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Terrerobytes: Jose Quintana's present and future better than his past

Plus: Minnie Minoso takes one of the greatest pictures ever, moronic fans do moronic things, and GIFs galore

By Jim Margalus
Jonathan Daniel

In a strange twist, Alex Rodriguez returned to the Yankees' lineup on the same day as a pitching matchup between Andy Pettitte and Jose Quintana.

Both pitchers had their own histories with performance-enhancing drugs. Pettitte was named in the Mitchell Report, and apologized for using HGH in 2002 and 2004. Quintana's history is lesser known -- a failed test cost him his job with the New York Mets in 2007. Considering he was an obscure figure in the Yankees' system, it makes sense that many wouldn't be aware what he did in the organization before that.

But the heightened focus on PED use brought Quintana's past into the spotlight, and Quintana talked to Dan Hayes about it:

The Colombia native had been given medicine for a back problem from someone he described as an unaffiliated sports medicine doctor and had no idea he had taken anything illegal.

The Mets didn’t take any chances, however, and released Quintana after he served his suspension.

"At first when they told me that I thought they were joking with me," Quintana said. "I said ‘I’m not taking anything.’ But obviously I tested positive. I thought it was a joke and I did appeal but I never (heard)."

Hayes also pointed out that Quintana has already surpassed his 2012 innings total, and all his peripherals have improved across the board.

Terrerobytes

There's an incredible photo on this story. From the Baseball Think Factory discussion: "It looks like it's from some sci-fi flick where a meteor is about to hit the earth and Minnie Minoso has somehow become president." You guys know I don't see many movies, but I'd make an exception for that one.

James weighs Mark Gonzales' contention that the White Sox should've rebuilt after 2007 and doesn't quite see how it would've worked, especially since the Dave Wilder scandal was just about to begin. The bigger mistake was the weird drawdown after winning the division in 2008, starting with the Nick Swisher trade, that put them back to in-between.

Speaking of Gonzales,since he moved to the Cubs beat and Colleen Kane took his place, Paul Sullivan's going to be back in White Sox's fans lives for what is essentially a Chicago baseball enterprise role. This interview details some of the changes in the Chicago Tribune's baseball coverage.

Gonzales signed off from Sox coverage in his mailbag, and judging from the last answer, it sure looks like he didn't care for at least one of his colleagues on the beat.

Howard Bryant talks about how and why the PED issue has started to become an internal problem for the MLBPA after years of framing the debate as attacks from the outside. It's worth reading in its entirety, but a couple of the many reasons given: The labor wars from the 1980s and 1990s have faded with no fresh reasons of distrusting MLB (at least to that degree), and Melky Cabrera's new contract didn't sit well with some.

Magglio Ordonez is entering politics in Venezuela, and in the late Hugo Chavez's socialist party. Here's one case where it'd be fun if Ozzie Guillen were managing.

Friend of the blog Night Train Veeck helped avert a RT-for-field-storming debacle at U.S. Cellular Field on Monday night. The Royals could've used a similar effort.

Many of you have already been clicking through this, but in case you haven't, Jon Bois has categorized the most famous GIFs from his weekly contests and tournaments. This one is underrated:

"Billy Dillon was about to sign a contract with the Detroit Tigers -- then he was wrongly convicted of first-degree murder and spent the next 27 years of his life in maximum security prison." Thank goodness DNA has usurped allegedly super-smart dogs on the evidence spectrum.

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