Marlins Fire Hitting Coach Barry Bonds

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The Miami Marlins have fired hitting coach Barry Bonds after just one season with the team. Bonds is the all-time leader in home runs with 762, so the Marlins firing the man that hit better than anyone in history as their hitting coach is shocking.

The Marlins hired Bonds back in Dec. 2015. The Marlins finished fourth in batting average (.263) and 13th in on-base percentage (.322). They also finished 27th in runs scored.

AL Wild Card Preview: Blue Jays vs Orioles

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The American League Wild Card race came down to the last day of the regular season, with the Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers, and Toronto Blue Jays all sitting in the possible position of finishing in a three-way tie which would have required a tie-breaking procedure worthy of a primetime reality show. Alas, not only did Baltimore and Toronto win their last game of the season to guarantee their advancement, but Detroit eliminated themselves all on their own with a loss, just for good measure.

As a result, the Blue Jays and Orioles will meet at Toronto's Rogers Centre on Tuesday in a one-game winner take all matchup. The victor will advance to the AL Division Series against the Texas Rangers.

Neither team has announced their starting pitcher yet, with those announcements expected to come on Monday. Toronto will choose between Francisco Liriano and Marcus Stroman, while Baltimore will decide between Ubaldo Jimenez or Chris Tillman.

As important as pitching normally is, especially in the playoffs, the more intriguing factor headed into this game is the offensive firepower and explosive potential from both squads. While neither team finished in the top eight in runs scored or top 14 in batting average across the entire Major Leagues, they both finished top four in home runs.

In fact, five of the top 15 home run hitters in the entire league came from just these two teams, led by the Orioles' Mark Trumbo (47 home runs) and the Blue Jays' Edwin Encarnacion (42). Hits may not come in bunches, but when they appear, they will likely produce baseballs surging over outfield walls.

Both teams finished the season 89-73, and the season series could not have been tighter, with Toronto winning 10 of the matchups and Baltimore winning nine. That difference is what provided the Blue Jays with the home field advantage for this game. As they enter the matchup, Baltimore has won 7 of their last nine games, compared to Toronto's having lost four of their last seven. Whether this game turns into a slugfest, or the pitchers both find a groove and turn the game into a late-inning duel, the stakes are high and the anticipation higher.

The game will begin Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET, with all coverage on TBS.

White Sox Name Rick Renteria Manager

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The Chicago White Sox have named Rick Renteria their new manager. Robin Ventura announced that he would not be returning to the club in 2017 on Sunday.

The White Sox have not been the playoffs in eight years. Five of those seasons have been under the management of Ventura. Renteria was the manager of the team across the street, the Chicago Cubs, up until 2014 when the Cubs hired a man named Joe Maddon. 

MLB Announces Potential Three-Way AL Wild Card Tiebreaker

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The NL Wild Card is tight, but the AL Wild Card is tighter. There could possibly  be a three-way tiebreaker between the Toronto Blue Jays, their AL East rival Baltimore Orioles and the Detroit Tigers, USA Today reports.

If this happens, the Blue Jays would host the first game on Tuesday. The Orioles would host a home game on Wednesday instead of playing two road games.

The way it would work is the Blue Jays would host the Tigers on Tuesday in Toronto. The winner would clinch the first Wild Card spot. The loser of that game would then travel to Camden Yards in Baltimore to take on the Orioles. 

The AL Wild Card game will be played Thursday. The game will be in either Toronto or Baltimore, depending on how everything plays out. The winner of the AL Wild Card game will take on the Texas Rangers in the ALDS beginning next Friday.

Why the St. Louis Cardinals Will Win the NL Wild Card

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The St. Louis Cardinals are just a half game out of first place in the NL Wild Card. This team has made last season runs before and can do it again this season.

The Cardinals have struggled as of late, losing their last two games by a combined score of 16-1. However, they are not the team that struggles most out of the three teams in the race.

That would be the San Francisco Giants. The Giants have the worst record in baseball since the MLB All-Star Break ended back in July. If the Cardinals meet up with the Giants in the NL Wild Card game on Oct. 4, the Cardinals could have a good chance at advancing to the NLDS.

Why the New York Mets Will Win the Wild Card

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The last place Atlanta Braves (61-91) who are 27.5 games behind the NL East leading Washington Nationals, just swept the New York Mets in a three-game series this week. New York bounced back the following night against the Philadelphia Phillies, winning 9-8. The Mets were below .500 as recently as mid-August, but went 15-4 between Aug. 20 and Sept. 9. That stretch of play allowed the Mets to climb back into the Wild Card hunt. New York is now 6-6 in their last 12 games. If the Mets had taken care of business against Atlanta, they'd be running away with one of the National League's Wild Card spots.

As of now, though, the Mets find themselves in a three-way tie with the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals for the final two Wild Card spots. The Giants who had the best record in the majors prior to the All-Star break, now have the worst record in the majors since the All-Star game. One of the main reasons for the Giants collapse has been their bullpen, which seems to find ways to lose games, night in and night out.

The Cardinals on the other hand, have found themselves playing .500 baseball. So far in September, the Cardinals are 10-10 despite the fact that they've played the Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Colorado Rockies and the struggling Giants.

Despite the Mets ability to hit homeruns, they continue to struggle when it comes to scoring runs for the most of the season due to their inability to put runners on base before they hit those homeruns. The injuries to the Mets starting rotation have left them with some not so well known pitchers behind Noah Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon. New York is hoping to get their star lefty, Steven Matz, back from an ailing arm injury, and with their recent reshuffling of their lineup, hope to be heading in a positive direction offensively.

You only have to look at each of the club's schedules in order to determine which two clubs will move on to the Wild Card game.

The Cardinals have one series each remaining against the Reds (63-89), Pirates (76-75) and a Cubs (97-55) team that has already clinched the NL Central. If the Cardinals want to make it to the Wild Card game, they'll have to play much better than .500 baseball.

The Giants face the Padres (64-88) and Rockies (73-79), before they take on the NL West leading Dodgers (86-66) - who will likely have clinched the division by the time that series starts.

The Mets have arguably the easiest schedule of all three teams. With a four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies (69-83), followed by a three-game series with the Miami Marlins (76-76), and a three-game series against the Phillies to close out the season.

Given who the Mets have to play, they're most likely to claim the top Wild Card spot, but advancing past the Wild Card game is a different matter entirely.

Why The San Francisco Giants Will Win the NL Wild Card

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With the Major League Baseball regular season quickly approaching its conclusion, the National League Wild Card race has become a tense, closely contested battle. As of Friday morning, the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants are tied for the lead with matching 81-72 records. Should those positions hold, both teams would both qualify for the one-game wild card playoff and would face each other. Not be left out, the St. Louis Cardinals, sit merely one half-game behind the both of them, one win shy in the victory column, at 80-72.

Since the league is in an even year (2016 for those with other information on their mind), expectations are high for the Giants, who have won the World Series in each of the last two even years, in 2014 and 2012. To keep up the pattern, they will have quite a bit of work ahead of them.

In their last nine games of the season, the Giants have three more games to finish a series in San Diego against the Padres, followed by finishing the season at home with three games against the Colorado Rockies and the last three against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After starting the year 50-31 over the first three months of the season, San Francisco has slowly spiraled downwards. In July, August and September, the Giants have a combined record of 31-41, including a 4-7 stretch in their last 11 games.

Their second half swoon can be attributed to multiple factors, most notably poor hitting. Left fielder Angel Pagan is hitting just .165 in September after going .324 in August. Right fielder Hunter Pence has been consistently around .290 all year, though he missed all of June and July to injury. Second baseman Joe Panik is following an All-Star 2015 campaign (.312 BA, .378 OBP, .833 OPS) with an underwhelming 2016 season (.241, .317, .698), including hitting just .145 in September. First baseman Brandon Belt is at .245 for August and September. 

The pitching staff hasn't been terrific, either. Ace Madison Bumgarner had a relatively abysmal August, with and ERA over 4.00, a WHIP approaching 1.300, and a strikeout-to-walk ratio under three. First-year Giant Johnny Cueto also had a poor August, with a 1-2 record, 4.38 ERA, and 1.243 WHIP. Matt Cain had a horrible July and August, ERAs of 6.39 and 7.24, and WHIPs of 1.421 and 1.829, respectively.

Additionally, the relief pitching has been a disaster all season. Out of 71 save opportunites, the bullpen has blown 30 of them. No other team has more, and of the nine other teams with at least 20, only the Dodgers, Marlins and Mariners are not at least seven games under .500. 

All that being said, all is not lost for the Giants as they finish their season. To this point they have split their season series with the Dodgers and Rockies, and have an advantage over the Padres. Bumgarner and Cueto have returned to stellar form in their most recent starts, and a majority of the lineup have been through the entire postseason experience multiple times, so they are more than ready and comfortable in those pressure situations. The Mets finish the season with their last six games on the road, at Philadelphia and Miami. The Cardinals end with 3 games in Chicago against the Cubs (the best record in the Majors), and then two series against the Reds and Pirates, who the Cardinals have a combined 15-16 record against. 

If the Giants merely hit a little better for the last two weeks, and can manage a few good performances out of the bullpen, they stand a great chance at finishing as one of the wild card teams headed into the playoffs.