*Unsurprisingly the Astros didn't make a 1-year/$17.4m offer to any of Carlos Beltran, Cameron Maybin, Tyler Clippard, Luke Gregerson, or Francisco Liriano.
*Here's a great Richard Justice article on the impact of Brent Strom.
*Alex Bregman is living his best life right now, and he talked to the Cespedes Family BBQ guys about what it's been like since winning the World Series.
*I wrote up what I thought were the ten most pivotal games of the regular season.
*Immediately after Friday's parade, 1B coach Rich Dauer underwent emergency surgery to remove a blood clot in his brain.
*Jake Kaplan says shoring up the bullpen should be the Astros' top priority.
*This dude snuck in to Game 2 at Dodgers Stadium and filmed it.
*ESPN's David Schoenfield compares Springer/Altuve/Correa to the all-time great trios.
*Kinda nervous about Boston, you guys.
*Jose Altuve is a finalist for AL MVP, A.J. Hinch is a finalist for AL Manager of the Year. Those things are not surprising. What is surprising is how Yuli Gurriel was not a finalist for AL Rookie of the Year, getting squeezed out by Aaron Judge, Andrew Benintendi, and Trey Mancini.
Mancini, an outfielder with Baltimore (all three nominees play in the AL East), hit .293/.338/.488 with a 120 OPS+ and 2.2 bWAR in 2017.
Gurriel hit .299/.332/.486 with a 124 OPS+ and 2.6 bWAR.
I mean, Aaron Judge is obviously going to win this award, but...
*You can buy dirt from Dodger Stadium in Game 7 for $50.
*Tyler White is pretty pumped about this World Series thing.
*Buy some stuff you can't get at Academy.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
