Outside The Confines: The Rangers make a change

Let’s roll the videotape.

• The Rangers spent a ton of money over the winter and are still 12 games under .500. Someone’s got to take the blame for that and so manager Chris Woodward was fired.
• David Schoenfield looks at what went wrong with the Rangers under Woodward and puts their 6-24 record in one-run games as the biggest factor. (ESPN+ sub. req.) Whether that’s Woodward’s fault or not, Schoenfield isn’t sure.
• Stephen J. Nesbitt and Andy McCullough have a list of candidates to be the new Rangers manager. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Bob Nightengale looks at which manager might be the next to get the axe.
• If you don’t want to read Bob, R.J. Anderson also has five managers on the hot seat.
• The fallout from the PED suspension of Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. continues. Fernando Tatis Sr., who had an 11-year career in MLB, spoke out and said that his son’s PED use was accidental, the punishment was too harsh and that his suspension was a “catastrophe” for MLB.
• Dan Szymborski takes no stand on the appropriateness of the punishment, but he does agree that the suspension is a disaster for Tatis, the Padres and all of MLB.
• Zach Crizer looks at what is Clostebol and whether the Tatises’ explanation of why he tested positive makes any sense.
• Hannah Keyser writes that the Padres have learned not to trust Tatis. But luckily, the Friars got a star they it seems that they can rely on in Juan Soto.
• The Padres have cancelled their Fernando Tatis Jr. bobblehead giveaway and replaced it with a Juan Soto t-shirt giveaway.
• The Braves and rookie outfielder Michael Harris Jr. agreed to an eight-year, $72 million contract extension.
• Bad news for the Dodgers as ace pitcher Walker Buehler will undergo season-ending elbow surgery. Is that Tommy John surgery? Actually, they won’t know until they start the operation.
• Nick Selbe believes that the Dodgers will have a tough time replacing Buehler in the postseason.
• Following up on the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen’s start on Sunday, Jay Busbee looks at the agony of losing a perfect game in the ninth and how difficult a perfect game is.
• Ben Clemens looks at what Drew Rasmussen has been doing right, both this whole season and on Sunday.
• Zach Crizer argues that because rookie catcher Adley Rutschman is for real, the Orioles are real contenders for a Wild Card spot.
• Earlier this season, some were wondering if the 2022 Yankees would break the record for most wins in a season. Now, as Chris Kirschner writes, the Yankees themselves are wondering what happened to that team as New York struggles in the second half. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• David Laurila speaks with Yankees pitcher Jameson Taillon about how much his game has and has not changed over the past ten years.
• Mike Axisa has five reasons the Phillies have turned their season around since firing manager Joe Girardi.
• R.J. Anderson examines what problems the Tigers need to address to become contenders again. There is also an evaluation of the current state of Detroit.
• The Mets are calling up highly-regarded prospect Brett Baty.
• South Korean high school pitcher Jun-seok Shim has decided to skip the KBO draft and try to sign with an MLB organization.
• Pirates rookie infielder Rodolfo Castro was embarrassed when his cell phone popped out of his back pocket when he slid into third. Now Castro has been suspended by MLB for one game for having an unapproved electronic device on the field.
• MLB has started a new, free program to train young umpires. They hope to attract people into the profession who can’t afford to pay for the private umpiring instructional schools.
• You probably heard that there won’t be a “Field of Dreams” game next year because of planned construction. What they probably didn’t tell you is that $12.5 million of the money for the project comes from the American Rescue Plan Act (aka COVID-relief money.) Also, Neil deMause reports that the state of Iowa gave NBCUniversal $6 million of taxpayer money for the planned Field of Dreams TV series. The show got cancelled before it even went into production.
• The Mariners won a game when the Angels decided to play Keystone Kops in the ninth inning on a couple of plays at the plate. Also, umpire Laz Díaz lost track of the count and allowed a Mariners batter to walk on three pitches.
• We all love Javier Báez. Here’s Báez making contact on a ball that bounced in the dirt. This would be really cool if he got a double on the swing, but no, he flew out to center field.
• Sam Blum talks to Angels pitcher Jesse Chavez about what it’s like to be the most-traded player in MLB history. Also, the Angels talk about the influence Chavez has had on the younger pitchers in the Halos’ bullpen.
• And finally, James Wagner has the story about a love affair—the love that major league players have for their gloves.

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