LINT IN YOUR POCKET
I’m not drafting Giancarlo Stanton or Troy Tulowitzki in 2016.
Tulo could see some work in the final week of the season as the Jays get ready for the postseason as he tries to overcome a cracked left scapula in his shoulder. Stanton will not return as he’s the proud owner of an abnormal amount of scar tissue in his hand after hamate bone surgery. I’m just gonna ask one. Why would any of you take either one of these guys in the top-25 next season?
Tulowitzki games the last five years: 143, 47, 126, 91, 126
Stanton games the last five years: 150, 123, 116, 145, 74
T. Tulo Average: 107 games
Stanton Average: 122 games
Why, I beseech you, would you build your team around a guy who is going to miss at least a month of action? I’m not gonna.
SALE RACKS UP 1,000th
Chris Sale, the 26 year old lefty of the White Sox, struck out his 1,000th batter Thursday night. Sale has 1,004 punchouts over the course of 876.1 innings leading to a 10.31 K/9 mark for his career. Among pitchers who have tossed 875 innings in their career only five men are better than that: Kerry Wood (10.32), Randy Johnson (10.61), Francisco Rodriguez (10.75), Octavio Dotel (10.82) and Billy Wagner (11.92). That’s some kind of pitching for Sale.
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AROD SCORES 2,000th RUN
Eight men have scored 2,000 runs in a season. Alex Rodriguez is now one of them. Per 162 games over the course of his career ARod has averaged 120 runs. Rickey Henderson is the leader at 2,295. Alex is not going to catch him.
CANO STILL MASHING
Robinson Cano has become the first second baseman in baseball history to have 2,000 hits through his first 11 seasons. Cano is also up to .282-19-73-77. Last year he was at .314-14-82-77.
PUJOLS HISTORIC BUT
Albert Pujols has 556 home runs as of this writing. No player has ever hit more through their first 15 big league seasons. Every season of his career in which he’s appeared in 140 games he’s hit at least 28 homers (the only time he missed he had 17 in 99 games in 2013). He’s hit 36 homers this season with 87 RBIs. Pujols has hit 30 homers 13 times. The only men with more such seasons are Barry Bonds (14), Hank Aaron (15) and Alex Rodriguez (15). Pujols also has a .464 SLG this season, his career mark is .580, and his .301 OBP is below his .312 career batting average.
DONE FOR THE YEAR
Taijuan Walker is done for the year. We think. Probably. The 23 year old threw 169.2 innings this season after tossing just 129 innings last season. “I weighed a lot of things,” manager Lloyd McClendon said. “Ensuring that he’s healthy and goes into next season feeling good about what he’s accomplished this year, that outweighed everything else.” Sounds like Vidal Nuno will start in Walker’s place the rest of the way.
COLE WINS AGAIN
Gerrit Cole won his 18th game Friday to improve to 18-8 with a 2.60 ERA and 1.09 WHIP on the year. He also crested 200 innings pitched for the first time and he has 200 strikeouts as well. 
Compare that to Jake Arrieta – 20-6, 1.88 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 220 Ks in 216 innings. Man has Arrieta been amazingly good. Check out the historic second half run: 10-1, 0.86 ERA, 0.80 WHIP .156 BAA. Can you do much better than that?
Finally, in that 18th win game Mark Melancon racked up his 51st save of the season. You know, the guy you were all panicked about losing velocity early in the year, Melancon has blown past 50 saves. Sometimes, not always but sometimes, velocity is overrated.
RETURNING
Zack Greinke threw a bullpen Friday and should be ready to make his normal start next Monday against the Giants after missing his last outing with a calf injury. Zack is 18-3 with a 1.65 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and 5.14 K/BB ratio. No one has been more consistent from start 1 through today. Arrieta has been better in the second half, but he hasn’t been as good all season long. Who wins the Cy Young? We shall see.
Masahiro Tanaka (hamstring) threw his own bullpen session Friday as well and he should join the Yankees starting rotation next week even though he admitted to not being at 100 percent still. Sounds like he will return Monday or Tuesday against the Red Sox. I’m pretty surprised his arm has held up this season, he does have UCL damage, but he’s done a much better job than I thought he had any chance to (12 wins, 3.38 ERA, 0.99 WHIP). Still, his K/9 rate is down a full batter at 8.21, and he’s yet to hit 150-innings as he’s been felled by his body a couple of times. Still, a very successful season for those that took the risk.