MLB Daily: Will Smith Gets Caught with Foreign Substance, Curses Out Atlanta Braves; Madison Bumgarner Trumps Clayton Kershaw

Welcome to MLB Daily on a Friday, a post enjoyed by baseball fans and, oddly enough, people with no interest in the sport either. Who knew?

Ace Off: Timing is everything, right? Yesterday Lisk and I ran the first half of our “Ace” pitcher draft. On cue as it went live for Internet consumption, Clayton Kershaw faced Madison Bumgarner in San Francisco. Bumgarner took Kershaw deep and the Giants swept the series, winning the three games on an aggregate 10-0 score line. San Francisco rides a six-game winning streak into a weekend series vs the Rockies at Coors.

The reigning World Series MVP crushed the pitch and became the first hurler to homer off Kershaw. Bumgarner is one of the rare pitchers who’s good with the bat. Last year he hit four homers and finished the year with an OPS of .755.

Kershaw would like the pitch back:

"“Fastball right down the middle,’’ Kershaw said after yielding the first homer ever to his opposite number. “I should have had a little more respect for him, I guess.’’"

It’s now Memorial Day weekend and Kershaw’s ERA is 4.54. Do you start worrying about him? Do you throw out six straight seasons with an ERA under 3.00? Kershaw’s walks per nine are up almost one from last year, but still in line with his career averages. The only conclusion I’ll draw is this rough patch to start 2015 only emphasizes how great Kershaw has been throughout his career. At this point I’ll safely guess Dodgers’ fans would trade a few clunkers — even against the Giants — for better pitching by the lefty come October. (Los Angeles fans will cross their fingers, too, they can avoid another October series with St. Louis.)

And, since no one else will do it for us, I will pat myself (and Lisk) on the back via Bumgarner going sixth. He’s not the first guy you’d take in a fantasy baseball draft but he is an ace and in a must-win game you’d might take him first overall. I know we’re supposed to pretend that there is no such thing as being clutch or valuing mental toughness or whatever, but Bumgarner’s 2014 postseason proved those intangible concepts still have value, although his performance is atypical for modern baseball.

One other example, David Price struck out 12 yesterday vs. Houston, but didn’t get a win because Joakim Soria blew his first save of the season. Shortly afterward he tweeted this out:

Ultimately the “Ace” draft is about taking guys who will help you win games, plain and simple. Often I wonder how we would perceive baseball without the stock market-like fantasy sports-driven obsession over numbers and quantification. A story for another day, perhaps.

Sticky Situation: Will Smith, a relief pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, got caught with some sort of illegal substance (sunscreen?) on his forearm last night. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez noticed it and Smith got tossed … and then cursed out everyone in shouting distance. Smith hails from nearby Newnan, Ga., so whatever family and friends were at the game at Turner Field must have experienced an awkward moment as he angrily walked toward the dugout.

Once again this boils down, like the Michael Pineda incident last year to a) getting a grip on the ball and b) flaunting an unwritten rule. Last year Pineda wound up with a 10-game suspension. Last night Smith faced one batter and hit him.

Here’s your postgame quotes, via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. First Smith:

"“It was chilly and kind of windy,” Smith said. “I had sunscreen and rosin on my arm (while warming up in the bullpen). I just forgot to wipe it off before I went out and pitched. I had to kind of get ready in a hurry and just forgot.”"

And Gonzalez:

"“It’s pretty blatant, really,” Gonzalez said. “It’s glistening through the lights. You could see it in the dugout. I never went out there until he went to (the substance). The whole time he pitched to (Pedro) Ciriaco he never went to his wrist, but the first or second pitch to Peterson he went to it. “That’s when I went out to the home plate umpire to check. I’m sure they got a better look than I did, but it didn’t take them very long to eject him. When you try to be that blatant, sometimes you’ve just got to do what you have to do.”"

Admittedly, it’s a nice, wonderful Friday and a three-day weekend is about to start. Debating these sort of baseball topics of unwritten rules and gamesmanship rarely get us anywhere. If the explanation that “everyone” uses something occasionally to get a better grip on the ball, perhaps baseball’s competition committee should explore amending its rules. Logically it doesn’t make sense that, say, Gonzalez would let Smith’s transgression slide if he hadn’t been so blatant. Of course then you go down the slippery slope of using something for a grip vs. doctoring/loading the ball.

As always, why does baseball have to be so complicated? Fortunately you can’t deflate a Major League Baseball. You can “juice” them … wait, I’m going to go back to my original premise and enjoy the Friday. You should consider it, too.

Highlight reel: James McCann hit a walk-off in the 11th for the Tigers vs. the Astros. The rookie’s only previous home run was an inside the park job against the Twins.

Randall Grichuk laid out for this grab.

The 23-year-old outfielder has an OPS over .900 in limited action as the Cardinals production line of homegrown talent continues to roll.

This & That: Jacob deGrom shut down St. Louis yesterday. He’s now 5-1 at Citi Field with a 1.51 ERA, compared to 6.75 on the road. … Alex Colome and four relievers combined to shut out Oakland, as Tampa moved into first place in the AL East ahead of the idle Yankees. … Cleveland won its third straight but remains in last place. … Kris Bryant hit his fifth home run in the Cubs 3-0 win over the Padres. Jeff Garlin spent some time in the booth raving about the rookie third baseman.

Weekend Watch: The Cardinals and Royals meet at Kauffman this weekend. The interleague rivals have a combined 53 wins between them and the best two records in baseball. On the other end of the spectrum, the Orioles are going to Miami for an interleague series rich in history and tradtion. Guess it could turn historic if Dan Jennings gets his first win as Marlins manager.

[Enjoy your YARD this weekend]