Outside The Confines: The Reds Revolution

It kinda stinks when the Cubs win eight of 10 and still fall two games farther back of the team in first place. At least that team wasn’t in first place when the streak started and the Cubs have passed the team that was in first place 10 games ago.

• The Reds won their 10th game in a row last night, 8-6 over the Rockies. It’s their longest winning streak since 2012.
• Reds general manager Nick Krall says the team has the money and flexibility to be buyers at the trade deadline.
• Hannah Keyser uses the occasion of the Reds winning streak for blasting team president Phil Castellini for his “cynical” and “smug” comments to Reds fans about the team’s chances. Keyser does find it fun that the Reds are proving Castellini wrong this season.
• The poor Giants are getting nearly as much attention for their nine-game winning streak. The Giants haven’t lost since the Cubs took the first two games of the three-game series at Oracle Park.
• Angels GM Perry Minasian says the team is “highly unlikely” to trade Shohei Ohtani this year as long as they stay in contention. If the season ended today. the Angels would be the third Wild Card team.
• Mike Axisa has four things the Angels need to have happen this season to make the postseason.
• Mark Feinsand looks at ten players who could be traded by the deadline and where they might go.
• Dayn Perry writes that the Cardinals could sell at the deadline and lists which players could get dealt.
• Yankees GM Brian Cashman admits that the team is going through a rough stretch (by Yankees standards) but has faith that the Yanks will get things right soon. Meaning he doesn’t anticipate shaking things up anytime soon.
• Kyle Kishimoto writes that despite having the best record in baseball, the Rays bullpen has been pretty bad. He examines what’s gone wrong there.
• David Schoenfield has the biggest strength of every contending team. (ESPN+ sub. req.) By “contending,” he means every team with a better than 50 percent estimated chance of making the playoffs.
• Rangers manager Bruce Bochy was ejected after an odd overturn of a play at the plate that gave the White Sox what turned out to be the winning run.
• Esteban Rivera looks at how Twins pitcher Sonny Gray added a cutter to his pitching arsenal and how that’s taken his game to new heights.
• The Guardians have called up top catching prospect Bo Naylor. Dan Szymborski outlines what to expect out of Naylor.
• Zach Crizer has what you need to know about Luis Arraez’s quest to hit .400. Arraez went 1 for 4 last night, dropping his batting average down to .398.
• Thomas Harrington asks if Orioles third baseman Gunnar Henderson is “breaking out.” It would be cool if the Orioles were like the A-Team and four players had to break Henderson out of an institution before every game like “Howling Mad” Murdock. Man, I think I’ve just written the next great baseball movie.
• Speaking of the Orioles, Baltimore and the Nationals have reached an agreement on what the MASN regional sports network (owned by the Orioles) owed the Nats from 2012 to 2016. This does not end the legal battle between the two teams as they still have to determine fees from 2017 to 2021.
• Leo Morgenstern examines the big season that Marlins slugger Jorge Soler is having.
• Ben Clemens calls the Rangers’ Marcus Semien the “quietest star.”
• Sad news as former reliever and Rockies broadcaster George Frazier has died at 68. Frazier was on the 1984 Cubs and he won a World Series with the 1987 Twins. Condolences to his friends and family.
• And former Orioles reliever Dick Hall has died at age 92. Hall was on 1966 and 1970 Orioles World Series championship teams. Again, our thoughts go out to his friends and family.
• The Athletic has polled 103 current MLB players on their thoughts about the game. (The Athletic sub. req.) Most of the players like the new rules, but think there should be rules adjustments for the postseason. They also think Nashville is the best place for an expansion team and they’d pick Shohei Ohtani to build a team around.
• Bradford Doolittle has the winners and losers of the new rules. (ESPN+ sub. req.)
• Michael Clair checks in with Great Britain manager Drew Spencer on how interest in baseball in the UK has changed since the World Baseball Classic.
• The Cardinals and Giants will play a game next year at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, the former home of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. The two teams will wear uniforms designed to honor the Negro Leagues.
• Every June, 29 of the 30 MLB teams have a “Pride Night” game. The Texas Rangers will not and they never have. Brittany Ghiroli examines the situation with the Rangers and how LGBTQ employees of the team feel about the Rangers omission. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• And finally, tomorrow night at the NBA Draft, Victor Wembanyama is expected to be the first pick in the draft by the San Antonio Spurs. However, before then he had to go throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. Of course, a bat looked like a child’s toy and the ball looked like a marble in the hands of the 7-foot-4-inch Wembanyama, and you can see that in photos at the article linked. But in the great tradition of baseball fans mocking bad first pitches, here you go:

You picked the right sport, Victor. And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.