MLB Bullets is a Ray of sunshine

As someone who watches a couple of minutes of figure skating every four years, I can definitively say that Evgenia Medvedeva was robbed. Hey, I probably understand figure skating more than a few people on the MLB Network understand baseball. (You know who they are.)

• It’s been a momentous past few weeks for the Tampa Bay Rays and according to Tommy Stokke, it hasn’t been a good thing for the St. Petersburg nine.
• In addition to all the players traded away, top Rays prospect (and one of the top prospects in all of baseball) Brett Honeywell has been diagnosed with a right forearm strain. Sometimes that turns out to be nothing. Sometimes it turns out to be something major.
• Darby Robinson of DRays Bay fires back at all the sturm und drang literature published lately about the Rays and says that there is a method to what the Rays have done this winter. He also accuses the national writers of a dishonest “pre-Moneyball” mentality.
• Craig Calcaterra responded to this piece by saying that while the Rays moves may be defensible in a vacuum, the Rays didn’t need to make any of them and that they owe it to their fans to put an entertaining product on the field.
• The most famous Rays fan, basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale, said that the team’s current owners should sell the team if they can’t put a competitive team on the field.
• Evaluating the trade of Steven Souza Jr. and the signing of Carlos Gomez, Jeff Sullivan writes that the Rays replaced Souza with an older version of Souza.
• After having designated outfielder Corey Dickerson for assignment earlier, the Rays traded him to the Pirates for reliever Daniel Hudson and a minor leaguer.
• Travis Sawchik explains what kind of a hitter the Pirates are getting in Dickerson and what his big flaw is.
• Steven Souza Jr. talks about joining the Diamondbacks.
• There have been several articles this winter about dropping MLB payrolls or not keeping up with overall revenues. Ben Lindberg looks at the financial situation (at least as best he can with available data) and argues that the overall payroll percentage has not gone down in recent years.
• Mike Axisa thinks that the Players’ Association should file a grievance if Braves prospect Ronald Acuna starts the season in the minors.
• Jon Heyman gives odds on where free agent pitcher Jake Arrieta will sign.
• Matt Snyder thinks the rumors about Arrieta signing with the Phillies make sense for both parties.
• Jon Heyman believes that free agent Lance Lynn could end up with the Twins.
• The Marlins signed outfielder Cameron Maybin. Someone is going to have to play in the outfield for the Marlins.
• Outfielder Colby Rasmus has signed a minor-league deal with the Orioles.
• The first inning of the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County’s lawsuit against the Marlins has gone against the Fish, as a judge has ruled that the Marlins have not provided adequate financial documents to assess their claim that they made no money on the Marlins sale. It has been reported that the Marlins former vice-chairman received a $30 million “consulting fee” from the team, which is suspicious.
• Mariners pitching prospect Rob Whalen took the second half of last season off after dealing with depression.
• Whalen spoke with David Lauria about his depression and anxiety.
• New Reds pitcher David Hernandez also talks about his battles with depression in 2013 and how he dealt with it. I don’t know what I can say here without sounding preachy, but depression can be a real issue for anyone, and baseball players qualify as anyone. It’s important to remember that there is a real person with real feelings wearing the uniform of our favorite team.
• Speaking of that, Sam Miller writes that Jerry Seinfeld was right: We root for laundry. But rather than mock that, Miller writes rooting for a uniform is the only way baseball fandom works properly. I’d argue that we root for the community that forms around a team and the laundry is just a symbol of that community, but I definitely agree with Miller’s overall point.
• NFL Network personality Rich Eisen said that he heard from an MLB owner that baseball is considering a rule that would allow anyone to bat in the ninth inning for a trailing team. Mike Oz (and everyone else) says this is a stupid idea.
• Craig Calcaterra writes that this is a really stupid idea and that there is no way this will ever happen. He doesn’t doubt someone told Eisen this, but he doubts it was ever seriously considered and it’s ridiculous that we are treating this as a serious proposal.
• Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow thinks that MLB could cut out some commercial time between innings by allowing advertising on jerseys. The NBA is already doing this and of course, every major soccer league in the world, including MLS, has this. The problem with ads on jerseys is that teams would just take the money for that and then leave the commercial time the same.
• There’s a report that the Athletics and the Mariners will start the 2019 season in Japan.
• Sung Min Kim writes that playing in the Asian leagues (NPB, KBO) have become an alternative route to MLB, rather than just a last resort for players.
• Tim Brown writes about how working with his youth coach in Venezuela helped revive the career of reliever Ernesto Frieri.
• R.J. Anderson writes about Jeff Mathis and the value of pitch-calling for a catcher, which is hard to quantify but everyone believes it exists.
• Jon Heyman lists some current and recently-retired players who could be managers someday soon. You can probably guess what former Cub tops his list, but another former Cub is second on the list.
• Dodgers starter Alex Wood will pitch only out of the stretch this season.
• Travis Sawchik writes that MLB pitchers tried to attack the top of the strike zone last season and it didn’t work out very well.
• Yankees general manager Brian Cashman called the Yankees “the little engine that could.” Fortunately, people laughed in his face when he said that.
• Astros top prospect Forrest Whitley has been suspended 50 games for a failed drug test. It hasn’t been released what he tested positive for, but the 50-game suspension indicates that it was a drug of abuse, not a PED.
• Female umpire Jen Pawol worked yesterday’s Tigers exhibition game against a local college team.
• New Phillies manager Gabe Kapler just learned the first lesson of managing in Spring Training the hard way: don’t park close to the field. Infielder Nick Williams taught him and his rented Ford Explorer that lesson.
• Actor George Clooney told David Letterman about the time he tried out for the Reds. It went well—at first. Didn’t stay that way.
• And finally, as Spring Training opens, players have to pose for a lot of pictures and the people taking those photos may not know the game all that well. One photographer mistook Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki for a pitcher, and Tulo played along with the mistake. You can hear his Blue Jays teammates giggling in that video of the incident.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. We get baseball today though. But also tomorrow. And tomorrow is Saturday.