Shapiro making waves as Anthopoulos departs Toronto

The best part of travel days during the World Series is that the Royals can't win. Ugh. Plenty of drama going on around baseball lately though, so let's have a look at that stuff:

Today's baseball

World Series Game 3: Royals @ Mets, 8:00 pm ET, Citi Field

The Series moves to NYC and the Mets send Noah Syndergaard, aka Thor, to take down Yordano Ventura, aka a big jerk, and his annoying band of gritty scrappers. God help us all when KC inevitably goes up 3-0.

News from around MLB

Alex Anthopoulos leaving Blue Jays after rejecting extension | SportsNet - This was the big news of the day yesterday. The Blue Jays GM rejected a five year contract extension, and the twitters were abuzz with rumors that it had something to do with not wanting to work with new team president Mark Shapiro. The Blue Jays bandwagon is losing its collective mind, as evidenced by this insanely overreactionary Reddit thread. Just for fun, Anthopoulos was named Sporting News Executive of the Year on the same day he resigned. What a weird turn of events.

Replacing Blue Jays GM in hands of President Mark Shapiro | Fox Sports - Now that Anthopoulos has left, Shapiro is in the driver's seat. How will the new most hated man in Canada replace the Executive of the Year?

Peers vote Josh Donaldson over Bryce Harper as player of the year | CBS Sports - In the latest example of "playing the game doesn't necessarily make you knowledgable about the game," this bunch of dummies thinks Donaldson is better than Harper. I sense the "play the game right" brigade was out in full force.

Tigers pitcher Daniel Morris says he's cancer free after surgery | Hardball Talk - Norris recently revealed that he had a malignant growth in his thyroid, which has been removed in a successful surgery.

Marlins hire Don Mattingly as manager | Vice Sports - It's a match made in heaven, as Donnie Baseball signs a four year contract with the fish. Also, today I learned that Vice Sports is a thing.

Marlins dismiss GM Dan Jennings | Hardball Talk - On the same day they hire a new manager, the Marlins open another GM spot.

Alex Rodriguez is 'really invested' as World Series analyst | CBS Sports - OK.

Indians news & notes

Will Mark Shapiro hire from the Indians for Toronto's open GM spot? | Cleveland.com - He's now perhaps the most unpopular man in Toronto, but it remains to be seen whether he's going to poach from the Tribe's FO. Paul Hoynes, Dan Labbe, and Chris Fedor are on the case.

Against all odds: the historical failings of the Cleveland Indians | Burning River Baseball - BRB delves into the historical data to prove why the Indians - not the stupid Cubs - are still the most tragic franchise in baseball.

The small market excuse needs to go | Wahoo's On First - Three of the bottom ten payroll teams in 2015 made the playoffs, none of which were the Indians (obviously). WOF thinks it's time to stop whining about low payroll and start taking some bolder steps toward improvement.

Inbox: does the Tribe have a playoff-caliber rotation? | Indians.com - Jordan Bastian opens up his mailbag, and explores how the Indians starters stack up against the World Series rotations. He also responds to a dude that thinks the Indians should trade for Paul Goldschmidt.