MLB Bullets Passes The Torch

Obviously the big news is the election of a new commissioner. If it's not clear to you, Manfred doesn't take over until January. But a lot has gone on over the past two days.

• So in case you haven't heard, Rob Manfred was elected the tenth commissioner of baseball. Jon Heyman summarizes how it all went down.
• Michael S. Schmidt has some inside scoop on what was said behind closed doors.
• Phil Rogers believes Manfred is the right man for the job.
• Craig Calcaterra says that Manfred's election is the final victory of Bud Selig. And he has a lot of respect for Selig's ability to get his way, at least by being flexible about what "his way" is.
• Tyler Kepner was underwhelmed by Manfred's first press conference.
• Steven Goldman congratulates Manfred on getting one of the worst jobs in the world. Or the best job with the worst bosses.
• Ray Ratto writes that Manfred's first job is going to be to smooth over the divisions in the owners that were revealed by his contentious election. Good luck with that.
• Gordon Edes looks at the state of the job that Selig has handed Manfred and what the challenges going forward will be.
• Christina Kahrl focuses on the divisions among the owners and how Manfred will have to deal with those who want to go to war with the MLBPA again.
• Paul White has a list of specific issues that Manfred will face in the next few years.
• Jon Paul Morosi focuses on what the new commissioner will have to do to spread the game internationally.
• Looking at the candidate that didn't win (and yes, these next few articles were written before the vote), Craig Calcaterra thinks a vote for Tom Werner was a vote for a return to the "Dark Ages" of labor war.
• Rob Neyer tries to knock down some of the arguments against Werner and writes that we don't know that his being commissioner would be bad.
• Of course, the next day Neyer blasts Werner for situational ethics with his support of revenue sharing when he owned the Padres and his opposition to it as a minority owner of the Red Sox.
• Just in case you didn't like Manfred or Werner, SBNation offers up six "completely serious" candidates for the next commissioner. And yes, "completely serious" deserves to be in quotes. And not just because I'm quoting them. Although I am. So that would be a second reason.
• One thing that may end up on Manfred's plate is the home plate collision rule, which was brought into play twice in two games in the Giants/White Sox series. Both of which went against the White Sox. But Rob Neyer (again) looks at the first call and then looks at the second call and says both times the correct call was made.
• So yeah, White Sox manager Robin Ventura went nuts. Too bad Nolan Ryan wasn't the umpire.
• Another person who went crazy over the calls was, unsurprisingly, Hawk Harrelson. Mike Bates thought Harrelson's rant crossed a line.
• David Schoenfield thinks that the home plate collision rule is too confusing.
• Cliff Corcoran writes that part of the problem is that the umpires don't seem to fully grasp it yet.
• Giants manager Bruce Bochy supports the rule, but admits it could probably use a "tweak."
• Matthew Pouliet thinks it's not just the home plate collision rule that needs clarification. There are other ridiculous base running rules that need to be addressed.
• Here's a story we were completely unaware of, and that's because MLB made sure we weren't aware of it until they completed their investigation. Pirates starter Jeff Locke has been cleared of allegations of game-fixing. Even Locke wasn't aware of the charges until after he had been exonerated.
• Is the second wild card a good thing or a bad thing? It depends on which league you're talking about.
• On to the casualty lists. Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is done for the season after hip surgery.
• The Rockies totally can't catch a break. Outfielder Carlos Gonzalez is out for the year with knee surgery. On the positive side, I hear Todd Helton is finally 100%.
• The Twins' Byron Buxton, who is the top prospect in baseball according to most, was involved in a horrifying outfield collision.
• Luckily, Buxton's injury was not as serious as it could have been. He suffered a concussion and is probably out for what's left of the minor league season, but they're hopeful that he can play in the Arizona Fall League.
• Yu Darvish went on the disabled list with elbow inflammation. His UCL appears to be fine.
• Calvin Watkins finds the explanations given for Darvish going on the DL puzzling.
• Jean-Jacques Taylor thinks Darvish needs to suck it up, set an example for his teammates and go out there and pitch. Unless he's really hurt. Then he needs to rest.
• Mets manager Terry Collins told Matt Harvey to "back off" and that he's definitely not going to pitch this season. Collins was also upset that Harvey did a radio interview at the same time that the Mets were playing. I've got to admit, that does look bad. It is a venal sin though.
• Collins is likely to return next season as Mets manager.
• Dayn Perry thinks those calling for Tigers manager Brad Ausmus to be fired are overreacting.
• Joe Nathan apologized for making a gesture towards the fans.
• How the chikungunya virus may affect baseball.
• The Yankees are counting on Michael Pineda to lead them to the postseason.
• This season's over- and under-achieving teams.
• Grant Brisbee (metaphorically) rolls his eyes at the news that the Marlins are looking to sign some big-name free agents this off-season. Or he literally rolled them. The article doesn't include a gif of his face as he writes the article. Next time.
• The Pirates acquired John Axford from the Indians.
• Rob Neyer writes that Jackie Bradley Jr. is indeed one of the greatest defensive outfielder in Red Sox history so far. But he's still not going to play if he doesn't start to hit.
• Jonathan Scoop is a pretty bad hitter. Except when he faces the Yankees. Then he's an MVP candidate.
• Miguel Montero said some nice things about Trevor Bauer. If you remember, he didn't have many nice things to say about him the last time he mentioned Bauer.
• Eno Sarris talks to Tim Lincecum and he discovers that Lincecum knows what wrong and he's trying his best to fix it. But it's not easy.
• The best baseball team in Chicago this summer has been the Jackie Robinson West Little League team (You didn't think I was talking about the Cubs or Sox, were you?). As it turns out, Carl Crawford has been donating money to the team for the past year. Crawford says the team just reminded him of the teams he played for growing up in Houston.
• And finally, I found this article fascinating. How do Japanese teams find players to come over there? The Yokohama BayStars open up about what goes in to identifying and signing American players to come over to Japan. It's a must-read for anyone interested in international baseball.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. The Premier League gets underway.