Outside The Confines: You be the Judge

Let’s get a big game out of Marcus Stroman tonight, a couple of big hits from Seiya Suzuki and Dansby Swanson and snap this losing streak.

• The fallout from the Aaron Judge “look” at the dugout continues. Bob Nightengale insists that Aaron Judge did not “cheat.”
• Hannah Keyser agrees and points out that in all the hubbub, what got lost is that what Judge was accused of doing was not against the rules.
• You know who did cheat? Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán. Or at least the league said he did and that’s all that matters. Germán was suspended for ten games and fined for using a foreign substance.
• One thing that MLB wants to re-emphasize is cheating. Batters are not allowed to try to deceive pitchers into pitch clock violations.
• With all the bad blood flowing between the Yankees and Blue Jays, a discussion of the best “current” rivalries in MLB.
• This is an important story that you should check out. Stephanie Apstein talks to Rockies pitcher Daniel Bard about his career, his battles with anxiety and his decision to go public with his mental health issues. Bard wants everyone to know that there is no shame in asking for help.
• I don’t think the saga of the Athletics is going away anytime soon, so I hope you can stand it. The state of Nevada is balking at paying the $395 million price tag that the A’s are saying they need for their new stadium in Las Vegas. The state legislature is saying they’ll do somewhere between $150 to $195 million, but Clark County would have to come up with the rest. No word yet on what the county government thinks.
• The A’s released a (very biased) poll that said that 74 percent of Clark County voters support a new stadium deal for the A’s. Of course, that number was much lower — with just 34 percent “strongly supportive” and 27 percent “softly supportive” before the pollster listed all the benefits that the A’s claim the stadium will bring and then they asked the question again. That’s known as a biased poll in the the polling industry.
• Eno Sarris and Steve Berman argue that Las Vegas is probably not a great place to move the A’s and explain why. (The Athletic sub. req.) It’s certainly not the best place, except that owner John Fisher thinks he can get the biggest public subsidy there.
• Tim Keown checks in with Oakland fans and why they’re not willing to lose their team without a fight.
• Dylan Hernández writes that the Dodgers have lost any moral high ground they may have once had by giving in to the pressures of an out-of-state special interest group. (For more on the story, check here and more on the fallout here.)
• Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman hit his 300th career home run last night in a loss to the Cardinals. Also this in last night’s game.

A Brooklyn Dodger pitcher, Ben Wade, did it in 1954.

• Dodgers pitcher Dustin May will miss at least a month with a forearm strain. The good news here is that his recently-reconstructed ulnar collateral ligament appears fine.
• Every Diamondbacks pitcher—heck, every pitcher—should aspire to be like Hall-of-Famer Randy Johnson. NOT LIKE THAT, ZAC GALLEN!! Obviously there’s a warning for the video below which is pretty self-explanatory.

• Jay Jaffe notes that as a pitcher, Shohei Ohtani is in a slump. He examines what’s gone wrong with Ohtani and what he needs to fix.
• Will Leitch wonders what’s up with the crazy standings to start the season.
• R.J. Anderson looks at what the the Mets need to do to live up to expectations the rest of the season.
• The Mets are calling up catcher Gary Sánchez from Triple-A.
• Kiley McDaniel ranks the best players in baseball at each age from 16 to 25. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Brian Murphy has nine players who started out the season slowly but are red-hot now.
• Zach Crizer explains that Mitch Keller has proven it is possible to become an ace while pitching for the Pirates.
• Michael Baumann looks at the remarkable start to the season for Giants first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. and the changes he made this year.
• Leo Morgenstern looks at how outfielder Jake Fraley has been continually coming up big for the Reds.
• Mark Feinsand has ten players expected to be on the trading block this summer. A lot of White Sox on the list.
• Good news for the White Sox is that closer Liam Hendriks is expected to be activated off the injured list as soon as Monday. Hendriks had been sidelined with stage-4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
• Padres third baseman Manny Machado has a small fracture after being hit in the hand with a pitch. The Padres still don’t know if he will have to hit the injured list.
• Andrew Simon has 10 amazing facts about Hall-of-Famer Brooks Robinson.
• Cody Stavenhagen notes the tension between the Tigers’ hopes of contention and Miguel Cabrera’s farewell tour. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• But the 40-year-old Cabrera did treat us to this race to the bag against 43-year-old Rich Hill.
• Benjamin Hill looks at how Jill Cole went from a heckler at Eugene Emeralds games to the public address announcer for the team.
• Matt Monagan has the inspiring story of the Ugandan orphan whose baseball dream has lead him to playing this summer in the MLB Draft League. Dennis Kasumba had some major difficulties getting a visa to the US, but the publicity surrounding his case has greased the wheels recently and gotten him a visa.
• And finally, The Athletic grades every “prop-based” dugout celebrations in MLB this year. (The Athletic sub. req.) The Cubs don’t get a grade as they haven’t joined this trend this year. Yet.

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