You don’t know me but you don’t like me. Say you care less how I feel. But how many of you who sit and judge me have walked the streets of Bakersfield?
- I know that I probably care about this a lot more than anyone else around here, but it’s my column, so here is a terrific story by Bobby DeMuro about “The Life and Death of the Bakersfield Blaze.” It not only goes into the team, but about the people who loved it and have worked to save the team for as long as they could. Its also about culture of Bakersfield and yes, the song I quoted above features prominently in the character of the city.
- Turning to major league games, Ben Lindbergh notes that the AL East is having a historic 4-team pennant race. He breaks down all four teams.
- John Lott writes that the Blue Jays need to turn things around quickly if they want to be one of the teams from the East that make the postseason.
- Steven Goldman writes that for all the talk of the “new” Yankees and their mid-season rebuild, this year’s Yankees are not very different from the aging teams of the past few seasons. Goldman also is pessimistic about the Yankees making the playoffs this year.
- What about that other team in the AL East, the Tampa Bay Rays? Mike Axisa explains what went wrong this season for the Rays, a team that was expected to contend for a postseason berth.
- Ken Rosenthal wrote a few weeks ago that Orioles closer Zach Britton should not win the AL Cy Young. He explains why his position on Britton’s chances may be changing. Also, he looks at Kyle Hendricks case for the NL Cy Young.
- Cliff Corcoran looks at some terrific 3-team pennant races from the past.
- Bob Nightengale drops a bombshell that the Brewers and Dodgers were 20 minutes away from making a Ryan Braun-for-Yasiel Puig deal, but they ran out of time at the August 31 deadline. They may revisit the trade in the offseason.
- Jonah Keri looks at how the Brewers may have found the newest market inefficiency: base stealers.
- Bill Baer notes at what a quietly great season the Brewers Jonathan Villar is having.
- Jorge L. Ortiz lists Villar along with three other players who are having terrific years for bad teams. Also known as “Mark Bellhorn Syndrome,” at least around my house.
- Maybe add Diamondbacks pitcher Robbie Ray to that list, as David Schoenfield notes that even though his ERA isn’t great, Ray is one of the best strikeout pitchers in the game right now.
- The Brewers actually seem to be ahead of most of the other “rebuilding” teams, with one possible exception, the Braves. R.J. Anderson believes that the Braves had a great season in 2016 everywhere but in the standings.
- Braves GM John Coppolella says the Braves will be active in the free agent market this winter and Anderson has some suggestions of which players the Braves might target.
- Jon Paul Morosi speculates on which team Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion might end up with next season.
- Cardinals fan Will Leitch thinks this will be the season when the Cardinals postseason streak ends.
- Michael Bauman thinks the Giants even-year dynasty will end because they’ve lost the favor of Taylor Swift. I’m not sure whether he’s serious or not, but I’ll mention Taylor Swift just for the clicks. Now we’ve got bad blood . . .
- The Pirates’ slim chances of making the postseason probably ended when they put pitcher Gerrit Cole on the 60-day disabled list.
- And if that didn’t do it, they announced that Josh Harrison is out for the year with a strained groin.
- Las Vegas 51s manager Wally Backman has resigned saying that he wasn’t getting any respect nor was he getting any opportunities in the Mets organization.
- Russell Carleton looks at the pros and cons of major league players participating in the Olympics.
- Craig Calcaterra remarks that baseball is down to only five players who debuted in the 1990s. One is David Ortiz who is retiring. And one is Bartolo Colon, who is immortal and will pitch forever.
- Calcaterra also notes that for all the kvetching about shifts in baseball, this old video shows that MLB teams shifted a lot on Willie McCovey in 1969. So it’s not like this is anything new.
- Eno Sarris notes that one way to tell how good a season a hitter is having might be to see how deep the opposing center fielder plays against him.
- Shohei Otani, who will be coming to MLB some time in the next couple of season, set a new NPB record for the fastest pitch at 164 kph. That’s 101.9 mph for those still using imperial measurements. Despite that, he may never pitch in MLB because he’d rather be an outfielder. Did I mention he also leads NPB in OPS this season?
- Corinne Landrey looks at Reds pitcher Anthony DeSclafani’s breakout season.
- Jerry Crasnick hands out grades over team’s deadline moves. (ESPN Insider) For those without access, the Cubs got an “A.”
- Katie Strang writes about how Tigers outfielder Justin Upton turned his season around.
- Orioles pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez became an American citizen. I’ll congratulate him.
- Mike Lupica writes that even though that “other” sport has started, baseball is still the most interesting game around. I never really liked Lupica much until now.
- But hey, does baseball have anything like this terrific football run, as described by broadcaster Kevin Harlan? OK, that’s not a baseball link. But it does help make Lupica’s point.
- The Chicago White Sox set a new record for the most dogs attending one sporting event last night. Yeah, but that’s not fair because they got to count the entire White Sox starting lineup.
- Yasiel Puig knocked out a woman’s tooth with a baseball. Why hasn’t this miscreant been thrown in jail?
- And finally, Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson got knocked out of a game when an errant throw back to the pitcher hit him in the groin. This one has everything. It has baseball. It has groin. It’s a love story.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.