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• Paul Lukas has a piece up on Robert Griffin III becoming the first player to wear Roman numerals on his jersey. But in that piece he has some cool stuff on baseball players who wore nicknames on their jerseys. My favorite: One year, Johnnie LeMaster had been getting booed so much he wore "BOO" on the back of his jersey for a game.
• Johnette Howard has a nice piece on Rays outfielder Rich Thompson -- living the big league dream at age 33.
• Don't give up hope, Phillies fans! Bill Baer gives you some reasons for optimism.
• Catching up with Rusty Staub. The Mets have Staub bobblehead day this weekend.
• Here's an interview with new Red Sox director of player developoment Ben Crockett -- a former minor league pitcher who also happens to hold an economics degree from Harvard.
• Hey, I'm not the only one pumping up the Indians! ESPN Insider Ben Lindbergh writes why this season's Clevelanders will hold up better than the 2011 version. And FanGraphs' Dave Cameron says Cleveland is now the team to beat in the AL Central.
• Astros pitchers are getting the job done.
• Jim Tracy in a nutshell. Look, I expected the Rockies to be bad this year. But I don't think the Rockies expected to be bad. It may not be long before that leash snaps.
• ESPN Insider Kevin Goldstein explains how Scott Boras can exploit the draft this year.
• A Braves Q&A from Capitol Avenue Club.

First base: Home-field disadvantage. Owners added the one-game wild-card game in part to reward teams that won a division title. However, they've just taken away some of that advantage by changing the layout of the Division Series from 2-2-1 to 2-3. Instead of starting at home, the higher seed will play the first two games on the road before heading. Look, it's not huge deal and might revert back to 2-2-1 next year, when the regular season begins earlier, thus providing more potential off days in October. Still, I don't see why 2-2-1 would have been an issue, even with the need to have fewer off days this season. But why do we need so many off days anyway? Obviously, teams play in different cities on back-to-back days all the time.

Also buried in that story is something that will get fans much more upset: Two Division Series games will shift from TBS to MLB Network, which is available in about 30 million fewer homes.

Second base: Reddick-hot. Josh Reddick plays for the Oakland A's, so he's not exactly going to be leading the SportsCenter highlights. But he's quietly putting together a nice season, hitting .283 with 10 home runs. His big home run off Alexi Ogando tied the game in the seventh inning Thursday and the A's then beat the Rangers in the 10th. The A's are a game over .500 at 20-19 and another key to their surprising success has been reliever Ryan Cook, who threw two hitless innings to get the win. Cook has yet to allow run and has allowed just four hits in 19.2 innings.

Third base: Feel-good stories. A couple of nice stories to highlight. The Blue Jays sent down former 35-homer man Adam Lind and called up Yan Gomes, who became the first Brazilian-born player to reach the majors. Gomes went 2-for-3 in Toronto's win over the Yankees. Gomes is a catcher/third baseman and not a top prospect, although he was hitting .359 for Las Vegas (of course, everyone hits .359 at Las Vegas). Gomes moved to the U.S. with his family when he was 12 and was drafted out of Barry University in Florida.

Rich Thompson is a 33-year-old outfielder who had one at-bat with the Royals back in 2004. He's been in the minor leagues ever since, including the past five seasons with Lehigh Valley, the Phillies' Triple-A club, where he became a fan favorite. Earlier this week, the Phillies traded him to the Rays, who called up him to the big leagues. On Thursday, he started in left field and picked up his first major league hit and RBI. Dreams do come true.

Home plate: Tweet of the day. Ahh, good ol' Jim Tracy.

As a #SFGiants fan, I'd like to see Jim Tracy stick around as #Rockies manager. As a sane person, I don't see how he does.

— Wendy Thurm (@hangingsliders) May 18, 2012

First base: The 49-year-old speedster. So not only did Jamie Moyer win his second game of the season in Colorado's 6-1 victory over Arizona, but he accomplished the following: (1) He legged out an infield hit that drove in two runs, becoming the oldest major leaguer to record an RBI; (2) He drove in more than he allowed; (3) He pitched into the seventh inning for just the second time this season; (4) He matched his career-high with two RBIs; (5) HE BEAT OUT AN INFIELD HIT! "I thought it was going to roll foul," Moyer said. "And I feel like I hesitated just a little bit, and then ... as I was running down the line, I saw the pitcher stop and the first baseman, I think he picked it up and he was going to throw it to the pitcher and then he realized the pitcher wasn't (covering the bag). So, then it became, I guess, a slow crawl to first base."

Second base: Detroit disaster. The Tigers continue to play uninspiring baseball, losing 11-7 to the Twins to drop to 18-19. Detroit committed four errors in the first three innings but actually led 7-6 through five innings before the bullpen surrendered five runs in relief of Rick Porcello. The Tigers rank last in the AL with a 5.17 bullpen ERA. Since starting 9-3, the Tigers are 9-16 as Porcello and Max Scherzer continue to get hit around -- they've combined to allow 109 hits in 87.1 innings. Austin Jackson also left the game with a mild abdominal strain and is day to day. If the Tigers are going to win the division, it appears it will be a slow crawl as opposed to the wire-to-wire domination many projected.

Third base: Mr. BABIP. Remember when everybody said Jeremy Hellickson couldn't replicate his rookie numbers? Too lucky, won't repeat his .223 batting average on balls in play, a figure that led the majors, not enough strikeouts and so on. Well ... so far he's doing it again. Hellickson is now 4-0 with a 2.77 ERA ... and .238 BABIP. On Wednesday, he held the Red Sox to one run in six innings, an improvement over an earlier start against Boston in which he allowed five runs and three home runs. While Hellickson's strikeout rate has increased from 5.6 to 6.5 per nine innings, his hit rate has increased from 7.0 to 7.8 per nine, so there is some regression to the norm going on here. Still, considering Tampa's defensive shifts, Hellickson's proclivity as a fly ball pitcher, and the great late movement he gets on his changeup, his BABIP may always be below league-average figures. In other words ... maybe he's more than just lucky; maybe he's good.

Home plate: Tweet of the day.

Great win in front of the home crowd 2nite. Who's this Jamie Moyer guy? He can do it all, pitch & swing it. #ExcitingYoungPlayer

— Jeremy Guthrie (@JGuthrie46) May 17, 2012

First base: No Kemp, plenty Kershaw. It's too early in the season to call any series a "big" series, but considering the Diamondbacks entered Monday 8.5 games behind the Dodgers and Matt Kemp didn't play for the first time since Aug. 18, 2009 ... well, it's kind of an important two-game showdown for them. Monday's game was a battle of aces with Clayton Kershaw facing Ian Kennedy and featured some extracurricular fireworks. The last time Kershaw faced Arizona, last September, he was ejected for plunking Gerardo Parra, who had longingly admired a home run the previous night. On Kershaw's first at-bat, Kennedy threw behind him.

But Kershaw got the final word. He later introduced Kennedy's nose to the smell of some inside heat and pitched seven shutout innings in L.A.'s 3-1 victory. Arizona just can't produce many runs right now. Paul Goldschmidt, Ryan Roberts and Willie Bloomquist are still struggling at the plate and Justin Upton's OPS continues to hover under .700. He did get a first-inning single off Kershaw -- his first hit off Kershaw after going 0-for-18. If there's good news for the Diamondbacks, it's that they owned an identical 15-21 record last season after 36 games. They even dropped to 15-22, before turning their season around, winning 15 of their next 17 games.

Second base: Reds scare. So the St. Louis Cardinals have outscored their opponents by 63 runs, they have an MVP candidate in Carlos Beltran, six guys in Monday's lineup hitting over .300 (none of whom were Beltran, Matt Holliday or David Freese) and three starters with an ERA under 2.50. The Cincinnati Reds have outscored their opponents by six runs, have three starters with an ERA over 4.00, five guys in Monday's lineup hitting under .260 and only one hitter who has more than nine walks. And, somehow, the Reds are just 1.5 games behind the Cardinals.

Third base: Friedrich fantastic, Tulo not. Rockies rookie Christian Friedrich once again looked terrific in his second major league start, striking out 10 and allowing just a Gregor Blanco home run in seven innings. Friedrich, the one-time top prospect who struggled in Double-A the past two seasons, had pitched well in Triple-A this year and now has 17 strikeouts and just two walks over his first two starts. Friedrich's effort went for naught as the Giants scored two runs in the eighth off the Colorado bullpen, dropping the Rockies to 13-21. Troy Tulowitzki continues to struggle in May (he hasn't homered since April 27), was hit by Dexter Fowler's foul ball while standing in the dugout and then left the game after limping down the line on an infield single.

Tweet of the night. Speaking of that inside pitch to Kershaw ...

Not surprisingly both #Dbacks Montero and Kennedy said they were just trying to go inside on Kershaw bc he has a "long swing".

— Steve Gilbert (@SteveGilbertMLB) May 15, 2012

First: Marco Scutaro drove in a run for the Rockies. That may not seem like a big deal, but it was his first baserunner plated since April 11 and just his second of the season. Before driving in Dexter Fowler, Scooter was the only big-league regular who had failed to drive in more than one teammate on the season; now he’s tied for the fewest “Others Batted In” (or OBI) with Dayan Viciedo of the White Sox … with two.

Second: Once upon a time, Scott Diamond was your prototypical Twins command/control lefty, the sort of guy who throws strikes with three different pitches but doesn’t overpower anybody. However, his first problem was that he was in the Braves organization, but the Twins corrected that problem by selecting him in the Rule 5 draft before 2010, and then dealing a semi-interesting relief arm, Billy Bullock, to retain the rights to Diamond.

That didn’t look so good when he didn’t impress in Rochester last season, or in a brief big-league cameo (losing all five starts he made), but on Sunday he shut down the Blue Jays to win his second game with his second seven-inning quality start in his second turn for the Twins as their in-season rotation replacement for top prospect Liam Hendriks. With all their other woes, there is at least this reflected Twin-kle of their past success with strike-throwers with this Diamond.

Third: Justin Masterson pegged three people at the plate during a blowout loss in Boston, including Daniel Nava twice (in the third after Will Middlebrooks’ home run then again in the sixth inning on his first pitch). His lack of command had a lot to do with it, home-plate ump Ron Kulpa didn’t issue a warning, nobody got tossed, nobody got hurt (beyond bruising), and the world did not end. It doesn’t appear Sox starter Daniel Bard felt any compunction to retaliate; get a dozen runs’ worth of support, and you can probably afford to be generous to a former teammate.

Home plate: The tweet of the night goes to Richard Justice for catching and conveying Josh Hamilton’s lamentations after the on-field death of the bat he’d had his four homer-game against the Orioles with:

Josh Hamilton cracked the bat he used for 8 of 9 HRs. Happened during7th-inning single. "She died a hero," he said. "She worked hard."

— Richard Justice (@richardjustice) May 14, 2012

Christina Kahrl covers baseball for ESPN.com. You can follow her on Twitter.

First: Christian Friedrich made the first start of his career for the Rockies in what might be considered close to the definitive soft landing: Facing a Padres team with the worst record in the National League, in Petco, against the 15th-ranked offense in the circuit. Whether you want to use plain-old runs scored or OPS+ or wOBA or what have you, if there’s one thing the Padres don’t have, it’s offense, park-adjusted or not. Which takes nothing away from a nifty first start. The Rockies lefty gave up just two runs on six baserunners in six innings, striking out seven. In beating the Padres he did something the more highly touted Drew Pomeranz and Alex White had not. As GM Dan O’Dowd tries to work around a couple of injuries in the rotation, it was a nice way to break Friedrich in.

Second: Ervin Santana got run support for only the second time this season, as the Angels tripled the total number of runs they’ve scored on the season for him by putting six runs on the board. Santana had not seen a single run scored during his ballgames -- whether he was in the game or in the showers -- since April 8 against the Royals. He’s now gotten a whopping nine runs of support across seven individual starts, and all of those runs were scored against the two worst teams in the league, because his club was shut out by the Yankees, Rays, Blue Jays, Indians and Athletics in the other five.

Third: Since coming off the disabled list, Allen Craig has been back in action for exactly one week’s worth of games, but he’s already hit three times as many home runs as a certain famous former Cardinal has for the Angels, having added a third shot on the season against the D-backs on Wednesday night. He’s slugging .778 and batting cleanup between Matt Holliday and David Freese -- and not even that will guarantee him any kind of job security before the week is out, because with Lance Berkman due back from the DL on Friday, he’s doomed to get shunted back into last year’s “best bench bat in baseball” job he held for the world champs. Albert who?

Home plate: The tweet of the night goes to Sean Ahmed, a fellow University of Chicago grad with good taste in broadcasters:

vin scully: "i don't trust my memory." me: "I DO. PLEASE GO ON."

— Sean (@sean_ahmed) May 10, 2012

Christina Kahrl covers baseball for ESPN.com. You can follow her on Twitter.

First base: Donnie Buntball. The situation: The Giants lead the Dodgers 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth, no outs, runners at first and second, Mark Ellis up, Matt Kemp on deck. What do you do? Don Mattingly had Ellis bunt. The Giants of course put Kemp on and brought in lefty killer Javier Lopez to face Andre Ethier, who grounded into a double play to snuff the rally. As Dodger Thoughts author Jon Weisman headlined, "That's why you don't bunt with Matt Kemp on deck." There were three main problems with bunting here: (1) You already had the tying run in scoring position and with two runners on and nobody out, you were set up for a potential big inning; (2) Ellis isn't exactly Chone Figgins, as he has a .377 OBP this season; maybe he would have drawn a walk against a tiring Ryan Vogelsong or gotten a hit himself; (3) Most importantly, you knew the Giants would walk Kemp and bring in a lefty to face Ethier. While Ethier has been decent versus left-handers this season (.286/.352/.449), he's been terrible in the past (.220 with 40 strikeouts in 151 PAs in 2011) and Lopez held lefties to a .163 average in 2011. I'm guessing Mattingly won't be employing that bunt again anytime soon.

Second base: Rockies call up Friedrich. After dominating Class A ball in 2009, Rockies left-hander Christian Friedrich was one of the top pitching prospects in the game. Keith Law ranked him No. 36 on his top 100 list entering 2010. But after struggling for two years in Double-A and battling some arm problems, Friedrich spent a few days over the winter working out with Cliff Lee. Friedrich told MLB.com that Lee reinforced the importance of downhill plane. He also talked with Jamie Moyer during spring training. The results in Triple-A were positive: 30 innings, 23 hits, four walks and 27 strikeouts. He makes his debut today in San Diego, looking to end the Rockies' five-game skid.

Third base: Dempster's bad luck. Cubs starter Ryan Dempster is averaging seven innings per start in his five outings and has allowed six runs, has a 36/10 strikeout/walk ratio and 1.02 ERA. He's 0-1, drawing a no-decision on Tuesday after allowing one run in seven innings in the Cubs' 3-1 loss to the Braves. And then there's Clay Buchholz, the worst starter in baseball so far. He's allowed 34 runs in 32.2 innings, including 10 home runs, and has a 9.09 ERA. He 3-1.

Home plate: Tweet of the day.

Asked #Braves Chipper about #Rangers Josh Hamilton's swings on 4 HRs. He looked up from crossword puzzle and said: "He's a bad man."

— David O'Brien (@ajcbraves) May 9, 2012

First base: Here come the Marlins. The Marlins won their sixth straight game to improve to .500. All six wins came on the road, in San Francisco and San Diego, with four of the wins coming by one run and two in extra innings. The key battle in Sunday's 6-3 win over the Padres came in eighth inning with the game tied, the bases loaded, two outs and Giancarlo Stanton facing reliever Andrew Cashner. Stanton saw eight high-octane fastballs from Cashner -- seven at 101 mph, one at 102 mph. Stanton missed the first pitch, later fouled off two pitches and then drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch to give the Marlins the lead. With Cashner perhaps rattled by the bases-loaded walks, the Marlins proceeded to add three more runs on a John Buck passed ball, a Gaby Sanchez single and another passed ball.

"I saw 102 (mph) but you can throw 120 and without command you are going to get hurt," Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said. "It's all about command and making good pitches. It was a hell of an at-bat." Stanton is also getting locked in. After going homerless for 19 games, he's hit five in his past eight games. Ricky Nolasco also pitched well again, improving to 4-0 with a 2.72 ERA. He's allowed 12 runs in his start, relying on control (nine walks) and keeping the ball in the park (one home run). The Marlins finish their road trip with three games in Houston. Could this be a 9-0 trip?

Second base: Let's settle this on the playground. You have to love Jamie Moyer and Chipper Jones getting into a little squabble over stealing signs. Kids will be kids, I guess. Moyer accused Jones of relaying signs while on second base. But what's odd is Chipper's response: "Any time a grown man gets his integrity questioned, they're going to take it seriously and I'm no different. If he wants to discuss it, we'll discuss it, but he's wrong, plain and simple," he said. But haven't we been led to believe that stealing signs is, you know, part of the game? A sort of legal way to cheat, as opposed to, oh, let's say performance enhancing drugs. Yet Chipper acts like his his very manhood was thrown in the gutter. Could it be that stealing signs is considered an immoral way to victory?

Third base: Mixed messages. Two pitchers in need of positive returns also delivered on Sunday, as Cleveland's Ubaldo Jimenez threw seven shutout innings against the Rangers while Mat Latos struck out 11 in six scoreless frames. However, let's not get too excited just yet. While Jimenez allowed just two hits, he also walked five against six strikeouts, a sign that his control issues remain an issue (25 walks, just 20 strikeouts on the season). Latos' game came against the Pirates; still, that's two scoreless outings in his past three starts. While I'd still be concerned about Jimenez, maybe Latos is finally showing the talent that made him so effective with the Padres.

Home plate. Tweet of the day. Bryce Harper stole home. On a pickoff throw to first base by Cole Hamels. After reaching when Hamels hit him with a pitch. Which Hamels admitted after the game he did on purpose. As Joe Sheehan tweeted ...

Bryce Harper is going to end up as one of those barometers, where you divide humanity into the people who like him and the ones who don't.

— Joe Sheehan (@joe_sheehan) May 7, 2012

What a day in baseball on Wednesday! Eric Karabell and myself could have done a two-hour Baseball Today podcast. Here are some highlights of a jam-packed show. Eric even tricked me into comparing Jose Altuve to Al Kaline and Alex Rodriguez. OK, maybe I did that to myself.

1. We discuss Jered Weaver's no-hitter, of course, and wonder how many more no-hitters we'll see this season.

2. We discuss that wild, improbable game in Atlanta between the Phillies and Braves. Are there reasons to be concerned about Roy Halladay?

3. That's only the tip of the iceberg of a crazy night -- bad calls, Jason Giambi's walk-off homer, Jake Arrieta dominating the Yankees and more.

4. We answer some emails about Mat Gamel's injury and other stuff.

5. Finally, we look ahead to Thursday's action and I declare that Jose Altuve is a batting title contender.

Check it all out on Thursday's Baseball Today podcast, and don't miss Friday's show with Mark Simon and awesome guests Jayson Stark and Tampa Bay Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey.

First base: Mr Enigmatic. Is Max Scherzer a good pitcher? A mediocre pitcher? A potentially great pitcher? Last October, in Game 2 of the American League Division Series, we saw how good Scherzer can be when he pitched six scoreless innings, using an explosive, moving fastball to throttle the Yankees. And there he was two starts later in the American League Championship Series against the Rangers, getting knocked out in the third inning. One reason so many people predicted the Tigers to run away with the AL Central is they penciled in improvement for Scherzer and Rick Porcello. I wasn't quite so sure; both have maddeningly inconsistent in their young careers and it's been mostly bad Scherzer in 2012. The punchless Mariners roughed him up Tuesday for 10 hits and five runs in five innings, bumping his ERA to 8.24. Frankly, I can't figure him out. He has a nice 23/6 strikeout-to-walk but has allowed 30 hits in 19.2 innings. Unlucky on balls in play? Sure, probably. Mix in a little Miggy Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Jhonny Peralta as well. But it was similar last season, when he posted a 4.43 ERA: Good ratios, but too many hits and too many home runs (29). Coming on the heels of Porcello's one-inning stinker, the Detroit rotation after Justin Verlander remains a work in progress.

Second base: Narveson out for season. Tough day for pitchers, as Michael Pineda will get another opinion on his shoulder and Mike Pelfrey went on the disabled list with elbow inflammation and possibly worse. Brewers starter Chris Narveson, however, is done for the season after it was announced he'll undergo rotator cuff surgery. Narveson was a solid fifth last season, but Marco Estrada is a nice replacement -- maybe even a step up. A fastball/curve/changeup guy, the Nationals originally drafted Estrada but never quite believed in him since his fastball is 90-91, and the Brewers picked him up on waivers in 2010. He pitched well last season, including a 3.70 ERA in seven spot starts, and threw well last week with five innings of one-run ball, with nine strikeouts and no walks against the Rockies. He isn't flashy, but he throws strikes and should be solid. We talk a lot about the need for rotation depth. Estrada will end up being a key to the Brewers' season.

Third base: CarGo-es deep. The Rockies lost 5-4 to the Pirates as the bullpen blew a lead in the eighth inning but the good news was Carlos Gonzalez finally hit his first two home runs, improving his triple-slash line to .278/.328/.500 (he raised his average 38 points and his slugging percentage 140 points in one night). Nice, but the Rockies will need more ... like 2010 more, when Gonzalez led the National League with a .336 average, slugged .598 and finished third in the MVP vote. That season was built on a .384 average on balls in play, third-best in the majors. His BABIP returned to more normal levels last season and his numbers fell. Gonzalez did start out slow last April (.228, one homer) before heating up in May and June, only to come down with a wrist injury in July that he aggravated again in September. Hopefully this is a sign the wrist is completely healthy and he'll start heating up.

Tweet of the night. A's rookie lefty Tom Milone improved to 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA with eight shutout innings against the White Sox.

His tweeting is boring as all get out but @tommymilone_57 is one hell of a pitcher. Outstanding.

— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) April 25, 2012

Of course, it's much more fun to overanalyze everything that goes on in the first few weeks of a baseball season. Albert Pujols has lost it! CC Sabathia's velocity is down! Matt Kemp is going to have the greatest season of all time! The Red Sox are terrible!

OK, maybe the Red Sox are terrible.

In this vein, Bill Baer of Crashburn Alley has a piece on not overreacting to early season sample sizes. He uses John Mayberry Jr. of the Phillies as an illustration, but his point holds true for nearly all players off to a cold start (or, in reverse, a hot starts: It's a small number of plate appearances to get worked up over. Here is an excellent graphic that shows the 10 qualified players with the lowest OPS through April last season; as you can see, all performed much better the rest of the season.

So, it's early. No need to panic or overreact.

Right, Red Sox fans?

Other stuff to check out:

• Philip Humber's perfect game is a reminder that the Mets still haven't thrown a no-hitter in their history. Since Humber is an ex-Met, DJ Gallo guesses which former Met will be next in line to toss a no-no.
• The Yankees scored seven runs in consecutive innings to rally from a 9-0 deficit on Saturday. Diane Firstman discovered that's been done before. She even found a fairly recent instance of a team scoring eight runs in consecutive innings.
• Speaking of that collapse, Chip Buck examines what went wrong. He also looks at the state of the bullpen and who the Red Sox could bring in or call up to help.
• It's Derek Jeter's New York City penthouse. Complete with books and telescope!
• The Kansas City Royals ... well, the title of this post says it all: "Surely something has gone right."
• The title of Joey Matschulat's post about the Rangers also says it all: "The (still) hottest team in the world."
• The Dodgers have Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier but could use more help on offense, especially in left field where Juan Rivera has gotten off to a slow start. Jon Weisman looks at prospects Alex Castellanos and Scott Van Slyke. Is either a possible fix for left field?
• Is it time to start drinking the Rockies Kool-Aid?
• Drew Hutchison debuted over the weekend for the Blue Jays and Callum Hughson files a report, saying Hutchison reminds him of former Twins starter Kevin Tapani.
• Is Kyle Lohse the real deal? He's allowed three runs through his first four starts.

Keith Law was joined by Rumor Central editor Chris Sprow for Wednesday's Baseball Today podcast . As always, there was plenty of baseball to discuss.

1. Keith and Chris share their thoughts on Jacoby Ellsbury's injury and what it means for the Red Sox.

2. Another center fielder injured his shoulder Tuesday night.

3. You may have heard that Jamie Moyer won. That's 49-year-old Jamie Moyer. No, he didn't quite crack Keith's top 100 prospects list.

4. Hard-throwing Dylan Bundy is on that list, however, and Keith wonders if the Orioles are handling him the right way.

5. Keith and Chris talk about all the long-term contract extensions and what this means for the future of free agency.

All that and more on Wednesday's Baseball Today.

First base: Double trouble for D-backs. Justin Upton sat out Tuesday's game against the Pirates due to the thumb injury he suffered April 8. Manager Kirk Gibson said his star right fielder -- batting .212 without an RBI -- saw a hand specialist and would likely undergo an MRI. "The thumb's been bothering him," Gibson told the Arizona Republic. "He's pushed hard through it. We've taken a day to re-evaluate what's going on with his thumb." To make matters worse for Arizona, Chris Young crashed into the wall in left-center making a leaping grab and left the game with a shoulder bruise. He too will undergo an MRI. The D-backs received a lot of criticism for signing Jason Kubel in the offseason, but this is where having four outfielders is an asset, not a problem. If Young can't go, Gerardo Parra can handle center.

Second base: Gold Glovers struggling on defense. Two-time Gold Glove winner Troy Tulowitzki committed just six errors last season but he made his sixth already in 2012, letting an easy double-play go through his legs, an error that led to two unearned runs and nearly cost Jamie Moyer his "oldest pitcher to win a game" achievement. Meanwhile, two-time Gold Glover Evan Longoria booted two grounders and made a throwing error for a three-error night in Tampa's 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays (three of Jeff Niemann's five runs were unearned). While Longoria just had one of those nights, Tulo's situation appears more serious, a possible "fielding slump" that is worth keeping an eye on.

Third base: No A's for Angels. Mike Scioscia removed Dan Haren after just 85 pitches, with the Angels leading 2-1 with two runners on and two out in the seventh. Lefty Daric Barton was up for the A's so Scioscia brought in Scott Downs, who did retire Barton to escape the jam. Even though Downs' is the team's best setup guy -- a guy who has proven he can retire right-handed hitters as well as lefties -- Scioscia took him out after four pitches and brought in Kevin Jepsen, a guy considerably lower in the bullen pecking order. Two walks and two hits later it was 3-2 Oakland, and then Yoenis Cespedes made it 5-2 with a two-run single off David Carpenter. Why Jepsen? Or why remove Haren so soon if your bullpen has been taxed in recent days? LaTroy Hawkins had thrown 31 pitches on Monday so was probably unavailable. Downs had thrown 14 pitches, hardly reason to limit him to four pitches. Jason Isringhausen had thrown 21 pitches on Sunday -- but Carpenter had thrown 37. The obvious question: Why not use closer Jordan Walden ... you know, for more than three batters. He's thrown two innings all season -- one inning in a 7-1 win and one inning in a 7-3 loss. In other words, he hasn't thrown a meaningful inning all season. In the last week, the Angels' bullpen has lost two leads in the eighth inning and one in the seventh. But whatever you do, SAVE YOUR CLOSER FOR THE NINTH INNING.

Home plate: Tweet of the day.

Rockies pitcher tweeting members of the Los Angeles Clippers after Jamie Moyer's win:

Shout out 2 boys from @laclippers.U witnessed history 2nite! @blakegriffin @bobbysimmons21 @mowilliams @RandyFoye Will u b able 2 dunk @ 49?

— Jeremy Guthrie (@JGuthrie46) April 18, 2012

I can imagine a secret society of Jack Quinn fans, holed up in an Elks Lodge somewhere ready to pop bottles of champagne with each Jamie Moyer loss or no-decision. You know, sort of like members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins when an undefeated NFL team finally loses late in the season.

Quinn, of course, was the oldest pitcher to win a major league game, 49 years old and change when he pitched five scoreless innings of relief for the Brooklyn Dodgers on Sept. 13, 1932, to pick up the victory in a 6-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Those imaginary bottles can be permanently put to rest now. Moyer pitched seven brilliant innings on Tuesday night at Coors Field -- well, as brilliant as a Moyer outing can be -- allowing only two unearned runs as the Colorado Rockies won 5-3. It was career win No. 268 for Moyer, tying him with Jim Palmer and more victories than Bob Feller or Carl Hubbell or Bob Gibson or Juan Marichal. And at 49 years and 150 days, he surpassed Quinn in the record books.

Things got dicey when Troy Tulowitzki booted a routine double-play ball in the seventh inning, leading to the two unearned runs and making the score 3-2. After the Rockies scored two more runs, things got dicey again in the ninth when Rafael Betancourt allowed a run and had the go-ahead run at the plate. But he fanned Yonder Alonso on a 3-2 changeup. The cameras panned to Karen Moyer, Jamie's wife, hugging two of the couple's eight kids and raising her first in excitement.

Jamie? Nowhere to be found. Hopefully he was hiding out in the clubhouse having a little sip of champagne.

* * * *

Moyer's first win came in his first major league start on June 16, 1986. Pitching for the Cubs, he allowed five runs but defeated Steve Carlton, who was making his next-to-last appearance in a Phillies uniform. Fred Mitchell's lede the next day in the Chicago Tribune: "The most comforting thought for Cub fans after rookie Jamie Moyer's first major-league win Monday is that the best is yet to come."

Moyer was a 23-year-old who had moved quickly through the Cubs' farm system after being drafted in 1984. "Maybe when I sit down and really just think about it, think back to what happened today, beating Steve Carlton will just add to this day," he said.

Even back then, Moyer wasn't exactly a flamethrower. "This kid knows how to change speeds, and today he was just behind hitters and he was in trouble. But he was lucky enough to get through it," Cubs pitching coach Billy Connors said. "He usually has great command of his pitches and can get everything over. He was behind every hitter today, and that's not Jamie Moyer."

Sound familiar? And then Connors delivered the money quote, one reason why 26 years later, Moyer is still hanging around. "But he can compete in the major leagues because he is the kind of kid who doesn't panic. He's a tough kid, and he kept his composure."

But the best didn't come right away. The Cubs eventually traded him to the Rangers, who would release him after the 1990 season. He signed with the Cardinals. On May 21, 1991, he got knocked out in the third inning as Barry Bonds hit two home runs off him, the second one a long three-run blast to right field that Bonds "watched longingly," according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Rick Hummel. It was the last batter Moyer faced in the game -- and in the majors that season. He was 0-5 with a 5.71 ERA. "'He gets so pumped up, he loses control of himself," Cardinals manager Joe Torre said after the game.

What happened to the composed rookie, the kid who knew how to pitch? Torre complained about a high changeup to Jose Lind. A couple days later the Cardinals sent him down to Triple-A. At that point, Moyer was 34-54 in his career with a 4.56 ERA. He was 28 years old, didn't throw hard and was pitching for Louisville. Career crisis? Moyer barely had one. The Cardinals didn't bother calling him up in September. The Cubs cut him in spring training in 1992. He was asked to become a pitching coach. He declined and signed with the Tigers in May, but spent the entire season in the minors even though Detroit had the second-worst pitching staff in the American League. The Tigers let him go after the season. He was now 30 years old and threw 85 mph. Career crisis? His career was over.

Oh yes, a story of perseverance. A story of a guy who obviously loves the game. But somebody had to give him one last chance. The Orioles gave it to him after he went 6-0 with a 1.67 ERA at Rochester. Maybe it was general manager Roland Hemond who liked Moyer. Maybe it was an assistant to Hemond named Gordon Goldsberry, who had been the Cubs' scouting director when the club drafted Moyer. Maybe it was assistant GM Doug Melvin who made the recommendation. Moyer replaced a young left-hander named Arthur Rhodes on the roster. He lost his first start but pitched well, although Orioles manager Johnny Oates hardly seemed impressed. "He threw the ball OK," he told the Washington Post. "That's what you're going to get from Jamie."

Four starts later he won his first major league game since 1990. "This has been a tough road for me the last couple years -- battling back, people saying I'm too old, everything negative. I've tried hard to remain positive. ... Now I know I can pitch at this level," Moyer said.

That was 19 years ago. He's been winning ever since. Since turning 30 he's won 234 games, with a winning percentage better than .600. He doesn't throw 85 mph anymore.

As I watched the game, I realized I've probably seen Moyer pitch in person or on TV more than any other pitcher, considering the 11 seasons he spent with the Mariners.

I've never ceased to be amazed at his ability to confound and confuse big league hitters. What can you say about one of the most unique players in history, other than: I hope to see him for at least another decade or so.

PHOTO OF THE DAY
Follow David Schoenfield on Twitter @dschoenfield.

On Tuesday’s Baseball Today podcast I’m joined by Keith Law, and starting pitching is clearly on our minds from Monday night.

1. Tim Lincecum is not off to a very good start, but is there truly cause for concern? And what does Lincecum’s future have to do with Madison Bumgarner’s new contract?

2. Justin Verlander tossed a whole lotta pitches to win Monday’s game, but at least he earned his first win! Keith talks pitch counts and what they mean.

3. An emailer asks about pitch counts for younger fellows like Stephen Strasburg, and whether they are necessary. Also, why were the stands so empty for Strasburg’s Monday outing?

4. Speaking of the fans, which teams have the best ones? Our answer might surprise you.

5. We take a closer look at Tuesday’s schedule, including the real reason why people should be watching the Miami Marlins, plus the old guy in Coors Field and why is Tyson Ross a starter?

So download and listen to Tuesday’s Baseball Today podcast. There was bias, but no bias cat. Meow.