Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage, and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn’t easy. It’s okay, though, we’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning, and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.
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Barring a handful of catastrophes, we know who all but maybe two of the American League’s playoff teams are. The Blue Jays and Yankees are still fighting for the AL East, but the other will very likely be the first Wild Card. The Royals have the AL Central all but officially wrapped up, leaving the AL West and second Wild Card open. That last spot is a source of hope for almost the entire rest of the AL, as only the Oakland Athletics are mathematically eliminated at this time, even though there are fewer than two weeks left in the season.
While teams like the Tigers and Red Sox and more don’t exactly have hope for 2015, the fact they are still within shouting distance of contention at this late stage is a good sign for 2016. They, along with the Orioles, Mariners, Rays and White Sox, are just a couple of pieces away from making an impact by this time next year -- hey, they’re much closer to that than the Astros and Twins were last September, and those two are legitimately fighting for playoff spots today.
Some teams like the Red Sox might be even closer than their proximity suggests. Boston is 25-19 since August, when they finished dealing veterans and adding kids from the farm. Another starter here and a reliever there, and the Sox just might be near the top of the AL East next summer. Even the A’s, who are in last place in the AL, would only be tied for the sixth-worst record in the NL -- they aren’t as far away as they might seem, especially not with Billy Beane calling the shots. The AL isn’t perfect, and neither is MLB’s playoff setup, but it is comforting to know the next time your losing AL team is relevant might not be far off at all.
- The Rockies already traded Troy Tulowitzki, but they need to do much more than that in order to properly rebuild in Colorado.
- This has been the worst month of Chris Sale's career.
- The Cardinals lost Yadier Molina to an injured thumb, and he'll get an MRI on Monday to determine the severity of said injury.
- A pantsless man ripped a child's urinal off of the wall at the Rogers Centre, flooding the Blue Jays' stadium.
- Will Dustin Ackley be a legitimate option for the Yankees at second base next year? Well, he's a former failed Mariners' prospect who is now under the spell of the Yankees' wizards, so yeah, probably.
- The Brewers hired the Astros' assistant GM, 30-year-old David Stearns, to be their new general manager, giving them the youngest GM in the game.
- It's cool when your team's minor-league club wins a championship, but as our Orioles-loving friends remind, don't get too carried away.
- Kendrys Morales had himself a Sunday, belting three homers and adding a triple on top of them for good measure.
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