MLB Bullets Is The Center Of Debate

Good luck to all my readers heading back to school. Today is my daughter's final day of summer vacation.

• I guess because it's August and the trade deadline is over, the biggest issue in the online baseball press has been the candidacy of Orioles closer Zach Britton for AL Cy Young. Ben Lindbergh, someone who you would normally expect to be in the "no way" category, makes a statistical case for Britton as not only the Cy Young, but the AL MVP. It depends on your definition of "MVP" of course, but this isn't just a "the guy has 37 saves already" kind of argument.
• Jayson Stark and Keith Law debate Britton's case for Cy Young. with Stark in the "pro-Britton" camp and Law on the "no way" side.
• Jeff Sullivan thinks that it should be close to impossible for a reliever to win the Cy Young, and that includes Britton.
• Craig Calcaterra thinks we shouldn't get too worked up over this issue one way or the other. We should just enjoy watching Britton pitch.
• In case it affects your position one way or the other, Eddie Matz gets Britton to answer some questions. And not once does he say "We're just going to take it one game at a time."
• Another candidate for AL MVP is, as always, Mike Trout. And Andrew Simon thinks we really ought to marvel at how consistently terrific Trout has been. Perhaps we should make a bigger deal out of the fact that we keep having to come up with excuses not to give the AL MVP to Mike Trout.
• Scott Lauber pushes Mookie Betts for AL MVP. I've got to admit, I'm tempted to vote for anyone named "Mookie." Betts, Wilson, the guy Spike Lee played in Do The Right Thing.
• The Red Sox are making a push to sign Jonathan Papelbon, who reportedly will decide today which team to sign with.
• Will Leitch looks at bad luck in the career of Giancarlo Stanton and the curse of potential.
• Michael Baumann thinks that we should not be disappointed in Stanton's career so far.
• Craig Edwards tries to project the trajectory of Stanton's career and has trouble because his talents and injury issues are so unique.
• In other injury news, Indians outfielder Michael Brantley underwent season-ending shoulder surgery.
• Yankees pitcher Nathan Eovaldi will have Tommy John surgery (his second) AND another surgery to repair a flexor tendon. He's out until sometime in 2018.
• Rangers outfielder Shin-Soo Choo has his forearm broken with a pitch and will likely miss the rest of the season.
• The publicist for Alex Rodriguez says that A-Rod will not play again in 2016.
• Just in case you were wondering, that last bullet is why I never link to anything that Jim Bowden says or writes. This is the same man who traded Mike Cameron to the Mariners for Ken Griffey Jr. because he wouldn't part with Pokey Reese. His baseball writing shows the same keen instincts.
• Athletics outfielder Coco Crisp is angry that the A's are benching him so that he won't get 130 games in and so his 2017 contract option won't vest. It's hard to say he's wrong with a straight face.
• A's closer Sean Doolittle lists his eight favorite bullpens in baseball.
• In good news, state high school athletic associations are now mandating pitch counts for high school pitchers. For those who think these kids are being babied, may I remind you that Kerry Wood started both games of a doubleheader in high school and threw 175 pitches that day? That was 2 days after the Cubs had drafted him.
• Red Sox fans (well, actually the Boston media) are screaming "conspiracy" over the Tigers refusal to change tomorrow's game in Detroit to a night game. Of course, the Lions are playing a preseason game tomorrow night across the street from Comerica.
• David Ortiz got a letter from MLB reminding him of tampering rules after he suggested that Edwin Encarnacion could take his place next year in Boston.
• The Braves traded Erick Aybar to the Tigers and called up top prospect Dansby Swanson. R.J. Anderson has what this means for Detroit and Atlanta. I'll say what it means for Arizona: it means Swanson is in the majors and Shelby Miller is in Reno.
• Rob Arthur explains why PEDs are not likely the cause of baseball's recent power surge.
• Russell Carleton tries to figure out just exactly how much taking PEDs helps a hitter. If Carleton's numbers are correct, they confirm what I've always believed: They help a little, not a lot.
• Mike Axisa points out that the fastest man in baseball is nowhere near as fast as Usain Bolt. Sure, if they're running on a flat track from a crouch. But I bet Billy Hamilton or Byron Buxton could round the bases faster than Bolt. Although it Bolt trained at it for several months, that would be a different story. I'm not sure why he'd bother.
• Jorge L. Ortiz looks at how Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford has turned himself into a force in the San Francisco lineup.
• Richard Justice thinks there's going to be a terrific pennant race in the AL East.
• Bartolo Colon walked!
• This has probably been eclipsed by what Anthony Rizzo did last night (which I didn't see because it was "Back to School Night"), but Hunter Pence made a pretty ridiculous catch after tripping on the bullpen mound.
• Add "getting doused with Gatorade" to "having my head touched" to the things that Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre will do anything to avoid.
• It was "Rookie Starbucks Run" for the Brewers at Wrigley Field yesterday.
• The first rule of bat flips? Don't hit the umpire with your bat flip. Especially after a walk.
• Finally, in honor of back-to-school, Jameson Taillon may need to relearn his lessons from the first grade as he failed to get his jacket zipped up after getting a hit, delaying the game after the zipper got stuck. Jeez, Jameson. Act like you've been there before. Oh wait. You haven't. It was your first major league hit.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. My daughter goes back to school!