I'm still watching baseball. I bet most of you are too.
- Here's some news that broke late last night that you might not have heard yet. The Diamondbacks fired their GM Kevin Towers. An official announcement will come this morning. This move had been predicted since the Snakes hired Tony LaRussa. Now the question is whether manager Kirk Gibson will survive.
- As long as we're talking about firing GMs, the Yankees will not fire GM Brian Cashman.
- Sad front office news: Brewers amateur scouting director Bruce Seid died suddenly on Tuesday. He was only 53 years old. We all send out our condolences to his family and everyone in the Brewers organization.
- Brew Crew Ball collects some reactions to Seid's passing. It sounds like the game is a little worse today.
- Craig Biggio might be the top candidate for the Astros managerial job. I guess if you're going to micromanage the team and not let the manager make any decisions on his own, it doesn't matter whether the candidate has any relevant coaching experience. You might as well get a figurehead the players will respect.
- Bob Klapisch thinks Wally Backman should be hired for the not-currently-vacant Mets manager job.
- Craig Calcaterra thinks Klapisch (and other media members pushing for Backman) are more interested in making their stories better than the Mets better.
- Ken Rosenthal tells us the emotional story of how Billy Bean returned to baseball as the new MLB "Ambassador for Inclusion."
- It's been well-documented that the Alex Rodriguez investigation was a fiasco and MLB fired a lot of people in the Department of Investigations back in May. Now MLB has hired a new head of the department.
- Enough of executives. Now we'll get to what was going to be the top story of the day: the collapse of the Brewers. They lost their ninth straight game last night in "stomach-churning fashion."
- Anthony Castrovince says the Brewers are just coming back to earth after a fluky April. He does admire their "what pitching?" attitude though.
- David Schoenfield tries to figure out what's wrong with Ryan Braun. No, he doesn't believe the answer is "he's off the juice." I mean, he thinks he's off PEDs, but he doesn't think that's the reason for the decline.
- Jeff Sullivan examines the case for Jonathan Lucroy for MVP.
- Craig Calcaterra wante MLB to bring back steroids. He's not being serious, but he does lament the lack of offense recently.
- Here's a different explanation for the drop in offense that doesn't involve PEDs. Derek Thompson in The Atlantic says that the adoption of Pitch f/x and the way it is used to evaluate umpires has caused a large increase in the strike zone.
- Craig Calcaterra objects to the claim in The Atlantic article has "ruined baseball" by enforcing the rules.
- David Schoenfield looks at some ideas that Bill Veeck had back in 1962 to speed up the game. Let's just say he's not a fan.
- Here's something that most of you should read if you want to understand scouting better. And who doesn't these days? Kiley McDaniel explains the 20-80 scouting scale and how it's used.
- Ben Lindbergh has an in-depth look at five prospects who got September call-ups. Hmm. Kris Bryant doesn't seem to be on his list. Does Scott Boras know about this?
- Here's the insider story of how Daniel Hudson made it back to the majors after undergoing not one but two Tommy John surgeries. He last pitched in June of 2012.
- Clayton Kershaw is good. How good is he? Clayton Kershaw is so good that. . .
- The Red Sox deny reports that Jackie Bradley Jr. was sent down to the minors because of his "stubbornness."
- Jon Paul Morosi looks at the Nationals' options for setting up their rotation for the postseason.
- Matt Snyder thinks the Orioles are a serious threat to win the World Series and he explains why.
- Wallace Matthews asks if the Yankees can make a run for the playoffs this September.
- Richard Justice says the Yankees have no margin for error.
- Ichiro Suzuki has learned enough Spanish in order to trash talk the Latin players. We used to think "Well, Ichiro is like that because he's Japanese." Then all these other Japanese ballplayers came over and we realized "Hey, none of them are like Ichiro." He's just one-of-a-kind. Don't ever change, Ichiro.
- The Tigers' biggest enemy may be their own injuries.
- Torii Hunter has a reason that he so desperately wants to win the World Series this year or next.
- There's a secret (well, maybe not that secret) network of Dominican food in major league baseball. Essentially, the Dominicans on the home team provide home cooking for the visiting team's Dominicans.
- The Rockies signed Jorge De La Rosa to a two-year extension.
- Homer Bailey will undergo elbow surgery. No, it's not TJS.
- The Jays are having trouble keeping their pitchers healthy before the game starts. Chad Jenkins broke his hand taking batting practice. The day before, R.A. Dickey was hit in the head with a ball during BP.
- Grant Brisbee tries to find the most hopeless franchise in baseball.
- Jamey Newberg assess the chances that the Rangers will be contenders again in 2015.
- Gabe Kapler examines the "six stages of a slump." There is no cure.
- Certainly not Phiten necklaces, which Kapler calls just another baseball superstition.
- Here's another look at the ergonomic Axe handles. They could be the secret to increasing offense in the game.
- Umpire Mike DiMuro was injured after Billy Hamilton ran into him.
- The Astros' mascot Orbit went (Mike) Trout fishing, but soon found himself hooked by Trout's line.
- Vin Scully will only broadcast Dodgers home games and games at Angels Stadium next season. He does reserve the right to change his mind for an important late-season series somewhere.
- And finally, one of the worst home run calls of all-time came out of the White Sox booth this week. That might not surprise you, but it wasn't Hawk Harrelson that was at fault. Check out Steve Stone's home run call on a Tyler Flowers homer.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.