MLB Bullets Has Reached Its Limit

Happy Labor Day. Be sure to find a laborer today and thank them for their work.

Oh, and sorry for any NBC links. NBC is just the latest site to make their sports more "mobile-friendly" with a redesign that makes it practically unreadable. The NBC Pro Football Talk site got themselves changed back to their old design because I guess even in sports journalism, what the NFL writers want the NFL writers get.

• Between the Labor Day Weekend and the start of the college football season, the baseball news was a little light this weekend. Except one story broke through the clutter when Jon Heyman reported that Matt Harvey and his agent Scott Boras were asking questions about limiting Harvey's innings the rest of the way in his first season back from Tommy John surgery.
• Naturally, the New York media responded to this story with a thoughtful examination of recovery from injuries and weighing the risks and rewards of Harvey exceeding the 180 innings limit. Just kidding. They wrote several angry screeds like this one calling Harvey a hypocrite.
• Tim Healey summed up the variety of "hot takes" in this piece.
• Even Dwight Gooden weighed in, saying that he couldn't imagine anyone letting them be shut down for the playoffs.
• In any case, Harvey took to The Players' Tribune to announce that he will pitch in the playoffs.
• David Schoenfield says there was no right decision for the Mets and Harvey.
• Heyman, who started this whole firestorm, defended Harvey and said that he's right to be concerned about his health and workload and that he doesn't deserve the abuse he's gotten.
• Katie Strang talked to other pitchers who have returned from surgery for their opinion on coming back from injury.
• Brian Kenny thinks the Mets should have limited his innings earlier in the season but that the Mets are under no obligation to listen to Boras now.
• Ken Rosenthal points out that there is no scientific evidence that pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery should be limited to 180 innings and that the number is just a guess. He agrees that more innings means more risk, but that no one knows where the optimal number of risk versus reward lies.
• One suggestion is that rather than limit innings, the Mets should be limiting Harvey's pitches, which would allow him to throw around 203 innings at his current pitches per inning rate.
• Buster Olney thinks the Mets should trade Harvey this offseason. (ESPN Insider) Partly because of this brouhaha, but mostly because the Mets have a surplus of pitching and they could get a massive return on Harvey.
• The precedent for all of this is Stephen Strasburg in 2012. The Nationals defended their decision to shut down Strasburg for the 2012 playoffs, noting that he's had no elbow issues since then.
• Marcus Stroman isn't returning from Tommy John surgery, but rather a torn ACL in spring training that was supposed to knock him out for the season. But Stroman is expected to make his first start of the season for the Blue Jays next weekend.
• Giancarlo Stanton, on the other hand, might just be shut down for the season.
• The surgeon who performed the operation on the hip of Tim Lincecum predicts that after this surgery, Lincecum could return to his peak form.
• Jonah Keri notes that the renaissance of Justin Verlander this season came about in part because he learned to start pitching smarter.
• The Brewers shut down Matt Garza for the rest of the season. Not because he's injured or to protect his arm, but simply because he's been lousy and he refuses to pitch out of the bullpen.
• Yasiel Puig could be out for the rest of the regular season, although he may return for the playoffs.
• After his fourth straight poor start, Christina Kahrl writes that the Royals are right to be concerned about Johnny Cueto.
• Reds manager Bryan Price looks likely to be fired this offseason, writes Jon Heyman, with Barry Larkin as the leading candidate. This trend of hiring popular former players of limited experience is getting out of hand. But at least Larkin has managed once, even if it was only for Brazil in the World Baseball Classic.
• In light of criticism of Nationals manager Matt Williams' bullpen usage patterns, Jeff Long breaks down how we evaluate managerial decisions and how much impact a bad manager can have.
• Kiley McDaniel looks at all the vacant GM positions and handicaps who might get each GM job as well as a few that aren't open yet.
• Interim Red Sox manager Torey Lovullo has shaved his head in solidarity with absent manager John Farrell, who is undergoing cancer treatments.
• Mark Saxon traces the Dodgers recent hot streak to Clayton Kershaw's comment that it might be time for the Dodgers to "panic."
• Following up on the Red Sox' broadcasting saga, outgoing broadcaster Don Orsillo was asked by the team to lie and say it was a "mutual decision" for him to leave the booth.
• Rob Neyer says pre-season favorites like the Mariners and Red Sox won't finish out of the playoff hunt, they'll just run out of games. That's one way to look at it (which is Neyer's point, I guess).
• Before the Red Sox invest in a long-term extension of Jackie Bradley Jr., they should remember the lesson of Juan Lagares, writes Bryan Grosnick.
• Jeff Sullivan notes that Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier may be having the greatest defensive season ever.
• The Athletics have told Barry Zito that he won't pitch in the majors this season.
• Jonathan Papelbon wants Nationals fans to get more excited.
• I was hoping it would be with the Cubs, but Tony Zych finally did it. By pitching for the Mariners on Friday night, the former Cubs draft pick became the last player on the alphabetized list of every major league player in history. Zych knocks Dutch Zwilling off the list. Zwilling played for the White Sox, the Whales and the Cubs from 1910 to 1915.
• Derek Holland got a visit from Charlie Sheen. Winning!
• And finally, baseball is just a better place with Bartolo Colon in it. Case in point: this magnificent behind-the-back toss to first base. Air Bartolo indeed.

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