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The MLB Daily Dish is a daily feature we're running here at MLBDD and rounds up roster-impacting news, rumors, and analysis. Have feedback or have something that should be shared? Hit us at @mlbdailydish on Twitter.
Good morning baseball fans!
Adrian Beltre is an ageless wonder, writes Steven Martano of Beyond the Box Score.
ESPN'S Buster Olney (Insider required) looked at a two-tiered penalty system for PED users.
It could be that PED markers were still in his system from use last summer, one veteran noted. But it's also possible that Gordon was simply confident he would not get nailed in the testing, the player added, and if this sort of thinking is prevalent, baseball has a serious problem. (For the record, Gordon says he did not knowingly take PEDs, a common refrain among those busted.)
The concern over a false-positive test or an inadvertent test is on the minds of players and prevents some from buying into a zero-tolerance policy. Innocent mistakes have been made, and there is the chance for malfeasance. One player noted that he has envisioned a scenario in which a fan of a rival team might work in a restaurant, recognize him and slip something into his food that leads to a positive test. Or something is added to the pizza in room service at a visiting hotel. "How am I supposed to control that?" he asked rhetorically.
Here is the MLB Week-in-Review, and the MLB Blog Review.
Owen Watson of FanGraphs explored the rather surprising reality of Joey Votto struggling.
But we can pull video of four or five more examples of that type of swing, and it’s the story of Votto’s 2016 so far: pitchers are doing things they haven’t done to him before. They’re surprising him, and busting him inside, and trying out a new — and so far successful — strategy to get one of the best hitters in baseball out more often. To their credit, it’s worked so far, better than anything else has before. But the incredible thing is that Votto is almost surely making the adjustment back already. This is all a funny mirage, and May comes in a few days, and we’ll probably look back on this month and remember that one time when Joey Votto was terrible — somehow.
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Today in Baseball History: In 1988, Reds manager Pete Rose is suspended for 30 days, the longest suspension ever given to a manager. On April 30th, Rose shoved umpire Dave Pallone.