From the Washington Post:
While MLB and the union haggle over the terms of the season and the money each side receives, the virus ultimately will decide how much — or whether — baseball will be played in 2020.
[snip]
MLB is left to decide whether it wants to impose a mini-season, leaving itself open to a potential $1 billion grievance the union would almost certainly file, or use the spread of the virus across the game’s ranks as a reason to punt on 2020 entirely.
At the same time, the players have the choice between accepting MLB’s latest proposal for a 60-game season — which would come with an expanded postseason and an agreement to waive potential grievances — or rejecting the proposal and accepting whatever imposed schedule, probably in the 50-game range, MLB comes up with.
For the first time I am not hopeful that there’ll be any season worth thinking about. Fifty games is ridiculously short, as is anything short of 81, as far as I’m concerned. A fifty game season would require the mother of all asterisks in the record books. But trying to squeeze 81 games plus playoffs by the end of October is impossible, particularly when you have the most visible and trusted public health doctor in the country suggesting MLB really should wrap up the year by the end of September.
We’ll see, but I feel about a 50-game season the way Juliet felt about falling in love with Romeo so quickly:
“I have no joy of this contract tonight.
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say “It lightens.”
NPUT (after I make Mom’s lunch).
https://twitter.com/susanslusser/status/1279821975511117824?s=20
Name that team is being played in Cleveland.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/if-the-cleveland-indians-change-their-team-name-here-are-some-of-the-best-options/
At least they have a theme song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jQ_qYg08vQ
Grins. I’m surprised you haven’t already suggested they revert to The Spiders.
Spiders works for me. Even better, “Arachnids.”
Steal “Wyverns” from the KBO.
Wait until next year… https://twitter.com/mlbtraderumors/status/1279518941837242375?s=20
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1279534523051421696
If the whole 40-man roster dropped out, I wouldn’t blame them.
Mike Trout’s ambivalence carries weight, I think.
Is this really gonna work?
The All-Star Game which was to be held at Dodger Stadium this season has been canceled and the Dodgers will now host in 2022.
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1279088014120169473
https://twitter.com/Joe_Davis/status/1278776077586886656
Spring Training 2.0: a day in the life.
On reflection, I am not sanguine about the 2020 season – not for the Dodgers alone, but for all of baseball. If the season happens I will watch, but with great ambivalence and the expectation that, at some point, it’s likely to crash and burn from the pandemic.
I have my doubts about all of organized sports at least for the remainder of the year. Until a vaccine is proven and millions of doses made available, I don’t think attending or playing will be safe.
Background on the Andrew Toles story from USA Today’s Nightengale.
It seems that the Dodgers have done just about everything possible to help him.
Dodgers among group of teams planning to pay their minor leaguers through August 31.
Old friend finds new home. https://twitter.com/mlbtraderumors/status/1278011641049886725?s=20
Glad for him. Hope we get to see him play.
In his prime, would’ve been a monster at Coors. Given his defensive shortcomings and the huge outfield there, probably little more than a DH now.
Ian Desmond of the Rockies opts out of the season with a heartfelt essay.
He’s digging pretty deep. Nothing but respect for the man.
You betcha.
I’ve heard about the travel team culture and its costs, but I hadn’t thought it all the way through to the logical conclusion: if you’re a kid whose parents (or single parent) are less than upper-middle class, you’re not going to be able to participate, which means you’re not likely to get noticed by even one of what few scouts are left, which means you’re likely to give up baseball altogether.
51 players are in the Dodgers’ initial player pool to start the season.
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1277416615819087873
I had a chance to attend this game, and passed it up. https://twitter.com/dodgers_cards/status/1276975392163692544?s=20
Reuss posted his memories of that game on his Facebook page.
I met Reuss at a Dodgertown West weekend several years ago in Las Vegas. Six teams of seniors, each of which played three games over three days at a high school field. Reuss was quite personable, down to earth. Said that he had never heard the big leagues referred to as “The Show.” He pitched 22 seasons in the majors.
This kid has/had so much potential. https://twitter.com/Ned2point0/status/1276608032265236480?s=20
I felt so sad when I read this. I loved this kid.
On the field, he always seemed joyful.
The Astros’ rot comes from the top.
Houston Astros owner’s shameless greed is a reminder of how awful the organization is
Worst of the worst.
We need a constitutional amendment! https://twitter.com/ericowensdc/status/1276166189534916617?s=20
Hah!
SI’s Ten Big Questions about the shortened season.
1. Will there really be one?
2. What will games look like (many MANY pitching changes)
3. Which teams benefit most from a short season (Tampa Bay, San Diego, Houston, Washington)
And seven more!
I’m not yet convinced it’s viable.
On TBLA tonight, the watch party is Game 5 of the 1988 Series, when the Dodgers fielded a truly dominant lineup.
Here’s that imposing lineup! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0901fd8e2ca892e0165ae344ea74337914d7423194f3e64a9cf0356f581277b8.png
Shivering in my boots I am not.
They all had their moments, esp Hatcher, Davis and Dempsey.
If a game goes to extra innings this season, and the tenth starts with an automatic runner on 2B, does this raise the possibility that a team could lose a perfect game?
And what about the pitcher’s ERA if the run scores? No pitcher put him on base,
They have decided it will not be an earned run. I presume, however, if there’s a walkoff homer that that run will be earned.
https://twitter.com/Joe_Davis/status/1276178298872066050
FanGraphs is bullish on the Dodgers (not so much on the Gnats). https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/33857fc76aa48c380c46dd9ca410e0a7b2ebd8b65fe9efa9e5a980113ef41298.png
The Padres in second? My goodness.
Lotsa young talent, but I’d think it’d be a dogfight with the Snakes (how’s that for a metaphor?). That said, so much depends on health for every team – especially if your rotation comes down with COVID-19, it’ll really test your depth.
The NY Times has a good timeline of how we got to this truncated, abbreviated and disease-impacted season.
It started this way:
USA Today lays out the format of this weird “season.”
Charlie Blackmon and two lesser known Rox have tested positive. https://twitter.com/mlbtraderumors/status/1275605011574263808?s=20
https://twitter.com/kikehndez/status/1275591401435099136?s=21
Artificial crowd noise will help. Can’t we get the movie industry to put digital fans in seats as well?
https://twitter.com/MLBPA_News/status/1275589804990836736
Rather than one 9-inning game, how about adding an inning and dividing it into two 5-innlng games, a “doubleheader,” so to speak. Then there will be a 120-game schedule. Ha!
In the PCL, when I was a kid, Sunday doubleheaders consisted of two seven-inning games.
I liked those. I think it was a Dodgers Reds doubleheader where I sat through extra innings in both games.
Would the players get paid for two games?
Shaikin at the LA Times:
If indeed it happens, the whole season will always carry an asterisk. https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1275224209577218048?s=20
Still stonewalling… https://twitter.com/mlbtraderumors/status/1275205906754686976?s=20
https://twitter.com/cdgoldstein/status/1274820010851151878?s=20
I used to own a copy of this baseball card, which appeared as the laminated backing of hot dog packages in the Pacific Northwest. Maury played for the Rainiers in 1957; I saw him on TV in Tacoma, but my parents never took me to Seattle for a game. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a6c018bd1e5c2d56e71203603cbe767fa5268115515830454c779c7bebd8eae8.png
Clayton Kershaw speaks out:
https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-06-19/silence-wont-cut-it-clayton-kershaw-elaborates-on-his-juneteenth-message
https://twitter.com/ericstephen/status/1274731751592452099?s=20
From The Athletic:
https://theathletic.com/1883272/2020/06/20/mlb-seeks-to-block-testimony-league-discriminated-against-minority-umpires/
Hopefully we take another giant step for black lives while the energy for doing so now is high.
Without arguing the merits, if MLB’s lawyers really think Dr. Baxter “invented” the term “word salad” then they have never read newspaper accounts of various politicians’ obfuscatory verbiage.
Hard to imagine an evaluation system where Angel is rated as a “good” ump.
My all-time favorite umpire was Emmett Ashford, whom I saw many times in Tacoma. We enjoyed his flamboyance.