Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage, and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn’t easy. It’s okay, though, we’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning, and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
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The baseball world was given the opportunity to take one final spring loop-de-loop on the Josh Hamilton experience Friday, and it ended up being a bit of a humdinger. Despite conventional wisdom pointing towards a suspension, an arbitrator saw things differently and ruled that since Hamilton didn’t actually violate the Joint Drug Agreement, Hamilton can’t be suspended. Absolutely nobody is happy about it.
As is the norm, we got eloquently-yet-snappily written statements from all official parties involved. MLB came off a bit entitled with their statement, and the Angels’ public statements all point towards a huge case of buyer’s remorse. Baseball-wise, Hamilton’s done little to justify the mega-deal that the Angels gave him a while back, and surely the team can’t be thrilled about owing $83 million to a player who has hit .255/.316/.426 over the past two seasons. Hamilton’s story, of course, is far more than just baseball. It’s an ugly position to be in as far as PR is concerned.
On the other hand, you have Ken Rosenthal all but implicating the Angels as the party who leaked this story to the public to begin with, and arguing that Hamilton deserved better throughout this entire ordeal. Simply put, this is a situation where it seems as if everyone’s leaving the table disappointed. Who knows if Hamilton himself is happy? Instead of being able to focus on hopefully getting things together, he’ll have to focus on getting healthy and getting ready to play for a team who has essentially admitted that they don’t want him around.
- If you haven’t already gotten enough of the Kris Bryant saga, Vice Sports has gotten a labor lawyer to help explain this thing even further (or confuse you even more).
- Who was the most influential manager in each decade of baseball, from the 1900s and onward? The Dallas Morning News took a look at this, complete with a fancy slideshow.
- The Braves may have pulled off a “sneakily good” trade for Trevor Cahill, but which version of Cahill will they be getting?
- Wrigley Field’s famous bleachers won’t be ready for Opening Day, but at least the new, fancy jumbotron will be!
- Ben Revere hit a walk-off home run in spring training. As a reminder, Ben Revere has a career ISO average of .048 and a grand total of two career home runs in games that actually count. Spring training, you need to calm down.
- Everybody loves predictions, and luckily for you, both Fangraphs and Beyond the Box Score have decided to share their projections with the baseball world.
- Russell Martin got a standing ovation in front of his hometown crowd as baseball made a temporary return to Montreal.
- After having a lovely rookie season, Yordano Ventura is reportedly close to signing a contract extension that will keep him in Kansas City for the foreseeable future.
- Josh Hamilton and Kris Bryant aren’t the only topics concerning MLB and the Players Association, as they probably won’t be agreeable on the issue of international amateur players coming into MLB, either.
