MLB Bullets Is Out With The Old

I’ve still got my Christmas tree and all my lights up. How about you?

• As we put a bow on 2016, Jayson Stark has a look back at all the strange but true events of the 2016 season.
• Here’s a list of things that never happened in 2016—until they happened in the playoffs. Some things had never happened before, like Mike Montgomery had never had a save in any professional game until game 7 of the World Series.
• Anthony Castrovince has New Year’s resolutions for all 30 teams. The Cubs just want to make the rest of the country sick of the team winning all the time.
• Liz Roscher has ten things that teams wish they could take back.
• Here’s a weird question. If we had to name all of our major league teams today, what would we call them? I really don’t think the Cubs would be called “the Skyscrapers,” but I don’t think they’d be called the Cubs either.
• Commissioner Rob Manfred is talking about changes to the game to speed up play again.
• Matt Snyder suggests that MLB limit the number of times that a catcher can have a mound conference with a pitcher. Sounds like a decent idea to me. The issue is how such a policy would be implemented.
• The Hot Stove League has been pretty tepid since the holidays started. But the Cardinals have reportedly joined the Dodgers in their pursuit of Twins second baseman Brian Dozier.
• The Yankees are interested in swinging a deal for White Sox pitchers Jose Quintana and David Robertson. I wonder if Gleyber Torres could be heading back to Chicago, albeit the wrong side. (Actually, the “wrong side” of Chicago is the east side of Chicago mentioned in the 1974 song The Night Chicago Died. Never let the English write songs that reference American geography. See also “East California” in Kim Wilde’s Kids In America.)
• The Red Sox are interested in free agent Trevor Plouffe.
• Paul Lebowitz thinks that three different NL East teams should be interested in signing Matt Wieters.
• Jonathan Bernhardt wonders after missing out on Edwin Encarnacion, what other free agent could the Athletics sign to flip at the trade deadline? Coming soon to HGTV.
• Al Melchior argues that the Dodgers should stay away from Ryan Braun.
• Ross Ohlendorf has signed with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
• Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer knows that despite winning the Cy Young Award this season, he needs to cut down on the number of home runs he allows in 2017.
• The Reds have officially named Dick Williams as their general manager as Walt Jocketty transitions to a senior advisor role.
• Jonathan Mayo has ten prospects who could shoot up the prospect lists in 2017.
• Vince Lara-Cinisomo looks at the difficult transition that many minor league players have when their playing career ends and the programs in place to help them.
• John Barfield, who pitched for the Rangers from 1989 to 1991, was shot and killed on Christmas Eve.
• Patrick Reusse looks at what happened to Tinker Field in Orlando, the spring training home of the Senators/Twins from 1936 to 1990. It was named after Cubs great Joe Tinker, in case you were wondering.
• Jeff Sullivan writes about how quickly pitch framing went from cutting-edge knowledge to basic wisdom and how that has impacted the game.
• Joc Pederson and Adrian Gonzalez swapped social media posts about their off-season workouts.
• Watch Jonathan Villar with a straight steal of home in a Winter League game.
• And finally, I’m out of stories. Have a great 2017.

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