Melvin, not BJ

I'm not entirely sold on it, I'm sorry.

You spend ten years in the bigs doing a perfectly good job of having everybody call you 'BJ', and then RIGHT THEN, TWILIGHT OF YOUR CAREER, you go and say 'you know what, screw that noise, I want everybody to call me Melvin'.

I mean...yeah, I understand it's got to do with being true to yourself and all that, but...this late in the game? It made sense when Giancarlo Stanton did it, because he was JUUUUUST getting good when he said 'you know what, Giancarlo's my name'. It made sense for Albert Belle, because...yeah, that Joey thing wasn't working for him.

This is more like a Guillermo Hernandez kind of move. Yeah, right at the end of your career, right when the Tigers are waving you goodbye, sticking you in the back of the truck, 'YOU KNOW WHAT? MY NAME'S NOT WILLIE! CALL ME GUILLERMO!"

What the hell do you say to that? "Uhh...fine, then. GOODBYE *GUILLERMO*! Have a nice retirement, *GUILLERMO*!"

Good news is that this season, MELVIN has been doing a pretty nice job of getting back to his Tampa numbers, after a good 3 seasons of inadequacy. I think it has something to do with not being on a team with his younger brother. Because when you're playing with your brother...and he's a little better than you...it's hard to even be good at all, not even by comparison. So he's got to be glad Justin's in Detroit, because now he can go back to dominating.

Now, true, it is kind of a lost cause because the Padres are doing pretty poorly right now, but if he and Matt Kemp can do some offensive damage in a place where nobody else really bothers, that's some great stuff. Heck, maybe he'll be traded someplace with more momentum...though, hopefully not Detroit, for Justin's sake.

Coming Tonight- A guy who's finally getting back to owning his position in Baltimore after a couple seasons of injuries.