike Axisa notes that Andrew McCutchen is having a terrible year at the plate and is showing no signs of improving.
• Jon Heyman reports that the Nationals came the closest to acquiring McCutchen this past off-season. The Pirates essentially wanted what the Nationals decided to send to the White Sox for Adam Eaton, instead.
• More bad, albeit expected, news from the Pirates. Jameson Taillon had testicular surgery last week and the tests did come up positive for cancer. However, the good news is that Taillon has been cleared to begin “light” baseball activities.
• R.J. Anderson has the Bucs players who will draw the most interest if the Pirates decide to sell this summer.
• Mike Lupica is impressed with the Astros this year and thinks you should be too.
• Ken Rosenthal notes that the Astros are looking to add starting pitching this summer.
• Commissioner Rob Manfred indicated that the sale of the Marlins is approaching the final stages with two qualified bidders.
• Anthony Castrovince has some big questions at the season’s quarter-point.
• Craig Edwards tells us what Statcast has to say about this season so far.
• One thing it tells us that there were two of the cheapest home runs of the season on Wednesday. One of them was the wind-blown Zack Cozart home run at Wrigley.
• Cuban outfielder Luis Robert is expected to sign in the next week with either the White Sox or the Cardinals. Jeff Passan explains why Robert will be the last of the big-ticket Cubans to enter MLB.
• David Schoenfield looks at three surprising Cy Young candidates this season.
• The Angels signed free agent pitcher Doug Fister.
• Good news is that a new study says that youth baseball and softball participation is up.
• Cliff Corcoran wants to know if you’d recognize these MLB stars on the street.
• Andrew Baggarly has an interview with Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow about dealing with his lesser workload this season.
• The Orioles wished Hall-of-Famer Brooks Robinson a happy 80th birthday.
• The latest in minor league “Would you eat this?” food: A giant pickle stuffed with fried chicken.
• Alex Rodriguez has some interesting pre-game notes.
• This one is great. The Angels won on Wednesday night on a walkoff hit that bounced off the face of White Sox center fielder Leury Garcia. The best part of this was that ball would have been an easy game-ending sacrifice fly even if Garcia didn’t decide to catch the ball with his face.
• And finally, sports reporters are used to being photobombed when they do a live report. But only Rangers on-field reporter Emily Jones can say she got photobombed by a former president of the United States.

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