MLB Season 2020

[Matthew]

2 hours ago, felser said:

Sorry to hear that, but understand it.  Not sure how they will keep players ready for injury replacements, etc.   

I read somewhere the thinking is each big league team has its full forty man roster active and there will be games with the scrubs to keep them in shape. though, again, what to do with injuries is a big problem. IMHO, just cancel the season -- of course, I can say that, but for the players, they do need to make money for themselves and their families. This whole thing has to be tough on athletes (I know, it's not like death), but a player has only so many years to make money, and this season is gone. 

PS: MLB might do the hockey thing and name the players eligible for that day's game.

Edited April 30, 2020 by Matthew

[JSngry]

Whatever happened to cash reserves out the wazoo? Remember when not having that was looked at as reckless behavior when practiced by people of wealth?

[duaneiac]

Huh -- Andre Dawson is now a mortician in Miami and having to deal with Covid-19 victims

https://sports.yahoo.com/hall-famer-dawson-deals-coronavirus-mortician-193644819--mlb.html

[ghost of miles]

Maybe I missed it in my quick read of this article, but not sure why video replay is being nixed as part of MLB’s deal with umpires for a potential 2020 season:

No video replay in MLB-umpires deal

... is it to help shorten the games?

Oddly enough, iirc there was some talk early on about implementing robo-umps for any potential season so that the home plate umpire could stand further behind the catcher. But I haven’t seen mention of that lately.

Anyway, kind of a drag from my perspective re video replay—I have NO nostalgia for the days of egregiously blown calls that couldn’t be overturned. But evidently it’s only temporary, and hell, at this point I’d watch MLB baseball even if they mandated the use of Wiffle balls and plastic bats. I’m jonesin’, man, I’m jonesin’! 

Edited May 2, 2020 by ghost of miles

[JSngry]

10 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

...at this point I’d watch MLB baseball even if they mandated the use of Whiffle balls and plastic bats. I’m jonesin’, man, I’m jonesin’! 

Two of the neighbor boys and their dad are out in their back yard doing exactly that pretty much every day.

Kudos to them for doing getting lemons and making lemonade. Sometimes I go inside have a hot dog in appreciation!

[Dan Gould]

On 5/1/2020 at 8:00 PM, duaneiac said:

Huh -- Andre Dawson is now a mortician in Miami and having to deal with Covid-19 victims

https://sports.yahoo.com/hall-famer-dawson-deals-coronavirus-mortician-193644819--mlb.html

Not really a mortician ... your statement made it sound like he needed a new career and got himself licensed to be a mortician. He was an investor in the business, sounds more hands-on than before.  But not a licensed mortician.

[JSngry]

Not at all a surprising career move. I saw The Hawk gun down plenty of people with that arm of his.

[Matthew]

1 hour ago, ghost of miles said:

Maybe I missed it in my quick read of this article, but not sure why video replay is being nixed as part of MLB’s deal with umpires for a potential 2020 season:

No video replay in MLB-umpires deal

... is it to help shorten the games?

Oddly enough, iirc there was some talk early on about implementing robo-umps for any potential season so that the home plate umpire could stand further behind the catcher. But I haven’t seen mention of that lately.

Anyway, kind of a drag from my perspective re video replay—I have NO nostalgia for the days of egregiously blown calls that couldn’t be overturned. But evidently it’s only temporary, and hell, at this point I’d watch MLB baseball even if they mandated the use of Whiffle balls and plastic bats. I’m jonesin’, man, I’m jonesin’! 

The replay thing might be an experiment, Manfred seems to be obsessed with speeding up the game. The problem is not with replay slowing things down, it's all the time batters take to get to the plate, back out, adjust the gloves, step back in, hold up their hand to make sure they're ever so comfy in the batters box. After that, every time a pitcher gets a new ball, they take a stroll around the mound, rubbing the baseball, then peer in for the sign, shake off about three, step off, tell the catcher to go through the signs again, rinse, cycle and repeat. Now with the whole video cheating thing, the games will be taking even longer because with a man on base, there will be a new set of signs, so again, pitchers stares, steps off, wants more signs to be given... For the first time ever, I got really tired of watching baseball last year, I'll see if my mood changes if, when or ever they start to play again.

[jcam_44]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Not at all a surprising career move. I saw The Hawk gun down plenty of people with that arm of his.

Post of the day!

[JSngry]

HAd a year or two of watching Cubs day games every day on WGN...lost count of how many DOAs I saw from runners trying to test that arm of his. Seriously/

[duaneiac]

3 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Not really a mortician ... your statement made it sound like he needed a new career and got himself licensed to be a mortician. He was an investor in the business, sounds more hands-on than before.  But not a licensed mortician.

Well, according to the article "Owning a funeral home took some getting used to, Dawson said Thursday, and now he's adjusting to life as a mortician during a global pandemic."   That and the article's title, Hall of Famer Dawson deals with coronavirus as a mortician, must have lead me to believe that Mr. Dawson is a mortician.  I really don't know what his status is in that regard.  It was just an utterly surprising story.  Good wishes to Mr. Dawson!

[jcam_44]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

HAd a year or two of watching Cubs day games every day on WGN...lost count of how many DOAs I saw from runners trying to test that arm of his. Seriously/

Reminds me of Cespedes when he was the with the A’s. My wife and I went to a game against the Angels (I’m an A’s fan and she’s and Angels fan) and he gunned someone down at home, I can’t recall who but as he was rounding 3rd I told my wife he’s gonna get thrown out. 

[JSngry]

Yeah, that's one of the great immediate thrills of the game, watching those two arcs, the gap between the runner and the destination base + the ball on the way to that base, gradually invert on each other (if that's the right way to put it). 90 feet keeps getting longer and longer the more of it gets eliminated as a well-thrown ball from several hundred feet away continues to make its way there! Something intrinsically...stimulative about watching those two ratios evolve against each other in a matter of seconds.

Or am I overthinking it?

[ghost of miles]

One of my favorite such plays—Greg Golson’s walkoff assist, I guess you’d call it, against the Rays in 2010:

... and, of course, this always-classic throw from Dave Parker in the 1979 ASG—one of two he made in this game. This one also required some deft handling and plate-blocking by Gary Carter:

 

I believe there are *three* Bo Jackson assists in this highlights reel... enjoy! God, I miss baseball.

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by ghost of miles

[Matthew]

Nice documentary of the Pacific Coast League version of the San Diego Padres. A bit of trivia: Ted Williams wore number 19 when he was with the Padres. The last player to wear that number for the Padres? Tony Gwynn. I still miss Gywnn! 

 

[ghost of miles]

22 minutes ago, Matthew said:

Nice documentary of the Pacific Coast League version of the San Diego Padres. A bit of trivia: Ted Williams wore number 19 when he was with the Padres. The last player to wear that number for the Padres? Tony Gwynn. I still miss Gywnn! 

 

Gwynn was a joy to watch—both him and Rod Carew.

[GA Russell]

I remember the Padres in '61.  They were the White Sox' team, and their biggest star was pitcher Joel Horlen.

[Brad]

For those in need of a baseball fix, ESPN is going to start to show Korean Baseball League games six days a week starting tomorrow at 1am Eastern. 

[felser]

2 hours ago, Brad said:

For those in need of a baseball fix, ESPN is going to start to show Korean Baseball League games six days a week starting tomorrow at 1am Eastern. 

Cool, where can I join a fantasy Korean Baseball League!

[catesta]

5 hours ago, Brad said:

For those in need of a baseball fix, ESPN is going to start to show Korean Baseball League games six days a week starting tomorrow at 1am Eastern. 

I've actually given in to watching the re-runs being broadcast on MLB and others. I'll have to DVR some of those games, it might hit the spot.

[JSngry]

3 hours ago, felser said:

Cool, where can I join a fantasy Korean Baseball League!

[Brad]

MLB has proposed an 82 game season starting in July. DH in both leagues. Expanded playoff structure.

M.L.B. Proposes an 82-Game Season Starting in July

[Soulstation1]

Don’t think the MLB players will play

for 1/2 their salaries 

[ghost of miles]

7 minutes ago, Soulstation1 said:

Don’t think the MLB players will play

for 1/2 their salaries 

Yeah, I’m trying to sort out what’s going on. I thought the owners and players had already reached agreement back in late March that the players would receive prorated salaries based on the number of games played. So if a player’s salary for 2020 was set at $3 million, say, and MLB plays 81 games, that player would get $1.5 million. Seems fair given that the players will be putting their health and even potentially their lives on the line (yep—friend of a friend who was 35 with no underlying conditions just died from the virus) and teams will still be receiving TV revenues, even if there aren’t fans in the stands. So are owners now asking players to play for less than their prorated salaries? Do players get more money when MLB revenues rise, as they have continued to do for quite a long time? Uh, no, not that I’m aware of. (Though I’ll confess to not being fully or even partly versed in MLB labor and revenue agreements.) This puts me in mind of a story in my state this week about the utility companies—they want to raise rates because people and businesses are using less electricity. Wtf?! If your boss comes to you and says sorry Joe, we need to reduce your hours from 40 a week to 30, do you get to say sure, so you’ll be increasing my hourly wage by 33% since I’m working less, right? Gotta make up the difference somehow!

[Brad]

Yes, they want to reduce salaries because the revenues that MLB earns will be reduced because there are no fans in the stands, with resulting drops in concession sales. See this Jeff Passan article, https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29161983/passan-20-questions-why-financial-battle-2020-mlb-season-get-really-really-ugly

The players can’t expect to receive the salaries they would receive in “normal” times. Pain has to be shared.