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If you're not watching Justified, you missed the funniest thing on TV last night. I mean, probably. I didn't watch everything on TV last night, so I guess I couldn't be sure.
Brandons outtakes
Are you ready for the new Giants commercials? Because one of them is going to star the Brandons, and odds are that one will be great. Though weirdly, as you'll see in the outtakes from the commercial here, nobody invited Brandon Hicks. Come on, guys. That's just mean.
Eric Sogard and the Innovation Fairy
This is about the A's, and the economics of baseball, and the future of baseball, and the Face Of MLB thing, and Lew Wolff, and Bud Selig, and Whole Foods, Walmart, and Costco. And it's in the style of a children's book, so your only excuses for not reading it are "The page was very long and I did not correlate that with the amount of text to read because it was actually a reasonable amount" or "I never read the links anyway and did you see those Brandons outtakes LOL here's a link!"
No, seriously, what exactly are 'options'?
Our close personal friends at Purple Row have a detailed guide to baseball's system for optioning players to the minors. You'd have to reach pretty far to find a scenario they don't cover here, like what happens if a player gets called up but never arrives because various vapors have built up inside his plane and it never takes off, or what to do when a team is involved in, like, a terrible hot air balloon accident.
But other than those scenarios, it's pretty much all here.
Gunslinger Kevin Towers Rides Again
Let's talk about how Kevin Towers has publically declared his pitchers will throw at opposing teams' hitters, and how MLB has done nothing about it. There's a way this is supposed to work, people: a guy on Team A gets hit, then a guy on Team B gets hit, everyone pretends the second one was an accident, the umpires warn both benches, and the risk of a hitter being injured gets elevated so that the pitcher can prove he's tough. Why change the system, Kevin? It works.
Top 100 Spring Hitters by OPS
Since overreacting to spring stats is a fun hobby for the whole family, go wild! Note: Brandon Hicks is incredibly likely to maintain his 1.205 OPS in the majors this year and you should draft him on all of your fantasy teams.
2014 San Jose Giants Season Preview: Catcher
More previews of the baby Giants. This time: catchers! Is the next Buster Posey going to be in San Jose this year? There's no way to tell, but yes, he certainly will be.