Official *MLB Season Delayed* Thread

[chancellor]

interesting, but is there actual evidence for that?

we know that less time beats more time, but now we're just speculating on how much better 'less time' is.

There is some pretty solid evidence that single digit hours is where the curve goes vertical in the asymptotic function, yes. Ken listed one, there's a couple other pretty solid reviews of concentrated cases that point to a similar exposure rate. So, yeah, I'm with TranaGreg on this one - when they'll be together for months, it's virtually certain they'll pass the high exposure risk.

[chancellor]

Onwers reject players 114 game played offer, no counter-offer planned. Will potentially unilaterally implement 50 (or some other smallish number) game season, with pro-rata pay.

Gonna be interesting.

[cavebird]

Onwers reject players 114 game played offer, no counter-offer planned. Will potentially unilaterally implement 50 (or some other smallish number) game season, with pro-rata pay.

Gonna be interesting.

I am pretty sure that any unilateral implementation would not be allowed (or quickly rejected by the arbiter) as there is a CBA and they are not following it. Maybe the owners are just using this as a pre-run for the next CBA negotiations and want a two-year strike first? I can't see any other reason for this silliness.

[heyelander]

if we're debating whether less time in close proximity is better than more time in close proximity, then I don't know what to say.

I think this is the year to ban shifts... having all those defensive players on the same side of the infield is a health risk in the making!

[Judge Jude]

I think this is the year to ban shifts... having all those defensive players on the same side of the infield is a health risk in the making!

they should play like any bad co-ed softball game - no holding runners on, no stealing, no base coaches, no dugouts, even no catcher (I said it was a bad league. it happens).

[Ken]

they should play like any bad co-ed softball game - no holding runners on, no stealing, no base coaches, no dugouts, even no catcher (I said it was a bad league. it happens).

One player per team.

Home run derby.

[Judge Jude]

mlbtraderumors.com

5:21pm: Two team executives, Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams and Brewers president of baseball ops David Stearns, expressed optimism Wednesday that the owners and players will hammer something out. Williams told Jim Day of Fox Sports Ohio that “both sides want to play,” interestingly adding that he believes an agreement’s “very close” (via C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic). Stearns said, “I firmly believe we are going to have baseball this season” (per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

3:43pm: The two sides are seeing eye to eye on expanded playoffs and the universal DH, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. They’re also “close to agreeing on the all-important health protocols,” Heyman writes, but season length could still stand in the way of a deal.

[chancellor]

I am pretty sure that any unilateral implementation would not be allowed (or quickly rejected by the arbiter) as there is a CBA and they are not following it. Maybe the owners are just using this as a pre-run for the next CBA negotiations and want a two-year strike first? I can't see any other reason for this silliness.

Hmmm...interesting. I'd think the owners would have significant latitude due to the severity of the COVID-19 Force Majeure event. But I've never read the CBA, so I could well be wrong.

[cavebird]

Hmmm...interesting. I'd think the owners would have significant latitude due to the severity of the COVID-19 Force Majeure event. But I've never read the CBA, so I could well be wrong.

They have latitude to cancel the season and ignore the CBA. So, I guess they could impose their own conditions, if they negotiate to impasse, under the NLRA. That, however, gives the players the right to strike (since it isn't collectively bargained), and they would immediately.

[chancellor]

Well, any doubts I had from our earlier conversation relative to owner financial ignorance and poor fiscal management have been erased by none other than Cubs owner Tom Ricketts:

Here’s something I hope baseball fans understand," Ricketts told ESPN. "Most baseball owners don't take money out of their team. They raise all the revenue they can from tickets and media rights, and they take out their expenses, and they give all the money left to their GM to spend.

This certainly supports KS's point earlier about teams not having cash available. But it gets worse:

The league itself does not make a lot of cash. I think there is a perception that we hoard cash and we take money out and it's all sitting in a pile we've collected over the years. Well, it isn't. Because no one anticipated a pandemic. No one expects to have to draw down on the reserves from the past.

The depth of stupid in five short sentences is staggering. Basically, it sums up to "We're totally unprepared and haven't built reserves for potential losses like any other responsible business would because we didn't expect to have to draw on those reserves."

[GwynnInTheHall]

I'm just here for the baseball.

[chancellor]

I'm just here for the baseball.

And the food, I guess.

[revo]

MLB is using an excuse of a potential 2nd wave of the virus to curb the number of games and stop play by Oct 31, but how does that explain the NFL & college football going full swing by then?


Meanwhile, the NBA Board of Governors just approved the 22-team restart for July 31.


Also, all MLB announcers have been told they will have to call road games from their home stadium or studio.

[GwynnInTheHall]

And the food, I guess.

Maybe another Dynasty Draft?

[chancellor]

Maybe another Dynasty Draft?

Just Acuna, baby!!