MLB Bullets Is Down For The Count

Who among you are reading about anything other than the Cubs today? I thank you for reading this, but I'm heading over to the Cubs talk as soon as I'm done here. But read up on the Cubs potential NLCS and World Series opponents.

• Matthew Pouliot thinks the Pirates deserved better than a one-and-done playoff game. He also thinks the Pirates deserve better than to be stuck in a division with the Cubs and Cardinals for the next few years too.
• Matthew Kory also thinks the Wild Card Game is completely unfair, but that's why he likes it.
• Commissioner Rob Manfred says he's open to discussing changing the playoff format, but right now sees no need to change based on an "aberrational year."
• Sean Rodriguez apologized for his behavior in Wednesday's wild card game. He also said he apologized to the cooler and he said they're cool now.
• Craig Calcaterra thinks the Yankees had a good season and didn't deserve to be booed when they lost the AL Wild Card game.
• Tanya Bondurant agrees: The 2015 Yankees were a success, not a failure.
• Grant Brisbee thinks the Yankees were wise not to mortgage their future with a big deal at the trade deadline in what probably would have been a futile attempt to win it all this season.
• Ted Keith asks the Yankees, "Quo Vadis?" (OK, he really just asked what's next for the Yankees. But my way of putting it is so much more literate.)
• The Blue Jays, like every other home team in the playoffs so far, lost yesterday. But they may have suffered a bigger loss when third baseman Josh Donaldson exited the game after taking a knee to the head sliding into second base. The Blue Jays say that Donaldson has passed all the concussion protocols, but the real test will come today.
• Pete Rose essentially called Donaldson a wuss for coming out of the game. He said he played all the time after getting hit and being light-headed. (Oh, I so wish he would have added "And I turned out OK.")
• Rant time: Who in the world thought it was a good idea to put a egomaniacal troglodyte like Pete Rose on the air? Oh yeah. Fox. What a surprise. We as a society need to stop pretending that Pete Rose has anything to contribute.
• Just to even things out, Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre exited yesterday's game with a back injury. (Actually, Beltre exited a couple innings before Donaldson.) But neither injury is good for the game.
• Jean-Jacques Taylor explains how Rangers manager Jeff Banister's positive attitude helped turn the team's season around.
• This was written before game one, but Rob Neyer thinks the Blue Jays were heavy favorites to beat the Rangers.
• Now Joe Lemire wonders if the Blue Jays are in deep trouble after losing game one.
• Alex Wong explains what it's been like to be a Blue Jays fan in Canada this season.
• Neyer probably feels better about his pick of the Astros in the other ALDS. He explains why the Royals match-up poorly with the Astros.
• Ted Berg argues that the Astros are the new Royals.
• Elizabeth Merrill has an in-depth profile of Yordano Ventura and how a change in attitude led to a positive change in results.
• Maybe the Royals lost game one to the Astros because they didn't know who they were playing. Their lineup card listed their opponent as the Yankees.
• Tim Kurkjian previews the Dodgers/Mets NLDS.
• Molly Knight breaks down every postseason start by Clayton Kershaw and thinks Kershaw is ready to shake his reputation of being poor in the playoffs.
• Vin Scully will miss the playoffs after undergoing a medical procedure.
• Meg Rowley explains just how much Jessica Mendoza being in a major league broadcast booth means to her.
• Anthony Castrovince lists a role-player on each of the eight remaining playoff teams as a candidate to come up big in the playoffs. Chris Denorfia is his choice for the Cubs.
• If you're watching the playoff games on television, you probably noticed something wrong when they switched to the home plate camera angle. Actually, you probably didn't. But J.J. Cooper gets to the bottom of the extra 0.2 seconds in the broadcasts. I thought commissioner Manfred wanted to shorten the game.
• David O'Brien asks the Braves front office to defend two trades this season that he thought were questionable.
• The Athletics issued a statement on the death of their former draft pick Michael Nolan.
• OK, here's a bonus Cubs bullet. Some Cubs fan updated the 80's video game "Duck Hunt" into "Cards Hunt."
• Bronson Arroyo's yacht was stolen and sold. If I had a nickel for every time that happened to me. . .
• And finally, last night's game in KC was delayed by rain. One member of the Royals grounds crew decided to salute Vince Coleman and the 1985 postseason by getting trapped under the tarp. OK, so he did it unintentionally. But it was still a creative tribute to the Royals lone World Series title.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Because we'll be coming home to Chicago leading the Cardinals 2 games to none.