MLB Bullets is beaten to the punch

Good morning. Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there, since I won’t speak to you before Sunday. Except me, I guess. I’ll talk to me again before Sunday.

• Tom Verducci looks at the problem of increasing strikeouts in baseball, what’s causing it and what can be done about it. I’ve been converted to a pitch clock after watching it in action in the minor leagues. I understand that people resist putting a clock on baseball — I was like that too. But it really does work in the minor leagues and rarely even comes into play, at least not so the fans would notice.
• Commissioner Rob Manfred also took a break from the Owners Meetings to speak to the press and said that the league is discussing several rules changes, including banning or limiting defensive shifts.
• Scott Boeck (and he’s not alone) reads into some of Manfred’s comments that a universal DH is coming.
• Also, Manfred notes that attendance is down 7% this year and not all of that can be attributed to the weather. However, Craig Calcaterra believes most of the fault lies with the owners, who can make more money charging high ticket prices to fewer customers than lower prices to more customers. Calcaterra makes some other points about competitiveness, but in that he means that tanking teams aren’t lowering their ticket prices by much or anything at all. I think that’s about right and it speaks to a lot of things about income inequality in America that we won’t go into here. But Calcaterra is also right in that it places short-term profits over the long-term future of the sport.
• Speaking of money and lots of it, the Yankees are thinking of purchasing the YES Network back from Fox if they sell it to Disney or Comcast. Apparently, the Yankees have a clause that allows them to purchase the network at “fair market value” if Fox wants to sell the team.
• Also, you may have seen a video on-line about former Mets manager Terry Collins cursing umpire Tom Hallion last year. Manfred said that MLB is working to take down the video.
• Here’s a written description of the video for those who missed it before it went down.
• You probably saw Al’s article on possible MLB re-alignment, now you can read Grant Brisbee’s take on re-alignment.
• Looking at more positive news, Ben Lindbergh thinks that the Mariners ride to first place has been a fluke, but that the long-suffering franchise deserves some good luck for once.
• David Schoenfield looks at Yankees rookie Gleyber Torres and argues that despite rumors that would send Mets ace Jacob deGrom to the Bronx, Torres is far too good a player to give up for anyone. And for anyone who complains about Theo Epstein trading Torres, first, he wasn’t considered this good in the Cubs organization. Also, look at this.
• Things are so bad in Flushing that Mets third baseman Todd Frazier apologized to deGrom for not scoring more runs.
• Gabe Lacques has an appreciation of Nationals rookie outfielder Juan Soto.
• Jon Heyman has a stock report on all the upcoming free agents this winter. He’s wrong about Jose Reyes, however, whom the Mets are going to sign to a four-year extension sometime in the next few months because they won’t let him leave the team until he agrees to retire.
• Grant Brisbee tries to be optimistic that the Orioles won’t mess up the Manny Machado situation and will return to being a competitive team in short time.
• Travis Sawchik looks at the Blue Jays and thinks that the team should work on being a contender in 2020.
• Last season, Miguel Sano was an All-Star. Yesterday, the Twins sent him down to High-A Fort Myers. (It should be noted that he probably went to High-A and not Triple-A because that’s the Twins’ Spring Training facility and that’s probably where they have the most resources to help Sano.)
• The Indians Melky Cabrera experiment didn’t last long as the team designated the outfielder for assignment.
• Bad news for the surging Giants as third baseman Evan Longoria has a broken hand. The same injury sidelined his teammate Madison Bumgarner for over two months.
• Jay Jaffe is bummed about Miguel Cabrera’s injury because it is probably going to prevent him from reaching some elite milestones by the time his career is over.
• The Dodgers and Rangers got in a brawl after a home plate collision.
• Former MLB first baseman Nate Freiman has spent his retirement studying baseball analytics. He’s not working in a front office or anything, for now, it’s just a hobby. That may change in the future.
• Ben Lindbergh notes that Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks is now more than just a hard thrower.
• Eric Single has a preview of the College World Series.
• Writer/director Ron Shelton reflects back on his career and the movie Bull Durham on the 30th anniversary of its release.
• The fathers of five all-stars, including Mike Bryant, talk about when they knew their kid was going to be a star.
• Mike Trout’s dad was also interviewed, and Braves pitcher Brandon McCarthy wondered why we don’t know more about the greatest player of his generation. When McCarthy was told to ask him at the All-Star Game, McCarthy gave a blunt and honest answer.
• Then there is White Sox rookie outfielder Daniel Palka, who was a high school McDonald’s All-American in basketball. At least according to Wikipedia and a long-running joke.
• I thought that America was catching up to the Asian leagues in excellence in first pitches. Then came this wrestling-themed first pitch in Japan.
• Minor league teams often have “Bark at the Park” promotions where you can take your dog to the ballpark. But what happens when one dog decides that he wants to play fetch?
• The internet story of the week was the St. Paul (NOT MINNEAPOLIS) Raccoon. So the independent league St. Paul Saints changed their name to the St. Paul Raccoons in her honor, at least temporarily.
• Adam Wainwright played a practical joke on Padres coach and former teammate Skip Schumaker. Whitney McIntosh grades it.
• And finally, do you want to see a Korean umpire punch out a batter so forcefully on a strikeout the he punches the catcher in the head? Of course you do.

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