MLB Bullets Calls It A Season

What does a true Cubs fan do when the season is over? He or she sets up a tent outside Cubs Park in Mesa and camps out until the gates open.

• Tim Brown wraps up the final day of the regular season.
• Jordan Zimmermann threw a no-hitter for the Nationals on the last day of the season, also known as the Mike Witt special.
• The last out came on a pretty spectacular catch by rookie left fielder Steven Souza who came in as a defensive replacement in the ninth.
• Zimmermann's reaction to Souza's catch is pretty great too.
• Rob Neyer says that Zimmermann's no-hitter means he'll get a start in the postseason. Not that it was really in doubt, but Neyer uses the occasion to point out the Nats have five pretty great starters and only room for four.
• And then there was this mini controversy on Sunday. First, Jose Altuve said he would not sit out the final game of the season so as not to risk losing the batting title.
• Then the Astros said he wouldn't play. Twitter got angry.
• Altuve went to the manager and talked his way into the lineup. He went 3 for 4 and finished with a .341 batting average and the batting title.
• David Schoenfield applauds Altuve for winning the batting title on the field. He also gives a history of players sitting out or playing to win a batting title.
• On the other hand, Justin Morneau sat out the final two games of the season and won the batting title when Josh Harrison went 1 for 8 in the final two games of the year. Twitter hardly said anything. Weird. (Morneau did pinch-hit on Sunday, but at that point one at-bat wasn't going to make a difference.)
• Still, the former Cubs draftee Harrison has seized the spotlight this season.
• Maybe Twitter didn't react to Morneau sitting because it was too consumed with reacting to the Pirates decision to start Gerrit Cole on Sunday rather than save him for the one-game Wild Card game in what was an ultimately fruitless attempt to catch the Cardinals for the division title. David Schoenfield looks at both sides of the issue.
• CJ Nitkowski says the Pirates absolutely had to start Cole as long as there was a chance to win the division. Still, I'm sure the Giants are pretty happy right now.
• And the Royals made the playoffs! Sure, they fell short to the Tigers in the AL Central race, but they did get home field advantage for the wild card. George Brett is going to party like its 1985.
• The Royals making the playoffs for the first time since 1985 ends the longest postseason drought in North American professional sports.  Marc Normandin lists some things that have happened in baseball since the Royals last played a meaningful game in October.
• Christina Kahrl says we always knew the Tigers would win the AL Central in the end, even if they made it look hard.
• The Athletics took until the final day, but they made the playoffs and avoided what would have been one one of the most embarrassing collapses in baseball history. David Schoenfield says that the A's can just put the whole second-half behind them now.
• Luckily for them, history shows that having a poor second half has no correlation with having a poor playoff run. Overall season record does (so the A's are in a little trouble there), but whether you won in the first half or second half doesn't carry over into the playoffs.
• The team that did have a historic collapse was the Milwaukee Brewers. Brewers management will have an extensive review of what went wrong. Someone is likely to get fired, but Jon Heyman says it won't likely be manager Ron Roenicke (although he could be let go). More likely some coaches will get the ax.
• Owner Mark Attanasio made it clear he held the players responsible for their poor finish to the season.
• And the Brewers will retire the number "1" to honor former owner Bud Selig. As Len Kasper pointed out in yesterday's telecast, that means Logan Schafer will be the last Brewer to wear that number.
• The Mariners fell just short this season.
• As expected, the Diamondbacks fired manager Kirk Gibson and bench coach Alan Trammell.Trammell was nice enough the manage the team the final three games of the season anyway.
• Trammell did so only after chief baseball officer Tony La Russa declined to manage the team for the final three games.
• Jay Jaffe points out that new Snakes GM Dave Stewart does not have the typical background for someone hired as a GM these days. He's certainly the best player of any current GM. Which isn't really saying much since he takes that crown from Jerry DiPoto.
• The future of Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos and manager John Gibbons could depend on whether team president Paul Beeston decides to stay or go.
• The Rangers plan to interview Mike Maddux, Steve Buechele and current interim manager Tim Bogar to be their next manager, among others.
• And then there are the Yankees, who missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons. Reports are that manager Joe Girardi ripped into the team before Derek Jeter's final game at Yankee Stadium.
• Ben Lindbergh looks back at that final game for Jeter at Yankee Stadium.
• Jeter's career ended on Sunday in Fenway Park with an infield single.
• This graphic representation of Jeter's career is pretty cool.
• Cripes. Now that Jeter is retired, who am I going to write about? Oh yeah. Yankees GM Brian Cashman spoke with Alex Rodriguez to discuss their plans for his return next season.
• And in a much quieter fashion, baseball also said thanks for the memories to Paul Konerko, who also played his last game. Matt Snyder takes a good, long look at Konerko.
• And even more quiet than Konerko, Bobby Abreu singled the final at-bat of his career on Sunday. One of the most underrated and overlooked players of the 21st century.
• The season in some key stats.
• Which hitters were pitched to the most differently this season?
• The Indians set an all-time record for strikeouts for a pitching staff this season. The previous record was held for all of one season by last year's Tigers.
• Giancarlo Stanton's face is looking good again.
• Juan Uribe managed the Dodgers for a day.
• Getting back to one of the stranger Dodgers stories of the summer, we finally found out why the Dodgers had to turn off the bubble machine in the dugout: Joe Torre didn't like it. No rule against it, but Torre didn't like it.
• A look at the legacy of Shea Stadium, the most influential (for better and worse) stadium of the past 50 years. It was named, of course, for Cuban guerrilla leader Che Stadium.
• Fans behind home plate in Philadelphia mocked Craig Kimbrel's delivery.
• And finally, an independent league ballplayer hit a game-tying home run in the playoffs, but tore his ACL going around first base. So he hopped around the rest of the way to complete the home run.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.