Good morning.
- The big story is the Nationals trade of Daniel Murphy to the Cubs, but I think we have that covered elsewhere. The Nationals also allowed first baseman Matt Adams to go to the Cardinals on waivers. Michael Baumann gives a general overview of what went down with the Nats and what it means going forward.
- Eddie Matz writes that although general manager Mike Rizzo denies that this was a “white flag” deal with the Nats giving up on 2018, it was totally a “white flag” trade.
- The Nationals did hang out to outfielder Bryce Harper, however, refusing to deal him to the Dodgers after Los Angeles claimed him on waivers.
- Jack Dickey sums up what a terrible season the Nats have been having.
- Nationals president Mark Lerner wrote a letter to Nats fans to explain what the team up to.
- Jeff Passan rips apart Lerner’s letter and writes that the Nationals have wasted the Bryce Harper era in DC and thinks Lerner and ownership are the primary culprits. Passan says his sources say the two deals were just a “money dump.” But Passan is an equal opportunity critic and also lets the Nationals’ front office, their coaching staff and their players have it too.
- Bill Baer thinks this sell-off is a vindication of former Nats manager Dusty Baker.
- A new report says that Rizzo and former Nats reliever Shawn Kelley almost came to blows the night before Kelley was designated for assignment.
- Dayn Perry notes that although this season is finished for the Nats, the team has enough talent returning to be a contender in 2019.
- One final note on the Nats “white flag” deal. Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter is now willing to share his “lucky salsa” with Adams. He had previously refused to share it with his then-former, now-current teammate.
- The opposite of the Nationals are the Athletics, who are tied with the Astros for first place in American League West. Emma Baccellieri calls the A’s the best story of the 2018 season.
- The other team in the AL West chase is the Mariners, and Jeff Sullivan notes that they are an “all-time anomaly” as a team that exceeds their Pythagorean Record. (Checks Baseball-Reference. Mariners are 72-54. Their Pythagorean Record is 59-67. Wow.)
- Dan Szymborski notes that the Rockies poor roster depth could end up costing them a playoff spot this year. He’s especially puzzled at the Rockies unwillingness to replace unproductive veterans with younger players.
- David Schoenfield calls Braves rookie pitcher Bryse Wilson as another young gem for Atlanta.
- Ben Lindbergh looks back at the 1993 Athletics and their brief experiment with an “opener,” that predates the Rays current use of “openers” by 25 years.
- Good news is that Angels pitcher/DH Shohei Ohtani threw a partial sim game and felt fine afterwards. Ohtani and the Angels are optimistic that he can pitch again this season.
- Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman exited Tuesday’s game after experiencing knee pain.
- Rays outfielder Tommy Pham has a dislocated finger.
- Angels outfielder Justin Upton landed on the DL after cutting his finger on a wine glass.
- White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu will miss two weeks after abdominal surgery.
- And White Sox manager Rick Renteria ended up in the hospital after complaining of lightheadedness. The doctors found nothing, but they kept him overnight for observation.
- Giants catcher Buster Posey may have season-ending hip surgery.
- Michael Baumann tells the tale of how a joke Tweet of his ended up causing a scandal when the MLB Network repeated it as fact.
- Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen announced that there were no restrictions on activities after missing time with an irregular heartbeat. Jansen fatalistically said “if it goes, it goes.”
- I don’t think he was talking about baseballs, but that’s what happened in Jansen’s first time back on the mound when he gave up back-to-back home runs to the first two batters he faced.
- Astros second baseman Jose Altuve went down to Triple-A Fresno on a rehab assignment and he proudly got his first Triple-A hit, which he kept. Altuve was promoted to the majors straight from Double-A in 2011. It only took him seven more years to get a Triple-A hit.
- Neil Paine looks at the chances that Mets pitcher Jacob DeGrom wins the NL Cy Young Award this year.
- Buster Olney thinks Red Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi will be one of the most in-demand free agents this winter. Olney thinks Eovaldi will be getting a huge payday from someone.
- Ten years ago, Lars Anderson was one of the top 20 prospects in all of baseball. After a major-league career of just 30 games, he’s now playing baseball in Germany. Anderson writes in The Athletic about what went wrong with his career. (subscription req.)
- Eric Sim writes about how to survive as a minor league ballplayer on no money.
- If you like stories on the physics of baseball, Andrew Dominijanni breaks down what science says about whether an outfielder should throw a ball back into the infield on the fly or on a bounce. The math is beyond me, but I hope you can figure it out. I can read his conclusion, at least.
- Grant Brisbee skewers the stupidity of baseball brawls.
- A Rockies fan’s quest to make the team buy an organ for Coors Field and to let him play it.
- They held a moment of silence for singer Aretha Franklin before last night’s Tigers game and a rainbow appeared during it.
- A’s slugger Khris Davis let a Make-A-Wish fan of his autograph his jersey in exchange for his own autograph. Then Davis hit a home run with the autograph on his shoulder.
- And finally, I love this story. When Blue Jays rookie Danny Jansen was a kid, his family took members of the minor league Wisconsin Timber Rattlers into their home. One of those players was an 18-year-old outfielder named Adam Jones. Jones and Jansen reunited on the field when the Blue Jays faced the Orioles and Jones couldn’t be more proud of the kid who woke him up every morning to get to practice.
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.