The legendary Cy Young threw a perfect game against the Philadelphia Athletics on this date in 1904. The perfecto was one of three no-hitters thrown by Young in his career, and it accounted for nine of Young's record 24 consecutive hitless innings.
Some notes from around the majors…
- Red Sox reliever Dan Wheeler has appeared in more games than all but two other pitchers since the start of the 2005 season, and The Providence Journal's Brian MacPherson believes Wheeler's workload is the reason for his poor start this year. MacPherson also points out how the other heavily-worked pitchers on the list (like Chad Qualls, Francisco Cordero and Aaron Heilman) have "hit the same wall."
- Ryan Doumit is unlikely to get much more playing time with the Pirates despite the club's desire to trade him, writes Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. GM Neal Huntington said the Doumit trade market had "kind of died" back in February, though the Bucs have no plans to release him.
- "While fully realizing that it'll never, ever, ever happen," Alex Remington of Fangraphs looks at how Major League Baseball could implement a franchise relegation system akin to that of European soccer.
- Matt Eddy of Baseball America recaps the week's minor league transactions.
- The 42 players who made their Major League debuts in March and April combined to hit .172/.248/.212 though April 30, reports Sean Forman of the New York Times. "The worst-hitting bunch ever" has just one home run, courtesy of the Giants' Brandon Belt.
