MLB Bullets Says There Is A There There.

The title is a riposte to Gertrude Stein. Only here do you get such a lettered link dump.

• The hottest team in the American League right now are the Oakland Athletics, proving that there is something there in Oakland. Their recent play has given them the confidence to let them think they can beat anyone in the playoffs.
• The fans in the East Bay are excited as well, as playoff tickets for the ALDS sold out in under two hours. In response, the Athletics are opening up the upper decks (except for "Mt. Davis") to increase the seating capacity of O.co Coliseum up to 48,146.
• Dave Cameron says that Moneyball is back in Oakland. In fact, he says that this team is far more "moneyball" than the teams of the early aughts. Those teams were top-heavy with stars but these A's are deeper and just as underpaid. Oakland is 29th in payroll this season, leading only the Astros scorched-earth team.
• The Royals are also hot, although they wasted a fine first major league start by top prospect Yordano Ventura, losing to the Indians 5-3.
• A big reason the Royals are so hot is that catcher Salvador Perez is on fire right now.
• In the article that I linked to in the first bullet, Ken Rosenthal goes on to defend the James Shields/Wil Myers trade. Sort of.
• Despite Oakland and KC's hot streaks, the team with the best record in baseball is still the Boston Red Sox. Jon Heyman thinks that GM Ben Cherington's decision to go after several second-tier free agents this offseason (as opposed to one or two stars) has paid off handsomely, whether he thought it would or not.
• Boston manager John Farrell is not saying who will be the game one starter in the playoffs for the Red Sox. But he has three good options.
• Michael Baumann looks at how the Pirates built a playoff-caliber pitching staff scouring the trash heaps and by giving second chances to hurlers that failed elsewhere. Except Gerrit Cole. He was purchased new and at retail.
• Rob Neyer admits he was wrong when he wrote that he didn't think Clint Hurdle was qualified to manage a major league team because he was unwilling to listen to new ideas. Hurdle has actually incorporated some advanced defensive concepts this season that have greatly improved the Pirates run prevention.
• Once considered a lock to make the postseason, the Rangers are in a tailspin. Even though they did win last night, Tom Verducci says the Rangers have a chance to join the growing number of teams that choked down the stretch in recent seasons. Verducci notes that six of the top twelve collapses in baseball history have occurred since 2003.
• Mark Bradley says that Braves fans can rest easy: this year's team will not collapse and miss the playoffs like the 2011 team did.
• But because of the Rangers poor play recently, manager Ron Washington said he's worried about his job.
• Or maybe he's not worried about his job.
• In any case, Yahoo! Sports' Tim Brown thinks Washington should not be fired and that concerns about his job indicate that sports fans have become "over-reactive" and "vindictive."
• Speaking of Washington, they bounced back from a postponement on Monday because of the tragedy at the nearby Navy Yard to sweep the Braves in dramatic fashion and keep their slim playoff hopes alive.
• The Indians are only a half game out of a wildcard spot. Where are all the fans? This is the same team that sold out every game from 1995 to 2001.
• Bob Nightengale says it's the economy in northern Ohio that's the culprit. He also notes that for all the playoff tickets sold, the Athletics aren't selling many regular season tickets and neither is another possibly playoff team, Tampa Bay.
• Paul Konerko doesn't want to talk about his future.
• Ben Reiter writes that the White Sox didn't adequately prepare for the post-Konerko era, and now their future doesn't look much brighter than Konerko's.
• Raul Ibanez, on the other hand, has no problem saying he wants to play again next year.
• LaTroy Hawkins wants to play for the Mets again next season and apparently the feeling is mutual.
• Matt Harvey is expected to try to rest and rehabilitate his injured pitching arm rather than surgery at this time.
• The Dodgers have struggled with injuries again down the stretch. But at least Matt Kemp and Hanley Ramirez are playing again.
• The Reds are very happy that Johnny Cueto is back.
• Andrew Cashner came very close to throwing the first no-hitter in Padres history. With Johan Santana's no-no last season, the Padres are the only team without one.
• The Tigers are trying out Jhonny Peralta in left field. His job at shortstop has gone to Jose Iglesias, so if the Tigers activate him for the playoffs, he'll need to play another position.
• The Blue Jays shut down Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Cecil for the rest of the season. Just another reason not to play in head-to-head fantasy leagues.
• Mike Trout is just all kinds of awesome. No, really he is. He's doing things that only the all-time greatest players ever have accomplished.
• To perhaps try to get Trout some help, the Angels are scouting Japanese hurler Masahiro Tanaka.
• The Giants are another team that have been linked to Tanaka, but don't expect them to use all the savings from Barry Zito's contract falling of the books to sign him. That money is already spent.
• The Orioles have either a great defense or merely a pretty good one, depending on what numbers you look at.
• Joe Posnanski has an appreciation of the recently retired Vladimir Guerrero.
• The Marlins are just a mess and it's all Jeffrey Loria's fault. Baseball people wish he would fire team president Larry Beinfest so that he could get a real job somewhere else.
• And finally, this gif of Jonathan Villar sliding into second base was all over the internet last night, proving that most of us are really still in the sixth grade, at least at heart.