The big story of the day was reported by Tim Elfink of the Miami New Times of an MLB investigation of a claim that Marlins pitcher Jarred Cosart has gambled on sports. The claims stemmed from a Twitter account last night posting alleged DMs from Cosart where he is talking about betting on sports. Cosart has delted his old account as well as a new one he set up this morning where he claims he had been hacked. It's important to note that the account accusing him can't really be seen as reliable either so we'll see where this goes. Cosart was a highly touted prospect in the Phillies organization until he was included in a packaged used to acquire Hunter Pence in 2011.
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports writes that should the Cubs send Kris Bryant to the minors to start the 2015 season, the union should fight it. Bryant has absolutely raked this spring with 9 home runs, hitting .464. The problem lies with service time issues if he starts the season on the roster where the Cubs would lose a year of team control instead of waiting a few weeks into the season to call him up. It's clearly a bad system in need of some reform but you can't blame either side of the argument.
Pretty much every Phillies fan will tell you they had the Kyle Kendrick package when they attended games during his time with the club, even when they ran out the historic rotation of 2011. I grew a soft spot myself for the man during the last few seasons. I felt he worked as hard as he could to be what he was and that's pretty admirable and he's certainly more successful than most are who try their hand at baseball. That being said it was hard not to chuckle a bit when the Colorado Rockies named him Opening Day starter. Mike Petriello of Fangraphs analyzes what is a truly bad rotation in Colorado, a franchise known for not exactly being the best home for pitchers. I won't lie though, I'll probably watch every Kendrick start. I just can't quit him.
Heath Bell told Corey Brock of MLB.com that he will retire after being released by the Nationals earlier in the week. After being cast away by the Mets after 2006, Heath Bell joined the Padres and would eventually become the man who replaced Trevor Hoffman having three dominant seasons as their closer from '09-'11. He would sign a three year deal with the Miami Marlins in 2012 and had pretty rocky results and spent the next few seasons being bounced around producing mixed results. Still, Bell was one of the game's great characters and one could see him eventually taking a crack at broadcasting in the future.
Patrick Finley of the Chicago Sun Times wrote a nice article on Jose Contreras, who at 43 is still pitching in the Mexican League for Tijuana. He lead the league in strike outs last season and even as a grandfather, doesn't seem to have any plans on hanging it up for a while.
