Outside The Confines: This one goes to 11

Today, I’m getting my second Pfizer dose. That means in two weeks, I should be fully vaccinated. I won’t be totally immune to COVID, but my life should be able to get back to what it was before the pandemic. For me, that means going back to rarely leaving my house and trying to avoid human contact as much possible. So basically, nothing will have changed. I’ll even still wear a mask since it’s a good excuse to avoid even more human interaction.

• Things looked bleak for the Oakland Athletics when they got off to a 1-7 start on the season. But since then, they’ve won 11 games in a row. Gabe Lacques looks at the winning streak and explains why the A’s have been so good.
• David Schoenfield also examines why the A’s have been winning and then lists what they still need to do to go from a team with an early hot streak to an actual pennant contender.
• The Dodgers, on the other hand, were expected to be good, but maybe not this good. With a 14-4 start (they are playing the Padres as I write this) the Dodgers are on-pace to win 126 games, which would be a single-season record. Zach Kram looks at how good the Dodgers really are and what are their chances of breaking the single-season wins record. I remember when the Tigers went 35-5 to start the 1984 season. They “only” ended up winning 104 games and the World Series.
• If you know anything about California baseball, you know that the Padres most-hated rival has always been the Dodgers. The Dodgers most-hated rival has always been the Giants and Dodgers fans normally say “Who?” when asked about the Padres. (Sometimes they’ll say “San Diego’s nice,” which drives Padres fans even crazier.) But this season, the Dodgers and Padres games have been must-watch affairs and RJ Anderson writes that the Dodgers/Padres rivalry has finally arrived after over 50 seasons.
• RJ Anderson explains the three reasons that the Padres’ Joe Musgrove has been so good in the early season.
• The Brewers are in first place in the NL Central and Matt Snyder explains that their dominating starting pitching is the biggest reason why.
• One of those Brew Crew starters is Corbin Burnes, who has struck out a record 40 batters to start the season without issuing a walk. Jay Jaffe explains how dominant Burnes has been and why.
• On the flip side, the Yankees have the second-worst record in the American League. Michael Baumann tells Yankee-haters to enjoy this moment now because history tells us that the Yankees won’t be down like this for long.
• Dan Szymborski argues that the Royals can win the AL Central.
• Tom Verducci uses the occasion of the retirement of Jay Bruce to argue that baseball needs to ban the shift. Verducci makes the case that defensive shifts drove Bruce to an early retirement.
• Joon Lee speaks with women in baseball about the barriers they still face in getting and keeping a job in the game. The Marlins hiring Kim Ng as their general manager does not fix the many other problems women face, notes Lee.
• Ken Rosenthal and Eno Sarris look at the problem that MLB has in enforcing rules against pitchers putting foreign substances on the ball. In the end, they argue that it may be enough to just enforce the ban against the advanced and high-tech stuff and ignore things like sunscreen and rosin. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Bob Zientara looks at the case for moving the mound back.
• Hannah Keyser notes that she gets nervous watching Shohei Ohtani pitch. She sees moments of sheer brilliance and she fears that Ohtani may never live up to it.
• Joon Lee profiles Tigers rookie sensation Akil Baddoo.
• Ashley MacLennan (who?) argues that we should find a different metric for poor hitting than “The Mendoza Line.”
• JJ Cooper notes that the players at the alternate site are in a kind of legal limbo as to their compensation. They’re neither major leaguers nor minor leaguers, so they aren’t covered by the existing rules. MLB has dictated that they get paid at least Triple-A wages, but other kinds of compensation (housing, meal money) are up to the teams.
• Time for the butcher’s bill. The Padres put pitcher Dinelson Lamet on the IL with forearm tightness. The Padres are confident that he’ll avoid Tommy John surgery, however.
• Pirates rookie third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes had a setback in his recovery from a wrist injury.
• The Blue Jays are hopeful that outfielder George Springer come off the IL and make his season debut this weekend.
• Mark Feinsand thinks that if the Nationals fall out of the playoff race, Max Scherzer could be dealt at the deadline. He also lists some possible destinations for the DC ace.
• MLB Network will show Sunday’s Yankees game at Cleveland with a “Clubhouse Edition” broadcast with CC Sabathia and three other ex-players just chatting while watching the game rather than a traditional play-by-play with a color broadcaster setup. Sounds a lot like the NBA Network’s “Player’s only” broadcasts.
• There was a minor trade yesterday as the Diamondbacks dealt pitcher Jeremy Beasley to the Blue Jays for cash.
• The rapid rise and spectacular fall of the European football Super League has been the big story of the past week. It turns out that the biggest three American League teams planned to join the National League in a baseball “Super League” back in 1920. (The Athletic sub. req.) The three teams were the Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox with the three teams planning on taking a fourth team with them. (The Tigers, probably) The plan got gutted when the Black Sox scandal hit the front pages.
• Matt Monagan has the story of the man with the biggest baseball card collection. He doesn’t go after the valuable cards, he just wants to get as many as he can out of love of the game.
• And finally, the big story of last night was the big rabbit in the stands at Oracle Park.

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