Outside The Confines: The Machine broke down

Most days, a guy throwing a no-hitter that was as close to being a perfect game without being a perfect game would be the lead story. But a sure-fire first ballot Hall-of-Famer being released takes precedence.

• The Angels released first baseman Albert Pujols on Thursday. Pujols reportedly said he wasn’t through playing and that if the Angels felt he wasn’t good enough to play regularly, they should release him. The Angels said there was never a good time for something like this, but that it was time to move on.
• Bob Nightengale writes that despite Pujols’ desire to keep playing, his career is probably over.
• Mike Axisa has five teams that might take a chance on Pujols.
• Ken Rosenthal believes that the Angels releasing Pujols was “awkward . . . but necessary.” (The Athletic sub. req.)
• A roundtable discussion of why this happened now and what’s next for Pujols and how we should remember him. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Will Leitch notes that Pujols came out of pretty much nowhere to become the best player in the game.
• Tom Verducci has an appreciation of Pujols.
• Jack Baer and Liz Roscher compare Pujols’ contract with the Angels to other megadeals.
• One last point on the Angels before we move on to a no-hitter. Jay Jaffe notes that much of the Angels pitching problems is the result of defensive problems.
• Orioles pitcher John Means threw the third no-hitter of the 2021 season on Wednesday. Or the fourth, depending on whether you ask the Diamondbacks.
• Means faced 27 batters and retired all 27 of them, but missed a perfect game for a dropped third strike. It is the only time in history that a perfect game was ruined by only a dropped third strike.
• Jake Mailhot looks at the dropped third strike rule and how Means has become such a dominating pitcher recently.
• Brittany Ghiroli asks if the Orioles have found a number one starter in Means. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Dan Connolly notes that Means has been overlooked his entire career, but no longer, presumably. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• David Schoenfield looks at other pitchers who narrowly lost a perfect game. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• We’ve got a lot of stories from The Athletic today (and every day) and now there is new about The Athletic. Reportedly, The Athletic is in talks to be acquired by the New York Times.
• White Sox manager Tony La Russa admitted he didn’t know the rule says that a pitcher doesn’t have to start the inning on second base if his position made the last out in extra innings. Because of that, closer Liam Hendriks started the inning on second base and it may have cost the White Sox the game.
• Steve Gardner notes that La Russa’s mistakes are becoming a real problem for the White Sox.
• Another thing that is causing problems for several different managers this year is the new digital lineup card system. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Claire McNear notes that there is only one great team in the NL West right now and it’s the one that has Buster Posey on it.
• Mike Axisa has four reasons that the Dodgers have been terrible for the past three weeks.
• Ken Rosenthal reports that injuries are up in MLB and no one is sure why or what to do about it. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Jay Jaffe looks at why the Mets have been having so much trouble scoring this season. And in particular, what’s wrong with Francisco Lindor.
• Kevin Goldstein has two pieces where he lists what every MLB front office is discussing on their weekly conference calls at the moment: One for each AL team and one for each NL team.
• Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres scored from first base on an infield single against the Astros.
• Yankees fans gave the Astros a really rough time in their first time in the Bronx since the sign-stealing scandal broke.
• The Blue Jays have been unable to cross the border into Toronto or have fans at the Rogers Centre, so they’ve been playing at their Spring Training facility in Dunedin. But on June 1, they are returning to their Triple-A affiliate’s stadium in Buffalo for a second time. Why? Because no one wants to summer in Dunedin. The Bison are temporarily moving to Trenton, which was one of the cities where affiliated baseball was terminated this season.
• Kiley McDaniel has where the top minor league prospects are playing this summer. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• J.J. Cooper explains why 2021 is going to be a rough year for minor league broadcasters.
• Drew Robinson, who lost an eye in a suicide attempt last year, made the Opening Day roster of the Sacramento River Cats, the Giants Triple-A affiliate. Unfortunately, he went 0 for 4 with four strikeouts last night.
• Top Rockies prospect Colton Welker has been suspended for 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
• And finally, Howard Megdal has the story of the people who are trying to bring women’s baseball back to college athletics.

And let’s have a better day tomorrow.