Outside The Confines: Baseball is for the Birds

Welcome from sunny California, the home of Big Ten football!

Honestly, Big Ten baseball just got a lot better. Adding Nebraska and Maryland improved things somewhat, but this is a huge boost to what was really a mid-major conference in baseball.

• Don Van Vatta Jr. has a long sit-down interview with baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and asks him point-blank if he hates baseball. Van Vatta also goes over Manfred’s life story and what he wants to change about baseball.
• If you just want to read the highlights of what Manfred said, go here.
• MLB Trade Rumors just sums up the possible rules changes that Manfred talked about in the interview.
• If you want to see a sportswriter eviscerate what Manfred said as self-serving pablum, Craig Calcaterra’s newsletter was free yesterday.
• There’s been some kerfuffle about Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman possibly firing his agent, but Freeman said that his relationship with current agent Casey Close remains “fluid.”
• Close vehemently denied accusations from a radio host and professional troll with a background in basketball and grand larceny that he behaved in an unethical manner by not informing Freeman of the Braves final offer.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks the entire Freddie Freeman free agency saga is a sad and bitter one with plenty of blame to go around. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Jay Jaffe writes that despite all the drama surrounding Freeman, he’s been a rock in the Dodgers lineup.
• Good news for the Athletics as a California agency passed a proposal necessary for the team to build a new ballpark at Howard Terminal. This does not mean that the A’s can start breaking ground on a new ballpark, but it was a major barrier they had to cross before they could deal with other obstacles.
• Here’s more on what still needs to be done for a new ballpark in Oakland. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Melissa Lockard has a good story about the A’s and how they have been giving their minor league broadcasters a chance to call games in the majors in recent years. (The Athletic sub. req.) A’s longtime radio broadcaster Ken Korach has been cutting back on his schedule in recent years and the A’s are giving callups to the minor leaguers.
• Good news as Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez has finished his cancer treatments and is looking to return to work.
• And an update on the death of former player Jeremy Giambi. Giambi’s mother said that he was hit in the cheek with a baseball six months before he took his own life and “had not been the same since.”
• I’ve been obsessed with the “fourth-out” rule for years, ever since I found out about it. It’s a great bit of trivia you can throw out if you want to be a wiseass when someone says there are only three outs in an inning. But I’ve never actually seen the fourth-out in the wild. Heck, crew chief Mark Wegner had never seen it in play. But in Wednesday’s Pirates/Nationals game, the Nats has a chance to turn a fourth out and blew it by not following the rulebook. As a result, the Pirates got a free run in a game they ended up winning 8-7.
• Emma Baccellieri celebrates the Orioles having their first winning month in almost five years.
• Dan Szymborski writes that the Orioles aren’t a good team, but at least they are an interesting team.
• The Yankees set a MLB record for team home runs for June.
• Will the Yankees win 116 games this year?
• Ben Clemens looks at how you should pitch to Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton and if the general theory of “hard in and soft away” holds up to scrutiny.
• Nine years after being the first pick in the draft, right-handed pitcher Mark Appel made a successful MLB debut with the Phillies with a scoreless inning of relief.
• Zach Crizer asks when the Tigers and Royals have to admit that they’re no longer “rebuilding” but they’re just bad teams?
• Andy McCullough writes that the Mets got through June without Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, but they’re going to need the two of them going forward if they want to reach their goals for the season. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson resigned so he could take the same job at LSU. Eno Sarris and Zach Buchanan talk to people around the game to see if this could become a trend, weighing the pros and cons of coaching at the professional and college level. (The Athletic sub. req.) (By the way, on Monday I passed on information in reports that Johnson would make almost twice as much money at LSU than with the Twins. As it turns out, Johnson’s base salary at LSU will be about the same as it was with the Twins, However, there are various bonuses and ancillary sources of income like instructional camps that could come close to doubling Johnson’s gross compensation. So he could make twice as much, but that’s not guaranteed.
• David Schoenfield renders verdict on whether some of the biggest breakout seasons of 2022 are “real or not.” (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Todd Zolecki breaks down how bad the slump that Phillies slugger Nick Castellanos is going through right now and what he needs to do to right the ship.
• For those of you who fell in love with KBO during the pandemic and want to stay informed, Justin Choi has part one and part two of his KBO mid-season update. A 40-year-old Shin-Soo Choo is leading the SSG Landers to first place so far.
• The 2022 All-Star Game vote finalists were announced. I really don’t understand how the All-Star Game works anymore and I don’t really care to know.
• Mark Feinsand has the top player likely to be traded at each position.
• Each team’s best draft pick over the past ten years.
• Another mock draft for those who want one.
• Ian Kinsler has been named the manager for Team Israel for the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
• Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker tried to steal home while Yankees pitcher Luis Severino was fiddling with his PitchCom device. He was thrown out at home, so maybe it was all a ruse by Severino?
• Chelsea Janes has a profile of Kelsie Whitmore, the woman chasing her major league dreams in the independent Atlantic League.
• The Peacock streamer has passed on the proposed “Field of Dreams” series.
• And finally, for the 30th anniversary of A League of Their Own this week, Daniel Brown catches up with Megan Cavanagh—also known as Marla Hooch—about making the movie (The Athletic sub. req.) and the cult status she’s achieved among female athletes and sports fans everywhere. I also think you’ll like the Cubs hat she wears in all the pictures.

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