MLB Bullets is always closing

Good morning, Friday. Have some MLB Bullets with your Honey-Nut Cheerios, Omar.

• Usually not much real news comes out this time of year unless it’s an injury, but I think this story counts as big news. Rob Arthur and Tim Dix of fivethirtyeight looked at the insides of baseballs with x-rays and then cut them apart and did a molecular analysis of the balls. They found a small but consistent and significant difference in the balls in play after the 2015 All-Star Game and those from before then. The differences in each section are small (thus staying within MLB guidelines) but when you add them all up, could make balls travel a lot farther. But you can definitely see with your own eyes a difference in the x-rays of the old balls and the new ones.
• The other big news of the winter has been the slow free agent market. Jon Heyman looks at the grievance case filed by the MLB Players Association. While the people Heyman talk to give the grievance little to no chance of success, Heyman does look at the current financial situation of MLB and the four teams that have been named in the grievance.
• Thomas Boswell says no matter what the merits of the complaint by the MLBPA is, baseball is heading for another labor war.
• Angels outfielder Justin Upton says that players need to remember that in the end, front offices see the players as nothing but a line on a spreadsheet.
• One reason that many have given for the slow free-agent market is that a handful of “super-teams” dominate MLB right now and other teams have given up trying to compete. But Jeff Sullivan notes that while there are seven “super-teams,” there are ten playoff spots and that should open up a spot for several other teams to make a bid for those wild card spots.
• That reasoning of Sullivan’s is echoed in Mike Axisa’s piece on the Phillies. Axisa argues why it would make sense for the Phillies to try to land two of the remaining free agent starting pitchers. Axisa gives some other reasons that it makes sense for the Phillies to spend big now as well.
• Obviously one of the pitchers linked with the Phils is former Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta. Jesse Yomtov has another look at the current state of the market for Arrieta.
• Jerry Crasnick explains why the Rockies spent $106 million on a bullpen.
• Marlins team president Derek Jeter doesn’t like the Marlins home run sculpture but he’s likely stuck with it.
• Liz Roscher thinks Jeter better learn to like it and wonders if he knows it was the Marlins he bought and not the Yankees. Bold and kitschy is kind of the Marlins thing and it works for them.
• It’s hard to believe that Jeff Samardzija has played ten years in the majors now. Jon Paul Morosi spoke with the Giants hurler about his decision to choose baseball over football. Most of the football players he played against in college are retired or near the end of their careers while Samardzija still has three years left on his $90 million contract. Yet the Shark says people still tell him he should have played football instead. Also, Samardzija makes clear that his decision to choose baseball was more about which game he enjoyed more, not money or health. Still those things don’t hurt.
• This is kind of a bizarre fact that I wasn’t aware of, but Joe Posnanski writes about the current lack of elite, left-handed hitters in the American League. Didi Gregorius was the only left-handed hitter to get any AL MVP votes last season, and he didn’t get many.
• The Red Sox want to return “Yawkey Way” to its original name of “Jersey Street,” which makes sense as Tom Yawkey was one of the more notorious racists in the game while he was alive.
• Mike Jeffcoat, who you may remember as a pitcher for the Rangers in the 1980s (or maybe you don’t), was fired as head coach of Texas Wesleyan after emailing a high school player from Colorado that they won’t sign Colorado players because they “have trouble passing our drug test” thanks to their “liberal politicians.” Not only is this dumb, but factually wrong since marijuana was legalized in Colorado because of a statewide referendum, not “liberal politicians.” (TWU says that the email was not the only reason Jeffcoat was let go.)
• Bill Baer points out that the implementation of MLB’s new “mound visits” rule is a mess right now. They really should have tried this in the minors first before springing on the majors, like they did with the pitch clock. The pitch clock worked, by the way, but a lot of people don’t want to hear that.
• Sung Min Kim explains how Korea’s KBO sped up the game by expanding the strike zone, at least temporarily.
• Claire McNear writes that while Tim Lincecum may be back in baseball, her beloved “Freak” may be gone forever.
• Mike Oz looks at Bartolo Colon, as he tries to hang on for one more season with the Rangers.
• David Laurila talks with Angels pitcher Luke Bard about how Statcast data made him change the way he pitched to great success in the minors, at least.
• Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier is experiencing concussion symptoms after making a catch against the wall in Spring Training on Saturday. Just a reminder that while baseball is safer than football, it still has a concussion problem that it needs to deal with.
• Ex-Cub and current Tigers pitcher Travis Wood sprained his knee in a rundown. Travis is not having a good week. Maybe he shouldn’t have stolen that cursed ruby from the Marlins home run statue.
• The Angels currently plan to use Shohei Ohtani as DH more than previously thought. He may DH on days before and after a start.
• Bradford Doolittle has a nice piece on what teams should be looking for in a cleanup hitter, including some suggestions for teams that don’t currently have a steady one.
• David Schoenfield has one player from all 30 teams who he feels doesn’t get talked about enough. I think we talk about Jose Quintana a lot around here, but I suppose he doesn’t mean us.
• Anthony Castrovince has a player from all 30 teams who is most likely to win a BBWAA award at the end of this season.
• Dodgers team president Stan Kasten is making a big push for the Dodgers to host the 2020 All-Star Game.
• The extended protective netting at Progressive Field in Cleveland is really blocking fans view of the game. (That’s sarcasm, by the way.)
• We’ve got some more details on the Twins’ Prince Night promotion. Lots of purple. They should play the Rockies that night. Wrong league, i guess.
• Eddie Matz writes about how Sean Doolittle is ready to be a full-time closer for the first time in his career.
• New Nationals manager Dave Martinez has a lot of confidence in Doolittle. He’s also brought Joe Maddon’s wacky Spring Training stunts to the Federal Nine, He brought some camels to Spring Training to help the Nats get over the “hump.” Doolittle gives a scouting report on the camels and says that they can help the team. (I should mention that Mike Scioscia was doing this stuff with the Angels first, but Joe picked up his former boss’ idea and upped the wacky quotient.)
• Indians manager Terry Francona doesn’t do crazy stunts, he just likes to play practical jokes on everyone.
• How is Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton just like you? He has trouble opening a pickle jar too.
• And finally, Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly dressed up as a reporter and did some awkward interviews with his teammates who didn’t recognize him.

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