MLB Bullets walks with the Angels

Good morning.

• I think the day always goes better with good news, so let’s begin today with the news from White Sox reliever Danny Farquhar. The White Sox announced that Farquhar is “progressing well” after surgery after his brain aneurysm. He will have to spend at least the next three weeks in the hospital and certainly his future baseball career is in jeopardy. But it’s better than it could have been.
• Angels outfielder Mike Trout became the first player to hit ten home runs this season.
• Jeff Sullivan notes that, believe it or not, Trout has gotten even better this year. Sullivan notes that Trout is getting even better at recognizing strikes and swinging at them and passing on balls out of the strike zone.
• But has the Astros’ mascot Orbit figured out Trout’s secret? Or, more likely, Orbit is just having some fun at Trout’s expense. But as you can see from the photo above, Trout got the last laugh.
• Trout’s teammate Shohei Ohtani came back from his blister issue and struggled in his start last night, but he did hit 101 mph on the radar gun, which is the fastest pitch from a starting pitcher this year.
• More heavenly news. Matthew Trueblood examines a recent podcast with Albert Pujols and believes that Pujols accidentally admitted that he is older that his listed age.
• The Braves are calling up baseball’s top prospect, Ronald Acuna.
• Jeff Passan writes that baseball has entered an era in which the strikeout dominates, for better or for worse.
• But Sam Miller argues that the complete-game no-hitter, despite what Sean Manaea did over the weekend, is heading for extinction.
• Grant Brisbee looks at what he calls the “final unwritten rule” against using a position player to pitch in a blowout game that your team is winning.
• Commissioner Rob Manfred is happy with the way the new rules this season have sped up the game.
• The Pirates and Tigers broke a new MLB record yesterday as they became the 28th postponed game this month, which is a new record for the month of April. And it is still only the 25th.
• Christina Kahrl looks at women who are currently in MLB front offices and wonders when we will see and who will be the first female general manager?
• Dayn Perry grades all 30 teams so far.
• Neil Paine looks at the struggles of preseason favorites the Nationals, Yankees, Dodgers and Cubs and evaluates how worried should each team be?
• Jerry Crasnick writes that the Indians are not worried about their anemic offense so far this season.
• Barry M. Bloom writes that even though the Padres are off to another poor start to the season, the team is on much more solid financial ground going forward.
• One bright spot for the Padres this year has been the development of former Cubs farmhand Christian Villanueva.
• Up the road in Los Angeles, Jay Jaffe shares his astonishment that outfielder Matt Kemp has actually been a good player again this season and asks if Kemp can keep this level of play up.
• Buster Olney thinks that the Giants need to rebuild and the only good way to get a rebuild started is by trading pitcher Madison Bumgarner.
• Dayn Perry examines why Twins pitcher Jose Berrios has looked like he has taken his game to a new level this year. Of course, Perry wrote this before Berrios allowed five runs in four innings to the Yankees last night, but since it was the Yankees, I think we can overlook that.
• Twins infielder Brian Dozier saw his hitting streak end at 24.
• Jeff Sullivan notes that Rangers slugger Joey Gallo has made some adjustments this season and isn’t pulling the ball as much as he used to.
• Former Nationals manager Dusty Baker talks about his disappointment over getting fired this past offseason. I don’t want to sound like a Dusty apologist, but the guy did lead the Nats to 189 regular season wins over the past two seasons. No Nats or Expos teams have ever won that many games in a two-year period.
• The Pirates did a nice thing for their players and flew in 20 dads of team members to Philadelphia for a four-game series. So of course, the Pirates got swept by the Phillies. That’s a lot of sad dads.
• And sad news as Brewers analyst Davey Nelson died at age 73. I watch a lot of Brewers games when the Cubs are not playing because 1) the Brewers are a fun team to watch, 2) I have fantasy baseball players on the Brewers and 3) they have a very good broadcast team. Of those three points, Nelson was one of those that made Brewers game enjoyable to listen to, even for a Cubs fan.
• Also passing away is Sachio Kinugasa, who was the “Iron Man” of Japan, playing in 2215 straight games in NPB. That’s more than Lou Gehrig, although less than Cal Ripken, who broke Kinugasa’s worldwide record in 1996. Ripken and Kinugasa would become good friends. Kinugasa was 71.
• The Phillies signed Trevor Plouffe to a minor-league deal.
• The Indians signed outfielder Melky Cabrera to a minor-league deal.
• I feel like I link to a lot more fielding porn than I do hitting or pitching porn. That’s probably true since I’m a connoisseur of fine fielding. But to make it up for those who prefer the other parts of the game, here’s Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes crushing a 463-foot home run.
• Whitney McIntosh ranks her favorite foods from the MLB FoodFest.
• And finally, Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre tried to pull a fast one, not once by twice, but umpire Greg Gibson wasn’t letting him get away with it.

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