During Jeremy Hellickson's last start, you may have noticed that Brian Anderson seemed particularly upset about Helly's excessive use of his new cutter. I'm pretty sure BA's discussion of Hellickson's cutter would qualify as a "rant", and he stressed over and over again that when a pitcher gets a new pitch, they sometimes get Shiny New Toy Syndrome and use it waaay too often. He even brought up Hellickson's ERA last season, talking about how "batters will tell you" when you need to make a dramatic change to your repertoire.

This doesn't come as a huge surprise -- the advice was sound, if the delivery was a bit over the top and goofy -- but Maddon has seconded everything BA said:

"The problem is when a young pitcher who's had a lot of success tries to introduce a new pitch into the mix, then he's possibly taking away from something else that he does really well," Maddon said.

"You only get so many opportunities to throw a pitch in a game. I don't mind the idea that he's messing with something that might be good for him down the road. But most of the time the hitters are going to tell you when you need to become more creative."

Game, set, match. Also, later on in that article, Topkin quotes BrooksBaseball.net; that about blew me out of the water. What's next, quoting FIP from FanGraphs?

• In AL East news, the Orioles are again in the midst of a troubling controversy. Apparently Dontrelle Willis thinks he should be allowed to sign with another team (and he's claiming that the O's gave him permission), but the O's are claiming they did so such thing and he's still under their control. Somehow, this isn't surprising.
• Where have Brandon Morrow's strikeouts gone? He's looking like a wholely different pitcher so far this year.
• Baseball Prospectus has an article on the best batting stances of all-time. You have any favorites that aren't on the list already?
• This is a fact that always amazes me: as a whole, free agents that switch teams perform worse than free agents that re-sign with their club. Or in other words, it looks like evidence that teams carry better information on the players in their organization (no surprises there) and that the information helps them make more informed decisions.