MLB Bullets can’t catch a break

It’s June already?

• If you thought the bad news for the Dodgers this season couldn’t get any worse, pitcher Clayton Kershaw came off the disabled list and it looks like he’s going right back on. The Dodgers say that Kershaw’s back tightened up during the start and he will undergo an MRI. It should be noted that the fastball of the normally hard-throwing Kershaw couldn’t get over 90 mph.
• Written before this latest development, Stephanie Apstein has a profile of Kershaw and how his desire to win a title in Los Angeles conflicts with his possible upcoming free agency. She also has a lot of Kershaw off the field, including his daily routine and his charity work.
• More bad news for the Dodgers in that the lost to the Phillies on Thursday when Maikel Franco scored the eventual winning run without ever touching the plate. For some reason, the Dodgers never appealed the play. The good news for the Dodgers? They still play in the NL West.
• Phillies outfielder Rhys Hoskins went on the DL after he fractured his jaw after fouling a pitch off his face.
• Cardinals pitcher Alex Reyes has been diagnosed with a “significant” right lat strain. The Cardinals say the injury is “significant” and he’ll miss more than just a few starts.
• Mets third baseman David Wright, who hasn’t played since late-May of 2016, has begun playing catch and is optimistic that he can begin “baseball activities” soon. Does that include setting the lineup on his fantasy team?
• Pirates third baseman Jung Ho Kang will play for High-A Bradenton on Friday. Kang has been on the restricted list since 2017 after he was denied a visa to enter the United States after a drunk-driving offense.
• Sam Miller explains why as good as Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts is, he’s not likely to be as good as Mike Trout.
• David Schoenfield examines just how good Indians third baseman Jose Ramirez can be.
• Schoenfield also has an early guess at the All-Star Game rosters.
• Travis Sawchik looks at how White Sox third baseman Matt Davidson became the most improved hitter in MLB in 2018.
• Chris Cwik has four reasons why the Brewers have the best record in the NL so far.
• On the flip side, Travis Sawchik explains how after a red-hot April, the Diamondbacks were just terrible in May.
• Tim Brown talks with Phillies manager Gabe Kapler. Kapler insists that fighting through their (and his) early struggles have made the Phillies a better team.
• Rays pitcher Sergio Romo says he loves his new role as the Rays “opener.”
• Dan Wetzel thinks that MLB needs to exploit the buzz surrounding Shohei Ohtani now and help him become a household name.
• Commissioner Rob Manfred says we’re getting closer to the arrival of our robot umpire overlords. Or that PITCHf/x technology is getting closer to being good enough to call balls and strikes.
• Last time I linked to a piece by Jeff Passan about the “disappearing” single in the game. Today, Buster Olney laments that steals, pitchouts and bunts are going away as well.
• Travis Sawchik looks at how the Astros having three catchers gives the team an important platoon advantage.
• Next week is the 2018 MLB Draft and so Mike Axisa looks back at the 2013 draft. Whatever happened to that Bryant kid that the Cubs took?
• The Oklahoma Sooners expect that quarterback Kyler Murray will play for the team this fall. This is important because Murray is expected to be a first- or early-second-round pick in the MLB Draft.
• Sheryl Ring looks at the legal case surrounding draft prospect Luke Heimlich, who was convicted of being a level 1 sex offender after molesting his young niece.
• Chad Thornburg looks at one player from each team who was drafted but didn’t sign with the team. This isn’t really fair, since a lot of the players drafted never had any intention of leaving school to play baseball and were only drafted in a “can’t hurt” mode. Still, I’m going out on a limb and say the Cubs win the 1984 World Series and maybe the 1989 one if they had Mark Langston on the pitching staff (and nothing else changed).
• Kyle Lohse officially retired earlier this year after a 16-year major league career. Alex Remington looks at Lohse and other pitchers who had long careers despite not being very good.
• The Indians blew an 8-0 lead to the Twins on Thursday but ended up winning on a Francisco Lindor home run.
• Some fielding porn from Andrelton Simmons.
• This juggling catch by the Athletics Chad Pinder may not have been a work of art, but it sure was fun.
• Mariners second baseman (?) Dee Gordon came off the DL and returned to second base, but he got a little too eager to catch a pop up. Gordon traveled into first baseman Ryon Healy’s space and Healy (playfully) let him know that.
• Nicole Haas talks to some old female ballplayers about what the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was like beyond the movie “A League of Their Own.”
• GOOSE ON THE LOOSE! GOOSE ON THE LOOSE!
• And finally, Blake McFarland was never a top prospect in his six-year minor league career, so he hung it up for something more practical: he became a successful artist. He’s got to be the first kid to have “being an artist” as a backup plan and have that work out.

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