MLB Bullets gets the call

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America once again snubbed me by failing to elect me to the Baseball Hall of Fame. At this point, I’m considering telling them what I told People Magazine: that they had their chances to select me as “Sexiest Man Alive” and they blew it, so please take my name out of consideration in the future.

Sign-stealing is not the number one story anymore! It just took a week.

If you hate Derek Jeter, you might just want to look away now.

• Derek Jeter and Larry Walker were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
• Jeter was named on every ballot except one. Jeter spoke about what the honor means to him.
• Here are the complete vote totals.
• David Schoenfield has some winners and losers in the Cooperstown balloting.
• Tom Verducci shares three thoughts on the election results.
• Verducci also writes that Jeter became a model for a generation of ballplayers.
• Eric Stephen looks back at Jeter’s career.
• David Waldstein says it was stubbornness that made Jeter an all-time great.
• Bob Nightengale writes that Jeter doesn’t care that someone left him off the ballot and that we should not care either.
• Tim Brown believed that Jeter defined baseball for a generation. Brown writes that while Jeter was never the best player in baseball, he always went about the game as if he were, which is all that anyone can ask.
• Ian O’Connor notes that while Jeter wasn’t perfect, either as a player or a human being, baseball still needs him and what he represented in his career.
• Bob Nightengale said that baseball really needs some good news right about now and once again, Jeter came through in the clutch. Although I don’t think Jeter really had anything to do with the timing of the announcement. Maybe Hall of Fame president Tim Mead came through in the clutch.
• Michael Baumann notes that Jeter and Walker took different routes to Cooperstown, but they both ended up where they belonged in the end. Also, Walker and Jeter have almost identical career WAR totals per baseball-reference. (Walker edges Jeter by 0.3 WAR, in case you were wondering.)
• It’s kind of hard to believe, but Walker becomes the first ever player to wear the Rockies uniform to be elected to Cooperstown. Thomas Harding reports on what Walker had to say about his election and what made him a special player.
• Actually, all anyone is talking about Larry Walker is that he was wearing a Spongebob Squarepants shirt when he got the call.
• Gabe Lacques explains why Walker was a worthy inductee.
• The Rockies could use this good news about Walker because their best current player, third baseman Nolan Arenado, is upset that the team have not traded him and said that they won’t now. Arenado texted “there is a lot of disrespect from people there [in Colorado] that I don’t want to be a part of. You can quote that.”
• Jeff Passan reports that Arenado is upset that the Rockies have done nothing to improve the team over the winter. Insert joke about how it’s a good thing he doesn’t play for the Cubs here.
• Jon Paul Morosi assesses the current relationship between the Rockies and Arenado and says everyone is keeping their mouth shut about it at the moment.
• Free agent outfielder Marcell Ozuna has signed a one-year, $18 million deal with the Braves.
• Free agent pitcher Félix Hernández has agreed to a minor-league deal with the Braves as well. No word on where Larry Bernandez will sign yet.
• Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia has suffered a “significant setback” in his rehab efforts and it certainly looks like that will be it for his career. Pedroia is said to be “discussing his options with his family.”
• OK, we’re not totally free of the sign-stealing scandal fallout. The Los Angeles City Council has voted to urge MLB to strip World Series titles from the Astros and Red Sox and award them to the Dodgers. Never going to happen, but elected officials have got to pander from time to time.
• Michael McCann has 20 questions about the legal issues surrounding the sign-stealing scandal. No, the fans can’t sue. (Well, they can, but the case will get thrown out of court immediately for lack of standing.)
• Add Hall-of-Famer Pedro Martinez to those who are blasting whitleblower Mike Fiers for coming forward. Martinez argues that Fiers should have said something when he was on the Astros and that it’s cowardly to do so now that he’s on the Athletics.
• Astros owner Jim Crane said that the players will apologize for the scandal in Spring Training. Sounds like it will be one big group apology and not an individual player taking responsibility, however.
• Former major league outfielder Shawn Abner has been sentenced to 4.5 to 23 months in prison on animal cruelty charges.
• One last Cooperstown story as Craig Edwards makes the case for Scott Rolen’s induction.
• And finally, Mariners prospect Jarred Kelenic managed to go “skeet shooting” with a frisbee and a batted ball off a tee. I heard on the MLB Network that Kelenic accomplished this in eight takes.

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