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The veneer of invincibility that struck fear and intimidation into so many opponents has faded, and it has been replaced by a sense, real or perceived, of vulnerability.

Sometimes that’s all it takes to lose the advantage.

The Kansas City Royals bullpen, specifically the once-dominant three at the back end, is now vulnerable. This was the group that virtually carried the Royals into the World Series last season, making it tolerable for the team to have a rotation that pumped fear into the hearts of no postseason opponent.

That was left to the three-headed relief monster of seventh-inning guy Kelvin Herrera, setup man Wade Davis and closer Greg Holland. But over this second half of the season, there have been chinks in what was once viewed as an impenetrable part of the team, and that could have devastating effects on the Royals’ run at another American League pennant.

The problem came to light once again Friday night when Holland allowed two runs to the Detroit Tigers in the 12th inning, blowing his fifth save and pumping his ERA to 6.00 over his last 14 appearances (12 innings).

The #Royals appear to have a closer issue.

— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) September 19, 2015

“I’ve never not trusted you,” Royals manager Ned Yost said he told Holland last week, per Andy McCullough of the Kansas City Star. “I’m not going to start now.”

That was before Holland’s fastball velocity was in the 80s and he walked a guy, allowed a hit and threw a wild pitch while saving a game against the Cleveland Indians last Tuesday. That prompted a slightly different tune.

“Being fair, Holly’s velocity has dropped,” Yost told reporters. “But he’s always been a guy who has done it. Until he proves he can’t do it, he’s going to get the opportunity to do it. He’s earned it, over the years.”

But…

“If it gets to be an issue, we’ll evaluate it,” Yost added. “It hasn’t become an issue yet. People want to get nervous because he’s throwing 90 or 91 mph. That’s fine. But right now, it really hasn’t become an issue. If it does, we’ll evaluate it.”

Holland threw a clean inning two days later for his 32nd save, but then came Friday’s debacle in which he issued a bases-loaded walk and the walk-off hit. That obviously brought on questions about Holland’s role, ones Yost was not willing to answer.

Yost, as a manager with the Milwaukee Brewers and the Royals, has always been loyal to his players and will fiercely defend them to the media when they are struggling. He proved that to be true again after Holland’s showing against the Tigers.

“I’m done talking about Greg right now,” Yost snapped at reporters, choosing not to address the elephant tucked into the corner of the manager’s office. “I’m done talking about Greg tonight.”

If Yost is done using him at any point, the Royals have an excellent replacement.

Wade Davis is arguably the best reliever in baseball this season. He leads all qualified arms with a 0.88 ERA, is second with a 91.1 percent strand rate and is eighth in FanGraphs wins above replacement, although he is only that low in the strikeout-centric formula because his 10.22 strikeouts per nine innings rank 37th in the majors among relievers.

Davis, an All-Star this year and owner of a 0.63 ERA in 14.1 postseason innings last year, also has not allowed an earned run in his last 14 outings. He’s struck out 17 in that span.

For now, Holland’s role remains the same. But he is far from the closer he was over the past two seasons, when he saved 93 games with a 1.32 ERA, 1.59 FIP and 13.4 strikeouts per nine innings with an average fastball velocity of 96 mph, according to Baseball Info Solutions (h/t FanGraphs). During last postseason, Holland was absolutely filthy, allowing one run in 11 innings and striking out 15 hitters.

This year, Holland’s velocity has dropped to under 94 mph and even further down as of late. He has a 3.83 ERA and is striking out 9.9 hitters per nine. His strikeout-to-walk ratio has dropped dramatically to a career-low 1.88 from 5.08 over the previous two seasons.

Holland is not alone in these struggles, though. Herrera, a dominant bullpen arm at times in his career, was great in 2014. He had a 1.41 ERA and in the playoffs allowed three runs in 15 innings (1.80 ERA) and struck out 16.

He started out this year in the same form. In his first 55.1 innings, Herrera had a 1.95 ERA, and opponents hit .181 against him. But in his last 10 outings, starting on Aug. 22, the 25-year-old right-hander has a 7.71 ERA with eight earned runs allowed in 9.1 innings. The majority of that damage came in back-to-back outings on Sept. 11 and 14 when he surrendered three earned runs in each, but since then, Herrera has had consecutive scoreless innings without allowing a run, though he did give up a hit and a walk Friday.

Whatever happens between now and Game 1 of the American League Division Series for the Royals, the fact is that the bullpen’s immaculate facade has cracked, aside from Davis. Holland and Herrera have had their skin pulled back, and instead of robotic parts, there are human ones.

That is enough to strip the Royals of their intimidation factor in October. And unless their questionable starting pitching steps up next month or both relievers return to last season’s form, that could be enough to cost the team late-inning losses when it can least afford them.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The reappearing act is an underrated one.

That is mostly because it is shrouded in disappointment, which is a necessary prerequisite. Without a massive letdown, there is no unexpected burst back onto the scene to stun the masses.

The Los Angeles Angels have both ends covered now.

They started this season as a team coming off a 98-win campaign, the highest total in Major League Baseball in 2014. But the disappointment of being swept out of last year’s playoffs bled into this summer. And the team that seemed most likely to win the American League West severely underachieved and went into September 7.5 games out of first place and 3.5 games back in the race for the second wild-card spot with two clubs ahead of it.

Less than three weeks later, the Angels have reappeared. They swept a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins—one of the teams they were trailing in the wild-card standings—on Saturday to move a game ahead of them and 1.5 behind the Houston Astros for that second berth.

The #Angels sweep, leapfrogging past #Twins and now closing in on #Astros for 2nd wild card spot

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 20, 2015

“My group of guys, they’re not going to quit,” manager Mike Scioscia told reporters after the Angels won the first game 4-3 in 12 innings. “They’re going to keep playing hard. Everybody’s upbeat on the bench.”

There is reason to be. This latest pair of victories gives the Angels 11 in their last 17 contests, spanning this month. Before this run they had lost nine of their previous 11 and 26 of 37. They looked like a team simply trying to finish out what had, to that point, become a truly disappointing year.

The Angels had already watched a beef between Scioscia and their general manager, Jerry Dipoto, play out publicly and lead to the theoretical superior quitting on the spot. The losing ways and the fall from relevancy were just more to add to the trash heap.

“It’s one of those times in the season when things go wrong and things kind of pile up on top of each other,” left-hander Hector Santiago told reporters after the Angels lost their 19th game of August, their highest loss total in that month since 1999.

Since then, everything has gone right, and that pile of issues has started tumbling. The rotation has become quite good. Mike Trout is hitting like Trout typically hits. And the Angels are moving up the standings toward where we all figured they would be when this season started.

In the 17 games since the start of the month, when this winning run commenced, the team’s starting pitchers have a 3.62 ERA, second-lowest in the league, and lead all AL rotations with an 80.9 percent strand rate, according to FanGraphs.

Garrett Richards, the team’s ace last season who has failed to live up to the billing this year, gave them one of their best outings of the month in the second game Saturday, throwing 8.2 innings and allowing two runs.

Meanwhile, Trout went into the end of August having hit .194/.336/.290 with a .627 OPS and one home run in the first 27 games of the month. He went 4-for-4 on Aug. 30, a prelude to the damage he would do in September.

Heading into Saturday’s doubleheader, Trout was hitting .280/.422/.660 with a 1.082 OPS for the month, which was sixth-highest in the league. His 193 wRC+ was seventh. He had only one hit Saturday against the Twins, but it was a home run, his sixth of the month, which is tied for second-most in the AL in September.

While those numbers seem pedestrian for a guy like Trout, they are far better than they were in the previous month and might be another precursor of what’s to come if the Angels end up in the playoffs.

“Mike does what Mike does, but we need to be more than a one-trick pony,” Scioscia told reporters Thursday (h/t Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times). “If the only thing we have going is what Mike is going to do, it’s not going to happen for us. He’s part of the core of the lineup, but we need nine guys swinging it so we can pressure other teams.”

For too long the Angels were almost all Trout and very little else, which is a big part of the reason they currently sit outside of the playoff picture. And Scioscia is correct in the obvious assessment that if no one else helps, this season will end with the Angels missing the postseason for the fifth time in six years.

The help has come, though, and Trout is mostly back to his normal, incredible self. This team has reappeared. The trick now is keeping itself in plain view.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Team strengths are abundant among Major League Baseball’s postseason contenders. They have to be over the course of a demanding 162-game season.

In October, those strengths become more critical than at any other time of the year. However, as the playoffs have shown in series after series, year after year, it is not always a team’s strengths that actually decide its eventual fate.

Often, it is a club’s weakness that determines how deep it can trudge through the postseason. When a team cannot rely on a vital part of its makeup when the leverages are at their highest, it can cost it its playoff life.

The standings show us the most likely postseason participants with about two weeks to go in the regular season. While we know which strengths have them sitting in those positions, it is now time to expose each projected playoff team’s fatal flaw, the glaring weakness that could eliminate it and end its World Series dream.

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Just think of the possibilities.

This is the foundation books are written on. It is what makes one city hate another regardless of how closely its citizens follow sports. This is how the ideas are born for great 30 for 30s, ESPN’s acclaimed sports documentary series that has already featured the Yankees–Red Sox rivalry and the Chicago Cubs’ losing history.

But the Cubs are not losers at present day. They are aimed dead straight toward the postseason, and for the first time since Steve Bartman sat along the left field foul line, they are legitimate threats to take the National League pennant.

That does not sit well with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cubs’ chief rival. For the past 15 years, the Cardinals have been godlike in the National League Central, having won the division eight times and expected to win a ninth within days. The Cardinals have a way, and it has taken them to the postseason a dozen times in the past 16 seasons, including this one, where they have made four World Series and won two.

So on a mid-September afternoon, a baseball game was played between these teams inside confines that are supposed to be friendly. Things turned hostile, though. The contenders took exception to pitches hitting their teammates, and Joe Maddon, in his first year writing out lineups for the Cubs, took exception to the “Cardinal Way,” which has several tunnels to explore through the power of search engines—everything from winning to luck to computer hacking shows up on the first page of Google’s results.

“We don’t start stuff, but we finish stuff.” Watch @CubsJoeMadd’s postgame presser: http://t.co/YzbwAfOmxc pic.twitter.com/rb3mbCofFm

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 19, 2015

And just like that, this rivalry has hit a new level. The teams are good. They will be so for years to come, we think. There is animosity, which makes it more intriguing. There was a comparison to the mob and a sweet, old-timey “Who died and made you God?” kind of burn.

The salvo has been unleashed.

Joe Maddon goes off on Cards for throwing at Rizzo. It’s on.

— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) September 18, 2015

Here is a quick refresher of the talking points:

• Cubs pitcher Dan Haren, whose average fastball is 86.1 MPH and slow enough for third-lowest in the majors among starting pitchers, hit Cardinals slugging star Matt Holliday in the helmet in the fifth inning. Watch the video, check the situation and you can clearly see it was unintentional.
• In the seventh inning, Cardinals reliever Matt Belisle intentionally threw at Cubs star Anthony Rizzo. Watch the video and there is little doubt it was purposeful, despite Belisle’s poor attempt to mask the intent. He was ejected, and so was St. Louis manager Mike Matheny.
• After the game, Maddon went off.

“Right now, that really showed me a lot today in a negative way,” Maddon said in his postgame press conference. “I don’t know who put out the hit. I don’t know if Tony Soprano was in the dugout, but I didn’t see him in there. But we’re not going to put up with that. I’m going to say that. From them or anybody else.”

Maddon also said:

That is ridiculous. I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want to hear about [Belisle] pitching inside. I don’t want to hear any of that crap. The pitch that Danny hit their guy with, absolutely a mistake. And Danny…it was just a mistake. It just happened. It was awful. We hated it. We all hated it in the dugout. I’m happy that he’s fine, absolutely. … We don’t start stuff, but we will finish stuff.

Part of what has become known as the Cardinal way over the past decade is that the team polices the game and opposing players as if it wears a badge, though that reputation was born and bred mostly under former manager Tony La Russa. Other players do not approve, obviously, and St. Louis’ former players, like Haren, understand this is how the club goes about its business.

Both teams have plenty on the line this season. The Cardinals are trying to hold on to the division, and the Cubs are trying to overtake the Pittsburgh Pirates for the first wild-card spot. So this thing might be over for this season, or it might not be. We’ll see over the weekend.

What we do know now is this will make for a heated future between these teams. The Cardinals cannot like the idea of being threatened by a young, talented team that should only get better and has the money to fill whatever holes might be uncovered. And the Cubs surely don’t like being talked down to in the form of fastballs intentionally thrown at them.

The windows to win for both franchises are wide open, meaning this rivalry has staying power. And it appeals on a national level, not quite as much as Yankees-Red Sox, but probably more so than Dodgers–Giants.

This is not over—the trash talk, the despising and, unfortunately, the hitters being thrown at. And if you’re a fan of baseball, lock into this thing for the next several years, because this was just Chapter 1.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Devastating.

Purely and simply devastating. 

There is hardly another way to sum up the awful fortune dealt to Pittsburgh Pirates valuable rookie shortstop Jung Ho Kang on Thursday afternoon after he was taken out while turning a double play against the Chicago Cubs.

Cubs left fielder Chris Coghlan slid into Kang’s left knee in the first inning, causing a fractured tibia and a torn MCL. Needless to say at this point in the year, Kang is done for the season as the Pirates push toward the playoffs and attempt to overtake the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central.

Dejan Kovacevic of DKPittsburghSports.com (via USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale) first reported the severity of the injury, and Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Kang would undergo surgery Thursday night.

“This is one of those things in baseball, you know you’ve got to go on, you know someone else has got to step up, but it hurts,” Hall of Fame pitcher and MLB Network analyst John Smoltz said on MLB Tonight. “It hurts in an emotional way. Pittsburgh’s going to be in the playoffs, no doubt, but it takes a little notch away from the depth they had working for them.”

Kang and Coghlan both downplayed the intent of the play. Coghlan sent a note to the home clubhouse after the Cubs’ 9-6 win, per Patrick Mooney of Comcast SportsNet, and Kang later said in a statement the play was not dirty and that Coghlan was “playing the game the way it should be played.”

Kang, a South Korean import who signed a four-year, $11 million deal before this season, was a major contributor to the Pirates’ success this year. He went into Thursday hitting .287/.355/.461 with an .816 OPS; he also had 15 home runs, a 123 OPS+ and was second on the team in FanGraphs’ wins above replacement (4.0) behind superstar center fielder Andrew McCutchen.

Those numbers took Kang from a platoon role early in the season to a vital part of the club’s fortunes, and he was also in the conversation for the NL Rookie of the Year Award.

Pirates when Jung Ho Kang starts 63-40, average 4.5 runs per game

when he doesn’t start 24-19, average 3.8 runs per game

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 17, 2015

The loss was Pittsburgh’s third in a row, all to the chasing Cubs, who have dropped the Pirates to 4.5 games behind the Cardinals as of the end of the third defeat. The Pirates allowed the Cubs to get within two games of the first wild-card berth, which would hold home-field advantage in the one-game playoff.

The Pirates now go into Los Angeles to face a Dodgers team that has gone 17-5 in its last 22 games—one of the best in the majors since Aug. 25. The Pirates will also have to face Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, front-runners for the league’s Cy Young Award, in the first two games of the weekend set.

Later in the month the Pirates visit the Cubs for three games and return home to host the Cardinals for three more. Now they will do all of this without arguably their second-best player. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s Bill Brink relayed a comment from Neil Walker:

Neil Walker: “They outplayed us, and then the icing on the cake is they knock out one of our best players.”

— Bill Brink (@BrinkPG) September 17, 2015

Send our teammate Jung Ho Kang prayers. Heal up Chingu(friend). We got u. Best believe that

— Andrew McCutchen (@TheCUTCH22) September 17, 2015

The Pirates, who have lost 10 of their last 18 games, had issues before Kang’s lineup-altering injury. In the 17 games before Thursday, the team had a .246/.313/.369 slash line with a .682 OPS. All of those numbers are below league average, and for this month the Pirates rate in the league’s bottom half in overall offense.

For his part, Kang was starting to pick things up in his previous eight games, hitting .303/.324/.545 with an .869 OPS and two home runs. Losing him and his defensive versatility—he plays shortstop and third base—is a significant blow, but the Pirates believe they can absorb it.

“Our bench is definitely built for something like this,” shortstop Jordy Mercer, who suffered a strained MCL earlier this season on a similar play to the one that took out Kang, told Adam Berry of MLB.com. “Obviously, we don’t want anything like this to happen, but in case something did happen, we’ve got guys that can fill in right away.”

The Pirates are about to embark on their most critical road trip of the season, facing two playoff teams in a 10-game stretch. The offense is sputtering. One of their best hitters is finished. Their grip on the top wild-card spot is iffy, and their hopes of taking the top spot in the division are dashed.

This is still a playoff team, though. They still have a legitimate middle-of-the-order star in McCutchen, an ace in Gerrit Cole and a run-preventing bullpen that is among the best in the majors. Those tools play well in October.

Now they just have to do so without one of their best players.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Expectations at the big league level were minimal as last April brought the start of the Major League Baseball season.

However, by the time the final out of their 25th game was made, the Houston Astros had transformed into a contender. The only question was, were they more the small-sample variety, or were they the kind of club built to sustain success through the grind of 162 regular-season games?

For about five months, they gave us a definitive answer—they were built for the long haul. Or so they made us think.

Over their last 18 games, the Astros have taken a dozen losses, including Wednesday night’s 14-3 pummeling at the hands of the Texas Rangers, the American League West’s new leading team after the Astros led by 5.5 games less than three weeks ago. Going back further, Houston is five games under. 500 in its last 105, and now its hold on the second wild-card spot is at 1.5 games with the Minnesota Twins lurking.

“We’re a good team. We’ve been a good team all year,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch told reporters after the latest loss. “There’s a reason we’ve been hanging around here with the lead for the better part of this year. We’ll be a good team again by the end of the year.”

Astros about to drop to 50-55 since May 20. Out of playoffs in ‘x’ days?

— Joe Strauss (@JoeStrauss) September 17, 2015

The Astros’ four-game series against the Rangers started as a pivotal point in both teams’ seasons. The Rangers were well into their second-half onslaught that made them a surprise contender in the way the Astros were in April. Meanwhile, this was a chance for the struggling Astros, one game over .500 since the All-Star break, to make a stand and push back against their surging in-state rivals.

Doing so would have gone quite a ways in making people forget their recent slide, and it would have halted the panic setting in about this team devolving from a surprise member of the elite into one of the league’s biggest disappointments.

However, even with their two best starting pitchers slated in the first three games, the Astros did nothing to stop the flooding. The Rangers beat both Scott Kazmir (2.63 ERA) and Dallas Keuchel (2.22 ERA entering Wednesday), and their thumping of Keuchel started early Wednesday and ensured they would win the series and walk away from it in first place no matter what happens in Thursday’s finale.

“It’s a confidence-booster,” Rangers outfielder Delino DeShields told reporters. “We have been playing good against these guys all year. To come out like this, it says we’re not going to lie down, we’re here to the end, we’re not going to make it easy.”

Houston’s offense has taken some injury hits, and in the second half it has been in the middle of the pack, which is not much different than it was in the first half.

The rotation has been quite good throughout the season, but over the last couple of weeks, its performance has dipped. The real pitching problem, though, has been in the bullpen. After the relievers were fourth in the league in Fangraphs WAR during the first half, they have dropped to sixth in the second half and 10th over the past couple of weeks.

That has helped lead to a 7-12 record in one-run games in the second half, although the team has not been great in that split all season, going 19-26 for the year.

“We’ve played some close games, and one-run losses or two-run losses are tough, especially this time of year,” Hinch told reporters Tuesday night. “There’s a lot of attention, a lot of ‘want’ factor. Our guys are pushing. We’re in it. We’re having a hard time getting to the finish line on the right side of these on a couple of occasions.”

But those numbers on their own aren’t enough to cause a complete collapse. The Rangers have done their part to facilitate it. Their rotation has gone from around the bottom of the league in the first half to very good in August based on ERA and in September based on Fangraphs WAR to help them to a 36-21 record since the All-Star break, the second-most wins in the league in that time.

Some mild faltering by the Astros and a surge by the Rangers have given them a change at the top of the standings—and a significant shift in playoff probabilities, as the Rangers have gone from a 4.7 percent chance of winning the division on Aug. 26 to a nearly 60 percent chance after Wednesday’s win, based on Fangraphs’ postseason projections. 

Time is running out for the Astros to make good on their fairytale start, and missing the playoffs is now a realistic possibility with 16 games remaining, including three more against the Rangers. 

“We’ll be ready to play,” Hinch told reporters. “Our world’s not coming to an end.”

No, it’s not. But their postseason chances are flirting with it.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The comedic impressions, the all-around goofiness and even the recent “Wild Thing” haircut have become staples of Derek Holland‘s public persona during his seven-year career. 

It has made him a beloved player within his own clubhouse, a well-liked man within the game, a go-to interview for media members and a favorite for Texas Rangers fans. It has also made him marketable, gaining him television appearances and endorsement deals.

None of that would matter if Holland could not produce on the mound, though, and through most of his career, he has. But his downfall has been that over the last two seasons, injuries are associated with him as much as his fun-loving personality.

This season, it was a torn muscle behind his left shoulder that cost him more than four months on the disabled list—last year it was an off-field knee injury that sidelined him for the first five months of the season—but he has pitched mostly like a front-line starter since his return. That is a key reason why the Rangers, if they hang on to make the postseason as a wild card or winner of the American League West, can match their rotation with any in the Junior Circuit.

Holland talked about what he needs to do to help the team down the stretch, via Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

It sucks that I am as fresh as I am, but I need to use this to my benefit and help these guys. I don’t know what the [innings] plan is from here on out, but I’m just happy they let me have the chances to go out there for nine innings.

I feel like everything is good. My job is to be prepared every five days. Now, it’s go time.

.@Dutch_Oven45, meet @charliesheen: http://t.co/S8evbGX3ne pic.twitter.com/RGqg1hCm4H

— Cut4 (@Cut4) September 8, 2015

It has been since his return on Aug. 19. Aside from a few so-so outings, Holland has been a shutdown part of the rotation, compiling a 3.13 ERA in six starts. His best of those came three turns ago when he threw a complete-game shutout with 11 strikeouts against the Baltimore Orioles. He followed that with eight innings of one-run ball against the Los Angeles Angels. He gave up only three hits in each of those starts.

The numbers should not be shocking. In his five September starts last season after he returned from the microfracture surgery on his left knee, he had a 1.31 ERA and pitched less than seven innings in only one of those.

“What he did last September was eye-popping,” pitching coach Mike Maddux told Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after the Baltimore start. “What he did [against the Orioles] was like what he did last September.”

There will likely be some mild innings limits on Holland for the rest of the month—he threw 116 and 113 pitches, respectively, in those starts against the Orioles and Angels—but he feels good right now, and whatever limits exist, they should not affect him pitching in the playoffs.

His next start is scheduled for Wednesday against the Houston Astros and their ace, Dallas Keuchel, easily the most critical series the teams have played against each other since the Astros moved to the league in 2013.

“We know he’s been out to 116,” manager Jeff Banister told reporters. “I don’t know if we’ll be as liberal with that number. That’s not to say that we don’t go to that number. We haven’t taken the gloves off just yet.”

The Rangers’ postseason hopes are still delicate at this point. They are 13 games over .500 in the second half and have pulled themselves to within a half-game of the Astros in the AL West, though their lead for the second wild-card spot is at just one game over the Minnesota Twins.

If they manage to hold on and earn a berth, their rotation stacks up with any the league will throw against them. In a one-game playoff, they have an ace in Cole Hamels, who pitched seven innings and allowed three runs against the Astros on Monday. That is the kind of experienced, reliable arm any team would take in a do-or-die situation.

If the Rangers find themselves in a series, they can run out a trio of Hamels, Holland and Yovani Gallardo. That could be potentially as good as any threesome in the league, and they can use Colby Lewis, Chi Chi Gonzalez, Nick Martinez or Martin Perez as a fourth. Those aren’t bad back-end options to have.

Over the previous 30 days, just before Holland’s return and going into Monday, Texas’ rotation had the fourth-highest FanGraphs WAR in the AL in that time frame, and its 3.67 ERA was third-lowest. And even though wins aren’t a great way to gauge effectiveness, the group was tied for the most wins (15) in that span.

“We’ve got some different animals out there,” Maddux told Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News on Aug. 30. “Our rotation has been improved. We’re in a good spot.”

It is possible that spot could become great if Holland continues giving them run-preventing starts through this month and into October.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Overlooking Curtis Granderson has been a given. 

The New York Mets have so many storylines swirling around their clubhouse this season, and the New York and national media alike are covering them all top to bottom.

Yoenis Cespedes is a huge angle, as is the team’s record since his arrival. So is Matt Harvey’s innings limit, Jacob deGrom’s outstanding sophomore season, David Wright’s strong return, Jeurys Familia’s lights-out performance as closer and the team’s overall handling of its young starting pitchers.

Plus, the Mets are in first place, days away from clinching the National League East and returning to the postseason for the first time since 2006.

Easily lost in all of that is Granderson, the man who has been there every day through the team’s ugly valleys and second-half surge. With relatively no fanfare, he leads the Mets in several offensive categories while playing strong defense in right field. He’s been a consistent presence at the top of the lineup, proving to be productive even when the team’s offense resembled a minor league one.

Curtis Granderson’s last 162 games: 161 hits, 99 runs, 37 doubles, 27 homeruns, 78 RBIs, 90 walks, 153 strikeouts, .268/.368/.475, 137 wRC+

— New York Mets Stats (@NYMStats) September 13, 2015

“A very gratifying year for me so far,” Granderson told Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post. “But not a satisfying one. Not yet. There are still things I—that we—want to accomplish.”

Much of that gratification probably stems from the pressure Granderson had placed on himself when he signed a four-year, $60 million contract before last season. But in his first year with the Mets, the now-34-year-old disappointed.

After hitting 108 home runs to go with an .843 OPS and 123 OPS+ in his first three seasons with the New York Yankees, Granderson hit 20 homers and had a 104 OPS+ in 2014, a season after he was limited to 61 games because of a forearm fracture and a broken bone in his pinky.

Of course, there was talk that Granderson was too deep into his 30s to be an All-Star-caliber player again and that pitcher-friendly Citi Field would sink his value.

That kind of talk has completely gone away this season. While Citi Field has sapped some of his power, Granderson still leads the Mets with 141 games played, 23 home runs, 64 RBI, 87 runs, 83 walks, 11 stolen bases, a .365 OBP, a .355 wOBA, a 130 wRC+ and a 4.6 FanGraphs WAR.

Those numbers suffice as living up to the contract.

“He hasn’t stopped,” manager Terry Collins told reporters over the weekend. “Look at the first month. He was hitting .115 with a .380 on-base. That speaks to the job he’s done. He gets on. He gets big hits. He hits home runs. He’s driving in runs.

“He’s done everything you possibly could have asked for a guy in the leadoff spot.”

Granderson, whose only flaw this season has been not hitting against left-handed pitching, was also the team’s lone offensive presence for much of the first four months of the season, when its OBP hovered around the .300 mark. Before Cespedes arrived in August and Wright and Travis d’Arnaud got healthy and Michael Conforto found his way to the big leagues, Granderson was productive.

And since the start of August when Cespedes arrived and the Mets went on a winning binge—the team is 29-11 since then—Granderson has gotten better. He went into Saturday hitting .271/.395/.507 with a .902 OPS and 19 extra-base hits in 37 games. On Sunday, he went 1-for-3 with a run, two walks (one with the bases loaded) and three RBI in the Mets’ 10-inning win against the Atlanta Braves.

While Cespedes and Harvey have taken most of the team’s headlines in the second half and have been incredibly productive, Granderson has a legitimate case for being the team’s MVP.

“Hey, sometimes balls fall in. Sometimes they don’t,” Granderson told Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “That’s the crazy thing about this game that makes it frustrating and exciting at the same time.”

The Mets have obviously been a revitalized team since the start of August. They have throttled the Washington Nationals to become kings of the division, they have a rotation they can match up with any in the playoffs and the lineup has not only become respected, but feared as well, and it starts with Granderson at the top of the order.

The Mets are a World Series contender because of their pitching, and now they are looking like a complete club with all the necessary pieces in place. So it can be easy to not realize just how good Granderson has been this year.

Maybe his October stage will come with brighter lights.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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The wins are great, but the injury curbs some of the enthusiasm. 

The Toronto Blue Jays went into the Bronx knowing a series win could give them a significant cushion in the American League East. On Saturday night, they secured that victory, taking the first three games of a four-game weekend against the New York Yankees to pump their division lead to 4.5 games. 

That is a commanding lead considering only 20 games remain in the Blue Jays’ regular season, while the Yankees have 21 to play without controlling their own fate within the division. The three Toronto wins, including Saturday’s sweep of a doubleheader, give it a 93 percent probability of winning the East, according to FanGraphs’ playoff odds.

Right now, the only thing dampening the impending triumph is shortstop Troy Tulowitzki’s left shoulder blade, which cracked upon impact with center fielder Kevin Pillar during the first of Saturday’s two games.

Tulowitzki, who went to Toronto in the blockbuster trade that sent Jose Reyes to the Colorado Rockies before the non-waiver trade deadline, will be monitored in the coming days before the Blue Jays’ medical staff determines his timeline for a return.

This certainly could be a significant blow, and Tulowitzki could be out for a while. Considering the role the shoulders play in a baseball swing, and considering a crack is the same as a break or a fracture, it seems like a long shot at this point that the Blue Jays will get their starting shortstop back at any point for the rest of the regular or postseason.

For now, the team has to wait and see. MLB reporter Gregor Chisholm and former NFL team doctor David J. Chao weighed in:

I’m sorry but “How long is Tulowitzki out for?” is a question I cannot answer. Not because I don’t want to but because I honestly don’t know

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) September 13, 2015

Scapula is one of hardest bones in body. Usually a “car accident” type force to break. Painful as 17 muscles attach there. #TroyTulowitski

— David J. Chao, MD (@ProFootballDoc) September 13, 2015

While the initial news is bad, this is not a deathblow by any stretch. The Blue Jays are the hitting-est team in Major League Baseball, and their lineup is the most intimidating the sport has to offer at this point. Even without Tulowitzki.

That is because he has mostly been intimidating in name only since joining the Blue Jays. Tulowitzki had a stellar debut with his new club, going 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and a home run. Since then and going into Saturday, he had hit .221/.308/.329 with a below-average 90 OPS+ in 37 games, showing that the team’s 30-9 record since acquiring him—before Saturday’s sweep—was due to the team’s improved pitching and the boppers that come before him in a stacked lineup.

Despite Tulowitzki’s lack of offensive production, the Blue Jays had a .282/.354/.485 team slash line with an .839 OPS while averaging more than six runs a game in their previous 39 games entering Saturday. Then, they scored 19 runs in the doubleheader against the Yankees.

That is truly incredible offensive production, but the Blue Jays have become much more than a video game lineup over the last month-and-a-half.

The offense had been great all season, but the team lacked adequate starting pitching. That is why it traded for ace David Price along with bullpen help before the July 31 deadline. Since then, the staff had put up a 3.37 ERA in the 36 games before Saturday, when it allowed a total of 12 runs in the two games.

And they’ve also done well in meaningful games on the road with the division on the line. The Canadian Press’ Melissa Couto relayed this stat:

Per Blue Jays PR: the sac fly by Gardner snapped a 28.0 consecutive scoreless innings streak by TOR pitching at Yankee Stadium

— Melissa Couto (@ThrowinSmoke) September 12, 2015

When your offense is capable of double-digit outputs on any night against any pitcher the opposing team has to offer—according to Chisholm, the Blue Jays have scored 10 or more runs 24 times this season, the most since the 2011 Boston Red Sox—that is plenty of production from the mound.

“That’s what our offense does, they score runs and today was a perfect example of that,” Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada told reporters Saturday. “We put it all together.”

That is why Tulowitzki’s injury will not derail the Blue Jays. A lineup that features MVP candidate Josh Donaldson (38 home runs), Jose Bautista (35 home runs) and Edwin Encarnacion (32 home runs) can absorb an injury to a so-so offensive cog and keep right on rolling. Plus, Ryan Goins, assuming he replaces Tulowitzki at shortstop, had a .420 OBP in his last 69 plate appearances before Saturday.

The Blue Jays might have started rolling right around the time they acquired Tulowitzki, but he clearly has not been the sole reason, nor one of the top ones, for the Blue Jays being on the verge of winning their first AL East title since 1993, the last time they qualified for the playoffs.

They are better with Tulowitzki, but even without him they look like one of the most complete teams in the league and are a legitimate contender to win the pennant.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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The reason this is happening never should have happened.

The trade that has helped lead the New York Mets to so much recent good fortune was one the team’s front office was not even considering until circumstances pushed it toward alternatives.

The Mets thought they had their outfield trade acquisition just before the July 31 non-waiver deadline, but it was not Yoenis Cespedes.

As has been chronicled through the saga between the Mets and Milwaukee Brewers and the tears of Wilmer Flores, the Mets had agreed to acquire Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez. The trade ultimately fell through, Gomez eventually ended up in Houston and the Mets were forced to scramble for another outfielder who could hit around the middle of their lineup as they made their playoff push.

Luckily, the Detroit Tigers had decided to sell. And they held just the kind of piece the Mets wanted in Cespedes. The deal was agreed to just before the deadline, and it would be the catalyst for the Mets putting away the National League East championship less than six weeks later.

Cespedes has been a godsend for New York, and he again proved why in the top of the eighth inning Wednesday night by hitting a go-ahead two-run home run to push the Mets to their sixth victory over the Washington Nationals—with zero defeats—since the trade went down. This win put the Mets seven games ahead of the Nationals, virtually ensuring their division title; they are now 26-11 since the Cespedes deal.

“When guys with this much talent get on these kinds of rolls, it’s unbelievable,” Mets teammate Kelly Johnson told reporters. “It’s so much fun to watch. It really does kind of remind you of some throwback player, like your dad used to tell you about Clemente or Mantle.”

Or how about Carlos Beltran circa 2004? That was the year the Houston Astros acquired him, and Beltran hit 23 home runs and posted a 135 OPS+ in 90 regular-season games. He then went ballistic in the postseason, hitting .435/.536/1.022 with eight home runs in 12 games.

We’ll have to wait to see what Cespedes does in October, but as of now, his regular-season numbers with his new club are outstanding. He was 2-for-4 with that home run Wednesday, and going into that game he was hitting .307/.354/.660 with a 1.014 OPS and 13 home runs in the previous 35 games.

“I’m not sure how it works, but [Cespedes] should be in the discussion for National League MVP,” Mets third baseman David Wright told reporters. “It just seems like he puts himself in scoring position every time he walks to the plate.”

That is just silly. Cespedes is not—repeat, not—a National League MVP candidate. It would be absurd to even consider it, especially with what Bryce Harper has done the entire season—he hit his 35th and 36th homers of the season in the same game Wednesday.

@jonmorosi @FOXSports @FS1 @MLBNetwork this is silly

— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) September 10, 2015

The underlying point Wright was making with that statement should not be lost in the hyperbolic way he said it. He is saying Cespedes has meant so much to the Mets’ run over the last five-plus weeks that he has easily been the team’s MVP since his arrival on Aug. 1.

However, this forgets to note that the Mets got healthier in that time or that their rotation was wonderful in August and has mostly continued to be so in September, as FanGraphs outlines.

But Cespedes has been a significant part of all of this for the Mets. And it was his shot Wednesday night that ensured the Nationals would be the most disappointing team in baseball this season.

“It’s pretty devastating,” Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond told reporters, stating the completely obvious. Their deficit is great, time is not on their side and neither is Cespedes nor his production.

“We’re ready to fight until the last out—we never give up,” Cespedes told reporters. “We know we’re going to come back and put together good at-bats, and we think we can do it all the way.”

That might require Cespedes to have a Beltran-like postseason, because right now he is the team’s most intimidating, feared and powerful offensive force.

This team already has the pitching, and Cespedes has solidified the lineup. Those things have helped the Mets overtake Washington and separate in dramatic fashion over the six games the teams have played since the Cespedes trade.

“At this point in the season, two or three weeks left, you’re looking pretty good if you have a six- or seven-game lead,” Johnson told reporters. “Hopefully those games we play them in New York [the final weekend] won’t matter and we can celebrate early.”

Thanks to the trade that was never supposed to be, they might as well start now.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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