MLB Bullets Can't Dodge This One

I had engaged in a bunch of Red Sox schadenfreude here when I first wrote this, but then the Tigers bullpen showed up.

I had a better weekend than Don Mattingly did, and I had a car break down. Dem Bums are back.

• The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead over the Dodgers when rookie Michael Wacha outdueled certain Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw. On paper, the pitching matchups were mismatches in both games as the Cardinals started former Cy Young Award winners against two rookie pitchers. Jayson Stark sums up how Wacha and the Cards won game two.
• David Schoenfield thinks that the Cardinals were helped in game one by Don Mattingly's bad managerial decisions.
• D.J. Short agrees Mattingly had a bad game in game one's 3-2, 13 inning Dodger loss.
• Howard Megdal piles on Donny Baseball and says the key to the series is Mattingly's ability to learn from his mistakes.
• Some of the bad decisions were made before the series started. Grant Brisbee, in a way that only Grant Brisbee can do, wonders how in the world did Carlos Marmol and Edinson Volquez end up on the Dodgers' NLCS roster. Especially Mamol. You'll all like that.
• A turning point in game one was a play at the plate when A.J. Ellis was tagged out by Yadier Molina on a play at the plate. Or was he? Replays seem to show that he may never have tagged Ellis with the glove. But Ellis sticks up for his fellow catcher and says whether or not Molina applied the tag, he should have been called out. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• The throw in that play was made by Carlos Beltran. All three RBI, including the walk-off hit, in game one were hit by Carlos Beltran. Carlos Beltran is the greatest postseason player in baseball history, surpassing even the great Babe Ruth. Except that he has yet to play in a World Series. That's not his fault.
• Matthew Pouliot thinks the Dodgers are doomed.
• Scott Miller won't go that far, but he does think the Dodgers are in deep doo-doo. That's a paraphrase on my part. He didn't actually write "doo-doo." I'm trying to punch up his copy.
• Jeff Passan thinks the Cardinals went from being the villain in the series against the Pirates to the hero against the Dodgers. He compares how the Cardinals built their team (through the farm system) to the Dodgers way (by writing a check). He also engages in some cliched stereotyping of the Midwest and Los Angeles.
• Dodgers hitting coach Mark McGwire is proud of how well the Cardinals hitters have done since he left St. Louis. Wait. That came out wrong. He's also proud of his Dodgers hitters.
• If Chris Carpenter is unable to pitch again, Cardinals GM John Mozeliak would welcome him in the front office.
• Adam Wainwright's complete game victory over the Pirates in game five was impressive, but not as uncommon as you might have thought. Still pretty uncommon, but pitchers do tend to throw more complete games in the playoff elimination games.
• Howard Megdal profiles Red Schoendienst, who's been in baseball since 1942. Schoendienst still works as a coach for the Cardinals.
• After his victory in game one of the ALCS, maybe Anibal Sanchez will get the respect he deserves. I'd have more respect for him if he'd have signed with the Cubs like he was supposed to.
• Jerry Crasnick gives Sanchez that respect and argues he's more than just the guy after Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer in the Tigers rotation.
• A judge threw out the city of San Jose's antitrust lawsuit against major league baseball but allowed a contract interference suit under state law to proceed.
• Whenever there is a story like this and I need someone to explain it to me, I always turn to a sports writer who used to be a lawyer. Luckily, we have Wendy Thurm, who says that while this was a defeat for the city of San Jose, allowing the state lawsuit to go forward gives the city some hope.
• On the other hand, Craig Calcaterra used to be a lawyer as well, and he says the state lawsuit is highly-unlikely to force MLB to do anything. He thinks that, at most, MLB could be ordered to pay San Jose $75,000, which is pocket change for MLB. He also thinks that MLB would have little to fear from the discovery phase as it relates to the state lawsuit.
• In more bad news for the Athletics, Sonny Gray broke his thumb in the decisive game five loss to the Red Sox. Of course, it's not such bad news because Oakland's season is over and he'll be fine by spring training. It's also on his left, non-throwing hand.
• Forty year-old Bartolo Colon thinks he could pitch another three years.
• The A's will pick up Coco Crisp's $7.5 million option for 2014. That one's kind of a no-brainer.
• Grant Brisbee asks if there is something wrong with the A's and the Braves that might explain their repeated failures in the postseason. His answer? Nope. They're just unlucky and that's unpredictability is one of the great things about baseball. Of course Brisbee would enjoy that though. He's a Giants fan.
• Jayson Werth may want Cal Ripken to be the next Nationals manager, but Ryan Zimmerman wants Nats bench coach Randy Knorr to take over the reins. Craig Calcaterra agrees and doesn't understand why anyone would think Ripken would make a good manager.
• Ripken, for his part, is interested in managing, but he won't approach the Nationals first, possibly out of respect for the Orioles. Buck Showalter is signed there long-term, so he won't be managing the O's any time soon.
• Manny Machado had hoped to avoid off-season surgery, but he decided to go under the knife after he was told there would be a greater risk of re-injuring the knee without surgery.
• This off-season's qualifying offer for free agents in order to receive compensation is up to $14.1 million.
• The Yankees will go after Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles hurler Masahiro Tanaka if he is posted this offseason as expected. I'm going to go on the record right now and say that the scout who said Tanaka is better than Yu Darvish is crazy. So next season someone can either call me smart or an idiot.
• Brian Cashman says, contrary to popular belief, the Yankees need Alex Rodriguez next season. Now what he actually believes, only he knows. He also said he was legitimately concerned that Joe Girardi would leave the Yankees for the Cubs.
• Bill Baer does Cashman's job for him and draws up a complete offseason plan for the Yankees to put a winning team on the field in 2014.
• Steve Wulf laments the terrible stadium situation in Tampa Bay and says the team needs to draw more fans or move. They couldn't even sell out the ALDS games against Boston.
• Marc Topkin thinks that the Rays have a big decision to make about trading David Price this offseason. His theory is that they have a better chance of winning the World Series with Price than without him and that might just be what is needed to get a stadium built. I don't see how, but that's his logic.
• Troy Renck thinks the Rockies need to develop more impact players, and soon.
• Richard Durrett thinks the Rangers made a smart move re-signing Jason Frasor.
• MLB has reached an agreement with the Player's Association to allow players more opportunities to play winter ball.
• Awesome film of Casey Stengel hitting an inside-the-park home run in the 1923 World Series. I think it's fair to say the film is a bit sped up though.
• Finally, if you haven't been reading Ben Lindbergh's pieces in Grantland about scout school, you need to do so now. Lindbergh is attending MLB's scouting school and explains what scouts look for and how they go about it. You should be reading it for three reasons. One, it's informative and entertaining. Two, there's a hilarious Benji Gil story and three, he scouts Gioskar Amaya and Albert Almora. You at least want to read a scouting report on those two. Part One. Part Two. Part Three.