Another off-day means a big list of links

Is it time for baseball yet? No? We have another off-day? Great. Time for some links. Tyler Yates had Tommy John surgery yesterday. That brings his Pirate career to a close (he's a free agent), dropping the curtain on maybe the worst trade of Neal Huntington's short career as GM. He swears he'll be back, but this is the second TJ on his pitching elbow and people very rarely ever make it back from that. I feel bad for Yates, as this is extraordinarily bad news for him, but I'd much rather see Evan Meek and Jesse Chavez in the bullpen right now. DC-area reader Jeff sent me this story about Manny Acta's firing yesterday in which much of the blame seems to be laid on Lasting Milledge's shoulders. When you follow a 100 loss season with a first half that puts your team on pace for 110 losses, you're going to be fired. If Acta was a strict disciplinarian who suspended Milledge and players who stepped over the line, he'd be getting fired for that instead. He ...