Outside The Confines: Let the next round begin

Good morning. We have baseball today.

• All four Wild Card Series ended up in 2-0 sweeps, which was bad news for those of us who wanted to watch playoff baseball on Thursday. Anthony Castrovince has a key takeaway for each of the four Wild Card Series.
• With the Twins sweep, the Blue Jays and Rays now have the longest playoff losing streaks. Mike Axisa tries to explain the Jays and Rays poor performance in October.
• Emma Baccellieri writes that the Rays are the new face of baseball postseason futility.
• Bob Nightengale reports that the Blue Jays players were upset with the controversial decision to pull starter José Berríos in the fourth inning of Game 2 of the Wild Card Series.
• Tom Verducci says the Blue Jays problem was following the analytics rather than what was happening in the game.
• Ben Clemens hands out report cards to the Rays and Jays managers, and you better believe that he breaks down that ill-fated decision by Jays manager John Schneider to pull Berríos. He argues that beyond misreading the situation, the Blue Jays analytics were bad.
• Nick Ashbourne reports that Jays fans are even angrier about their team’s disappointing finish, feeling that it supports their belief that the team underperforms.
• On the other side of the ball, Aaron Gleeman notes that pitching won the Twins their first playoff series in 21 years. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• MLB doesn’t hand out MVP Awards for the Wild Card rounds, so Mike Axisa hands some MVP Awards out for them.
• Matt Gelb looks at how Aaron Nola and the Phillies stepped up their game to sweep the Marlins. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Brian Grubb feels the Phillies are so “weird and stupid” that they just might have what it takes to win it all.
• Kiley McDaniel looks at which upcoming free agents this winter helped themselves and which ones hurt themselves with their play in the Wild Card Series. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• One player from each Division Series team that needs to step it up this week.
• Bradford Doolittle examines which Division Series favorites should be worried about getting upset. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Jayson Stark previews the Division Series showdown between the Braves and the Phillies, (The Athletic sub. req.) a rematch from last year.
• Hannah Keyser outlines how the Braves built a perennial powerhouse.
• Matt Monagan notes that while a lot of teams claim to have fans all over the globe, the Orioles have had the most fans watching from outer space.
• If I asked you who led the Dodgers in stolen bases this year, would you have said Freddie Freeman? If you didn’t, you would have been wrong. David Adler explains how Freeman managed to go 23-or-24 in steal attempts despite unimpressive foot speed.
• In an unexpected move, Mets general manager Billy Eppler resigned. Eppler was replaced as the top baseball man in the organization when the Mets hired David Stearns as president of baseball operations, but the Mets wanted him to continue as the number-two man.
• Jeff Passan notes that Eppler resigned amidst an investigation by MLB into Eppler whether abused the injured reserve list. Passan explains what that means but also points out that most teams fudge the IL and that it wouldn’t normally be something an executive would resign over.
• Eppler is the second big name to leave the Mets after the firing of manager Buck Showalter. According to reports, Showalter is interested in the vacant Angels managerial job.
• And more bad news for Mets fans hoping to sign first baseman Pete Alonso to an extension. Alonso just changed his representation to Scott Boras. As most of you probably know, Boras usually advises his clients to explore free agency over signing extensions, although there have been exceptions.
• Evan Drellich writes that Mets team president David Stearns is stepping into a situation with a set of nearly-impossible expectations. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Despite a disappointing season in San Diego, both team president A.J. Preller and manager Bob Melvin will return next year.
• Tom Krasovic thinks the Padres made the right choice bringing the two men back, but he thinks the Padres need to hire a GM to serve between Preller and Melvin on the organizational chart.
• Ben Lindbergh breaks down why the teams that spend a ton of money this past offseason (mostly) ended up out of the playoffs. There’s a special emphasis on the Padres misfortune this year.
• Mariners team president Jerry Dipoto apologized for his comments that the goal of the team was to be “sustainable” and not win titles.
• Cesar Brioso writes that Latin players are generally underrepresented in the Hall of Fame, but that looks to be changing.
• Chris Gilligan looks at the freaky play that first gave, and then took away, a home run and a 30-30 season from the Astros’ Kyle Tucker. Can you imagine if your fantasy title was dependent on whether or not that play was ruled a home run?
• And finally, the Stix n Brix Pizzeria in Chicago is giving away 100 free pizzas to sad White Sox fans upon the occasion of their team losing 100 games. Except that the White Sox lost 101 games and he may have to make an extra free pizza.

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