Outside The Confines: The Bryce is right

It’s Wednesday, friends, and we’re now into the second month of baseball, which seems wild to me. Surely it was just February last month, wasn’t it? Where has this time gone...?

With the progression of the season we’re seeing some surprising stories. The Rays are obviously continuing to dominate, but... so are the Pirates? Wild. Teams are also starting to be plagued by injuries (sorry, Yankees), but also once-injured players are returning with a bang (welcome back, Bryce Harper!)

Let’s hit the latter half of the week by jumping into the links.

• First up, a really unique tribute to the late Gordon Lightfoot.

• Ben Clemens looks at how Brandon Nimmo is doing that thing Brandon Nimmo does.
• The Negro Leagues Museum is planning a new location with an on-site campus. Story by Bill Ladson.
• Jay Jaffe assesses how the short-term loss of Aaron Judge is going to impact the already injury-riddled Yankees.
• The Rockies will be losing German Marquez to Tommy John surgery, reports Owen Perkins.
• Dan Szymborski wonders: is it time to start believing in the Pirates? (As a Cubs site we’ll keep our opinions to ourselves)
• On that front, however, the Rays did take the win as they faced off against the fellow first-place clubs. Story by Adam Berry.
• This also saw the return of a beloved fan-favorite player to the Trop in Ji-Man Choi.

• Bryce Harper is back... and better than ever? Story by Buster Olney.
• Tom Verducci tries to determine how an expansion team in Mexico City could benefit Aaron Judge.
• Gary Sanchez has opted out of his contract with the Giants after failing to make the major league team. (Reuters)
• It appears that Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer will be back in the Mets rotation just in time to head back to their old stomping grounds in Detroit. (AP)
• Speaking of the Mets, Jimmy Traina gives us the many emotional phases of a Mets fan getting a home run ball.
• Stephanie Apstein looks at the offensive development of Matt Chapman.
• Wait, what? That’s a wild fact.

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