Outside The Confines: And the Oscar goes to...

Last night was the World Series for movies, the biggest night in Hollywood, with the Oscars being presented in Los Angeles. While I must admit I thought this year’s crop of nominees was a bit underwhelming, there’s something very enticing about the spectacle of a big event like that. Lights, cameras, fancy dresses, and speeches that take themselves a bit too seriously. Of course, the event itself made headlines for non-movie reasons, but we won’t be getting into that here.

Even with the Oscars on, sportswriters never sleep, so here’s a rundown of some of the best baseball content from over the weekend, including at least one Oscar-themed baseball story (even though there were sadly no baseball stories nominated for Oscars this year).

• Michael Chavis has time for an entire detailed story while patrolling first base with a mic on.

• Ben Clemens looks at a minor CBA change that might be a real pain for contract renewals.
• It looks like the Yankees are planning a contract extension offer for Aaron Judge. Story by Mike McDaniel.
• Adam Berry gives us a look at Tyler Zombro’s first spring training outing with the Rays after recovering from a near-death experience with a comebacker.
• Kiley McDaniel provides us a team-by-time prospect ranking.
• Zach Kram tries to determine which MLB team had the best offseason and which had the worst.
• Brandon Lowe honored his former teammate Jean Ramirez who committed suicide using it as an opportunity to talk about mental health awareness.
• One MLB exec likes to use math to predict the Oscar winners, and Zach Buchanan shows us how good he is at it. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• The Jays and Rockies have swapped outfielders and Jake Mailhot tries to determine how that’s going to work out for both sides.
• Looks like we haven’t heard the last about Stickygate, according to Tom Verducci.
• Hopefully this means fewer players taking their pants off in-game.

• Nick Aguilera introduces us to the best new duos in baseball for the 2022 season.
• Buster Olney looks at four contenders who made massive under-the-radar moves.
• On the note of contention, Mike Petriello offers us the eight tiers of MLB contenders.
• The Reds have bolstered their outfield with the addition of Tommy Pham. (AP)
• Eno Sarris has a fun prediction about another Reds’ player, and a few more wacky guesses about what we’ll see this year. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• David Laurila chats with Rhys Hoskins.
• After learning he’d been named the Angels’ Opening Day started, Shohei Ohtani opted not to pitch and only DH in a spring training game, then proceeded to hit a home run. Story by Scott Bordow.
• Jays’ pitching coach Pete Walker was arrested on DUI charges in Florida. (AP)
• Ben Lindbergh wonders if Shohei Ohtani can actually get better in 2022.
• The Astros think they might have a new superstar in the making with Jeremy Peña, according to Ken Rosenthal. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• And on the note of movies, and of Pete Walker’s arrest, no one has more cinematic timing than Nick Castellanos.

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