Outside The Confines: All quiet on the baseball front

The World Series is set with the Phillies and the Astros. Of course, the Series was set the last time we did OTC as well. And still no games. Nor any will happen before the next OTC.

Actually, we’ve got a lot of links for it being so quiet.

• ESPN’s MLB experts break down what both the Astros and the Phillies need to do to win.
• Will Leitch has six stories to look for in the Series.
• Gabe Lacques also has his take on the most compelling stories with Houston and Philadelphia.
• Matt Snyder has ten things to know about the Astros and Phillies.
• Will Leitch and Mike Petriello rank the best 30 players in the 2022 World Series.
• Anthony Castrovince has five things we’ve learned from the postseason so far.
• Ben Lindbergh is having a bit of an existential crisis. He asks if the playoffs are a crapshoot, why do care about who wins? Why do we watch?
• Jeff Passan examines the Astros’ quest for a title and postseason perfection.
• Chris Gilligan notes that the Astros are good in pretty much ever facet of the game.
• Mike Petriello reveals the weak link in the Astros pitching staff. It’s a trick question because there is no weak link on the Astros pitching staff, he notes.
• Jim McIngvale, the businessman behind the Gallery Furniture giveaways in Houston, is in line to win $75 million in bets if the Astros win the World Series. David Fleming has a profile of the Astros superfan. It should be noted that if the Astros do win and he gets the $75 million, a portion of that will have to go to his customers who bought furniture with guarantee that they’d get their money back if the Astros won the Series.
• Sam Blum profiles Astros manager Dusty Baker as he strives to finally win a World Series as a manager. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Anthony Castrovince writes about Astros senior scouting advisor Charlie Gonzalez and says Gonzalez is their “not-so-secret key to success.” He’s the man who signed Yuli Gurriel and told the Astros to ask for Yordan Alvarez in a trade with the Dodgers.
• Todd Zolecki writes that Phillies slugger Bryce Harper is living up to everything Philadelphia expected when they signed him as a free agent.
• Ken Rosenthal looks at Harper’s transformation with the Phillies in general and down the pennant stretch in particular that has led Philadelphia to the World Series. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Zach Crizer writes that there was nothing guaranteed about the Phillies’ success, even if it seemed like Harper was destined to play in the World Series one day.
• Alex Kirshner writes about the real joy found in the Phillies underdog postseason.
• Jayson Stark on how the stars lined up for the Phillies magical playoff run. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Meanwhile in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times continues to melt down over the Dodgers early exit. Jack Harris breaks down how the Dodgers lost to the Padres. Honestly, it’s a really good article, but the fact that Harris was assigned to write it is a continuing symptom of Los Angeles to accept the randomness of life.
• And in New York, they aren’t taking the Yankees loss to a clearly-superior Astros team much better. At least they’re acknowledging the Astros were the better team. But in particular, Yankees fans are incensed over the use of the Yankees loss in the 2004 ALCS to convince the team that they could still come back down 3 games to none. Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay even compared it to the Lincoln assassination.
• Mike Axisa looks at what might be next for the Yankees as they head into next year.
• Gabe Lacques thinks the Yankees need to clean house from top to bottom—starting with the front office and manager.
• Jay Jaffe tries to imagine what the Yankees would look like if they fired general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone and made major changes to the roster.
• If this is slugger Aaron Judge’s last season in the Bronx, Pete Caldera speaks with his teammates about their thoughts about Judge and his situation.
• Judge claimed that he has not “even thought about” free agency and the off-season yet.
• Mark Feinsand has the most likely destinations for Judge this winter.
• There are reports that the Giants will do “whatever it takes” to bring Judge home to California. (Judge is from a small town near Stockton, about 90 minutes from San Francisco.) The Giants plan to spend big this winter.
• Alden Gonzalez has some questions facing the Padres after their NLCS defeat. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Padres GM A.J. Preller wants to sign outfielder Juan Soto to a long-term deal.
• Fernando Tatis Jr. will return to the Padres after his suspension early next year. But as Michael Baumann asks “Where is he going to play?” Ha-Seong Kim has established himself at short.
• The Marlins announced Skip Schumaker as their new manager.
• The Schumaker hire was praised by fired manager Don Mattingly. Schumaker played for Mattingly with the Dodgers.
• For the first time in 25 years, Joe Buck will not be calling the World Series. Bill Shaikin has a bit of advice for Joe Davis, the new guy: Just accept that people are going to hate you and ignore social media.
• Former minor leaguer and current medical student Will Savage warns sports leagues that they cannot leave the diagnosis of a concussion to the player. (The Athletic sub. req. — but really, New York Times. This is the type of article that should be open to everyone.) Savage notes that a concussion ended his career because his minor league manager told him he wasn’t going to play even though he wanted to. And for that, he’s forever grateful.
• And finally, if you know anything about the city of Philadelphia, you know that it’s a town that takes sandwiches seriously. Matt Monagan notes that the current hot streak by Phillies outfielder Kyle Schwarber coincides with the Wawa “Schwarberfest” hoagie promotion.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. But there still won’t be any baseball.