MLB (!) Suspension Blotter: We beginning to see a couple of 2019 season storylines develop?

First, another notch in the Rob Manfred "I Hate Pitching!!" Department:

• Oakland A's:  Have lost their ace for the rest of the season.  Frankie Montas does not understand that GNC is not the place you want to be getting nutritional supplements.

Banned 80 games -- basically the rest of the season, for something he got over the counter.

Two things to say to this:  First, if you are a professional athlete under a drug testing policy, DO NOT EVEN THINK OF ENTERING GNC or basically any similar national chain.  It should come as no surprise to anyone that GNC and other store chains sell products illegal under sports policies over the counter.

I need to get the numbers on this second part, though:  It's gotta be a record year for scoring in MLB this year.  Every day, I'm seeing 10-3, 12-5, 15-14, all this madness where the scoring is just through the damn roof.

Why?  Rob Manfred has made it clear.  He hates pitching.  He wants games like Game 5 of the 2017 World Series, where runs left Minute Maid Park at a sickening rate.

But what he might also get is another round with the Major League Baseball Umpires Association, who already publicly commented on the first of these two suspensions, and I would bet money has a word about the second, at least privately...

• San Diego Padres:  Manny Machado suspended one game for apparently bumping an umpire, and the MLBUA went public that it wanted far more.
• Texas Rangers:  Asdrubal Cabrera banned four games for throwing his batting gloves at an umpire and hitting him.

Look, MLB...  We know you're stoking for another major player-umpire showdown.

Obviously, this would take dealing with the CBA and the like, but there's a way you ensure the lines which are not crossed.

• Get tossed, that's one game.
• Get tossed multiple times in a season, each one adds a game to the first.
• Any action which basically is a screaming altercation gets reviewed as if it were a bump now.
• And if you hit an umpire with a thrown object, start the bidding at about a month!

I'm the first to understand umps who escalate and the like (and that needed to end yesterday anyway), but I do begin to wonder, especially with these massive scorelines, if we are seeing players begin to act as if they, as offensive players, have the right to do whatever they want because it is basically their game...

And the balls aren't juiced.  Nah...  /s