MLB Bullets won’t be back next year

The end of the major league regular season is always such a sad time. Especially since for the first time since 2014, the Cubs won’t be playing in the playoffs.

The Angels may need to hire John Sebastian to sing “Welcome Back” at the home opener in 2020.

• So the big news over the weekend was the firing of a beloved National League Central manager as the Pirates fired Clint Hurdle. (We’ve got the Joe Maddon firing covered well elsewhere on the site.) This comes just days after reports that Hurdle would return in 2020, which seems to have been wishful thinking on Hurdle’s part.
• Here are ten possibilities for Joe Maddon’s next job.
• Although reports late last night indicate that the Angels will fire manager Brad Ausmus after one season if Maddon agrees to return to Anaheim, where he served as a bench coach for many years and as the interim manager twice. So Ausmus would get Renteria’d. At least it’s not the White Sox. That would just be sad.
• Here’s more background information on the Angels’ managerial position and whether or not Ausmus will return. (The Athletic sub. req.) Seems odd that after having the same manager for 19 seasons that they’d fire one after one season, but then again, it seemed odd that they hired Brad Ausmus in the first place to replace Mike Scioscia.
• Here are the other managers who could get fired later today or tomorrow. Or soon.
• Giants manager Bruce Bochy wasn’t fired, but he did retire after 25 years, four pennants and three World Series titles. Tom Verducci has a profile of the future Hall-of-Famer.
• Bob Nightengale speaks with Bochy about his legacy and how Bochy says he isn’t sure he’s going to like retirement. Although Bochy did speak to several other long-time managers who retired lately (such as Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox and Jim Leyland) and none of them told them they regretted retiring.
• In his final game, Bochy sent Madison Bumgarner out to pinch-hit against Clayton Kershaw. Bumgarner is a free agent at the end of the year and it certainly looks like another member of the Giants’ three World Series teams will be moving on.
• Somewhat surprisingly, Marlins manager Don Mattingly will return in 2020. However, Mattingly does have a tradition that on the last day of the year, he names one of the players as the manager for the day. He doesn’t do it every year, it depends on the circumstances, but on Sunday, shortstop Miguel Rojas got to manage the Fish. And the Marlins beat the Phillies, 4-3.
• Here’s what you want to know now that the Cubs are going home for the winter: The 2020 MLB Draft order. The Cubs pick 16th. The best player ever taken with the 16th pick in the draft is Lance Berkman.
• OK, moving on to the playoffs. Anthony Castrovince has an “urgency index” ranking how badly does each playoff team “need” to win the World Series. I will agree that the pressure on the Dodgers right now is enormous. For Dodgers fans, 1988 might as well be 1908.
• The ESPN.com staff have a roundtable discussion of who is going to win the World Series and other October questions.
• The general consensus is that the Yankees, Dodgers and Astros are better than everyone else, although not necessarily in that order. Bradford Doolittle looks at which teams have the best chances of upsetting those three favorites. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Ken Rosenthal argues that MLB needs to do something to restore “competitive integrity,” or stop tanking. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Neil Paine notes that once again, the Twins playoff path runs right through the Yankees. The Twins have played 15 of their last 18 playoff games against the Yankees (since 2003) and Minnesota has gone 2-13 in those 15 games. Paine also rates the Twins’ chances against the Yankees this time. The last time the Twins won a playoff series, David Ortiz was playing for them and not the Red Sox.
• The Twins became the first team in history to hit 300 home runs in one season.
• Mike Petriello looks at some myths and facts about home runs and the playoffs. No, you do not need to play “small ball” to win in October.
• Andrew Simon notes that every team has at least one weakness and lists the biggest weakness for every playoff team.
• Justin Klugh looks at how the Nationals are different this year as they enter the playoffs and their chances of finally winning a playoff series. They only have to win one game this time!
• The Nationals opponent in that Wild Card game, the Brewers, suffered a big blow as outfielder Lorenzo Cain re-injured his ankle in Saturday’s game.
• Mets first baseman Pete Alonso set the rookie record for home runs with 53.
• Mets fan Jerry Seinfeld said he’d consider re-making Seinfeld if Alonso was willing to star in “The Boyfriend” episode.
• Astros pitcher Justin Verlander recorded his 3000th strikeout. Not as impressive as it used to be, but still pretty impressive. Verlander could certainly finish his career with more than 4000 strikeouts.
• Mariners legend Felix Hernandez likely pitched his final game for the team and Meg Rowley has an appreciation of King Felix’s career and what he meant to her.
• Corey Brock has some scenes from Hernandez’s final game. (The Athletic sub. req.) Yeah, but will Larry Bernandez ever pitch for the Mariners again?
• Jay Jaffe assesses King Felix’s career and his chances at Cooperstown.
• The Astros set an unbreakable record with zero intentional walks in 2019. Brian MacTaggart gets Astros manager A.J. Hinch to explain why.
• Anthony Castrovince has some “bonkers” stats from a bonkers 2019 season.
• The Red Sox are reportedly planning to slash playroll in 2020.
• Joe Posnanski has some wild stories about the career of Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Current Reds broadcaster Danny Graves opens up about playing baseball with clinical depression. Combined with this earlier article about Danny Duffy talking about his struggles with mental health, let’s hope that the barriers to players seeking assistance for mental health (which is just “health”) will fall.
• On the front of health, you may have heard of this incident before yesterday’s Cubs/Cardinals game in which Cardinals beat writer Derrick Goold performed CPR on a videographer who had a heart attack and a stroke before the game, likely saving his life. The man was working with NBC Sports Chicago Cubs reporter Kelly Crull when he had the heart attack.
• And finally, it’s been a miserable season for the Orioles, but it ended on a high note as outfielder Stevie Wilkerson made what may be the catch of the season in robbing Jackie Bradley Jr. of a home run. OK, the Orioles still lost, so it wasn’t that high a note. But you all remember what 2011 to 2014 was like. You take your victories where you can get them.

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