MLB Bullets is a distraction

They call Alabama the Crimson Tide. Call me Cubbie Blue.

• The Astros returned to Houston on Saturday and Bradford Doolittle went to Houston to see them play. He also talks with the fans and the citizens of Houston as well as the players and city officials about what baseball returning to Houston after Hurricane Harvey means.
• Tim Brown calls the Astros return “a healthy distraction.”
• Robert Klemko talks to the fans who say they want to return to normal as soon as possible, and that means going to Astros games.
• Mike Lupica notes that like New York and Boston before them, the Astros and their fans are demonstrating “Houston Strong.”
• Of course, the Astros also returned to Houston bearing gifts, in particular pitcher Justin Verlander. Jeff Passan reports on how the Verlander deal comes together.
• Zach Kram thinks getting Verlander was a risky deal for the Astros, but one that they needed to make.
• Kate Morrison explains how the Verlander deal makes sense for Houston.
• Bradford Doolittle believes that Verlander is the final piece of the puzzle for the Astros.
• However, before that happens, the Astros mascot Orbit needed to make some apologies to Verlander’s fiancée.
• Buster Olney calls Verlander’s departure from Detroit as an “end of an era” for the Tigers.
• Matt Snyder looks at the deals that sent Verlander to Houston and Justin Upton to the Angels and notes that they are the two biggest August 31 deals ever. He also breaks down what the deals mean for the Astros and Angels.
• Michael Baumann believes that Justin Upton is exactly the second bat the Angels need with Mike Trout to make a playoff run.
• Eric Longenhagen evaluates the minor leaguers that the Tigers got from the Astros for Verlander.
• Travis Sawchik doesn’t believe the “puzzling” decision by the Pirates to let Juan Nicasio go on a waiver claim was all that puzzling. He thinks the puzzling move on the part of the Pirates was not trading Nicasio sooner.
• With the Orioles back in the wild card race, Eddie Matz writes that the O’s seemed to know what they were doing when they decided not to sell at the trade deadline.
• Jack Dickey looks at how the Orioles turned their season around in August.
• This is one of those pieces that is intentionally provocative, although Joe Sheehan is just making a lot of points that other writers have made. Sheehan writes that the decline of batters putting the ball in play has “broken” baseball and that without home runs, baseball would be “unwatchable.” He also notes that baseball will be powerless to do anything if home runs decline, which is very possible in the near future.
• Baseball has become unwatchable in Venezuela because no one has the money to pay for it. Daniel Cancel and Noris Soto writes about how as the Venezuelan economy collapses, so is baseball in Venezuela.
• Marly Rivera interviews Indians 1B/DH Carlos Santana about PED use in the Dominican Republic.
• Neil Paine writes about how the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry hasn’t meant this much since the early aughts.
• Jonathan Bernhardt believes that the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry could stay hot for years thanks to aces Chris Sale and Luis Severino.
• However, Scott Lauber notes that Sale’s level of performance has traditionally decreased in September. You could say he’s faded when the games meant the most, but in Sale’s time with the White Sox, few September games have had any meaning.
• Here’s some news that Marlins fans were not hoping to hear. The new Derek Jeter-led ownership intends to cut payroll coming into next season. That means either Giancarlo Stanton leaves or Christian Yelich, Miguel Ozuna and Dee Gordon leave.
• Jon Heyman has a manager “hot seat” list.
• Jeff Passan ranks the remaining schedules for the playoff contenders from easiest to hardest.
• The Rockies first-half success was due in part to closer Greg Holland and much of their second-half struggles is tied to Holland’s struggles. Manny Randhawa talks to Holland and he claims that he knows what he needs to do differently.
• Mark Townsend lists five of the most interesting prospects who have been called up for September.
• Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy says what we’ve all been thinking: He’d be “pretty stupid” to opt out of his contract this offseason.
• MLB issued a statement admitting that the replay officials made a mistake when they took a home run away from Brandon Crawford. It didn’t really make a difference in the larger scheme of things, but if my fantasy team loses a title by one RBI . . .
• If things couldn’t get darker for the Tigers, pitcher Michael Fulmer is off to see Dr. James Andrews. That often means Tommy John surgery.
• And Tigers DH Victor Martinez will have cardiac surgery.
• Giants closer Mark Melancon will undergo elbow surgery and will miss the rest of the season.
• Mets outfielder Michael Conforto will undergo shoulder surgery and his availability for the start of next season is in doubt.
• And Mets infielder Wilmer Flores hit himself in the face with a foul ball. #ThatsMet
• Rangers third baseman and future Hall-of-Famer Adrian Beltre will likely miss the rest of the regular season with a hamstring injury.
• Indians slugger Jose Ramirez got not one, but two home runs that went off fielders gloves on Saturday, including one that looked like Mikie Mahtook spiked over the wall like a volleyball.
• And finally, a minor league game was interrupted by a “goose delay,” which is a first for pretty much everyone.

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