MLB Bullets clinches

Good morning.

• Congratulations to the Red Sox, who clinched their third-straight American League East title with a win over the Yankees last night.
• Two Red Sox fans found the banner the team planned to hang at Fenway Park and held it for ransom, asking for money or playoff tickets. The team said “no” and they eventually turned the banner over to the team.
• Whitney McIntosh has some questions about this whole incident, like “They found it after it fell off a truck”? Really? Couldn’t they have come up with something a little more original?
• Since the Yankees are definitely not winning the AL East now, Mike Axisa examines what the Yankees should be thinking about when picking a pitcher to start the Wild Card game.
• Jon Heyman (who only seems to publish anything on Thursdays now) writes that no one knows who is going to win any of the postseason BBWAA Awards. (Except probably NL Cy Young, where Jacob deGrom seems like the clear favorite.)
• The MLB Network asked who should win the AL MVP award and Debbie Trout took exception that her son was not one of the candidates. I’ll guess she’ll just have to settle for being the mother of the greatest baseball player of all-time.
• Richard Justice has nine transactions that went under the radar at the time they were made but they paid off big for playoff teams. The GOAT of the Cubs bullpen made the list.
• Gabe Lacques looks at Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper as he starts what very well be his final home games at Nationals Park.
• What team will Harper play for in 2019? Well, no one knows, but the gamblers have the Cubs as the favorites. I could deal with that.
• Jon Heyman thinks that the Cardinals could sign infielder Manny Machado.
• Rodger Sherman writes that sports fans cannot let Oklahoma Sooners quarterback/Oakland Athletics first-round draft pick Kyler Murray play professional baseball. (Then he gives several reasons why Murray would be a fool to pick football over baseball, even if he’s better at football.)
• The Rangers look like they are going to fire manager Jeff Bannister at the end of the season.
• Marlins team president Derek Jeter indicated that he expects manager Don Mattingly to return next year. So Jeter isn’t going to fire his former teammate. At least not yet.
• Jon Heyman outlines the palace intrigue as the Mets try to figure out who will be their next general manager. The assumption within the game is that the Mets will figure out a way to Mets it up.
• The Pirates beat the Royals on Monday. Big deal? Actually, it was. With that win, the National League clinched their first season win over the American League in interleague play since 2003. Jeff Sullivan looks at the numbers behind the end of this 14-year streak.
• Will Leitch has ten more streaks likely to fall in 2018.
• David Schoenfield notes that the .300 hitter is becoming an endangered species. He also looks at some batting-title races of years past.
• The MLB beat writers each pick the best rookie for all 30 MLB teams.
• For teams expected to make the playoffs, the best is yet to come. But Sam Miller picks the best moment of the season for each team that won’t make the playoffs this year.
• I really loved this story by Anna Katherine Clemmons and Eddie Matz. It’s all about how pitchers go about combating the epidemic of blisters and split nails. The theory is that pitchers are gripping the ball tighter and the balls have changed slightly, causing more finger issues. So it’s dipping your hand in pickle juice (or worse) and false nails to the rescue. (And yes, false nails are illegal. That’s addressed in the piece.)
• And speaking of the balls, Dr. Meredith Wills continues to study the baseballs and concludes that the balls have indeed gotten rounder since 2015. That cuts down on drag and allows them to fly farther. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Jeff Sullivan notes that the use of an “opener” is now officially a trend that has spread beyond the Rays.
• More than 40 million people went to see Minor League Baseball in 2018.
• Dale Murphy notes that the relationship between umpires and players today is definitely worse than it was when he was playing. (The Athletic sub. req.) It is hard to imagine the always-polite Dale Murphy getting in an argument with an umpire, but as he notes, he had a front seat to many Bobby Cox arguments with umpires.
• Pirates pitcher Chad Kuhl underwent Tommy John surgery.
• Jon Heyman wonders if the Reds will bite the bullet and release Homer Bailey. They still owe him $30 million for 2019. Yeah, you read that right. He’s owed $25 million in salary and a $5 million contract buyout.
• Former Dodger Scott Van Slyke was released by his KBO team. When you get released by a Korean team, it may be time to hang it up. I guess there’s still Taiwan.
• Jeff Sullivan notes the success Dylan Floro is having with the Dodgers this season. Floro pitched three games for the Cubs last season, in case you’d forgotten.
• The Yankees set a new team record with 246 home runs this season. The MLB record is 264 by the 1997 Mariners, which this year’s Bronx Bombers could still reach.
• Angels catcher Francisco Arcia became the first player in MLB history to catch, pitch and hit a home run in the same game. Not at the same time, however. That would be impossible. The Angels still lost 21-3 though.
• All-around legend Billie Jean King and her partner are becoming minority owners of the Dodgers. She said she grew up a Dodgers fan, or at least from the time they moved to LA. Now if only her brother hadn’t pitched ten years for the Giants. (By the way, she says her brother, Randy Moffitt, is thrilled she’s buying into the Dodgers.)
• Sad news as Padres vice-president of scouting operations Don Welke has died at age 75. He’s been in the game since joining the Reds as a scout in 1965. Just for reference, Joe Nuxhall was still pitching for the Reds in 1965.
• Tim Brown checks in with former Orioles third baseman Ryan Minor, who is now primarily remembered as a trivia answer as to who played instead of Cal Ripken Jr. on the day “the streak” ended. Minor is the manager of the Orioles High-A affiliate Frederick Keys and says he’s asked about that day all the time. He says it’s better to be remembered for that than just forgotten.
• For the third time in a year, the home of Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig was burglarized. The burglars caused $10,000 worth of damage.
• Braves manager Brian Snitker humorously dodged a foul ball in the dugout.
• I love these “Dia de Los Dodgers” skull bobbleheads.
• And finally, usually baseball players get traded, they don’t do the trading. But Rays ace Blake Snell took matters into his own hands when he traded a baseball to a fan in the stands for some chicken fingers. A guy’s gotta eat.

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