Outside The Confines: It’s getting Draft-y in here.

As the Cubs welcome first-round draft pick Ed Howard to the club, the entire baseball world is fully immersed in the draft itself. And why wouldn’t they be? With little else to focus on the past several month, the arrival of real, tangible baseball news is a thrilling balm to the weary souls of baseball writers everywhere.

The draft itself has been covered elsewhere on the site, so we won’t dig too deeply into it here, but it’s worth mentioning that this new, abbreviated five-round draft leaves a lot of potential talent off the radar.

Two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom was a ninth-round pick, Nolan Ryan went in the 12th round of the first amateur draft, and Albert Pujols was signed in the 13th round.

While players who miss getting selected this year will potentially have another shot to be signed next year, it becomes more difficult to be seen as two draft classes merge in 2021.

• The Baseball Hall of Fame has a great new online resource about the History of Baseball and Civil Rights in America.
• Alex Cora spoke to Marly Rivera for the first time since the Astros scandal broke, and he’s none too pleased about being painted as the mastermind of the cheating scheme.
• Bryce Jarvis has a great baseball name, and a family legacy to go with it. Steve Gilbert shares the story of the newest Diamondback.
• Don’t try to tell Max Scherzer baseball isn’t profitable.

• Jay Jaffe thinks Matt Harvey is going to have to overcome some obstacles to pitch in the KBO.
• Sarah R. Ingber, Davy Andrews, and Roger Cormier are at it again with their spotlight series on at-risk MiLB teams, this time with the story of the Greeneville Reds.
• John Keisewetter says farewell to sports author Lonnie Wheeler.
• If you’re so inclined as to grab Wheeler’s book about a summer in the Wrigley bleachers, copies are available used online.
• Jeffrey Flanagan says Royals GM Dayton Moore is committed to bringing more social justice awareness to the Royals.
• Charles Young and Alan Nathan take a deep dive into Active Spin Ratio.
• Some very well-named minor league clubs would REALLY like to start playing, report Fabian Ardaya and Brittany Ghiroli. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Not every draft pick is a winner, but these Giants fan responses have aged very poorly.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.