MLB Bullets went to the bullpen

Are they still playing baseball? I hadn’t noticed.

• Marc Normandin has a reminder that the current Wild Card format is heartbreaking, and that’s the whole point of it. But I don’t think any of you needed to be reminded of that right now.
• The Athletics joined the Cubs in hitting the showers early after making the postseason, as they lost the American League Wild Card game to the Yankees on Wednesday. Jay Jaffe has a summary of the AL WC game and says for all the talk about the A’s “bullpenning” strategy, the Yankees just beat the A’s the old-fashioned way, with good starting pitching and strong hitting.
• Craig Calcaterra thinks the A’s problem wasn’t the “bullpenning” strategy but rather specific tactical mistakes in employing their relievers. It’s also mentioned by both these authors that the A’s decision to go with a bullpen game was dictated as much by a lack of starting pitching (because of an insane number of injuries) than anything else.
• Grant Brisbee agrees: The A’s didn’t lose because they went with a “bullpenning” strategy but because the Yankees just played better.
• In any event, Jonah Keri believes that a strong bullpen is the secret to winning in October, which is why he’s predicting a Yankees/Brewers World Series. I’m predicting a Yankees/Brewers World Series because nothing would make me feel more miserable than that.
• Sam Miller notes for all the talk about the new “bullpenning” strategy, the idea of a bullpen game has actually been around for a very long time. I well remember that 1990 NLCS game where the Pirates started right-hander Ted Power to get a platoon advantage when they switched to Zane Smith. This strategy made more sense in the eighties when teams platooned a lot more.
• Emma Baccellieri has some keys to the Brewers game one win over the Rockies in the NL Division Series.
• John Fisher has a quick preview of the four Division Series and a big key to the Yankees/Red Sox match-up.
• Jeff Passan notes that the Red Sox and Yankees haven’t met up in the postseason since that famous 2004 victory by the Red Sox, when they fell behind 3 games to none before winning it all. Passan argues that baseball has changed so much since then that it’s a completely different game. In 2004, we were still arguing about Moneyball (the book) and whether batting average or on-base percentage was more important. Now we’re arguing about launch angles and Statcast data.
• Stephanie Apstein profiles the two ALDS shortstops, Red Sox’s Xander Bogaerts and the Yankees’ Didi Gregorius. Both of them come from the Dutch Antilles.
• This isn’t going to make any of you feel any better, but Jeff Sullivan writes that Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino is the worst at holding runners on first. Basically, Sullivan is arguing that Ottavino is so bad that Joe Maddon didn’t need to pinch-run Terrance Gore for Anthony Rizzo in the NL Wild Card game. Rizzo probably could have stolen second off of Ottavino.
• The Braves lost game one of their NLDS to the Dodgers, but Mark Bowman has the story of Braves manager Brian Snitker and how he got the team to where they are now. The big news in this piece is that Snitker had decided to quit in the final series of the 2017 season because he couldn’t stand working with former Braves general manager John Coppolella anymore. He even asked for his things to get packed up. But before Snitker could return to Atlanta and quit in person, Coppolella was fired after the Braves international signing scandal. (He says he gets along great with new GM Alex Anthopoulos.)
• In moves that surprised no one, the Orioles fired GM Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter.
• Eddie Matz asks that you remember Showalter’s time with the Orioles from the great successes he had and not the abject disaster that 2018 was.
• The Blue Jays have decided on a list to interview for their vacant managerial job.
• And the Reds are going to interview Joe Girardi and Brad Ausmus among others for their managerial position.
• Whitney McIntosh gives you some reasons to love the Dodgers’ Kiké Hernandez and the Brewers’ Christian Yelich as part of an ongoing series.. That second one might be a tough sell around here.
• Adrian Garro has stuff to know about Dodgers game one starter Hyun-Jin Ryu.
• Ben Reiter checks in with former Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa as he serves his 46-month sentence in a federal minimum security prison for hacking the Astros. Correa offers his perspective on why he did what he did, but mostly this piece is about life in a minimum security prison and a harsh critique of the Federal Penitentiary system.
• An A’s fan at the Wild Card game got doused with beer by a rude Yankees fan. So the A’s found the guy and are going to give him care package of A’s stuff and tickets to a game next season.
• Brewers utility player Hernan Perez tried to dump Gatorade on walk-off hero Mike Moustakas, but it was a long run and he ended up dumping it on Ryan Braun instead.
• Braves game one starter Mike Foltynewicz is superstitious, but he broke one of his superstitions and stepped on the foul line after leaving the mound after the first inning. So naturally he gave up a three-run home run in the second inning.
• There was something about that game because Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu forgot how many outs there were and left the mound after there were only two outs.
• And finally, if you’re an Astros fan who doesn’t want to go to work or school and would rather watch today’s ALDS game, the team has you covered with this ready-to-go excuse note.

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