Outside The Confines: They might be Giants

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today, so sit tight and we’ll get right to it.

• We’re now three weeks into the experiment in the Atlantic League and Jayson Stark looks at how it’s going and inteviews the players involved to get their opinons. (The Athletic sub. req.) It doesn’t look like it’s having the intended effect. Offense is up, but it’s mostly because there are more home runs. Hitters are not making more contact. But overall, it’s not having a big impact at all.
• For those without an Athletic subscription, R.J. Anderson has a look at the Atlantic League and moving the mound back with a stronger focus on the anger of the players who feel like this experiment is turning them into guinea pigs and is messing with their careers.

Just a personal note. I’ve been an open advocate of experimenting with moving the mound back in an attempt to try to increase contact and get more action into the game. Three weeks is way too short a sample to draw any firm conclusions, but the early returns are not encouraging. Whatever edge the hitters have with the extra time to swing seems to be negated by giving pitches more time to break. Of course, the robot umpires are also playing a role on offense in the Atlantic League and both articles have the players complaining about that as well.

• MLB is also seeking input from players about some new baseball prototypes than come “pre-tacked,” eliminating the need for pine tar and the like. They use similar balls in Asia already and many American players who have used the Japanese or Korean versions rave about them.
• You might have been asleep when it happened, but on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, the Dodgers beat the Padres 5-3 in 16 innings. It was the longest game since the introduction of the automatic runner on second base, by three innings.
• Jesse Yomtov has more fun facts about that marathon game.
• The Dodgers produced an excuse note for their fans to use the day after the game. Or the same day the game ended, I guess.
• Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina announced that 2022 will be his final season.
• Matt Snyder argues that Molina belongs in the Hall of Fame. It all comes down to those “intangibles,” of course. Which means things that no one can recognize but they know they are there despite no evidence that they’re there.
• Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera says that he will retire when his contract ends after the 2023 season.
• Despite all the predictions to the contrary, the San Francisco Giants are still in first place in the NL West. David Schoenfield examines how the Giants just keep on winning. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Grant Brisbee tells you how to refute people who say that the Giants have just been lucky this season. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• The Orioles snapped their 19-game losing streak by beating the Angels on Wednesday. Gabe Lacques gets the team’s reaction to the end of their misery.
• Kevin Goldstein looks at whether or not the Orioles have a path back to contention. Not yet, he concludes.
• The Yankees have won 12 in a row, in case you hadn’t noticed. Neil Paine and Santul Nerkar look at whether the Yankees have gotten better or have just gotten luckier.
• If you think you’re seeing a lot more long winning and losing streak, Zach Crizer tells you that you aren’t wrong: there are a lot more winning and losing streaks of ten or more games this year. Crizer also looks into why this might be happening, but you can probably already guess some of the reasons.
• Jay Jaffe looks at how the Braves turned their season around and are now dominating the NL East.
• A look at who might be the top prospects in 2023.
• Where the race for the Cy Young Award in both leagues stands at the moment.
• Kris Bryant of the San Francisco Giants reiterated that he, not his agent Scott Boras, will decide where he plays next year and what contract he will sign.
• Sarah Langs has four reasons that the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani has been a better pitcher this season.
• Fabian Ardaya looks at what might have happened if Ohtani had signed with the Dodgers out of high school. (The Athletic sub. req.) The Dodgers did try hard to sign Ohtani before he signed with Nippon Ham.
• Michael Clair has a big in-depth look at the Summer Koshien, the high school baseball tournament that is the biggest sporting event of the year in Japan. If you’ve heard about the Koshien but don’t know what the fuss is about, here’s a great place to start.
• The owner of the minor league Chattanooga Lookouts has had all his assets frozen after being accused by the SEC of running a Ponzi scheme. It is expected that he will be forced to sell the team.
• The Philadelphia Phillies won a court case that allows them to continue to use the Phillie Phanatic. The decision will be appealed.
• Padres reliever Austin Adams leads the league in hit batters with 17 this year, despite only throwing 45⅓ innings in 2021. Jason Cantania has a look at Adams and this shocking and remarkable statistic. Even more amazing, Adams has been a good pitcher despite this.
• Time for the butcher’s bill. Phillies first baseman Rhys Hopkins is out for the season with an abdomen tear. That’s a big blow to their playoff hopes.
• Diamondbacks first-round pick Jordan Lawlar is out for the year with a shoulder injury, just two games into his professional career.
• Giants second baseman Donovan Solano will miss at least ten days after testing positive for COVID-19.
• One of the scariest things of 2021 was when Durham Bulls pitcher Tyler Zombro has hit in the head with a 104 mph line drive. Tonya Simpson has a must-read article on what happened to Zombro, how close he came to dying and how he is making a remarkable recovery. Also, there’s a must watch video on Zombro narrated by Jeff Passan at that link. Zombro says that if the doctors clear him, he is going to pitch again.
• Ryan Hockensmith has the remarkable story of Ray Caldwell, the pitcher who was struck by lightning during a game in 1919 and then got up and finished a complete game.
• Tim broke up with Alyssa through an Akron Rubber Ducks scoreboard message.
• And finally, Guardians third baseman José Ramírez wore a new chain during Thursday night’s game—that had a picture in it of José Ramírez wearing a chain.

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