MLB Bullets is back from the dead

Pretend I wrote something clever up here.

• Don’t look now, but the Mets have won 12 of their last 13 games and are back in the playoff hunt.
• Wallace Matthews has more details on the amazing run by the Amazin’s and their decision not to sell at the trade deadline.
• Ben Clemens looks at how much the Mets odds of making the playoffs have changed over the past two weeks and argues that if they do play in October, the Mets are well-constructed to make a deep run. According to Fangraphs’ current calculations, the Mets are now the team most-likely to be the second wild card, ahead of both the Cardinals and the Brewers.
• Ken Rosenthal looks at all the individual trade decisions the Mets made at the deadline and why they acted or didn’t act on them. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Mike Axisa has five things the Mets need to do to reach the postseason.
• Emma Baccellieri argues that it doesn’t look like the defending World Series champion Red Sox will make the playoffs this season.
• But at least the Red Sox still have third baseman Rafael Devers. Zach Kram looks at the numbers and argues that Devers has turned himself into the best young Boston hitter in decades.
• David Schoenfield thinks the Yankees will make the playoffs (because they’d really have to collapse for them not to), but he thinks that New York’s failure to upgrade their starting rotation at the deadline could be the death of them in October.
• Michael Baumann similarly writes that the Twins failure to upgrade their pitching could cost them the division title to the Indians or, failing that, lead to a quick exit in October.
• I don’t need to tell you this, but in the week since the Cardinals did nothing at the trade deadline, they’ve gone from a one-game lead on the Cubs to being 2½ games back. Craig Edwards argues that the failures of the Cardinals’ front office go way deeper than just the trade deadline. But yes, it also includes a crappy trade deadline.
• The Astros were almost guaranteed to make the playoffs at the deadline, but they still added talent anyway. In Toronto, Aaron Sanchez had the worst ERA of any qualified major-league pitcher. In his first game with Houston, he threw six innings of a combined no-hitter. Jake Mailhot explains how the Astros may have “fixed” Aaron Sanchez.
• Bradford Doolittle has what all 30 MLB teams have left to play for this year. (ESPN+ sub. req.) For the Tigers, it’s “avoid a historic level of awful.” I feel for Tigers fans. Had my grandfather lived longer, he might have turned me into a fan of his beloved Tigers instead of me becoming a Cubs fan.
• Mike Axisa has ten waiver deals that might have happened if teams could still make waiver deals.
• Matt Ehalt talks to some veteran players on bad teams and how there is still so much uncertainty about what will happen to them in August. They don’t quite understand the new rules, but there are still ways that players can change teams in August.
• For example, the Rangers released infielder Asdrubal Cabrera and the Nationals have signed the infielder to a deal for the major-league minimum.
• The Giants have designated second baseman Joe Panik for assignment. Panik was a key member of the team’s 2014 World Championship team.
• Mariners infielder Tim Beckham has been suspended 80 games for testing positive for Stanozolol, a PED. A 47-68, there are probably several other Mariners saying “Why didn’t I think of that?”
• Dan Mullen has 20 “amazing and astounding” facts about the home run totals this year. The Twins? They’re on-pace to be the greatest power hitting team ever. I can’t wait for that report on the ball to come out in a couple of weeks. The Orioles pitching staff turns every hitter into Barry Bonds.
• Good news for the Orioles is that Jonathan VIllar hit for the cycle—and he didn’t even know it. Apparently the same rules about not mentioning an ongoing no-hitter or not saying “Macbeth” in the dugout applies to cycles in progress as well.
• And here’s more bad news for the Orioles. Outfielder DJ Stewart got hit in the face after failing to catch a fly ball.
• Players’ Weekend is coming up from August 23 to 25 and here’s what every player is wearing on the back of their jersey.
• Pirates pitcher Joe Musgrave is wearing this special glove for Players’ Weekend that will apparently allow him to snap half the teams in MLB out of existence. Actually, I think that’s one of those fake knockoff Infinity Gauntlets.
• Gerard Gilberto takes a look at Padres’ MacKenzie Gore, who is the consensus top pitching prospect in the game right now. So if you don’t know who Gore is now, you’re likely to know pretty soon. Like next season. So you might as well get started now.
• Michael McCann looks at all the legal issues surrounding the current lawsuit over who owns the rights to the Phillie Phanatic.
• An update on the FBI investigation into fraud in the baseball card memorabilia industry.
• I know I’m not supposed to be political here, but the person who threw racist abuse at a Hispanic family at the Rangers’ Globe Life Field can just leave the country now for good. This happened just a few hours after the El Paso terrorist attack as well.
• Now I’m bummed. The cure for that is pictures of Jeff McNeil’s cute as a button puppy!
• And finally, I’ve been ragging on the Orioles because they’re awful (but better than the Tigers). But they had one of the most seriously cool moments of the season this past weekend. A group of 4,000 Boys and Girls Scouts from the UK attended Sunday’s Orioles game against the Rangers. They were out in the left field bleachers and they adopted Orioles left fielder Anthony Santander as their favourite player, cheering wildly every time he touched the ball. The Orioles quickly named the group the Official Anthony Santander Fan Club. One fan even went and bought his jersey. We need more fans like this. Especially in Baltimore.

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