MLB Bullets and the hammer of Thor

Good morning. I think this may be the first time I went with a picture of a pitcher hitting for this column.

• Mets ace Noah Syndergaard not only threw a complete game shutout against the Reds, he hit the only home run in a 1-0 victory. The last pitcher to win a 1-0 shutout while hitting a home run was Bob Welch back in 1983.
• Sam Miller proposes a new name for when a pitcher throws a complete game and drives in more runs than he allowed. He wants to call such games “true wins” and while they aren’t quite as rare as winning a 1-0 game with a home run by the pitcher (obviously), they are pretty rare.
• Syndergaard (aka “Thor”) celebrated his win with a reference to Avengers: Endgame. (WARNING: Mild Spoiler. A pretty minor one, but still a spoiler.)
• Indians ace Corey Kluber got hit in the arm with a comebacker and he now has a non-displaced fracture of his pitching arm. Emma Baccellieri writes that the Indians must now be regretting their quiet offseason. The Indians offseason strategy was based on the belief that they played in such a week division that they could get by with a lack of depth and still win the division. But now the Twins look like they’re actually good.
• Jay Jaffe looks at the Indians options to replace Kluber going forward and writes that while the Indians are not by any means doomed, they’re in a much worse place than they were a few weeks ago
• The Indians will announce today how serious Kluber’s injury is and how much time they expect him to miss.
• Sinclair Broadcaster has reportedly won the bidding for the 21 former Fox regional sports networks.
• Ben Lindbergh looks back at “Lords of the Realm,” the 1994 book by John Helyar on the business of baseball. He says that as MLB heads towards labor strife in the years ahead, the book is well worth revisiting.
• As much as the Yankees and Red Sox spend on talent, so far the best team in the American League East is the Tampa Bay Rays. Emma Baccellieri looks at how the innovative Rays have stayed on top.
• Tim Keown writes that while the Mariners may not be the best team in baseball, they may be the team that’s most fun to watch, thanks in part to their innovative rebuilding strategy. I know that I had a lot of fun watching the Mariners play this week.
• Dan Szymborski has a “quick fix” for all 30 MLB teams. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• David Schoenfield hands out first-month grades for all 30 teams.
• Ben Clemens notes that shortstops are hitting better than ever and he wants to know why.
• Mike Axisa notes that not only do the Padres have one of the youngest starting rotations in the game, they also have one of the best.
• Bob Nightengale reports that pitchers throughout MLB want “the truth” about the current baseballs and if they’re “juiced.” I mean, I think the balls are livelier than they were in 2015, but whenever someone says “just tell me the truth,” what they mean is they want you to tell them what they already believe whether or not it’s actually correct.
• Eno Sarris looks at the “juiced ball” controversy and while he does believe the evidence that the balls travel farther over the past few seasons than they used to, he argues that much of the increase in home runs this year is because of the hitters and not the balls. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg recorded his 1,500th strikeout, the fastest pitcher (by innings pitched) to reach that milestone.
• Still, the Nats are 13-17 and so they fired their pitching coach Derek Lilliquist.
• Astros outfielder George Springer received an unspecified disciplinary action because of a homophobic slur he made towards umpire Angel Hernandez. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• MLB announced that catcher Mike Marjama was suspended for 80 games for testing positive for a PED. This is a pretty interesting suspension because Marjama retired last season. It seems that he was attempting a comeback, however.
• The Reds are calling up top prospect Nick Senzel and Jonathan Mayo has seven things to know about him.
• Jeffrey Flanagan remembers Royals outfielder Mark Quinn 20 years later and how he never walked. In fact, he walked so little that one time when he did, they set off the fireworks at Kauffman Stadium to celebrate.
• Stephanie Apstein profiles outspoken White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson and his determination to play the game his way. (Cue Frank Sinatra.)
• Mark Feinsand has ten “big names” that could be traded before August 1. Does anyone really think the Cubs are a possible destination for Madison Bumgarner? I don’t see it.
• The Angels are planning to activate Shohei Ohtani off the IL sometime before May 17. Ohtani will only serve as a DH in 2019.
• Matt Snyder notes that over the past two weeks or so, Orioles slugger Chris Davis has actually been kinda good.
• Everyone has been talking about current Jeopardy! champion James Holzhauer, the professional sports gambler who has won over $1.5 million with an analytical approach to the game show. But he says his true ambition is to work in an MLB front office and he’s reportedly getting at least some interest.
• Padres third baseman Manny Machado got into a prank war with Blooper, the Braves mascot, during their recent series in Atlanta.
• And finally, Hall-of-famer Rickey Henderson is going to appear in the new movie Toy Story 4. Or at least, a bobblehead doll of Rickey Henderson is going to appear in the movie.

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