MLB Bullets And How The East Was Lost

Since the Cubs were no-hit by Cole Hamels, they've gone 29-12. Maybe they shouldn't have waited so long?

If you don't want to read about the NL East, you might want to change the channel now.

• After the kerfuffle over the past weekend over Matt Harvey's workload that ended with Harvey declaring he would pitch in the playoffs, it came out that Harvey would likely make only two more starts in the regular season (one of which was last night) and then he'd be limited to 60 pitches in any playoff game he might start.
• Michael Baumann talks about the "moral hazard" involved with the decision on whether Harvey would pitch and how it relates to larger issues in sport with concussions and the like. In the end, Baumann thinks Harvey needs to look out for himself.
• Grant Brisbee talks about similar themes and reiterates that the Mets don't have Harvey's best interests as their top priority.
• Ken Rosenthal understands the point of view of Harvey and his agent Scott Boras, but he thinks both of them are to blame for how badly this all went over in the press.
• Jeff Passan points out that there's no actual scientific evidence behind Harvey's 180 innings limit. He also awards the NL Rookie of the Year to Kris Bryant, so most of you will agree with that.
• Andrew Simon lists the ten most successful comebacks from Tommy John surgery for Harvey to aspire to.
• More Mets news. The Mets and Yoenis Cespedes have reworked his contract so that they won't have to release Cespedes five days after the season if they don't agree to a new contract before then. Now the Mets are on equal footing to sign Cespedes as a free agent as every other team.
• Except Joel Sherman says that Mets fans shouldn't count on it, because Cespedes' free agent contract is likely to be too much for the Mets to afford.
• A quick look at how much Cespedes has meant to the Mets this season.
• C.J. Nitkowski is not all that impressed with the job Mets manager Terry Collins is doing. Specifically, Nitkowski thinks Collins is putting unnecessary added pressure on the Amazin's.
• Alexander Goot talks about Collins and Nationals manager Matt Williams and how the general consensus is that they're both failing their teams.
• Chris Thompson blasts Williams and breaks down just how bad he has been at decision-making recently.
• Bryce Harper called out Nats fans for leaving early during Monday night's loss to the Mets.
• Eddie Matz thinks Nats fans deserved it.
• Ken Rosenthal assess the chances that Williams and GM Mike Rizzo might be leaving the Nationals early too. He also talks about Fredi Gonzalez's tenuous job security in Atlanta.
• Another issue for the Nationals is that Max Scherzer has been slumping lately. Cliff Corcoran lists Scherzer among several other players having poor second-halves.
• Now to the rest of the putrid NL East. Ben Lindbergh breaks down the race between the Braves, Marlins and Phillies for the worst record in baseball and the number one pick in next year's draft.
• Former pitcher Joaquin Andujar has died at 62. Andujar coined one of the great baseball sayings of all time: "Baseball can be summed up in one word: youneverknow."
• John Baker wrote a story about how good he thinks the Cubs are this season. Since I normally don't cover the Cubs in this column, I'll add that the only reason I'm including it is that he linked to something I wrote.
• This article won't make you happy. Jayson Stark argues why Zack Greinke deserves the Cy Young Award over Clayton Kershaw. No mention of Jake Arrieta except in a separate video.
• Alex Rodriguez became only the second player, after Hank Aaron, to have 15 seasons of hitting 30 home runs.
• Yankees pitcher Nathan Eovaldi might miss the rest of the regular season. Andrew Marchand says Eovaldi missing any time is a big problem for the Yankees.
• Zachary Levine thinks the grueling pennant races in the AL won't give the NL any advantage come the World Series.
• This will come as no surprise to any of you, but Jeff Sullivan marvels at why and how great Joey Votto has been this summer.
• Sullivan also notes how historically terrible Mariners catchers have been at the plate this season.
• Jon Paul Morosi writes that the great season the Blue Jays are having, along with a renewed push for MLB to return to Montreal, means that baseball fever has returned to Canada.
• Craig Calcaterra is not a fan of the expanded game rosters in September.
• Neither is Rob Neyer, but he's not optimistic anything will get done about it.
• The Rangers have shut down Jurickson Profar's rehab efforts. The former top prospect in baseball will now miss at least two full seasons with injuries.
• David Schoenfield looked over the 2016 schedule and lists ten things that struck him about it.
• Ray Chang of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos played all nine positions in one game on the last day of the season. And no one made an HBO special about him or anything.
• And finally, it's that time of year when the seasons change. And to celebrate fall and the Fall Classic, a Missouri farm has created a pretty cool corn maze predicting a Royals/Cardinals World Series. Despite my disdain for all things Missouri, I'd definitely check it out if I was somehow kidnapped and dumped in the state. Just to see if Shoeless Joe Jackson steps out of it for sure.

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