MLB Bullets is for the hardcore fan

You guys and gals are hardcore baseball fans if you’re here, and I appreciate that. There is close to nothing going on right now in baseball. Go watch the NHL, NBA or do what I do, watch the English Premier League. Catch a meaningless bowl game if you must. (For god’s sake, don’t watch the NFL—especially not this weekend.)

• The biggest news story of the past two days is that Twins third baseman Miguel Sano has been accused of a sexual assault. He denies the charge. The Twins and MLB are investigating.
• Now that he’s barred from writing anything for ESPN, Jayson Stark takes to Facebook to publish his annual “Strange but true baseball stories” for 2017. (Did anyone else read all the “Strange but True Baseball Stories” books when they were a kid? That’s where I first found out about the Merkle Boner.)
• Bill Baer adds his voice to those who say that the competitive balance tax is ruining the offseason.
• Grant Brisbee writes that the offseason is also slow because of a lack of rebuilding teams. Teams are either going for a title or they’ve already cleaned out their cupboards.
• One team that should be rebuilding is the Orioles, and they are reportedly still in talks with several teams to trade Manny Machado. They’re still asking a lot for one year of Machado, though.
• The Marlins are listening to offers for Christian Yelich and J.T. Realmuto. However, they’re also asking a lot for those two players. (In this case, such an ask is much more justified, in my opinion.)
• Ryan Davis lists three teams that could benefit from the slow offseason.
• Slow? The Brewers have an agreement with left-handed reliever Boone Logan!
• Ben Nicholson-Smith has a preview of the Blue Jays.
• Dayn Perry has 50 predictions for the rest of the winter and the 2018 season. Yu Darvish AND Manny Machado (in 2019) to the Cubs? Interesting.
• Andrew Mearns has five rookies who should debut in 2018 whom he is looking forward to seeing.
• Matt Snyder thinks Kris Bryant should bat leadoff for the Cubs. (First: Maybe. Second: Yes, I know it’s a Cubs story. Sue me.)
• Astros second baseman Jose Altuve was named AP Athlete of the Year.
• Will Leitch lists his choices for the top ten baseball stories of 2017.
• The staff at Sports Illustrated list their favorite baseball moments of 2017.
• The Las Vegas sportsbooks reportedly lost $11.4 million on the Astros winning the World Series.
• Sam Miller has an interesting piece where he goes through every season in major league history since 1903 and sums it up in one sentence starting with “The year that . . .”
• Maury Brown notes how the Hall of Fame voting is exposing a “Holy War” over statistics. And this is a big reason I don’t care about who gets into the Hall anymore.
• Joe Posnanski has an appreciation of the career of Carlos Lee. I’m sorry, but as a Cubs fan, I find very little to “appreciate” about the career of “El Caballo.”
• Mike Petriello has the Statcast data on the fastest base running plays of 2017. Mostly a lot of Byron Buxton.
• Finally, if you want to watch something in a baseball stadium, the NHL is hosting their “Winter Classic” on New Year’s Day at Citi Field in New York. Neil Best has the backstory about how the game came to Queens.

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