MLB Bullets is on the home stretch

Good morning. Fangraphs has the Cubs’ chances of winning the NL Central at 94.4% and a 100% chance of making the playoffs.

And boy, the Diamondbacks look terrible for a team that was in first place just two-and-a-half weeks ago. But maybe it’s the Cubs that are making them look terrible.

• It’s mid-September and David Schoenfield has your guide the final two weeks of the season.
• Jayson Stark has written a similar article to this one every year for ESPN.com for years and one year it’s going to happen. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to have a subscription to The Athletic to read this year’s version. But it’s worth it as Stark outlines the maximum chaos situation if the Brewers, Dodgers, Rockies and Cardinals all finish with identical records. ($) He explains what has to happen for this scenario and what would likely happen if it occurred. Clearly, this would be terrific news for the Cubs if this occurred.
• I’ve talked a lot about the Fangraphs postseason odds and many of you have questioned why the Dodgers have such a huge chance of winning the World Series compared to their overall record. Craig Edwards explains why their system looks so favorably upon the Dodgers.
• Edwards also looks at Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw and explains how he has adapted to losing velocity on his fastball over the past few seasons.
• Kershaw can opt out of his contract and become a free agent after this season but Dodgers team president Andrew Friedman said that he expects to see Kershaw in Dodger blue next year and for the foreseeable future.
• Jay Jaffe looks at the strange reverse-platoon splits of Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig.
• On the other side of the equation, the Orioles lost their 108 game last night, which is a record for the team in Baltimore. That beats the 107 games the 1988 Orioles lost—that was the team that lost their first 21 games. The franchise record of 111 losses as the St. Louis Browns is still in reach.
• At least the Orioles lost while supporting a good cause as they were wearing uniforms with all the lettering in Braille for the game. And yes, Joe West jokes are just too obvious to make.
• Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph had a moment of candor when he said that he didn’t blame Baltimore fans for not showing up for the games because, and I quote, “we suck.”
• Grant Brisbee wonders if it doesn’t make sense for baseball players to try a little less hard in meaningless games when their team is terrible. Plus other Brisbee observations.
• Tim Keown spent two weeks with the Oakland Athletics and found them to be nicest ball players he’s ever met off the field and killers on the field. As catcher Jonathan Lucroy says “Just believe it because we’re for real.”
• The Rockies got a scare when shortstop Trevor Story suffered an elbow injury. It was first thought that Story might have torn his ulnar collateral ligament, but his MRI came back clean and he’ll likely only miss a few games.
• The Padres may be in last place in the NL West, but as Matt Snyder notes, the Friars are well-positioned to do much, much better than than in a year or two.
• The early promise of the Diamondbacks season has faded and there isn’t much help coming for 2019 either. Nick Piecoro outlines the argument that the Diamondbacks should trade all-star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to kickstart the rebuilding process.
• The Angels are reportedly interested in offering Mike Trout a “lifetime” contract but as Sheryl Ring reports, they can’t legally do that. Although the Angels did sign Albert Pujols to a ten-year deal. I suppose that Pujols could legally get the final three years of that deal voided, but you know he’s not going to do that.
• Jeff Sullivan explains how Braves rookie Ronald Acuña is already one of the best players in baseball.
• Eric Stephen thinks we should ignore wins and losses and that Mets ace Jacob DeGrom should be the NL Cy Young Award winner. From the polls of sportswriters that I’ve seen, DeGrom is the runaway favorite to win the award at the moment anyway.
• Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich hit for the cycle for the second time this season and for the second time against the Reds. Also for the second time in less than a month.
• Aaron Gleeman explains who Twins utilityman Willians Astudillo is and how he is one of the most unique players in the game. Also, he’s good. That part is more important that the “unique” part.
• Astudillo is developing quite s following. For example, Emma Baccellieri says that you need to make Astudillo your new favorite ballplayer.
• Jonah Keri looks at the career of the Cubs’ Terrance Gore and thinks that more teams should be employing a designated pinch-runner like Gore.
• Joel Sherman wrote a piece arguing that the statistical revolution in baseball is killing the joy of the game for many young fans.
• Bill Baer explains why Sherman is being ridiculous.
• Mike Axisa points to some things that are really killing interest in the game: blackouts and rising prices.
• White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu has been hospitalized with a right thigh infection. First of all, I wish Abreu a full and complete recovery. Second, I wouldn’t be sad if he decided to wait until next week to return to the field. But you do what’s best for you, Jose.
• It was announced this week that starting next season, Triple-A baseball leagues will use the exact same baseballs that major league baseball does. (I bet you didn’t know that they didn’t already.) A lot of people are concerned that will cause an offensive explosion in an already hitter-friendly level of baseball. Ballplayers are convinced that major league balls are “livelier” than minor league ones. They’re definitely more expensive, as major league balls cost about twice what minor league ones cost.
• I mentioned how good rookie Ronald Acuña was earlier, but Nationals rookie Juan Soto is just as good. Take this quiz and see if you can tell which quotes are about Acuña and which quotes are about Soto. I don’t mean to brag, but I got 8 out of 8. I did make a lot of educated guesses though.
• And finally, for the second time in a week, Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg hit the batter, catcher and umpire with one pitch.

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