MLB Bullets heads down the stretch

I don’t know about you, but I’m in a foul mood.

• Let’s start with teams that are playing well. ESPN.com has a debate over whether the Astros, Yankees or Dodgers are the team to beat in October.
• Jesse Yomtov lists the most important player down the stretch for each playoff contender.
• The Yankees have finished playing the Orioles for the season and David Schoenfield breaks down the Bronx Bombers’ historic domination of the O’s.
• Zach Kram projects what would happen if Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres got to play against the Orioles every game?
• Andrew Simon notes that Astros rookie outfielder Yordan Alvarez may be having the best rookie season ever.
• Mike Mazzeo explains how the Yankees acquired their star third baseman, Gio Urshela, almost by accident. Also what Urshela has done to turn him into from an organizational player to one of the best third basemen in the game in just one season. The Yankees paid the Blue Jays a reported $25,000 for Urshela last August. Even general manager Brian Cashman admits that the Yankees never believed Urshela could be as good as he has been.
• Jake Mailhot looks at the strong catching tandem that the Twins have developed with Mitch Garver and Jason Castro.
• Now on to the bad teams. Jay Jaffe explains just how historically-awful the Tigers are this season.
• Marlins president Derek Jeter says he hasn’t decided whether or not to fire his former teammate, manager Don Mattingly. OK, they were only teammates for 15 games.
• Jeter is also considering moving the fences in at Marlins Park.
• As a follow-up to a story in Wednesday’s bullets, reports that Alex Rodriguez had $500,000 worth of valuables stolen from his car was called “grossly exaggerated” by A-Rod’s representatives. I’m simply shocked that TMZ would grossly exaggerate a figure like that for a more sensational headline. They’ve always seemed to have such high journalistic standards.
• Angels first baseman Albert Pujols is now the all-time leader in hits by a player born outside the United States, passing Adrian Beltre.
• Indians outfielder Yasiel Puig put his time to good use during his suspension: he became a US citizen. Mike Mazzeo talked to Puig about his suspension and his decision to become an American. I have just one hashtag for you: #puigyoursenator. Think about it, Yasiel.
• Alec Lewis has the story of how Royals outfielder Jorge Soler had a major breakout season this year. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The Athletics will sign free agent pitcher Matt Harvey. The Angels released Harvey last month.
• It’s been a while since I made reference to the butcher’s bill, but it’s time to pay up again. Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon underwent his second Tommy John surgery. He’s expected to miss all of 2020.
• And Phillies pitcher Jake Arrieta announced that he was “likely” to have season-ending surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow.
• David Schoenfield checks in on the prospects that Mets sent to Seattle in the Robinson Cano/Edwin Diaz trade. They’re pretty darn good. In fact, the entire Mariners farm system is greatly improved under GM Jerry DiPoto.
• Michael Shapiro looks at four free agents this upcoming winter that have helped their prospects greatly with terrific seasons in 2019.
• Athletics infielder Jurickson Profar is following the Little League World Series very closely. His brother Jurdrick is the catcher for Curacao. Jurickson also played in the LLWS as did another brother, making the Profars only the second trio of brothers to all play in the LLWS.
• Zach Kram takes a look at the world of competitive Wiffle Ball and the World Wiffle Ball Championship.
• For the past two summers, baseball writer Rob Neyer has been the commissioner of the West Coast League, a wooden-bat summer league for college players. Neyer talks with Corey Brock about this wild experience that was a lot more complicated than it sounded when he first took the position. (The Athletic sub. req.) It was probably more fun than it sounded when he first took the job, however.
• Wallace Matthews thinks that MLB should let fans see what’s “behind the curtain,” warts and all, if they want to appeal to younger fans. He specifically points out the popularity of Yankee manager Aaron Boone’s profane “savages in the box” rant. Fewer Walter Alstons and more Lee Elias.
• Two former compilers of The Baseball Encyclopedia reflect on the history of the beloved tome that was a “must own” for any serious baseball fan between 1969 and 1996.
• A look at how MLB takes weather patterns into account when drawing up the schedule.
• Here’s Chuck D and Tom Morello playing Strat-O-Matic on a private plane.
• And finally, Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. robbed the Mets’ J.D. Davis of a home run, and then sat of the warning track for several seconds pretending it was a home run before pulling the ball out of his glove. He’s a tease.

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