Outside The Confines: The dog days of summer

We are now in the downward swing of summer (I don’t mean to make you all miserable, but for those of us who love fall, this is great news). The All-Star break is behind us, teams have largely determined the roster that will hopefully take them to October, and now they’re just hoping for good luck and no injuries.

With the passing of Vin Scully, baseball is also feeling a sense of thoughtfulness and melancholy, emotions tied to things coming to an end, much like summer itself.

At this point in the season, there’s a pretty good idea of which teams will be headed into the postseason, and those who are on the cusp of a wild card spot are feeling the pressure of rising to the challenge. Meanwhile, the Yankees’ superstar Aaron Judge is getting some attention as he potentially homers his way to history; and a former Triple Crown winner might be thinking about hanging up his cleats in Detroit.

All that and more in today’s links.

• Have you ever tried to explain baseball to someone who doesn’t watch baseball? Try starting with this photo.

• Jay Jaffe writes a remembrance of Vin Scully.
• There will be a few Scully memorials in today’s post, because the legend touched so many parts of baseball. Steve Rushin memorializes Scully for SI.
• Joe Buck remembers Vin Scully. Story by Richard Deitsch. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• The Dodgers will honor Scully with a banner and pre-game ceremony tonight. (AP)
• Miguel Cabrera, who is approaching 40 and has long dealt with knee problems, is questioning his future in baseball. Story by Nick Selbe.
• Imagine hitting seven home runs in a single game... and losing. The Angels don’t need to imagine it after this week. (ESPN)
• Who among us hasn’t drifted off while managing a major league baseball game?

• Ben Clemens offers a different version of a deadline winners/losers post. Meanwhile FanGraphs also offers up their own trade deadline roundup.
• Will Leitch gives us his obvious winners from the deadline.
• And Jim Bowden takes the grading approach, handing out scorecards for all 30 teams. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Eno Sarris takes a philosophical approach, seeing which trades were the most intriguing. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Nicole Hazen, wife of the Diamondbacks GM, has passed away at age 45, shares Daniel Chavkin.
• Aaron Judge is making a case that he could break the single-season home run record this year (a record currently held by Barry Bonds with 73, and as of this writing Judge has 43). Mike Petriello charts the course that will get him there.
• A Honus Wagner card has sold for over $7 million, reports Michael Shapiro.
• Clayton Kershaw exited a game on Thursday after some warmup pitches due to lower back pain. (AP)
• This is a weird new baseball stat.

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