Random Thoughts from the Baseball World…

The MLB Network does an excellent job covering all the news from around the league. However, they miss a story here and there, so we’re glad to supplement their coverage with the following random thoughts.

Michelle Damon has reportedly contacted Commissioner Selig and requested that Detroit be allowed to move its franchise to New Jersey.

Too bad the Twins aren’t hosting the Angels in April—wouldn’t it be cool to see real snow Angels being made in the outfield?

Let me get this straight: Dodgers owner Frank McCourt plans to double revenue while keeping payroll the same. Isn’t that pretty much what the Marlins have done over the past five years with the help of baseball’s revenue-sharing plan?

Commissioner Selig asserts that Major League Baseball cannot test for human growth hormone because no reliable test exists, then almost immediately announces they plan to test minor leaguers for HGH later this year. I guess it’s reliable enough for the scrubeenies. While the league is at it with the human guinea pig stuff, why doesn’t it see if it can create avatar umpires capable of making correct calls in playoff games.

Ozzie Guillen is now tweeting regularly, posting to Facebook and appearing in a reality TV show, much to the dismay of his bosses, who nixed his plan to launch a web site. Perhaps if Guillen and other managers were allowed to protest calls to umpires by tweeting their objections it might speed up the glacial pace of games.

Nick Johnson has been placed on the 15-day disabled list. There, just wanted to get that out of the way because it’s only a matter of time. Glad to see he got one spring training game in before he was sidelined by an injury.

Speaking of hard-luck players, Nomar Garciaparra signed a one-day contract with the Red Sox so he could retire from the team for which he had his most success. Unfortunately, Nomar pulled a muscle in his hand before he could finish signing his official retirement papers and was placed on the 60-day DL.

Recognizing that they are already out of the playoff chase, the Pirates are shopping their bullpen coach.

Once again Milton Bradley has…oh, never mind. Maybe it’s only a coincidence, but Bradley came up to the majors in 2000, the same year Albert Belle was forced to retire due to a degenerative hip condition. Must be Belle passed on the anti-social jerk torch to Bradley.

The Mets just got back the results from J.J. Putz’s 2009 team physical and were perplexed the league wouldn’t let them place him on the DL. However, the Mets will be allowed to carry a regular-season roster of 30 players so they can better overcome the day-to-day injuries they will misdiagnose.

Chris Jensen is a baseball writer and SABR member from Indiana who grew up just outside Cooperstown.