Outside The Confines: Who wins at the blame game?

Commissioner Rob Manfred’s recent statements that pinned blame for the spreading coronavirus in MLB squarely on the players haven’t been sitting well.

Players, especially those following the guidelines to the letter, are voicing their concern with everything from how other teams behavior impacts them, to the long and unnecessary waits for rain delays — forcing men into close proximity unnecessarily for hours on end.

More games have been postponed, including an entire four-game series between the Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers, leading many to wonder how fair the results of the season will be, and just how all these missed games can even possibly be made up.

As usual, the landscape of baseball journalism is brimming with opinions, so let’s get into it!

• Stephanie Apstein shifts the focus on who needs to be better from the players to Rob Manfred himself.
• With so many teams missing games, Emma Baccellieri looks at the challenging task of scheduling games in a pandemic.
• Rob Manfred needs to start focusing on cooperation instead of blame, writes Ken Rosenthal. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Jon Tayler interviews an epidemiologist about where the MLB went wrong and whether or not it’s too late to save the season.
• Daniel R. Epstein looks at what might happen in a scenario where Marlins owner Derek Jeter came out of retirement to play for the team.
• Just how long can every team hope to stay in the 2020 postseason race, asks Craig Edwards, special for ESPN.
• At his regular FanGraphs gig, Edwards wants us all to show Lance Lynn a little renewed appreciation.
• This week in 1945 a WWII vet with one leg got a chance to live his MLB dream. Frederic J. Frommer has the story.
• Joey Votto would naturally like an entire section of Joey Votto cutouts in the stands.

• It’s never too early for some seasonal hot takes on which teams might surprise us and make a run for the postseason.
• We’ve seen bees interrupt games before, but Andrew Bucholtz has the unusual story of a drone pausing play at the Twins/Pirates game on Tuesday.
• Sarah R. Ingber, Davy Andrews, and Roger Cormier continue their excellent series on at-risk minor league clubs with a feature on the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.
• Who would you rather have on your team: prime Ty Cobb or prime Miguel Cabrera? Cody Stavenhagen looks at which mighty Tiger is best. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Melanie Newman made history this week becoming the first woman in Orioles history to call play by play during a game.
• This whole runner on base thing in extras hasn’t been so bad, which leads some to wonder if it should stick around next season.
• Juan Soto remains charming as ever.

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