Outside The Confines: Schedule shenanigans!

With much delight and some cautious optimism, the new 2020 baseball schedule arrived on Monday evening. We wrote a bit about it here as you might expect, but let’s look at what the big brains of baseball writing have to add to the conversation.

Tim Britton wrote about how the unbalanced schedule helps some teams more than others in its limited travel areas. (The Athletic subscription required.)

At FanGraphs Craig Edwards shared his five thoughts on the new schedule.

Tom Verducci shared his thoughts on the newly released schedule as well, sharing his take on the winners and losers.

And now let’s get into the non-schedule related topics.

• A schedule might not be necessary if the season gets cancelled due to testing concerns, writes Jay Jaffe.
• Stephanie Apstein likewise suggests MLB must be more open about what’s going on with its testing snafus.
• Joe West was making waves today with his coronavirus comments, but Ken Rosenthal shares the umpire’s plans to return this season. (The Athletic subscription required.) More on this from Al at 9 a.m. CT.
• Sarah R. Ingber, Davy Andrews, and Roger Cormier’s minor league series visits the Lexington Legends in their ongoing quest to write about at-risk teams.
• More players are opting out and others are voicing worries, as Tony Wolfe writes about the upcoming season.
• My YouTube channel hit the 100 video milestone this week, and I deconstructed an MLB ball.

• According to Andy McCullough, this would not be the season for future free agents like Mookie Betts to opt out. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• In reference to the possibility of changing the name of the Rookie of the Year award, John Thorne has an article about the meeting of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Paul Robeson.
• Wrigley is “how dare you” low on this list of MLB parks from Corey Brock and Sean Gentille. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Mitch Garver is not amused by his Call of Duty reputation.

• James Wagner shares the story of how social media was a useful outlet for Tony Kemp.
• Ever wish you could have a do over? Richard Deitsch asks sports broadcasters which play they wish they could redo. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• How have the Rays defied the odds to get where they are? Tom Verducci looks at MLB’s outliers.
• Joey Votto isn’t shy about sharing his opinions at Summer Camp.

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