MLB Bullets Says It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

That's really super, Supergirl.

• There's a winner in the Jose Abreu sweepstakes and it's the Chicago White Sox, who have agreed to a six-year, $68 million contract with the Cuban defector. So the White Sox now have a replacement for Paul Konerko. That's a lot of money for someone who has yet to demonstrate the ability to hit a major league breaking ball. I just hope they don't regret it. Oh, wait a minute. I do hope they regret it.
• After a year of rumors and uncertainty, Nolan Ryan retired as the Rangers CEO yesterday. At least according to the Rangers he retired. According to Ryan, he resigned. Ryan says he wants to spend more time with his grand kids, but that he'd consider other, less demanding jobs within baseball in the future.
• Brad Townsend and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News say that Ryan's awkward departure raises more questions about the state of the team. They also give a history of Ryan's time as Rangers CEO.
• Danny Knobler says that Ryan helped the Rangers by joining the club and now is helping the team again by leaving. He means that as a complement but it doesn't sound all that complementary to me.
• Todd Wills lists five things that stand out about Ryan's time as Rangers CEO.
• One big question being raised in this postseason is what's going to happen to the "neighborhood play" at second base once instant replay starts next season. Jay Jaffe looks at the plays in question and says that MLB needs to decide once and for all whether the "neighborhood play" exists. Jaffe's preference is to let it stand in order to protect the health of the middle infielders, but he thinks it has to be decided one way or the other.
• Matt Snyder looks at the Stephen Drew's "neighborhood play" at second base and Yadier Molina's tag on A.J. Ellis and also doesn't want those types of calls overturned on replay. Those "types" of plays. He would overturn the Drew play, arguing Drew not only wasn't in the neighborhood, he wasn't even in the same county. But if Drew had been closer, then OK.
• Craig Calcaterra also agrees that the "neighborhood play" needs to stay, but that the current instant replay procedure would invite managers to game the system. He says that if umpires were in charge of when to go to replay instead of managers, the "neighborhood play" would be on more solid ground.
• One thing that won't be overturned on replay is balls and strikes, but Rob Neyer argues that a bad strike call by umpire Ron Kulpa in the bottom of the ninth of game three may cost the Tigers the series. But he also marvels that after looking at the data, that was the only pitch in the whole game that Kulpa really blew.
• Last time I told you that umpire Wally Bell had died on Monday. Before Tuesday's game, the umpires paid tribute to their fallen comrade with a "missing man" formation during the pregame ceremonies.
• Tom Verducci notices that both League Championship Series are close and says long and close postseason series are becoming the norm.
• The Tigers won game four after manager Jim Leyland shook up the lineup. While Leyland's new lineup was much more in line with sabermetric thinking on lineup construction, Ken Rosenthal assures us that it was desperation and not science that drove Leyland's thinking.
• Is Jim Leyland a Hall of Fame manager? He's probably on the outside looking in right now, but a World Series win with the Tigers would likely clinch it for him.
• If the Tigers make the World Series, it won't be because of Prince Fielder's performance in the first five games because he's been terrible.
• In any case, Jim Caple thinks that the ALCS games are taking too long. That's a given if the Red Sox are playing. Just be thankful they're playing the Tigers and not the Yankees.
• David Schoenfield wonders if the playoffs are too low-scoring this year to be exciting. When a 4-3 victory looks like a slugfest.
• Turning to the NLCS, Adrian Gonzalez led the Dodgers to victory behind his "Mickey Mouse" ears. Lee Jenkins traces Gonzalez's path from San Diego kid, to playing for the Padres in obscurity and finally to embracing Tinseltown.
• Jeff Sullivan thinks that while it's great that Gonzalez had adapted to LA and that he's a productive ballplayer, he laments that he's no longer the same player he was with the Padres. After shoulder surgery, he's primarily become a pull hitter as opposed to the guy in San Diego with power to all fields. He's still good, he's just no longer great.
• Why do the Dodgers have red numbers? Now you know (dramatic pause) the rest of the story.
• It had been a question mark for a long time, but the Dodgers now intend to bring manager Don Mattingly back for 2014, win or lose in the NLCS.
• Mattingly, for his part, called the Dodgers "America's Team," proving the Cardinals don't have a monopoly on pretentiousness.
• Speaking of vainglory, here's another self-righteous article about how superior Cardinals fans are to everyone else. Not as bad as that "no one hates the Cardinals, we're perfect" article that I won't link to, but this one isn't a blog post. It's in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It's also complete with the highly-offensive comment that Dodgers fans enjoy "flashing gang signs." If you want to demonstrate that St. Louis isn't full of bigots, that's not the way to do it.
• Did Yadier Molina have the worst postseason game ever in game five? Nah, but it was pretty bad.
• S.L. Price says that in order to understand why Yasiel Puig behaves the way he does, you have to understand where he's from and how he got here.
• Jon Paul Morosi thinks baseball is big enough to accommodate flashy teams like the Dodgers and "old-school" teams like the Cardinals and that no one should be worrying how another team celebrates.
• Grant Brisbee looks at Ricky Nolasco and how his inconsistent he is. This is obvious to anyone who has ever had him on their fantasy team and swore they never would again. This is about 90% of fantasy baseball players.
• Its a foregone conclusion that Carlos Beltran won't be back with the Cardinals next season. He says he'd be open to joining the Yankees if they made an offer.
• Derek Jeter says he'll be back to his old self next season, as if he'd say anything else. But do the Yankees believe him?
• A New York State Senator takes time out from his busy schedule to take a stand in support of Alex Rodriguez.
• Tim Lincecum hasn't ruled out remaining with the Giants, but he wants to test the free agent waters first. Andrew Baggerly suspects he would like to go home to Seattle and play for the Mariners.
• Here's more on Jack Clark lawyer's bizarre comments in the defamation suit filed against him by Albert Pujols. I'm beginning to wonder if he's being represented by a not-actually-dead Andy Kaufman. You can read his whole letter here.
• Mike Scioscia said that after several "aggressive" meetings, he, GM Jerry DiPoto, owner Arte Moreno and everyone else in the front office had a big group hug and said they loved each other. Those may not have been his exact words. But everyone is coming back in Anaheim next season.
• Joining them will be former Cubs manager Don Baylor, who will be the Angels new hitting coach. The Diamondbacks had said that Baylor would return as their hitting coach in 2014, but Baylor had other ideas.
• The Nationals are narrowing the field for their new manager, with bench coach Randy Knorr and Diamondbacks third base coach Matt Williams as the top candidates along with maybe Cal Ripken.
• Ugueth Urbina is out of prison in his native Venezuela and pitched in winter ball there.
• MLB comes out against bullying gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth and promptly gets bullied for it. Or at least they get a lot of furious email, tweets and facebook posts from angry bullies who feel their rights to be bullies are being discriminated against.
• Mike Ryan looks at the 1994 movie The Scout and says it has the dumbest ending of any baseball movie ever. Don't read this article if you don't want to have the ending to The Scout ruined for you, but as Ryan asks, why in the world would you care?
• Finally, this is the most inspired bit of insanity this baseball season. What if four teams of Superheroes fought it out on the baseball diamond? But instead of just writing about it, Sam Page programmed all the players into the Out of the Park Baseball computer simulation and played out a complete season between the Justice League, the Justice Society, the X-Men and the Avengers. Game one goes to the X-Men over the Justice League, 2-1 in ten innings.