MLB Bullets gets off to a good start

Good morning. What I want to know is how does today’s MLB Bullets benefit the Reds?

• As you no doubt know by now (because we already published a story on it yesterday), but the Reds fired manager Bryan Price. While Jim Riggleman is the interim manager, Mark Sheldon has a list of potential candidates for the permanent job.
• Mike Axisa also has a list of potential candidates, with an emphasis on Reds Hall-of-Famer Barry Larkin, whom Axisa thinks is the favorite to land the job.
• Kevin Skiver notes that Price will always be remembered for his 77 f-bomb rant that asked a Reds beat reporter how his story on about an injured Reds player “is good for the Reds?”
• When any manager is fired, there are a slew of articles asking “What good does that do?” Grant Brisbee has one and argues that the Reds organization has done a lot right but they’re still pretty screwed. Firing Price doesn’t fix that.
• Travis Sawchik agrees that Price is a scapegoat.
• Jon Tayler writes that the rot in Cincinnati goes a lot deeper than Price and that the whole organization is adrift.
• Mike Axisa notes that the Reds rebuild has gone nowhere and that every rebuild doesn’t finish with a happy ending like the Cubs and Astros.
• Chad Thornburg remembers five teams that switched managers mid-season and made the playoffs. Yeah, that’s not happening with the Reds. I hate to say this, but they never should have fired Dusty Baker. The Reds won 90 and 97 games in Dusty’s final two seasons. They haven’t had a winning season since and have lost over 90 games the past three years. (The Cubs are the only team to let Dusty go after he didn’t win 90 games. He won 90 or more in his final season with the Giants, Reds and Nationals.)
• On the other side of the Red spectrum, the Red Sox record now stands at 16-2. David Schoenfield looks at just how good the Red Sox can be and how other teams that got off to hot starts finished.
• Mike Petriello examines the Red Sox punishing offense and why they are so much better this year.
• Jeff Sullivan notes that new Boston manager Alex Cora has the Red Sox being more “selectively aggressive” this year and that approach is paying off.
• The Mets also got off to a hot start to the season, but they’re cooling off at the moment, writes Joseph Nocco.
• The great Roger Angell offers his thoughts on the Mets start to the season.
• The Dodgers are off to a poor start for many reasons, but the poor play of closer Kenley Jansen is one of them. Bill Baer asks what’s wrong with Jansen?
• The Giants are also off to a por start and a big reason is that offseason acquisitions Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria aren’t producing much offense. Jay Jaffe examines what is going on with the two veterans.
• Travis Sawchik talks to Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu and how he’s pulling the ball more this season to good results.
• Grant Brisbee notes that baseball needed a miracle to revive interest in baseball in Puerto Rico and instead they got two or three miracles: Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa and maybe Javier Baez.
• Then there is Twins pitcher Jose Berrios, who is finally looking like the ace that people predicted he would be years ago. Michael Beller examines what Berrios is doing differently this year.
• MLB has placed a memorial marker on the shore near where Roberto Clemente’s plane crashed in 1972.
• Sam Miller notes that the 2018 season has been pretty unusual so far and lists three reasons why.
• Michael Lopez and Brian Mills released a study that confirms what many of us have long suspected: umpires are more likely to call strikes against the losing team in extra innings, presumably to get the game over sooner.
• Sometime in the next week or two, Angels first baseman Albert Pujols will collect his 3000th hit. Jerry Crasnick talks with Pujols about his journey to 3000.
• Jon Heyman looks at what’s going on with the loaded 2018-19 offseason free agent class.
• And Heyman handicaps the free agent market for Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.
• Now for the Butcher’s Bill. Our worst fears are realized as Diamondbacks starter Taijuan Walker needs Tommy John surgery.
• But good news for Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, whose x-rays on his wrist turned up negative after he was hit by a pitch there again.
• But the bad news for the Braves is that pitcher Anibal Sanchez heads to the disabled list with a hamstring injury he suffered during warmups.
• Twins center fielder Byron Buxton goes to the DL with migraine headaches.
• The Giants released a timetable for the return of injured ace Madison Bumgarner. (“Late-May”)
• The Braves have signed Jose Bautista to a minor-league deal. They want him to play third base. Good luck with that, but at least it’s creative thinking. On a minor-league deal, why not?
• The White Sox traded infielder Tyler Saladino to the Brewers and acquired outfielder Trayce Thompson from the Athletics. Both were cash deals.
• Marlins pitcher Trevor Richards is scheduled to start tonight in Milwaukee. That’s quite a change for Richards, who just last year was working for a Milwaukee brewer. Not the Brewers, but rather he was an employee of the the MillerCoors Brewery in Milwaukee during the 2016-17 offseason.
• The City of Miami and Miami-Dade County have refused the Marlins offer of arbitration over their legal dispute. Good.
• This is barely a baseball story, but the nephew of Alex Rodriguez was kidnapped when the sale of a Lamborghini went bad. He’s safe now and the kidnapping had nothing to do with A-Rod.
• A group in Portland have purchased land with the intent to eventually build a major-league baseball stadium on it.
• If you read Bill James back in the 1980s, you’re probably familiar with the “Ken Phelps All-Stars,” which was James’ list of “Quad-A” players who could help a major league team if they were just given a chance. Sheryl Ring releases her version of the “Ken Phelps All-Stars” for 2018.
• Phillies rookie J.P. Crawford scored from first base on a single. It was a three-run single, the first for the Phillies since 1978.
• First good base running and now bad base running. The Astros’ Evan Gattis ran (walked?) into a triple play when he lost track of the number of outs.
• An excerpt from a new book by Zach Schonbrun about the neuroscience of hitting and the new frontier of where teams are looking for every advantage.
• I know that I want to see this documentary and I’m pretty sure Al does as well. Jeff Passan looks at the movie “Heading Home” about Team Israel and the 2017 World Baseball Classic. I just wish Passan told us how and when the rest of us can see the film.
• Finally, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Seattle, you eat grasshoppers. Astros pitcher Colin McHugh got some Safeco Field grasshoppers for the Astros to try before the game and he filmed their reactions. Some liked them and some hated them but everyone at least tried them.

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