Outside The Confines: Award season begins

While we still don’t know who is taking home the biggest award of the season—the Commissioner's Trophy—there are still plenty of accolades to go around, and award season isn’t waiting for the World Series to end.

This week we saw the Rawlings Gold Glove awards given out to spotlight the best fielding performances in baseball. This is just the first of many awards to come over the coming month.

On November 10th, the Silver Slugger awards for offensive production are announced, and from there it’s a veritable parade: on November 14th the Jackie Robinson Rookies of the Year are announced; November 15th is the Managers of the Year; November 16th is the Cy Young Awards for pitching performance; and then November 17th is MVP Awards. There’s a lot of great baseball to remember over this month.

Now onto today’s links!

• Pedro Grifol will be the new manager of the Chicago White Sox. Story by Madison Williams.
• Michael Baumann tries to determine what, if any, impact the rain delay will have on the rest of the series.
• Emma Baccellieri is likewise interested in what the extra day of rest will mean for the remainder of the games.
• Richard Deitsch tries to find out what Fox broadcasters want most from the World Series. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• 14 first-time winners took home Gold Glove awards this week, shares Manny Randhawa. Randhawa also gives a breakdown of the most GG Awards per position.
• Speaking of the Gold Glove awards, the Guardians have a franchise-best 4 wins this year, shares Zack Meisel.
• Leo Morgenstern wonders if the Silver Slugger awards should take baserunning into account.
• Will the Angels entertain trade offers for Ohtani this offseason?
• Justin Verlander tries to explain just why it is he decided to flip off Phillies fans, reports Nick Selbe.
• Ben Clemens is curious why there are so many strikeouts in the playoffs.
• Paul Casella looks at the mammoth Bryce Harper home run that lit a fire under the Phillies.
• President Biden took some good-natured jabs at Phillies fans this week (and before anyone gets mad about it before reading the story, he was pretty clearly poking fun at his own wife, who is a Philly sports fan).
• Could ball and strike challenges become a reality soon? Zach Buchanan looks at a future nightmare for umpires. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Roz Wyman, the woman who helped champion the Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles passed away this week. Richard Sandomir shares her legacy.

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