MLB Bullets is extending the netting

I had the same weekend as you all did, plus my car broke down.

• I wasn’t expecting this, at least not before the end of the season. Red Sox team president Dave Dombrowski has been fired. This news broke late Sunday night. I’m sure we’ll have more reaction to this in the next edition. Dombrowski was fired less than a year after the Red Sox won the World Series.
• Sad news as former Cardinals outfielder Chris Duncan died of brain cancer. He was only 38. Our condolences go out to Duncan’s family (which includes his father, former pitching coach Dave Duncan, and his brother, former Indians and Yankees outfielder Shelley Duncan) and the entire Cardinals organization. When it comes to cancer, the Cubs and the Cardinals are on the same team.
• Twins pitcher Michael Pineda was suspended for 60 days for testing positive for hydrochlorothiazide, a diuretic that serves as a masking agent. Pineda says he took the substance by accident and MLB seems to believe him as his suspension was lowered from 80 games to 60 games on appeal.
• David Schoenfield looks at some of the puzzling results of some of the advanced stats and explains why baseball-reference’s version of WAR thinks that Mike Minor has been a better pitcher than Justin Verlander this year. (Note: Minor doesn’t think he’s been better than Verlander.) Plus Schoenfield examines other odd results that have turned up.
• Michael Baumann examines Verlander’s credentials for the Hall-of-Fame after his Cy Young-worthy 2019 campaign.
• Neil Paine notes that MVP voters used to always vote for players on winning teams until Mike Trout changed everything.
• Zach Kram has some September call-ups that could have a major impact on the playoffs.
• The Athletics’ Jesus Luzardo was mentioned in Kram’s article and Luzardo is expected to get his first major league promotion today.
• Do you want to know why major league attendance is down in 2019? Much of it is because of “tanking” teams.
• Mets reliever Edwin Diaz tied an MLB-record he’d rather not have tied when he allowed his 14th ninth-inning home run on Friday.
• Matt Snyder explains why the Reds have a solid chance to make the playoffs in 2020.
• Ben Clemens looks at Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager and his comeback second-half performance in 2019. Clemens argues that Seager has been one of the best players in all of baseball in the second-half.
• Devan Fink profiles Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto, whom he calls the best catcher in baseball.
• Mark Feinsand looks at what the free agent market for current Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon might look like this winter.
• One of the feel-good stories of the past few weeks has been the return of Nationals pitcher Aaron Barnett to the major leagues, four years after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Barnett threw a scoreless inning of relief and then broke down in tears in the dugout. As far as I’m concerned, there’s crying in baseball.
• The Mets signed infielder Jed Lowrie to a two-year free agent deal this past winter. Lowrie was finally activated off of the injured list over the weekend. He made his Mets debut as a pinch-hitter on Sunday. He struck out.
• Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was hit in the hand by a pitch on Saturday. He’s day-to-day.
• Reds two-way player Michael Lorenzen keeps doing it all with a walk-off RBI single against the Diamondbacks on Sunday.
• Indians outfielder Yasiel Puig failed to run out a grounder on Saturday and immediately apologized to his manager Terry Francona and teammate Carlos Santana. Francona, for his part, did not pull Puig from the game and Puig doubled two times later in the game.
• Washington’s RFK Stadium is set to be demolished in 2021. RFK Stadium was the home of the Senators from 1962 to 1971 and the Nationals from 2005 to 2008. It has not had a permanent tenant since the MLS team DC United moved out in 2017.
• The Diamondbacks will be extending the netting in foul territory for 2020.
• As MLB teams are expanding the netting to the foul poles for the safety of the fans, the pressure is growing for minor league teams to do the same, writes Matthew Gutierrez. Some teams, including the Iowa Cubs, have already announced that they will expand the netting this offseason. But for many minor league teams, the six-figure bill that comes with extended netting is more than they can afford.
• One young Marlins fan caught two foul balls in the same at-bat. That record might stand for quite a while once the netting gets extended.
• And finally, Pirates left-handed pitcher Steven Brault can do more than just pitch. In fact, he’s one of the best singers of the Star-Spangled Banner around. He sang the National Anthem before Sunday’s game. It’s the second time he’s done that in his career. Both his playing career and his singing career.

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