Official *MLB Season Delayed* Thread

[ThatRogue]

Didn’t MLB invest in their own lab? I guess they picked the wrong one...

(Seriously, mass testing for a previously unknown strain of virus is more complicated than has been discussed. It was probably naive for everyone, including us as fans, to think the testing would go without hiccups.)

[revo]

Didn’t MLB invest in their own lab? I guess they picked the wrong one...

(Seriously, mass testing for a previously unknown strain of virus is more complicated than has been discussed. It was probably naive for everyone, including us as fans, to think the testing would go without hiccups.)

Yup, but it's hard to understand how they could only have a single lab in Utah doing the testing, and seemingly completely beholden to Fedex(!).

[Don Quixote]

Yup, but it's hard to understand how they could only have a single lab in Utah doing the testing, and seemingly completely beholden to Fedex(!).

Hmmmm--A single lab. Wouldn't it be fairly easy to "influence" their results (especially if they're not large and/or aren't in great financial shape) and place bets at sports books accordingly? We've already seen how using just one method of transport can make the playing field uneven.

I'm in no way saying this is happening or could happen--it's the stuff of your average neighborhood conspiracy theorist--but it would make a heck of a movie!

[Don Quixote]

In their mealy-mouthed response to the weekend's "festivities", MLB's lawyers and/or PR flacks said this--

"The process has not been without some unforeseen difficulties,"

How do you not foresee the possibility of testers not showing up, or the possibility of sample transport issues? How do you rely on one lab, and one transportation company? Is the concept of "redundant systems" completely beyond their mental capabilities?

"It is important to be mindful that nearly all of the individuals have been tested as planned."

"Nearly all" doesn't cut it. Neither does "have been tested", if you don't tell the clubs the results.

""Our plan required extensive delivery and shipping services, including proactive special accommodations to account for the holiday weekend. The vast majority of those deliveries occurred without incident and allowed the protocols to function as planned. Unfortunately, several situations included unforeseen delays. We have addressed the delays caused by the holiday weekend and do not expect a recurrence.""

Did they not know there was a holiday last weekend? And again, "the vast majority" doesn't cut it. Finally, given their performance this weekend, I don't attach a high level of confidence to "do not expect a recurrence", as they didn't expect last weekend's issues, either.

My level of confidence in MLB management decreases every day. It's down to NFL levels now and seems to be headed toward the farcical (yet unfunny) level of the NBA.

[Sour Masher]

It has been embarrassing to MLB, to be sure. Some more forethought would have been helpful. But I still think we are not close to them abandoning the season. It would take a lot, because they know they can't wait this out. They need to figure it out, because the pandemic is still going to be a thing next season, barring our society doing what it takes to stamp this thing out, and by the looks of it, we will not. It is a real long shot that there will be a vaccine by this time next year (most vaccines take many, many years to develop). Given the amount of resources being thrown at this thing, I do think there will be a vaccine available to the public by the end of 2021, but again, that means no baseball in 2021 if they don't figure this stuff out.

[chancellor]

Hmmmm--A single lab. Wouldn't it be fairly easy to "influence" their results (especially if they're not large and/or aren't in great financial shape) and place bets at sports books accordingly? We've already seen how using just one method of transport can make the playing field uneven.

It's the lab used for PED sampling and is highly regarded and WADA approved.

However, MLB is already looking for a second lab for more/faster results.

[rhd]

So, 1 of my leagues had its draft today. First online draft I've ever done. It was in on Fantrax in their Draft Room. It went really quickly - 20 teams, 30 rounds in about 4 hours w a total of about 35 mins in breaks. You had to make your selection in about 30 seconds or else it would autodraft a player for you. I didnt realize this beforehand and I had 2 players autodrafted for me: my 1st hitter and 1st pitcher. Things happened so fast that I couldnt at all keep up w marking off my list the players drafted, like I am used to doing. SO, I think it was too fast. I think 60 secs to make a pick would have been more reasonable, which is what we do in my in-person draft. We also had a concurrent Zoom meeting to talk about the draft and whatever. I found the Zoom meeting very distracting and I left the meeting after a while. I didnt know how to use all of Fantrax's features. E.g., there was a chat box but I couldnt see how to chat in it. Fantrax's list of players to be drafted was ordered according their idea of fantasy value. I dont know if other online draft sites are this way - I suspect that some of them may just have the players listed in alpha order. I saw that it would have better to familiarize myself w the draft list beforehand because you dont know where in the list a player that you want is located. It had a feature to search for a player that you wanted to pick but I tried it once and the entire screen disappeared and I dont even know how I managed to get it back. I think the player I wanted had already been taken but instead of telling me this it just disappeared.

An interesting experience and certainly convenient and quick but I felt like I didnt have as much control over things as I'm used to having. So I still prefer an in-person draft. It certainly should be a roller-coaster season w so many uncertainties and developments that are hard to impossible to anticipate. E.g,, Aroldis Chapman was taken early in the draft (not by me) and shortly afterwards he reported to have CV-19. How I wish I had drafted Zach Britton!

[Hornsby]

So, 1 of my leagues had its draft today. First online draft I've ever done. It was in on Fantrax in their Draft Room. It went really quickly - 20 teams, 30 rounds in about 4 hours w a total of about 35 mins in breaks. You had to make your selection in about 30 seconds or else it would autodraft a player for you. I didnt realize this beforehand and I had 2 players autodrafted for me: my 1st hitter and 1st pitcher. Things happened so fast that I couldnt at all keep up w marking off my list the players drafted, like I am used to doing. SO, I think it was too fast. I think 60 secs to make a pick would have been more reasonable, which is what we do in my in-person draft. We also had a concurrent Zoom meeting to talk about the draft and whatever. I found the Zoom meeting very distracting and I left the meeting after a while. I didnt know how to use all of Fantrax's features. E.g., there was a chat box but I couldnt see how to chat in it. Fantrax's list of players to be drafted was ordered according their idea of fantasy value. I dont know if other online draft sites are this way - I suspect that some of them may just have the players listed in alpha order. I saw that it would have better to familiarize myself w the draft list beforehand because you dont know where in the list a player that you want is located. It had a feature to search for a player that you wanted to pick but I tried it once and the entire screen disappeared and I dont even know how I managed to get it back. I think the player I wanted had already been taken but instead of telling me this it just disappeared.

An interesting experience and certainly convenient and quick but I felt like I didnt have as much control over things as I'm used to having. So I still prefer an in-person draft. It certainly should be a roller-coaster season w so many uncertainties and developments that are hard to impossible to anticipate. E.g,, Aroldis Chapman was taken early in the draft (not by me) and shortly afterwards he reported to have CV-19. How I wish I had drafted Zach Britton!

Sorry to hear that you had a negative experience. 30 seconds is indeed too quick when you don't have the ability to make your own queue. CBS allows you to drag and drop players into a queue that you organize, and they also allow you to rank players as you think that should be ranked. Yes, they also have a default ranking for those who don't want to do all that work themselves. I really don't know if Fantrax has those features or not since I have only used it on a slow draft.

Hope that you end up with a team that you like despite the obstacles put in your way...hey, it's baseball, so it can't be all bad!

[Judge Jude]

every league should have a "mock draft" a day or two earlier so that most of those issues can be ironed out.

any of the issues you note could happen to me, for sure, and a lot of others.

but don't be shocked if you wind up with a competitive team anyway.

the projections for my "Parallel Universe" league have all 12 teams collecting 22 to 27 wins. every single vulture W will be gold!

[revo]

So, 1 of my leagues had its draft today. First online draft I've ever done. It was in on Fantrax in their Draft Room. It went really quickly - 20 teams, 30 rounds in about 4 hours w a total of about 35 mins in breaks. You had to make your selection in about 30 seconds or else it would autodraft a player for you. I didnt realize this beforehand and I had 2 players autodrafted for me: my 1st hitter and 1st pitcher. Things happened so fast that I couldnt at all keep up w marking off my list the players drafted, like I am used to doing. SO, I think it was too fast. I think 60 secs to make a pick would have been more reasonable, which is what we do in my in-person draft. We also had a concurrent Zoom meeting to talk about the draft and whatever. I found the Zoom meeting very distracting and I left the meeting after a while. I didnt know how to use all of Fantrax's features. E.g., there was a chat box but I couldnt see how to chat in it. Fantrax's list of players to be drafted was ordered according their idea of fantasy value. I dont know if other online draft sites are this way - I suspect that some of them may just have the players listed in alpha order. I saw that it would have better to familiarize myself w the draft list beforehand because you dont know where in the list a player that you want is located. It had a feature to search for a player that you wanted to pick but I tried it once and the entire screen disappeared and I dont even know how I managed to get it back. I think the player I wanted had already been taken but instead of telling me this it just disappeared.

An interesting experience and certainly convenient and quick but I felt like I didnt have as much control over things as I'm used to having. So I still prefer an in-person draft. It certainly should be a roller-coaster season w so many uncertainties and developments that are hard to impossible to anticipate. E.g,, Aroldis Chapman was taken early in the draft (not by me) and shortly afterwards he reported to have CV-19. How I wish I had drafted Zach Britton!

Your commish did a terrible job. 30 seconds is way too fast, and if you were on a Zoom call, why couldn't you just say, 'hey wait a second, that's not my guy?'

You also should have set a queue prior to the draft start, as well as add to it in between picks. Sorry it was a bad experience, but sounds very avoidable.

[rhd]

Your commish did a terrible job. 30 seconds is way too fast, and if you were on a Zoom call, why couldn't you just say, 'hey wait a second, that's not my guy?'

You also should have set a queue prior to the draft start, as well as add to it in between picks. Sorry it was a bad experience, but sounds very avoidable.

No, it wasnt a bad experience at all. It was just a new experience that I wasnt used to. I think there was a way to set a queue and maybe some people did that. I just didnt know how to do it and I probably wouldnt have done it even if I knew how. I just wanted more time between picks and that there was that time limit and also the autopick feature should have been made clearer. And I think our commish did a very good job putting all this together under these circumstances. Just not a perfect job. I'll campaign for the 60-second limit if we do this again.

[harmon]

No, it wasnt a bad experience at all. It was just a new experience that I wasnt used to. I think there was a way to set a queue and maybe some people did that. I just didnt know how to do it and I probably wouldnt have done it even if I knew how. I just wanted more time between picks and that there was that time limit and also the autopick feature should have been made clearer. And I think our commish did a very good job putting all this together under these circumstances. Just not a perfect job. I'll campaign for the 60-second limit if we do this again.

In my experiences with Fantrax, 90 seconds seems to be the sweet spot. With some autopicks and others picking right away the average time is much less than that but 90 seconds when you need it allows for blood pressure to not get out of control.

Queueing is available in Fantrax. I never use it but if you need to go to the loo or something you might want to put some players in there first.

[revo]

11 umpires have opted out of the season

[chancellor]

11 umpires have opted out of the season

Is one of them Joe West? Please? Can we increase the opt out to 12?

[Hornsby]

Is one of them Joe West? Please? Can we increase the opt out to 12?

Nope, Joe west pretty much said he's not a believer. Shocker I know...

Apologies to the Monkees...