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2020 General MLB off-season


Mo Horn

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53 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

It would be if that average loss per game was constant across franchises, but it's not.

Franchises that get a higher percentage of their revenues from media will still make money on games with no fans.  

You’re probably right. Local media revenues will be cut in half. But National TV revenues will probably take a much smaller haircut as the playoff are the valuable part of those contracts. Last year national payout was $91 million/team. 

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13 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

You’re probably right. Local media revenues will be cut in half. But National TV revenues will probably take a much smaller haircut as the playoff are the valuable part of those contracts. Last year national payout was $91 million/team. 

Anybody think it would be a big adjustment for the Marlins to lose their gate revenue?

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1 hour ago, wood said:

Here's a pretty good article re: what the gameday experience of an MLB player would be like under their new plan to return to work...

The immensity of MLB's plan to return through a daunting health-and-safety protocol https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29186093

Meh, Pussan's a drama queen.

The first draft of the H&S protocol is clearly ass kissing the lawyers and the most control freak politicians.  It'll probably getting massaged to a more reasonable plan over the next few weeks.  If a state insists on being dogmatic, let their team play home games at their spring training site.

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And make no mistake: The change in this proposal is, like its word count and ambition, Brobdingnagian. 

Hopefully the implementation is not Ray Nagian.

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From Glavin’s POV from when he was a player’s rep for the union the during the last strike:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29198196/tom-glavine-players-risk-taking-blame-baseball-season-called-off

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Tom Glavine: Players at risk of taking blame if baseball season called off

Former Atlanta Braves great Tom Glavine has a word of warning to baseball players expressing concern about their salaries for a potential coronavirus-affected 2020 season: You might take the blame for the sport not resuming.

Glavine, who served as a players' union representative during the baseball strike of 1994-95, compared that situation to the current suspension of play in a story published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.

"If it were to come down to an economic issue and that's the reason baseball didn't come back, you're looking at a situation similar to the strike of '94 and '95 as far as fans are concerned," Glavine said. "Even if players were 100% justified in what they were complaining about, they're still going to look bad."

Major League Baseball and the players' union have been negotiating terms to start a shortened season amid the pandemic. Over the weekend, MLB released its return-to-play plans that address expansive COVID-19 testing as well as travel, in-stadium adjustments, on-field changes and a wide array of other issues.

The league also reportedly told players it projects to lose $4 billion even if a season is played. Those financial figures relate to how much players will make this year. The sides had agreed in March that players would make a prorated salary based on games played, but owners voted last week to propose salaries be based on a 50-50 split of revenue.

Glavine said this is a unique situation but that the "revenue split to the union is a scary proposition."

Still, Glavine said players should be careful not to talk too much about their pay, comparing it to interviews he gave during the 1994-95 strike.

"The accessibility thing was a miscalculation on my part," Glavine told the newspaper. "I just felt like if I did an interview on the radio or TV, if I had five or 10 minutes, I could make somebody understand what was going on and come to our side. That just wasn't going to happen."

He also acknowledged the apprehension for players that comes with the possibility of spreading the virus.

"I understand that a big part for all of us in getting back to our normal is to have sports back," he said. "But you can't dismiss a player's concern for his health or his family's health any more than you would dismiss your own concerns.

"... If I was playing today, I wouldn't say, 'Hell no, I'm not playing.' But of course I'd have a concern that once you step out that door and you go back into that world, there's a chance you're bringing something home to your family. It's 100% fair for players, coaches, everybody to be concerned about that."

Glavine, who said he is happy not to be a player or have union responsibilities given the crisis, noted that he is looking forward to the return of sports.

"I probably miss NHL playoffs more than baseball, at least this time of year," Glavine told the AJC. "It's part of the routine. It's nice to do what you do all day, eat dinner and then sit down and watch some kind of game. Not having games to watch has been hard. But you know, we'll get through it."

 

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Local Dodgers radio station has been playing various past games every night at 7.  VIN Scully calling this one from I think 2017, and I can’t be sure but I think it is where rookie Will Smith wins in a walkoff.  But just hearing Vin call a game gives me such pleasure.  I’m going to presume I’m wrong and have no idea how this will play out.  Dodgers down 2-0 after 1.  
 

edit, nope April 8, 2015.  No idea how this one plays out.

Edited by Sbbruin
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The Wuhan Virus could result in...mlb expansion?

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/why-the-coronavirus-shutdown-could-lead-to-mlb-expansion-in-the-near-future/

 

I say add Carolina (Charlotte based) and CenTex (Austin), perhaps with a certain number of home games in beefed up minor league parks in Raleigh and San Antonio to get to charge higher TV rights in those markets.  The combined markets of Austin-SA are larger than several existing ones like Minneapolis, for Carolina even larger when you add Greensboro-Winston-Salem metro in between the two.    

Move the Rockies into the AL West so both leagues end up with all western divisions (now just 4 team per.)  Solves the division time zone penalties of the Rangers and Astros.

Then either:

A  Move the Royals to the NL (they'd love to be with the Cards) and have CenTex joining the Astros, Rangers, and Milwaukee in an AL divsion (revenge FU to Bud Selig.)

or

B. Replace Houston with Austin in the AL and return the Astros to the NL.  My preference, I want an Astros-Rangers World Series.

or maybe most likely

C. Move Tampa to the NL in a division with Miami, Atlanta, and Carolina.  KC joins the 3 Texas teams in a division.

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On 5/12/2020 at 11:29 AM, TonyTexas said:

That is an excellent point. The contact expires after next season.  But the MLBPA is pretty powerful and will be  a tough nut to crack. If main issue becomes revenue sharing, get ready for a strike. 

The union is no where close to as powerful as it was in the 90’s though. 

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I think Austin/San Antonio  would be way down the list of expansion cities. Not really gaining much market wise and I’m sure the Astros and Rangers would fight it hard. Vegas, Charlotte, Portland, Montreal and Nashville would be more likely candidates. I’d love to see a Mexico franchise like Monterey. Not sure how economically viable it would be though. 

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8 hours ago, WBT said:

Any expansion needs to move the Astros back to the NL but I doubt it's even on Crane's radar

It’s inevitable that the universal  DH is coming soon so I really don’t care about league affiliation. With 2 new teams and uniform rules, you could really shake things up with realignment. I would like more time zone alignment for the Astros and Rangers. 

Edited by TonyTexas
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5 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

I think Austin/San Antonio  would be way down the list of expansion cities. Not really gaining much market wise and I’m sure the Astros and Rangers would fight it hard. Vegas, Charlotte, Portland, Montreal and Nashville would be more likely candidates. I’d love to see a Mexico franchise like Monterey. Not sure how economically viable it would be though. 

I'd love to see the Montreal Expos make a comeback a la the Browns of the NFL. Always had a soft spot for them after seeing them at the Dome back in the mid-80s as one of the first games I clearly recall attending (I'm guessing it was '85). I loved Raines, and Dawson was great too (I am just barely a bit too young to remember Carter as an Expo). And of course, they were building a monster in the 90s (Walker, Alou, Floyd, Grissom, Pedro, etc) but the strike killed it (and doomed that franchise). 

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1 hour ago, Hank Chinaski said:

I'd love to see the Montreal Expos make a comeback a la the Browns of the NFL. Always had a soft spot for them after seeing them at the Dome back in the mid-80s as one of the first games I clearly recall attending (I'm guessing it was '85). I loved Raines, and Dawson was great too (I am just barely a bit too young to remember Carter as an Expo). And of course, they were building a monster in the 90s (Walker, Alou, Floyd, Grissom, Pedro, etc) but the strike killed it (and doomed that franchise). 

Montreal was fucking loaded that year.  After the guys you listed, don't sleep on the mighty Sean Berry and Wil Cordero.

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Baby Shark makes the ring.

 

Capture.PNG.ade7cbbbe4087842a22a75e008c6da45.PNG

 

The "W" logo features 30 rubies, representing the 30 runs the Nats scored in their four World Series wins. 

"World Champions" has 32 sapphires, which represents seven walk-off wins, 13 shutout wins, the eight-game winning streak (their longest of the season) and the four playoff rounds won added together. 

There are 108 diamonds, representing the number of regular-season wins, postseason wins, one diamond for the World Series title and two additional diamonds to recognize the franchise having been both the Montreal Expos and Washington Nationals. 

The top and bottom parts of the ring have 12 rubies, signifying the total number of postseason wins. 

On the inside of the ring, there's a "Baby Shark" holding a World Series trophy. It also lists the four teams the Nats took down with the series game counts (for example, 4-3 over the Astros). 

Some of their phrases can be seen around the ring, such as "go 1-0 everyday" and "fight finished.

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Stephanie Apstein seems like a drama queen:

 

https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/05/26/baseball-spitting-ban-covid

'I’m Still Gonna Spit': MLB Players Are Facing a New Reality

If Major League Baseball gets its way, player behavior will have to change significantly to abide by new health and safety standards. That means no spitting.

...Consider a typical play: The hitter, who has spent the afternoon sharing tubs and showers with his teammates, approaches the plate. He may spit on his hands or rub dirt on them to improve his grip on the bat he has already coated with pine tar. He spits tobacco juice onto the ground, inches from the catcher and umpire. Sixty feet, six inches away, the pitcher dabs at the pine tar subtly applied to his cap, then mixes it with the sunscreen and sweat on his forearm and a little rosin from the bag every other pitcher on both teams will touch. Finding the ball still too dry, he licks his hands, then massages it. The hitter singles. The ball rolls around in the grass until an outfielder throws it in. The runner on third has scored. Every member of his team congratulates him with a high five. This is an epidemiologist’s worst nightmare....

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2020/05/26/mlb-owners-sending-plan-mlbpa-includes-sliding-pay-scale/5260285002/

MLB owners sending latest plan to MLBPA that includes sliding pay scale for players

Spoiler

PHOENIX -- Major League Baseball owners approved a plan Tuesday that will be sent to the Major League Baseball Players Association in the afternoon, formally opening negotiations on the key economic issues for the season to start by the weekend of July 4.

The plan, three persons with knowledge of the proposal told USA TODAY Sports, does not include the same 50-50 revenue-sharing split the owners agreed on two weeks ago that was never submitted to the union. The three people spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak publicly due to ongoing negotiations.

The proposal instead includes a sliding scale of compensation, with players earning the most taking the biggest cuts and those earning the least receiving most of their guaranteed salaries.

It remains uncertain how much money the players will be yielding in this proposal, based on no fans in attendance for an 82-game season, after already agreeing to be paid on a pro-rated basis, reducing their pay by almost 50%.

Yet revenue sharing was not referenced at all in the document that was prepared for the union.

The union was concerned that the revenue sharing would lead to the introduction of a salary cap in future negotiations, while wary of further pay reductions, including the possibility of a percentage of their salaries placed in escrow.

The owners insist they will lose money during the regular season without fans in attendance, but would be guaranteed $777 million in postseason TV revenue, which would be inflated to about $1 billion with the postseason format expanded to 14 teams instead of 10.

There’s no hard deadline for the negotiations to be completed, but the two sides would likely need to reach an agreement in seven to 10 days if the season can begin the first week of July.

 

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1 hour ago, clapclapclap said:

Stephanie Apstein seems like a drama queen:

 

https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/05/26/baseball-spitting-ban-covid

'I’m Still Gonna Spit': MLB Players Are Facing a New Reality

If Major League Baseball gets its way, player behavior will have to change significantly to abide by new health and safety standards. That means no spitting.

...Consider a typical play: The hitter, who has spent the afternoon sharing tubs and showers with his teammates, approaches the plate. He may spit on his hands or rub dirt on them to improve his grip on the bat he has already coated with pine tar. He spits tobacco juice onto the ground, inches from the catcher and umpire. Sixty feet, six inches away, the pitcher dabs at the pine tar subtly applied to his cap, then mixes it with the sunscreen and sweat on his forearm and a little rosin from the bag every other pitcher on both teams will touch. Finding the ball still too dry, he licks his hands, then massages it. The hitter singles. The ball rolls around in the grass until an outfielder throws it in. The runner on third has scored. Every member of his team congratulates him with a high five. This is an epidemiologist’s worst nightmare....

She was the one with the Astros thing too right?

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If I was Baseball God, I say every player gets $3 million for playing the season (defined as on active roster for at least 75% of games). Each player on a playoff qualifying team gets $1 million extra, and an additional million for each round advanced to.  Every player on WS champion team gets $10 million. So every player on the champion team would make 15 or 16 million this year. 

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9 minutes ago, Helobious said:

If I was Baseball God, I say every player gets $3 million for playing the season (defined as on active roster for at least 75% of games). Each player on a playoff qualifying team gets $1 million extra, and an additional million for each round advanced to.  Every player on WS champion team gets $10 million. So every player on the champion team would make 15 or 16 million this year. 

So you think it's a good idea to pay middle relievers and utility infielders and 4th outfielders $15-16M just because they're on a championship team, while the guy who won the MVP last year would get $3M?

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41 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

So you think it's a good idea to pay middle relievers and utility infielders and 4th outfielders $15-16M just because they're on a championship team, while the guy who won the MVP last year would get $3M?

For this season, yes. This situation has never happened in sports history (never read much on how sports was handled during Spanish flu). They can take their $36,600 per game and cry about it, see how much sympathy they get. 

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