then coronavirus happened, 2020 baseball

?

Less than a week after ESPN’s negotiations to acquire broadcast rights to Korea Baseball Organization games were reported to be all but dead, Jee-ho Yoo and Chang-yong Shin of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency now report that a deal is nearing completion. Yoo reported last week that ESPN had sought to acquire broadcast rights from Korean counterpart Eclat without any up-front payment — ultimately offering only a percentage of revenue if broadcasts proved profitable — despite the increased production costs for Eclat.

Additional details remain sparse at this time, though the Yonhap duo adds that the deal being discussed would allow ESPN to broadcast multiple KBO contests per week. South Korea’s 10-team league is slated to begin its regular season on May 5 — a bit more than five weeks after the initially scheduled season opener on March 28. The KBO season will begin without fans, although MBC’s Daniel Kim tweets that the league is discussing a plan to gradually allow fans back into stadiums, beginning with a 20-25 percent capacity and incrementally increasing from there.

[Related — Poll: would you watch KBO broadcasts?]

Several health regulations will be in place for players and gameday personnel as well (multiple tests per player prior to games, no spitting allowed, players and personnel in masks throughout the stadium except on the field/in the dugout, gloves and masks for umpires, strong discouragement of handshakes and high-fives). A player showing symptoms of COVID-19 will be immediately be tested and quarantined, while his stadium would be subject to a 48-hour closure for cleaning. A positive test from a player wouldn’t necessarily shut down the league but would prompt an immediate meeting between owners, league officials and health experts about the potential stoppage of play.

There’s still no concrete plan for when Major League Baseball can attempt to resume play (or whether it definitively will). The lack of baseball and other professional sports has been an obvious enormous strain not only on ESPN but all sports media outlets throughout the world. ESPN’s interest in airing some KBO play, then, isn’t surprising — but it’s also not without risk. Some sports-starved fans will surely flock to any competitive play, but there’s no guarantee on the extent of fan interest, and advertisers could be wary paying a hefty rate for an untested product in the United States.

For baseball fans, though, it’s an easy win — creating a readily accessible means of viewing one of the world’s top professional leagues and even offering a chance to see a handful of former big leaguers suiting up overseas. MLBTR ran through more than 30 former Major Leaguers who are set to play out the 2020 season in the KBO last week.

who is ready to watch some kbo

who do we like

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/04/which-former-mlb-players-are-getting-ready-to-play-in-the-kbo.html

Doosan Bears (2019 record: 88-55-1)

Jose Miguel Fernandez, 1B/DH: The 32-year-old Fernandez was a notable signing out of Cuba by the Dodgers but never got a look with his original club. He latched on with the 2018 Angels and appeared in 36 games before heading to the KBO, where he posted a massive .344/.409/.483 slash even in a year that saw a leaguewide decrease in offense.
Raul Alcantara, RHP: Alcantara, 27, pitched with the Athletics in 2016-17. He notched a 4.01 ERA in 172 2/3 with the KT Wiz in Korea last season before inking a deal with the Bears this past winter.
Chris Flexen, RHP: Flexen struggled with the Mets from 2017-19 before signing up for his first overseas stint this past season. He had some success with the Mets’ Triple-A club and averaged a strikeout per inning at that level.

SK Wyverns (88-55-1)

Nick Kingham, RHP: The longtime Pirates top prospect never put it together in 131 2/3 big league innings, but he’s still just 28 years old. He’ll be an interesting name to monitor with regard to a future return.
Ricardo Pinto, RHP: The 26-year-old spent time with the Phillies, Rays and Giants organizations but struggled in limited MLB time.
Jamie Romak, 1B: The 33-year-old Romak only has 39 MLB plate appearances on his track record, but he’s become a consistent offensive force in the KBO, hitting .283/.376/.544 in three seasons with the Wyverns.

Kiwoom Heroes (86-57-1)

ByungHo Park, 1B: Park’s big free-agent deal with the Minnesota Twins didn’t pan out, but he’s posted an OPS north of 1.000 since returning to the Heroes two seasons ago.
Taylor Motter, INF/OF: The versatile 30-year-old didn’t hit much in 141 MLB games between the Rays, Mariners and Twins. He’ll hope for an overseas breakout in 2020.
Jake Brigham, RHP: Brigham, 32, only got a brief look with the 2015 Braves, but he’s entering his fourth KBO season — his second with the Heroes. In a total of 501 1/3 KBO innings, he’s posted a 3.72 ERA with 7.2 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9.
Eric Jokisch, LHP: An encouraging 2014 stint with the Cubs (three runs in 14 1/3 innings) never led to another MLB look for Jokisch, who bounced around the Triple-A circuit before turning in an impressive 3.13 ERA and 141-to-39 K/BB ratio in 181 1/3 frames in last year’s KBO debut.

LG Twins (79-64-1)

Hyun-Soo Kim, OF: The former Oriole and Phillie returned to the KBO after a two-year MLB stint in 2016-17, signing a four-year, $10.7MM deal with LG. The “Hitting Machine,” as he was nicknamed in the KBO, posted an OPS north of 1.000 in his return and has largely picked up where he left off.
Casey Kelly, RHP: The one-time star Red Sox prospect is now 30 years old and fresh off a 2.55 ERA, 6.3 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 through 180 1/3 innings in his first KBO season.
Tyler Wilson, RHP: Wilson, also 30, floundered through 145 innings with the Orioles before finding himself with the LG Twins, for whom he’s tossed 355 innings with a 2.99 ERA, 7.3 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9.
Roberto Ramos, 1B: One of the few players on this list who never appeared in the Majors, the 25-year-old Ramos is a former Rockies prospect who signed on for his first season of Asian ball after hitting .309/.400/.580 in Triple-A last year.

NC Dinos (73-69-2)

Aaron Altherr, OF: One of the more recognizable names on the list, Altherr at times looked like a budding star with the Phillies. He fizzled out after some notable injuries, though, and is will make his KBO debut at 29 this year.
Mike Wright, RHP: Another former O’s hurler, Wright appeared in parts of five seasons with Baltimore. He had his share of success in Triple-A (3.76 ERA) but regularly struggled in the big leagues (6.00 ERA in 258 frames). He’s making his KBO debut this season as well.
Drew Rucinski, RHP: The 31-year-old saw time with the Angels, Twins and most recently the Marlins (2018). He returns to the Dinos after pitching 177 2/3 frames of 3.05 ERA ball in 2019 (6.0 K/9, 2.3 BB/9).

KT Wiz (71-71-2)

Odrisamer Despaigne, RHP: The 2020 season will be the first in the KBO for the 33-year-old Despaigne — a six-year MLB veteran who has tallied 363 innings in the big leagues.
Jae-Gyun Hwang, 3B: The (San Francisco) Giants signed Hwang back in 2017 but never gave him a long look despite a memorable home run in his MLB debut. He’s a productive regular in the KBO once again, having signed a four-year, $7.9MM deal with the Wiz prior to the 2018 season.
Mel Rojas Jr., OF: The 29-year-old Rojas never got a chance with the Pirates or Braves, and he’s now one of the KBO’s top hitters. In three seasons with the Wiz, Rojas has mashed at a .310/.377/.561 clip. He’s hit 30 homers in consecutive seasons.
William Cuevas, RHP: Cuevas, 29, got a cup of coffee with both the Red Sox and Tigers before jumping to the KBO and posting a 3.62 ERA with 6.6 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 184 innings last year.

Kia Tigers (62-80-2)

Preston Tucker, OF: The former Astros prospect had a hot start with the ’18 Braves but faded quickly. He’s set for a second season with the Tigers after hitting .311/.381/.479 in last year’s debut effort.
Aaron Brooks, RHP: Brooks, 30 next week, pitched for the A’s, Royals and O’s between 2014-19 but struggled to a 6.49 ERA in 179 2/3 innings. He’s set for his KBO debut.
Drew Gagnon, RHP: A third-round pick of the Brewers in 2011, Gagnon saw MLB action with the Mets in 2018-19 but performed poorly. He had a bit 2019 season in Triple-A (2.33 ERA in 88 2/3 innings), which helped attract interest overseas.

Samsung Lions (60-83-1)

Seunghwan Oh, RHP: Oh enjoyed a quality four-year run with the Cardinals, Blue Jays and Rockies before undergoing elbow surgery last summer and heading back to the Lions, for whom he starred for nine seasons as one of the best relievers in league history (a tenure that earned him his incredible “Final Boss” nickname).
Tyler Saladino, INF: The former White Sox utilityman saw MLB time with the Brewers in 2018-19 and now heads to South Korea for the first time at 30 years of age.
David Buchanan, RHP: Buchanan hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since a 2014-15 run with the Phillies. He’s spent the past three seasons with Japan’s Yakult Swallows, working to a 4.07 ERA in 433 innings — mostly working as a starter.
Ben Lively, RHP: A prospect of some note for a bit with the Phillies, Lively had a solid MLB debut in ’17 but never further established himself. He gave the Lions 57 innings of 3.95 ERA ball after signing midseason in 2019.

Hanwha Eagles (58-86)

Jared Hoying, OF: Hoying barely got a look with the Rangers in 2016-17, but he’s compiled a .296/.355/.519 slash in two seasons with the Eagles so far.
Warwick Saupold, RHP: The Aussie hurler managed a 4.98 ERA in three seasons with the Tigers before taking his 80-grade name to the KBO. In last year’s 192-inning debut, he logged a 3.51 ERA.
Chad Bell, LHP: Bell and Saupold were teammates with the Tigers. Both debuted in the KBO last year, and Bell’s 3.50 ERA is a near-identical match to his longtime teammate.

Lotte Giants (48-93-3)

Dan Straily, RHP: The most accomplished pitcher on this list, Straily racked up 495 1/3 innings of 4.03 ERA ball with the Reds and Marlins from 2016-18 before his production fell off a cliff in 2019. He’ll hope to rebound on a one-year, $1MM deal with the Giants.
Dae-ho Lee, 1B: The 37-year-old slugger came to the Majors for one season with the 2016 Mariners before returning to Korea on a four-year, $12.9MM contract that represented the largest deal in KBO history at the time. Lee’s bat faded in 2019, but he mashed 37 homers with a .987 OPS in 2018.
Adrian Sampson, RHP: The 31-year-old comes to the Giants for his own KBO debut with a solid Triple-A track record but an ugly 5.71 ERA in 153 MLB innings.
Dixon Machado, INF: Yet another former Tiger, Machado spent 2019 with the Cubs’ Triple-A club, where he hit .261/.371/.480 before agreeing to a deal with Lotte this winter.

how do you not root for KT Wiz?

Nobody beats the wiz

Major League Baseball officials have become cautiously optimistic this week that the season will start in late June, and no later than July 2, playing at least 100 regular-season games, according to three executives with knowledge of the talks. They requested anonymity because the plan is still under consideration.

And not only would baseball be played, but it would be played in their own major-league ballparks, albeit with no fans.

MLB is considering a three-division, 10-team plan in which teams play only within their division – a concept gaining support among owners and executives. It would abolish the traditional American and National Leagues, and realign the divisions based on geography.

The plan, pending approval of medical experts and providing that COVID-19 testing is available to the public, would eliminate the need for players to be in isolation and allow them to still play at their home ballparks while severely reducing travel.

The divisions would keep many of the natural rivals together, while playing one another before an expanded playoff format.

Here's a look at the possible realignment structure:

EAST

New York Yankees and Mets, Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins

WEST

Los Angeles Dodgers and Angels, San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners

CENTRAL

Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers

idg why atlanta would be in the central instead of pittsburgh, but whatevs

it's an unwritten rule of baseball that the atlanta braves should be in a division that doesn't line up with their geographic location

it is comforting that some traditions remain itut

just looked up ken oberkfell's stats (he turned 64 today)

16 seasons, 1602 games -- 1046 of them as a 3B and another 43 at 1B

he hit 29 homers total, never more than 5 in a season

Anyone know which KBO team has a solid record of futility and dashed hopes? Want to maintain some consistency in my fandom.

Let’s just say that’s KT Wiz

probably bullshit but who knows

Want some good baseball news??

I just heard from multiple sources that on June 10th, Spring Training 2 will start. July 1st will be Opening Day and all teams will be playing at their home ballparks.

We’ll be discussing it in full on the next @TalkinBaseball_

— Trevor Plouffe (@trevorplouffe) May 4, 2020

for no reason, i'm watching the pine tar game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvu_1JMY36k&list=PL9qa1Jiw7oNLoWf4OturkhsqawIbcTzOn&index=2

it's the yankees broadcast, with phil rizzuto and frank messer. i'd never heard either of them before. there are some awkward moments!!

it's interesting to watch, not knowing when the moment is going to happen. almost an hour and fifty minutes in now, in the bottom of the 7th.

a young hotshot named don mattingly just pinch-hit! it's going to be tough to figure out whether or not to send him down, once ken griffey gets back from the DL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvu_1JMY36k

also dave winfield crushed a HR early on, it was amazing. he also made some VERY bad plays in the OF.

jose martinez: actually about as good in the OF as dave winfield??

was so hilarious to hear phil rizutto trash wade boggs as "contact only", before pointing to his lack of RBIs

wade boggs was a goddamned hero

HERE COMES THE GOOSE

never knew the bit about gaylord perry snatching the book off the field!

ha! and when they resume the game, ken griffey is back, and mattingly's at second! classicbaseball.com

"it's being played under protest, we just got the sign, there it is, the peace sign, from the plate umpire, in this case that george maloney that billy martin has protested this ballgame."

the crowd is wasted

in multiple dimensions of time

i was born 2 months before this game. i was pooping my pants DURING this game

lol that the umpires from the first game signed an affadavit indicating that brett touched all four bases on his home run trot, foiling martin's plan to destroy the royals with dastardly logic. fuck you martin! seriously

also - *passes out* - mattingly comes to bat in the bottom of the 9th, and in a bizarre circumstance, has a chance to create a 25-game hitting streak out of nowhere. apparently, the pine tar game was the only one out of 25 games where he didn't get a hit. so in the resumption of the game, he has a chance to fill in that gap in the hitting streak by getting a hit. he makes great contact, but it doesn't fall in (same deal with his earlier pinch hit appearance, actually).

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2020/5/6/21248854/the-joy-and-anxiety-of-watching-kbos-return

baumann on watching the KBO

i'd never heard either of them before.

Rizzuto, besides being comically inattentive, had some of his freeform musings compiled into a 'poetry' book. Yankee haters listened for the lols.

i didn't even know he was an announcer after his playing days. and doing play-by-play, to boot! usually the ex-players are color commentary guys, it seems

Those broadcasts suffered a blow when Scooter left...he started doing fewer and fewer innings, and just leaving sometimes in like the middle of the 5th inning w/o telling anybody incl. Bill White

He was enflesslessly entertaining. One of my favorites was when he said nobody will ever forget where they were the day Joe D's hitting streak began

late in his career they would insert a long shot of the GW bridge would begin Scooter's trek home to New Jersey...around the 6th inning.

Yankee telecast, circa mid 80s, as Rickey Henderson slides into second with a double (Bill White, if you don't know, is black):

PHIL RIZZUTO: Boy, that Rickey is so graceful... He's like Fred Astaire! Or Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

BILL WHITE: Now, is he more like Fred Astaire, or Bojangles?
(pause)

RIZZUTO: Awww White, you huckleberry! (both laugh heartily)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, August 17, 2004

he was no ralph kiner

Huckleberry! Everybody was a huckleberry.

https://i2.wp.com/fullinbloom.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/valkilmerbook.jpg?resize=450%2C679

wait what

can the noncabled get a feed for these KBO games?

appears that they are streamed on twitch and on a korean app called naver, but either one likely requires a vpn

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/gf31ky/kbo_twitch_broadcast_links/

i don't think the twitch streams require a VPN (but i could be wrong).

they're listed here, at the bottom:

https://www.twitch.tv/search?term=kbo

and here's a direct link to one of the games: https://www.twitch.tv/kbo3/video/614666650

sweet

so, the draft is only going to be 5 rounds this year. things are going to get weird.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/05/mlb-to-hold-5-round-draft.html

MLB has decided upon a five-round draft this summer, according to Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.com (links to Twitter). The union had previously agreed to the possibility of a draft as short as five rounds, though more recently had pushed for a lengthier process.

Commissioner Rob Manfred laid down the decision when MLB and the MLBPA could not come to an agreement on the particulars. Interestingly, Passan notes, a ten-round draft was also preferred by baseball operations departments. The version on offer from the league would’ve effectively separated the draft into two five-round sections with greater spending limitations on the latter half, along with a cap on undrafted signings.

Ultimately, it seems, owners were more concerned with avoiding the cost of additional bonuses than they were intrigued by the potential to acquire more high-end talent in the later stages of the draft. Draft-eligible players that are not selected in the five rounds will be eligible to sign for a maximum bonus of $20K.

Teams may struggle to woo players they don’t select. Typically, later-round choices can be paid quite a bit more than $20K. With collegiate play a viable alternative, many will elect to await a (hopefully) more lucrative professional starting point.

Then again, perhaps teams will find some success competing with geography, promises of advancement and opportunity, and other creative inducements. Manfred will no doubt need to be proactive in policing this arena. There’s huge potential upside to be had, which creates some potentially worrying incentives.

Finding value in the draft has long been a chief aim of baseball ops departments. Now they’ll have never-before-seen chances to sign an unlimited number of players for bargain prices. That’ll involve recruitment, of course, but there’s a rare possibility for major imbalance in the talent haul.

Even putting aside worries of rule-breaking behavior, there’ll be potential for havoc. Joel Sherman of the New York Post notes (Twitter link) the possibility of pressure on “late”-round picks to take what they can get or face a $20K cap. There’s also a sense that innumerable soft factors could sway large numbers of players in varying directions, as Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com notes on Twitter. There’ll certainly be downstream effects for players that choose to enter or remain in the collegiate and JuCo ranks.

MLB owners have approved a proposal for the 2020 season to present to the players’ union, source tells The Athletic. Meeting expected between union and league tomorrow.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 11, 2020

latest proposal, i think, was for teams of each geographic region to only play teams in their region. for example, an AL West team would only play AL West and NL West teams. 7 teams would make the playoffs in each league, with only the top team receiving a bye for the first round.

I don't know why they don't just write this season off. (I do know why: money.) Winning a title won't mean anything. I guess the counting-stats are important to possible outer-circle HOF-ers (I can think of a few players '94 hurt in that regard: Lofton, Cone, etc.), but there are a lot of hoops to jump through to salvage a mess. Doesn't some kind of insurance kick in? It did during the strike years.

union already hates the proposal, views 'revenue-sharing' as a salary cap

considering the way it's being framed (already) in the press, i don't think this is ground the union should want to fight on. it may not even be united on the matter, as long as the provisions cover just this season. they'd be better off focusing on the still-extremely-vague health and testing protocols

otoh, if you're gonna be guaranteed a certain percentage, one would assume that you'd get to look at the books in depth

fuck the press, the union and the owners agreed on payment a month ago and the owners are changing the deal last minute. why wouldn't they fight back on that? the union isn't beholden to public opinion, bob nightengale and his headline writers aren't a factor

mark teixeira says he would play for pennies on the dollar, (democratic) illinois governor slams players for 'holding out'

all v. cool

The billionaire governor, representing the people by supporting the owners

this doesn't seem like the move of an organization expecting to play anytime soon

About 40 percent of #Marlins baseball operations employees will be furloughed June 1, sources tell The Athletic. Total expected to be between 90 and 100. Team paying employees through May, expects to cover health benefits of those furloughed through October. Evaluating monthly.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 13, 2020

(pittsburgh's own) art howe is in the icu with the rona

Open-ended hospital stay for watching KBO.

Ravech and Perez are so Trumpist about having a season it's disgusting.

you alright?

Art Howe has been hospitalized in a Houston ICU for the past 5 days. It's been 13 days since first feeling symptoms and he tried to recover at home.

get well soon, morbs

this is extremely detailed and complex to the point of seeming impossible. oh, and also ownership wants the players to take less money while assuming these risks

MLB today sent the players’ union a 67-page document on proposed health and safety protocols for the 2020 season. The Athletic obtained a copy. The highlights, from me and @EvanDrellich: https://t.co/lsCvmShbuQ

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 16, 2020

summed up here: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29183345/mlb-safety-proposal-includes-10000-tests-per-week-social-distancing

stay \m/ morbs

so stupid the whole thing, just bag it

Is it really going to be balm for the people to watch these games?

It makes me anxious just thinking about it.

“ Tier 1 and 2 individuals would be discouraged from going to crowded bars.”

“Discouraged”?! Why the fuck would anyone playing professional sports need to go to any bar at all right now?!

to pick up chicks, obv

Pro soccer starting up again in Europe gives me hope that we'll see baseball this year. MLB can see what works and what doesn't over there, learn from mistakes, and so on.

I mean hopefully they are aware of this other continent and the kicky leg ball thing they play and can “learn” from how they handle things.
From what I’ve seen the last few months I’m skeptical tho.

I’d be willing to bet money that, even if they are pretty good about things, at least one team has an outbreak.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/parsing-mlbs-claim-of-a-4-billion-loss

The MLBPA is very disappointed with MLB’s economic proposal today, source tells me and @Ken_Rosenthal, calling additional cuts proposed “massive." League offered to share more playoff revenue, but on balance, those dollars are small compared to what players give up, PA believes.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) May 26, 2020

fine w/ no season this year

who cares?

i wish mlb, and to a greater extent the US, could get it's shit together. i'd be thrilled with 80 games played just in front of cameras.
but seeing that shitty offer from the owners and knowing that if they did start playing soon it would only be a matter of time before there were clubhouse out brakes. it really bums me out.
i'm slowly getting everything taken away from me. my job, my hobbies, my house, my mother... people have been so selfish and incompetent and stupid, i can't even watch a bunch of dumb meatheads hit balls with sticks.
this is going to go on way longer than it should have to and i don't know what will be left for me if/when it's done. i could just use some baseball.

the thing that sucks is that MLB is too concerned with the history books to do something fun like just starting the season with the playoffs like the NHL is considering

ya - this is the sort of thing that could shift me to a more hockey-centric person.

i have no idea how contact sports are going to re-open

i'd imagine the only way to do it safely (so probably won't happen) is to isolate the teams etc from everyone but themselves during the season.

yep, which understandably many players will refuse to do

I guess I'm in the extreme minority here, but I actually *don't* want to see baseball this year. There's something depressing about the prospect of these guy wearing masks and distancing in the dugout, not being able to use a ball that's been touched by more than two people (?!), policing all kind of personal habits, not to mention the eerieness of no crowds....

I'd much rather we all just relish a return to the game as we know it next sping.

same

yep

right - I just don't think you can do it unless something significant happens, like on the level of a vaccine or significant treatment. the US botched this so hard that there's just no chance of things returning to normal this summer. at this point it's hard to imagine them managing anything more than a 50-game season. I'd love to see them do something bizarre and unique but it won't be worth the trouble.

I think they're kind of in a good position to just write the season off, it really did start right when the pandemic was taking off so no one would blame them for punting until 2021. I'm more interested in what the NBA or NFL is gonna do. NBA has a season three quarters in the books & the NFL is gonna be starting right when we're (hopefully) at the "mostly under control, but still fearing a second wave" stage

in theory, i think MLB would like to be the first sport back in an otherwise sports-free environment, and having playoffs makes sense from a financial standpoint

in practice, none of it seems feasible and i think MLB is using the whole thing as a ploy to fuck over the players union

also, drink every time someone suggests that the return of baseball can help heal this wounded nation

first sport back

does tennis have any plans? i could watch some tennis right now

golf also seems like a relatively easy one to bring back

or knitting.

in lieu of the regular season maybe we can get a couple of guys to just chuck baseballs at the Houston Astros

there should be a national dunk tank, would pony up

i don't understand how the NHL thinks it can pull this off either

i mean there's no room on the bench for social distancing but everyone needs to be right there to make line changes. hockey equipment is absolutely disgusting under normal circumstances. the players literally sweat and spit on the ice then slide on/spray each other with it

there's not going to be social distancing of the players when these sports return. and they will inevitably return this year - there's too much money at stake. hub cities, players staying in campuses - whole resorts rented out, that kind of thing. regular monitoring for COVID. this will be the way.

NHL said they won’t play any games in Canada if they make the player quarantine.

I know it won't happen, but I like the idea of punting the regular season and just having a World Cup or Champions League style round robin tournament that runs for two months, with qualifying rounds, seedings, a knockout phase, etc. An 82 game season and expanded playoffs would be a joke, the season already has an asterisk, why not do something totally different.

bcz that's not baseball either?

I hate tournaments

if the season already has an asterisk, why put players through the risk?

NARRATOR: the poster knew why

There won't be "real" baseball this year no matter what, so we might as well go with the wacky tournament option and not have to deal with the "weight of history" and weird records being broken.

If they really wanted to get creative, they could include teams from international leagues (Cuba, Japan, Korea ...) to add prestige because it might be their one and only shot at doing a true Champions League.

i don't know if a pandemic is the best time to bring together teams from around the world...

All I'm saying is that if they want to have baseball in some form this year and are willing to deal with the risk, then there's not much point in trying to pretend that it's a real season with a World Series champion that nobody will take seriously.

xpost I know ... it's not realistic for plenty of reasons. But neither is an 82 game season with two thirds of the teams in the playoffs and 30 man rosters.

It gets worse.

This is rather amazing. MLB Network starting 64 consecutive hours of Derek Jeter programming tomorrow at 6 a.m. Bob Costas looks back on legendary moments from Jeter’s career throughout the weekend. Coverage includes 13 signature games.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 28, 2020

would rather catch the 'rona tbqh :-(

If they really wanted to get creative, they could include teams from international leagues (Cuba, Japan, Korea ...) to add prestige because it might be their one and only shot at doing a true Champions League.

I love this

This is a dumb question, but are all the players so rich that they can afford not to play this summer? Even the younger guys? And aren’t any of the really rich ones over mortgaged with their expenses? Or are all baseball players really good with money?

Major league minimum (anyone on the 25 man, basically, and a non-0 portion of the 40 man) is half million bucks. Hie thee to the minor league thred if you want to know true horror

The players aren't living paycheck to paycheck, but the owners are better prepared for a long work stoppage and they know it, which is why they're being such cheap assholes and trying to deflect blame onto the players. It's not much different than 1994, really.

In the March agreement, MLB agreed to advance players $170 million. In the event that the season was played, that advance would count toward players’ season salaries. If no season took place, the money was for the players to keep. Established players who had reached arbitration were to receive around $287,000 in April and May regardless of salary level. Younger players like Juan Soto were to receive around $60,000 for the first two months.

legit major leaguers are fine. low-level minor leaguers are screwed, but then they barely made anything before either. the quad-a guys are fucked, because even a week or two as a big-league fill-in would be enormous to them.

the latest MLB proposal seems to have been designed to drive a wedge between the stars, who would take the most drastic pay cuts, and the rank-and-file dudes. but because of the march advance, the latter wouldn't really make a ton more by playing -- maybe not enough more to be worth the risks.

presumably the union also has an emergency fund if anyone is truly struggling

turned on the a/c for the first time just now and man is it weird there are no ballgames

Our man Dayton Moore!(?):

In a conference call with local media members today, Royals GM Dayton Moore said this about the club's decision to stand by their minor league players: pic.twitter.com/8ZfWWx95Jh

— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) May 29, 2020

twins did too <3

Sources say there is a group of owners perfectly willing to shut down the season, to slash payroll costs and reduce losses, and the disparate views among the 30 teams have been reflected in the decisions to fire and furlough. The Pirates' Bob Nutting used the shutdown as an avenue to suspend team contributions to employee 401K plans -- savings best measured monthly in the tens of thousands of dollars rather than the millions that would actually be difference-making for a franchise probably worth at least $1 billion. The Oakland Athletics' John Fisher decided to eliminate the $400 weekly salaries of minor leaguers, which might save the franchise about the amount of the team's unpaid stadium rental bill.

also the nationals cut 30 minor leaguers and will reduce the others' weekly pay to $300 a week, which is maybe even more stunning than stopping altogether. the lerner family is worth $5.5 billion.

these people will burn it all down rather than see year-over-year profit fall

entirely predictable behaviour from these jackals but still somehow i’m shocked

Wow, I actually didn’t know minor leaguers made that little. And that’s pre-tax I assume.

lol good job

Public pressure applied by the Nationals’ major league players forced the organization to do what it should’ve done without hesitation in the first place. https://t.co/oehdHWpCIQ

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 1, 2020

haha so the owners' response is 'we will only pay you for 50 games pro rated; if you want to play more games for free then fine'

guess we'll see how many pitchers want to put their elbows on the line for nine starts during a pandemic

Putting aside specifics--I'm quite sure, as always, the owners are being ridiculous--it's unbelievably tone-deaf that they're squabbling over money. As indicated by a sampling of the posts here, most of us could care less whether they resume or not. If they really do want to have a season, every last bit of their energy should go into selling fans something they're not the least bit interested in.

(Ha, one of my pet annoying phrases--I meant to say couldn't care less.)

i get the feeling this all has as much to do with the next CBA than the current season. both sides are puffing their chests out. you don't want to be the side that compromises right before the most contentious bargaining in decades.

chris archer out for the 'season'

cannot imagine that the pirates will pick up his $11m option for 2021, so

welp, that deal didn't work out very well

Baseball is fxxked. The minor league story is the one that is not really registering as much it should. It's basically going to cause possibly upwards of 40% of all minor league teams to fold with MLB abandoning the clubs.

I do not think any of this bodes well for the national game.

A problem with describing MLB's labor dispute as a fight between billionaires and millionaires is that the majority of players have netted less than $1 million in ML earnings https://t.co/vxqzpnsrQ1

— Travis Sawchik (@Travis_Sawchik) June 5, 2020

Former pitcher Rob Scahill played for the Rockies, Pirates, Brewers and White Sox over parts of seven seasons in the majors. He accrued two years and 162 days of service time and made $1.31 million in major league pay.3 He said the $110,000 signing bonus he received as an eighth-round pick in 2009 was eroded by the “huge negative cash-flow” of living on minor league wages. He didn’t sign his first major league contract until 20134 — a one-year deal for $490,000 — but he split his time that year between the Rockies and their Triple-A club, so he earned $203,497 from the big league club.

Scahill’s last game pitched was in 2018 as a 31 year old; after his final attempt to make a team, he entered real estate. “Your average major league player needs a job after baseball,” he told FiveThirtyEight.

Scahill said if a player is savvy, he could save 25 percent of what he earns after taxes. If a player has $1.31 million in major league earnings,5 like Scahill, and is able to save a quarter of take-home pay after taxes and union fees, he would leave his career with $156,200 in cash savings from his major league salary. If such a player instead saved about 8 percent, the average U.S. savings rate before the coronavirus pandemic, he would finish his career with just $50,000 in the bank from his baseball career.

“Most grind out on a split career between Triple-A and the majors unless you’re a contract guy,” Scahill wrote via text. “For the vast majority of players, every dollar counts for the rest of their lives.”

I imagine the basketball and hockey re-launches have MLB scurrying around frantically right now.

"Impending" I should have added.

Scahill said if a player is savvy, he could save 25 percent of what he earns after taxes. If a player has $1.31 million in major league earnings,5 like Scahill, and is able to save a quarter of take-home pay after taxes and union fees, he would leave his career with $156,200 in cash savings from his major league salary.

I'm as sympathetic to the players as can be, but I'm not crazy about the argument that "this guy isn't rich! He's 31 and he's only taken home $600,000 after taxes!" It feels like those NY Times "We make $200,000 a year but we're not rich, look at all we have to spend on vacations and private schools and houses."

Never underestimate the arrogance of immeasurable wealth.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mlb-owners-latest-offer-even-worse-than-the-last-one

Scahill said if a player is savvy, he could save 25 percent of what he earns after taxes. If a player has $1.31 million in major league earnings,5 like Scahill, and is able to save a quarter of take-home pay after taxes and union fees, he would leave his career with $156,200 in cash savings from his major league salary.

I'm as sympathetic to the players as can be, but I'm not crazy about the argument that "this guy isn't rich! He's 31 and he's only taken home $600,000 after taxes!" It feels like those NY Times "We make $200,000 a year but we're not rich, look at all we have to spend on vacations and private schools and houses."

― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Friday, June 5, 2020 6:53 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

great job multiplying the number in the original quote by four to make your point - $600,000 is a lot more money than $156,200. also, 31 years old could easily be the endpoint of most of these guys' baseball career (as with scahill), so they get paid more per year than the average office worker but for a much shorter period of time, after which they aren't exactly equipped to go into another industry where they make six figures a year.

just rooting for the union to do a work stoppage at this point, assuming MLB will try to force a 48-game season. as much as it breaks my heart to miss a full season of trout and a million other guys. this is the only sport with a strong union and i want them to win.

MLB is now floating 16 playoff teams to go along with the 48 game regular season. it's like having a world series after spring training.

Besides the $$, MLB's proposal includes a revision to the Operations Manual that says players would have to sign an "acknowledgment of risk" before playing. Players believe it is designed to undermine their right to challenge MLB if it fails to provide a safe working environment.

— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) June 8, 2020

like it’s a fuckin trampoline park

Cardinals owner Bill DeWitt Jr.: “The industry isn’t very profitable, to be quite honest” https://t.co/blz102BSsW

— HardballTalk (@HardballTalk) June 9, 2020

lol

good one from a guy whose nickname here is Bill DeWallet

great job multiplying the number in the original quote by four to make your point - $600,000 is a lot more money than $156,200

$600,000 is his estimate of his total take home pay, 156,200 is his estimate of "if I saved a quarter of my salary throughout my career."

The league appears ready to piss off players, fans, put on a sham 50-game season, and further ensure a brutal, bitter fight over the CBA the winter after next because owners say they can't endure the financial hardship if players are paid a 50% prorated salary for more games.

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) June 10, 2020

MLB goes galt

owners have no reason to offer more than they would spend under the 50 day pro rated plan right? 50 games with full playoffs is the dream scenario for them and they've had the option to do that all along. they just needed to drag things out long enough that 50 games made sense. so this is all just a farce. i hope the inevitable strike lasts ten years.

As I understand it they have the option to force 50 games, but only with regular playoffs. If they want the expanded playoffs (which money goes mostly to them and not the players) then they need the players to agree to it.

galt trip

Olbermann was a guest on the KBO game this morning, showing off his pricey ball collection: Fisk, Merkle's boner, Reggie '77. Marginally less obnoxious than his pundit mode.

#SFGiants fan reactions to Bumgarner being drafted: pic.twitter.com/RQFLTWnYuX

— Ben Kaspick (@BenKaspick) June 11, 2020

i for one am shocked

MLB’s new offer to the MLBPA for a 72-game season is roughly equivalent to what players would receive in a 50-game season at full prorated pay, source says.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) June 12, 2020

'hey, uh..... look over there!'

my hope right now is that the 48 game schedule is forced and everyone in the union agrees to sit out for their health

might just all be posturing in the dark

The University of Houston has suspended voluntary workouts for all student-athletes after six symptomatic student-athletes in various sports tested positive for the coronavirus as the Houston area has seen a recent surge of positive tests.

in any case it's really something that MLB wants the *players* to take on the risk of playoffs not happening due to plague

lol can you imagine any american sport having these balls

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53056184

let's see if it goes beyond signalling but still, the signal's important

zing

Agent Joel Wolfe on @MLB owners crying poverty:

"The Marlins played without fans for 15 years, yet still managed to give a player the biggest contract in sports history (Stanton), and then sold the team for a Billion dollar profit, with 5 competing buyers."

— Patrick Saunders (@psaundersdp) June 15, 2020

They're all piling on. Here's Tom Boswell - working class hero!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/15/dont-let-mlb-owners-cry-poor-they-can-afford-do-whats-right-baseball/

this is all just a bad idea

https://www.amazinavenue.com/2020/6/16/21292849/mets-mlb-mlbpa-2020-season-negotiations-rob-manfred-tony-clark-baseball

Manfred is so pathetic.

buster olney continues to both-sides it, but it's been intriguing to see big names like boswell, rosenthal and apstein (at SI) just unload on ownership

Hearing that six owners that don't want a season. @Ken_Rosenthal reports 8 or more. Urgency for Manfred to corral his group before that number grows.

— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) June 16, 2020

pirates, a's, mets, cubs(?) . . .

wonder what the repercussions are gonna be in 2022 when the CBA has to be negotiated again. this seems pretty bad.

All the other sports leagues are paying their players in full, right? Korean Baseball, Japanese Baseball, German Soccer, English Soccer, the NBA, the NFL? Why can't MLB?

What even is the logic for the owners in not playing a season?! This is baffling to me

via gothamist of all places; links in original stub:

"The LA Times reported that the commissioner's office told the players' association that it would not honor the players’ demand to announce a schedule "unless the union waives legal claims against the league." And to top it off, MLB also informed the players union this week that several major league players and coaches have tested positive for COVID-19."

^duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude

did the MLB spokesman then twirl his mustache and cackle??? fuck’s sake

at the risk of aimlessing this (and correct me if i'm wrong anywhere):

can't speak to european soccer (do they have a union? or just rely on EU rules in general?)

NBA and NHL played almost all of their regular seasons, meaning the players got paid. NFL is run by even bigger assholes (maybe?) than MLB, but has not yet been truly affected.

the structure of MLB payouts is skewed -- the players get paid for playing 182 regular season games, and agreed in march to accept a pro-rated salary based on regular-season games played.

the owners pay the players for all these regular-season games, but then get a huge bonus from the playoffs. also they claim that they're losing shitloads with every regular-season game played without fans. so they have an obvious incentive to minimize the regular season and expand the playoffs.

estimates range on how much (if any) the owners might lose this year by playing without fans (A, B) but given that in good seasons -- of which there have been . . . all -- the players get no extra money, it is perhaps fucked up to ask them to take on the risk of bad years. for what do the owners deserve money, apart from taking a minuscule risk?

the march agreement imposed 'good-faith' negotiations toward a regular season that would be as long as feasibly possible while paying the players a 100% pro-rated salary. it also allowed the commissioner to set a regular-season schedule.

the commissioner, who is the figurehead of ownership, has over the past three months offered a series of deals that amount to 'we will pay you for roughly 48 games at your 100% pro-rated salaries and no more.' some of them tried to split the union by screwing high-paid players; the others offered levels of pay depending on whether the playoffs -- which pay the owners -- are completed. meaning that the players assume the risk of not only getting sick, but the financial risk that the playoffs are shut down.

recognizing that negotiations are useless, the players have said fine, give us the fucking schedule -- you set it, we'll play (for 100% pro-rated). but manfred can't do that right now 'in good faith'; his owners need to wait until there's only time enough left to play 50 games. thus the leaks of infections.

latest is that no season will happen unless the players waive all legal claims against the league, which means not just 'you cannot file a grievance regarding our obvious unwillingness to abide by the terms of the march deal' but also 'you cannot sue us if any of our half-assed safety measures gets you or a loved one killed by covid-19'

so. congrats to ownership for utterly uniting the players and dividing the owners! there's a group of owners that will not accept losing any money this season and there's a group of owners that either won't lose money or are rich enough not to care, and now manfred has to bridge the gap. lol!

this air traffic controller union lawyer who occasionally writes for baseball prospectus apparently has been indispensable in all of this

This article is a series of management falsehoods, presenting itself as a path forward. It's scary how a reporter would have missed everything that has gone on over the past few months, but apparently this one has. Let me hit the high notes in a thread 1/ https://t.co/Gbc6obQ6Fi

— (((EugeneFreedman))) (@EugeneFreedman) June 16, 2020

So Baseball Twitter is saying that the owners never wanted a season. Is this right?

And I think I asked this before but I still don’t understand. What do players get paid if there is no season? More than they would get for 50 prorated games?

players get nothing if there's no season

ken rosenthal is saying that he knows of 8 owners who don't want a season, probably owners of teams with some big contracts to burn

booming analysis mookie

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/dr-anthony-fauci-says-mlb-should-try-to-play-in-the-core-summer-months-and-avoid-october/

apparently an agreement might be on the way

i am really dreading the precedent set by expanded playoffs. if 14 or 16 teams becomes standard...

https://tosabarbell.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/tball2.jpg?w=520

i'd get used to expanded playoffs if it was the top x teams regardless of league so we don't have any sub-.500 in playoffs nonsense. this is true of every sport

at least in the nba shitty 8 seeds generally don't make it to the finals. baseball is a complete crapshoot.

yeah i know. but if it's 8 teams/league say, then last season the rangers would have been the 8 seed with 78-84 and that's... just so wack.

^^^knows about shitty 8 seeds making it to the finals

ITS TRUE

Just spoke with @MLB Commissioner

America really needs some unifying common experiences right now,not to distract us from our challenges,but to remind us of the things we have in common

Baseball can help fill that void & I am cautiously optimistic we will #playball very soon

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 17, 2020

The president we might have had *wipes a tear*

According to Jon Heyman, the players and owners have an agreement in principle that will give players pro-rated pay while providing expanded playoffs and a waiver of a potential player grievance for failing to live up to the March 26 agreement. Heyman was also the first to report that Rob Manfred and Tony Clark had an in-person meeting yesterday, as Manfred flew to Arizona in an attempt to restart talks.

As Heyman was reporting the deal, multiple reporters confirmed that MLB had made an offer, but indicated a deal had not yet been made.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagraphs/mlb-owners-make-new-offer-for-60-games-but-no-deal-yet/

a waiver of a potential player grievance for failing to live up to the March 26 agreement

So now the owners can keep trying to run out the clock on the number of regular season games? hmmm

A driving force in this resumption of the baseball talks:

I've been hearing it wasn't so much that a group of owners didn't want to play. They just didn't want to play and face a $1 billion grievance.

You know what would make that grievance go away? Making a deal.

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) June 17, 2020

everyone saying they'll settle around 65-66 games, which is still a complete joke of a season

I’ll take it.

So will I. It was weird seeing Fauci being comfortable with people in stadiums this summer, as long as they were at 1/2 or 1/3 capacity. Dude must be really jonesing for some baseball too

MLB offer includes universal DH for not just 2020, but 2021 too. It also includes on top of 100 pct prorated salary for 60 games, a $25M postseason pool.

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) June 17, 2020

NL fans aren't even gonna have a chance to say goodbye to pitchers hitting, it's already dead

while i think pitchers hitting is extremely stupid it's basically the last of the leagues being distinct in the only sport where the leagues are still distinct and i will hate to see it go

arbitrary leagues, 16 team postseasons.... we're NBA now

*last remnant of

https://twitter.com/trevorplouffe/status/127341783497918873

oops

One thing that “the purists” are gonna hate:

The owners have proposed being able to sell commercial advertisements on uniforms for 2020 and 2021.

Again, it’s in the proposal, which as many have reported is not a done deal.

— Trevor Plouffe (@trevorplouffe) June 18, 2020

Gross

sucks cuz the Brewers consistently have decent hitting pitchers

Wow, Fauci is a huge baseball fan! Could this guy be any cooler? Shame about the Yankees though.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/sports/baseball/coronavirus-fauci-baseball-running.html

Teams don't have to use the DH, the option to let the pitcher hit has always been there!

I personally don't like the idea of advertising on uniforms, but I can bite my tongue and accept it. It's the norm in other sports and baseball has far more important problems to deal with.

I hate it so much

other sports?

ESPN is now paying Mark Teixeira for "analysis," and he's very amped for a fluke world champion.

The advertising's been creeping in for as long as I can remember. It seems to come in waves. Here's the Green Monster in the 1940s:

https://coololdphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/05/2560947551_4f0c88c5a2_o-945x1024.jpg

In the 70s:
http://collectiblestadiumseats.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/oldmonster.jpg

And recently:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7136/7617019132_3590bc2640_b.jpg

once it starts on the uniforms it's never coming off :(

yeah unis are sacred compared to signage

at least it'll sully Stankee pinstripes

do you have a shortcut key for these

boo to ads on uniforms

guys, the industry isn't very profitable -- they need the ads

I keep forgetting

maybe the players could do a gofundme for the owners so they can meet ends meet?

I don’t mind the logos on basketball uniform, but I hate their existence because I know they’re just leading the way towards full on fucking McDonalds costumes or something

BREAKING: Coronavirus outbreak at Phillies camp -- 8 positive tests. Story herehttps://t.co/YhBRXdgksX

— Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyNBCS) June 19, 2020

welp

yeah that'll do it

what a bunch of delusional babies in this country, trying to wish this virus into oblivion

who could think this would not happen?

There goes the season?

i was told that coronavirus is not a big deal

at least we have this

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29334063/twins-remove-statue-ex-owner-calvin-griffith-comments

expecting season to be cancelled
not sure if I will be too

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, March 11, 2020

actually, next week

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/06/mlbpa-to-vote-on-mlbs-60-game-proposal-this-weekend.html

In letter to Tony Clark today, Rob Manfred said, “I really believe we are fighting over an impossibility on games.” Says given need to relocated teams from Florida, earliest players could report is June 29, leaving 66 days to play 60 games.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 21, 2020

Players previously had signed off on Manfred having right to terminate 2020 season at any point after consulting with medical experts and union. But they later raised concerns that if season was shortened they would be giving away 2021 postseason and getting too little in return. https://t.co/pu8Wb1kXRx

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 21, 2020

Players cut union meeting short after Clark received letter from Manfred, sources tell me and @JaysonSt. Unclear whether things will progress from here.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 21, 2020

officially burnt out on this stupid story just cancel the season

Confirming Jim’s report. Also: MLB unwilling to provide additional funds for players in either 2020 or 21 playoff pool. MLB proposal was to forgive $33M of $170M advance, only for players on split contracts. Both sides also can agree to eliminate DH/expanded playoffs for ‘21 now. https://t.co/G6KvKRBRiZ

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 22, 2020

Wish they'd just pull the plug on this--it's embarrassing.

they should just go ahead and do the 2021/2 labor dispute, do a strike now and get it out of the way

Or a one-game, sudden-death elimination tournament, all 30 teams, sign-stealing and PEDs allowed, to declare the best Coronavirus Team 2020 on the planet.

covid19 league - you're only allowed to play if you've already had it

and thinking about whether or not you can get it a second time is banned, or penalized by an automatic out

Sources tell @JeffPassan and I players have voted against the league's latest proposal to play 60 games. The vote was 33-5 against.

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) June 22, 2020

And the dominoes are now likely set to tumble:
1. Implementation of a short season by MLB
2. Some players choosing not to play.
3. PA grievance
4. Upcoming free agents get destroyed in market
5. All major labor issues merely deferred to next spring.
Mutually assured destruction.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) June 22, 2020

all those things were going to happen anyway

true nuff

inevitable dominoes

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mlb-to-impose-60-game-season-after-talks-stall/

There has not yet been an official declaration that there will be a season. In addition to being contingent on a final health protocol agreement, there’s the matter of a second spring training. MLB has asked the players to report by July 1. The MLBPA seems very likely to comply with this request, however, which means that a followup announcement with an exact season schedule should follow soon.

twitter seems to think that MLB will adopt the guy-on-second-in-extras for this regular season. you know, if it actually happens. not ecstatic about it, but it makes some sense for this weird season i guess

kinda thought that was something the union would have to approve, tho

its a really bad idea

it sucks but would fit into the less baseball = less risk health protocol

and given that the players don't get paid overtime i can see them going for it in 2021 too

who you got at DH, NL? (Jaffe)

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-look-at-some-nl-designated-hitter-candidates/

seems more likely the cubs would put schwarber at dh than bryant, unless the latter's injuries are still nagging

matt carpenter is a good DH candidate for STL

i am trying to figure out what i think of baseball right now

i admit that despite all the bullshit i will probably be watching intensely on opening day

kind of sickened that i've been forced again and again over the past few months to agree with trevor bauer

btw if the season is 60 games, it's gonna be like 10 games against each team in your division and the remaining 20 against your (geographic) division in the other league

oh if they're playing i'll definitely watch. it's going to be nuts.

and when you break it down like that it sounds absurd to call it a season, doesn't it

it's a "we're here" placeholder

sucks that the Brewers don't have Eric Thames anymore, that's a DH if I've ever seen one

Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon, left-hander Phillip Diehl and righty Ryan Castellani have tested positive for the coronavirus after recently working out at Coors Field, Kyle Newman of the Denver Post reports. Only one of the three showed symptoms, though his identity is unknown.

i'm sure it's all cool

fwiw if 'certain governors' are willing, there might even be some fans at some games!

season to start July 23 or 24, players to report to spring training by july 1.

really curious to find out how an athlete w symptoms will do bouncing back from this.

I still don’t understand how any of this is practically feasible. I’ll still be surprised if it happens.

It's strange that they opted for interleague play rather than league games outside their division. At least it makes sense to have two-thirds of the games within the divisions so that the "division winner" will actually mean something in such a short season.

The trade deadline happening ~ 35 games into the season will be bonkers.

it's a petri dish

at the moment it's 10 playoff teams

https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2020/06/23/mlb-talks-nashville-hosting-free-agents-summer/3247578001/

free agents might play against each other in nashville during the season to stay sharp and be available to be signed

for $400 a week ffs

It's strange that they opted for interleague play rather than league games outside their division.

it's just geographic -- they're trying to minimize travel

Ya. Makes a lot of sense to me.

Also with an odd number of teams in each league, they have to have interleague play (or have 2 teams off every day in the schedule)

worth a read imho

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it/

i used to love playing baseball. when i was a kid, i used to sprint from the on-deck circle to the plate because i was so eager to hit (this is not something that anyone who knows me now would ever believe). i might have been able to play low-level college ball(?) but tbh i lost the love playing american legion ball -- fuckin driving all over to play in 90° heat just wasn't fun at all

i can't even *imagine* loving what it takes to play 140 minor league games in five months with what they have to go through. in the majors they get paid, but christ 162 games is an absolute grind even when staying at good hotels and having people carry your bags for you. it's a hard job that most are constantly on the edge of losing

yeah. in some ways it's like any performer or artist, where the overwhelming majority of people who get into acting/dancing/singing/piano/sculpture never make big bucks, work their asses off, are likely to be dropped on a whim, and most of the time are only doing it through an inexorable combination of being freakishly good at it and not having found anything else they can remotely do. people say 'you have to love it' and i know what they mean - you won't have what it takes to put up with the insecurity and low pay and exhaustion and hustle of it all if you don't - but i think you could also just be slightly bananas and that would also fulfil that function of keeping you at something like that

feel like most players made it because they're hyper-competitive, which isn't the same thing as love at all

yeah!

No names, but heard on the radio that "multiple" Blue Jay players/personnel have tested positive.

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/multiple-toronto-blue-jays-players-and-staff-test-positive-for-covid-19-1.4998325

I'm just so baffled by this charade. It's like Trump is the commissioner.

Ya. We gotta get them the fuck outta that panhandle shithole.

hearing that if toronto doesn't allow the jays to play there, they'll go to dunedin (rather than, say, buffalo)

let's hope its subject to change

just as an aside, ESPN has a morning show called GET UP in which the first 53 of 60 minutes today excluded MLB. Imagine what the marketing behind that is.

I...huh.

Here are just a few of the ways we’ll keep our players and personnel safe, and limit the spread of COVID-19. https://t.co/y0pyGMNBGx pic.twitter.com/M0ee984sgN

— MLB (@MLB) June 26, 2020

haha, i guess it makes sense that there's no bench, but it's gonna be pretty funny to see players in the stands sitting by themselves

Good times

keep an eye out for Bobby Valentine

ya - i'm more concerned about what social distancing they will be expected to practice outside of the game. are they allowed to go to bars or large gatherings? will people be delivering groceries etc for them?

excited to see dozens and dozens of pithy foul ball catch celebrations in the stands

i can't imagine jocks going to bars or motels on the road...

they should sell shirts with that covidganda on them tho

They have a red, white, and blue graphic that doubles as an eyechart. What could go wrong?

would have been better if every single line used a different font. needs more italics and underlined things as well

but really, this is what people "like" these days. the standard graphic design is just a bunch of squares inside of a larger rectangle. it's supposed to remind you of the happy feelings of browsing endless websites that also look like this. you will feel better if you see a grid of stories that never ends, some of which look better than others

https://sports.yahoo.com/report-mlb-season-could-continue-even-if-covid-outbreak-forces-teams-to-drop-out-175518718.html

good luck

where she stops, nobody knows

Ya. World Series will be decided by last man standing methinks.

WS Champion bartolo colon

the Jays are apparently heading north for training - and hopefully the season.
so fucking glad they got out of that covid dumpster of a state.

No spitting or chewing of tobacco and/or sunflower seeds

good luck usa

yikes there are some bad players at the back end of these 60-player pools

i mean the mets alone just signed gordon beckham, ryan cordell and erasmo ramirez

they just need, uh, bodies

Hearing that #Dbacks RHP Mike Leake will opt out of participating during the 2020 MLB season.

— Steve Gilbert (@SteveGilbertMLB) June 29, 2020

Flame-throwing reliever Anthony Gose is in Cleveland's pool.

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2020/06/Camping-World-.jpg

joe ross and ryan zimmerman also opting out; could be it for the latter

i am ken rosenthal

Statement from Ryan Zimmerman. Not retiring. https://t.co/mVgzJCm5OT

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) June 29, 2020

Leake's service time: 10.000, the exact amount to receive a full pension. So, Walt Jocketty and Dusty Baker doing right by him in April 2010 and naming him to Opening Day roster let him make a clear-eyed decision today. https://t.co/dZCeCq4GoH

— Gabe Lacques (@GabeLacques) June 29, 2020

congrats to the tigers and spencer torkelson's armada

No. 1 overall pick Spencer Torkelson signs with @Tigers for $8,416,300 (slot value = 8,415,300). New @MLBDraft bonus record, also first No. 1 overall pick to get or top slot value in bonus-pool era. Perhaps the best all-around offensive talent to come out of Draft in 20 years.

— Jim Callis (@jimcallisMLB) June 30, 2020

Spencer Torkelson one of those old-time baseball names

that's the first time i've heard anyone speak that highly of him

also lol at the tigers giving him exactly one thousand dollars over slot

god is there a more depressing team for the "best all-around offensive talent to come out of Draft in 20 years" to go to

usually the #1 draft pick goes to a team that is pretty depressed

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/30/ian-desmond-powerful-instagram-post-race-inclusion-opts-out-2020-season/

fuck yeah, ian desmond. wish he wouldn't have suppressed all that for years, but he does a very good job of making his points, now that he's talking

oic

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on The Dan Patrick Show: “"The reality is, we weren’t going to play more than sixty games, no matter how the negotiation with the players went or any other factor”
So we dragged baseball thru the mud publicly for.. no reason? Stay baseball baseball.

— trey wingo (@wingoz) July 2, 2020

does he think that will help in next year's labor talks or something? wtf, what a dumbass

Isn't that..... an explicit admission of bad-faith negotiation?? Which would result in a successful grievance being filed?

"just to let you all know, i do NOT negotiate in good faith"

"there's actually no point in negotiating with me, is what i'm saying"

it's fine because 60 games is the healthy number but 61 games is a risk that will kill ballplayers

If it's 61, they can attach an asterisk.

i whine about the cardinals broadcasters every year. this year is going to be living hell. i don't want to hear their opinions about ANY of this stuff, like absolutely anything.

i think this is the year i finally give in and cut them off, using only the "in the ballpark" audio option. there's no crowd, there's no vendors. i don't want to hear the announcers. this year it's only the sound of the crack of the bat and whooshing noises of covid19 sweat flying around

being able to hear the players could be interesting

I was in Camden Yards around midnight and after a long rain delay once, and you could hear anything shouted anywhere in the park.

haha, and probably echoing off B&O Warehouse and back into the park, too

that’s what i think of as “the MiLB experience”

yeah i wish i got to more games in the low minors, attended by dozens

the '79-82 Mets, close enough

This was pretty good (warning: Verducci):

https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/06/22/boston-babe-ruth-1918-spanish-flu

https://i.imgur.com/tbdhVTj.gif https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/07/03/cleveland-indians-announce-plans-consider-name-change/ https://i.imgur.com/tbdhVTj.gif

As Major League Baseball teams began summer camp Friday for their first organized practices in almost four months amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, one club made news for another reason.

The Cleveland Indians acknowledged that they are ready to discuss changing their team name in the wake of news that the Washington Redskins will review theirs before the NFL’s 2020 season.

“We are committed to making a positive impact in our community and embrace our responsibility to advance social justice and equality,” the Indians said in a statement. “Our organization fully recognizes our team name is among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community. We have had ongoing discussions organizationally on these issues. The recent unrest in our community and our country has only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice.

so 31 players, 7 staffers have tested positive

for Cleveland I suggest the Flaming Cuyahogas

I always had heard Cleveland Spiders is one name that could be considered, since there was one back in the early days of baseball.

I'd think that with the Spider logo's etc, it could work well even with the same color scheme.

Rockets From The Tombs

the good thing about the Spiders name is that it effectively outmaneuvers the people arguing they should stay with "Indians" because of tRaDItiON

and they've announced the five Braves with the covid, including Freeman who's symptomatic. hopefully he can recover to 100%.

the spiders would be fuckin amazing.

Spiders wtf? Where’d that come from? Terrible name

you're right it's time to bring back the Cleveland Naps

Siestas

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/010/145/clock-spider-1.jpg

the naps is good. they could replace chief wahoo with a cartoonishly over the top napolean character and play “the marseilleise” in the 7th inning

it's time for the Cleveland Drew Carey Shows

the grovers

The Spiders is good (brings back memories of that picture of their striped sweater spring training unis of that famous Cy Young picture):

Cy Young of the 1898 Cleveland Spiders at spring training in Hot Springs, Arkansas, March 1899. pic.twitter.com/4p1GdLnUxv

— Baseballography (@Baseballography) February 17, 2020

but I think I prefer the Cleveland Bone Thugs n Harmony.

the thumb-crop kinda blows it, full img:

https://i.imgur.com/9eOaegG.jpg

lol Cy

the Cleveland Sweaters

Cleveland Dudes

the Cleveland Nine

^real suggestion, i would like that

Happy 4th of July!

Don't forget to wear a mask. pic.twitter.com/Y8pWPsphdS

— MLB (@MLB) July 4, 2020

Good for Price.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2898865-dodgers-david-price-opts-out-of-2020-season-cites-familys-health-as-priority?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

Posnanski on Cleveland, Lou Sockalexis etc:

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/changing-of-a-name

4 cardinals with covid19 now

btw that article morbs posted is really good, one of posnanski's best (that i've read)

very unofficial, incomplete tally:

The following are the reports from teams that I have been able to gather from various media outlets, websites and Twitter pages.

Cardinals: Ricardo Sanchez, Genesis Cabrera plus one identified individual. [ZS edit: + Elehuris Montero, as of this morning]

Braves: Freddie Freeman, Pete Kozma, Touki Toussaint, Will Smith.

Cubs: Two staff members. That total may or may not include Pitching Coach Tommy Hottovy, who disclosed his struggles with his diagnosis.

Reds: Two unnamed players.

Astros: When asked why Yordan Alvarez was not in Houston, manager Dusty Baker said he couldn’t answer because of “league mandates.”

Rockies: Charlie Blackmon, Phillip Diehl, Ryan Castellani

Royals: Salvador Perez. Manager Mike Matheny disclosed that he had the virus several weeks ago.

Angels: Two unnamed players.

Brewers: None at intake, but positive cases from testing in previous weeks.

Twins: Willians Astudillo, Nick Gordon, Edwar Colina, Miguel Sano

Mets: One 40-man roster player.

Padres: Tommy Pham

Giants: 1st round draft choice Hunter Bishop.

Mariners: “More than one player.”

Phillies: 7 players and 5 staff members. 4 players were disclosed and have been placed on the COVID-19 Related Injury List—Scott Kingery, Hector Neris, Ranger Suarez, Tommy Hunter.

Blue Jays: Unconfirmed, but there were 4 phantom injury list placements with no injury disclosed—Jonathan Davis, Elvis Luciano, Brandon Drury, Hector Perez

Indians: Delino DeShields, Jr.

Rangers: Brett Martin

Dodgers: Club has seen positives, but won’t clarify whether they are active players

Keep in mind that an unknown number of these are in addition to the 31 positive tests that MLB and MLBPA disclosed the other day. By my count, there are potentially at least 4 other clubs that have cases that have not been disclosed, likely more.

+ those who have opted out:

RHP Mike Leake, Arizona Diamondbacks
RHP Joe Ross, Washington Nationals
3B Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals
LHP David Price, Los Angeles Dodgers
CF Ian Desmond, Colorado Rockies
C Welington Castillo, Washington Nationals
RHP Tyson Ross, San Francisco Giants

NYY: DJ LeMahieu and reliever Luis Cessa

Posi

keepin it posi

this whole thing seems increasingly fucked up and no one has the wisdom or courage to shut it down

The first few days of Major League Baseball’s planned return amid the COVID-19 pandemic has been bizarre, players throwing in masks and managers wearing gloves as they leave the stadium. It’s also served as a stark reminder of how complicated the testing and policing process will be.

First, intake tests have been woefully incomplete, forcing teams to change or postpone workouts, and the player’s promised personal protection equipment has not yet arrived.

While MLB released an official statement Friday saying that the first intake results totaled just 1.2 percent (38 out of 3,185) of those tested, it comes with an important caveat: a vast majority of teams had incomplete or pending results. They were not able to submit those to the league by the deadline.

“This has to get fixed,” said Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle, who — as usual — provided honest, articulate commentary about an unprecedented endeavor. “There is a lot of players right now that are trying to make decisions that might be participating in camp that aren’t 100 percent comfortable with where things are at right now. That’s where I am.”

Doolittle has been tested four times, half of which have taken longer than 48 hours to get results. As he spoke on Sunday over Zoom, he paused for a minute to check his cell phone. Still no results from Friday’s test.

There was initial skepticism that one lab in Salt Lake City, Utah would be able to handle the volume of the league’s tests with a turnaround of 24-48 hours. Those concerns seem more valid after the first weekend. On Sunday, Oakland was forced to cancel its position players’ workout because it didn’t have all its intake test results. The A’s pitchers and catchers still took the field, but with an already shortened three-week summer camp, that hardly seems fair.

I can’t believe they aren’t just doing all grapefruit/cactus games

I’d go to a game in the current situation. No one around me in stands? Just the way I like it.

wait, are they intentionally trying to "pox-party" all the players/staff so that they'll be immune by the time the season starts?

The Athletic also learned from sources that testers did not show for Angels and two other, unidentified clubs Sunday. Angels players did saliva tests on their own; team shipped tests to lab in Utah. Monday workout pushed back from 9 am PT noon to make sure testers are present. https://t.co/BGD0FQGmGr

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 6, 2020

mookie where is your last quote from?

https://theathletic.com/1910362/2020/07/05/this-has-to-get-fixed-mlbs-incomplete-data-delayed-results-and-missing-ppe

I’m honestly amazed. They had months to get ready for this.

astros canceling their practice today because they're still waiting on test results from friday.

ultimately, i think this is a good thing (for the country), because it helps draw attention to the dismal testing situation. trump admin doesn't care about regular people waiting for tests, but if people start complaining about the baseball men they might start to pay attention again

it also brings out a lot of strange comments from people who automatically assume that the baseball men should get access to better/faster tests than the rest of the population

thanks

nats also cancelled practice today after not getting results back 72 hours after tests

even if everything worked as planned, doing tests every other day and having the results take 48 hours leaves some big holes

waiting for some big names to start opting out

#Braves Nick Markakis on making his decision to opt-out: "I was excited to get back to playing just as much as everybody else... I think the biggest thing is I talked to Freddie Freeman and just hearing the way he sounded on the phone just opened my eyes."

— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) July 6, 2020

#STLCards have cancelled their workout today because of delayed testing results.

"There's a little frustration in our camp as far as getting test results." --Mozeliak on a Zoom call with reporters.

— Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) July 6, 2020

schedules have been announced. opening day on 7/23 (yankees v nats, giants v dodgers), with the rest of the league on 7/24. last day of the season on 9/27.

also lol at this event:

8/13: White Sox and Cardinals play in a special Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa.

ah yes, playing baseball in masks in front of no one, to honor a fictional story that's not actually about baseball. tradition!

I'm told that Jesus Luzardo did test positive for the coronavirus. He will have to self-isolate for 14 days as per the MLB safety protocol.

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) July 7, 2020

Update on Bruce Maxwell (2017 regular-season game chatter) from Howard Bryant:

When Maxwell looks at an America in reckoning after the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, he sees that America, the America of 2017, and it informs his cynical view and justifiable rage. He sees GMs in a game that has ruined countless careers of players who were outspoken then -- GMs who did not sign him after his protest now holding up Black Lives Matter signs at the 2020 draft. He sees players who did not support him then now being lauded for their courage facing racism. This week, Cincinnati Reds All-Star first baseman Joey Votto took batting practice wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt. On June 26, The Wall Street Journal profiled several Black executives, silent for years, who now want to talk. Black players who weren't there for Maxwell then are now seeing their outspokenness carrying more reward than risk -- the same people who did not speak with him then are being listened to now -- all because today's tipping-point moment has made it safe for them to speak. He does not see courage. They risked nothing.

"The season's gonna resume. They're going to get more fame because it's going to look like they're standing up for what's right," Maxwell says. "They're making T-shirts and they're showing they care, but they don't go back to the original sacrificed person. Where was all of this then? It's easy to talk because everyone's talking. I was out there by myself. I'm bitter as f---, and I'm not hiding it."

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29414410/the-exile-oakland-bruce-maxwell-birth-mlb-black-player-movement

(Incredible article.)

it is very good

Who wore it better? #CampColiseum pic.twitter.com/eMmUPeLso5

— Oakland A's (@Athletics) July 8, 2020

love it

At the start of summer training, Martinez took a few sips of water, went to spit it out, then realized he had a mask on. Scherzer, the Nationals’ 35-year-old ace, had started to lick his fingers more in the past few seasons. He liked to rub spit into the bottom of his right palm. He used the bit of moisture to improve his grip on pitches.

Now, though, Scherzer has to replace spit with sweat from the back of his hair. Turner is learning not to spit or crave seeds. Octavio Martinez, one of the Nationals’ bullpen catchers, is considered non-playing personnel and will have to wear a mask while working with pitchers. After Wednesday’s workout, he ran stadium steps and stretched with a mask on, getting used to his new normal.

we're gonna get through this guys

The Rockies are planning on having up to 10k fans in the stands.

that will end well

how many for the Cubs?

How taxi squad works .. 1) 18$ a day and you have to pay 8$ dues”plus tip cause the Clobby is a nice guy . “They provide you 2 meals “ , apartment with out a TV, “you need to get your own tv, sheets for bed, pillows,bathroom stuff, cleaning stuff, kitchen supplies..

— Adbert Alzolay (@adbert29) July 9, 2020

ingrates

wau

Here is what’s going to keep #BlueJays players in their stadium/hotel bubble this summer:

Per multiple sources, players have been told penalty if seen outside ballpark is $750,000 fine and potential jail time.

— Scott Mitchell (@ScottyMitchTSN) July 10, 2020

Ambient 5

Eno details a fascinating development in baseball 2020, and baseball people see another advantage to pre-recorded crowd noise: Teams will be less able to hear sniping from the opposing dugout, defusing potential confrontations. “It may prevent some ugliness,” one coach says. https://t.co/2X4AD6Qy4W

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 10, 2020

(I know, I know.)

Eno is a fan of Eno, I asked him once in a Fangraphs chat and he confirmed

btw I hate this idea, why take away the one potentially interesting thing about this situation

iirc eno is named after eno

although i always think of him as enos arris

i assume that any younger person named eno is named after brian eno, which tells me that at least their parents are cool, so they are probably kind of cool too

so far i know of two other enos (eno sarris and a twitter artist person) and they confirm this theory

haha, I know this dude IRL because he is a "beer nerd"* and he frequently drives down from his cowboy town and of all the "big city" places to go, he chooses my rundown neighborhood dive. As you can imagine he just rants & rants incessantly until people have cleared a large swath of space around him.

*I think I posted his (wait for it) "data driven beer blog" on ILX right when it started and most of you dudes clowned on it (rightfully so).

Also, if you can point me towards a deindexed thread, I used to work with the founder of The Athl3t1c and man I have some good stories for you, surprised he hasn't been canceled yet tbqh.

buster posey is opting out

Also, if you can point me towards a deindexed thread,

do you have 77 access?

more details on posey:

Buster Posey and his wife are adopting identical twin girls. That is why he has missed time in camp. The twins were born prematurely and stable but will be in NICU for some time. He is opting out of the season.

— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) July 10, 2020

congrats to the olsen twins and the growing posey family

i hadn't heard about this ... pitchers can't use saliva on their fingers and then touch the ball, so they're allowed to carry a "wet rag" for the purposes of moistening their fingers. of course everyone expects they'll use it to gunk up balls:

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2020/7/10/21175567/banned-substances-pitchers-spin-rate-four-seam

i won't hear a word against eno i miss him every day (even though i have an athletic membership)

no spitting, no hi-fives, no butt slaps

surely a butt to butt slap would be fine

baseball, but with the requiem for a dream soundtrack pumped in through the speakers

Blade Runner soundtrack

aroldis chapman gets covid19

i mean, this is just a shitshow

baseball without butt slaps is like ice hockey without skating

seeing this thought expressed with increasing frequency; it is both true and disturbing as hell

Brewers catcher Omar Narvaez: "Everybody knows the healthiest team is going to win, and we're all trying to stay healthy."

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) July 14, 2020

wonder how many players are gonna end up permanently fucked up from getting it

puig your barve

Dunno if this is the right or good place to post this, but as many of you are likely aware, Red Sox organist Josh Kantor has been doing a daily livestream, and takes requests:

https://www.facebook.com/7thinningstretch2020/

Today's broadcast (starting around 51:00 into the stream) features a fascinating interview with Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

tonight's cardinals intrasquad game is the first to be broadcast. just dan mclaughlin, i think (who i find much more tolerable when he's by himself).

have any of you watched a game yet?

is that on mlb.tv?

i only know this:

Updated streaming information for tonight's intrasquad game:

The game will now be streamed only on https://t.co/5VUsLLPWKx.

The stream will begin at 6:55 p.m. CT. pic.twitter.com/jAsYE7PtFr

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 14, 2020

cardinals.com redirects to mlb.com/cardinals, so i'm hoping my mlb.tv subscription will cover it. if not, i'll be searching for a link to the stream elsewhere and can share it here if you need one

the way that's worded suggests to me that it will be free for everyone on the cardinals site (but not necessarily shown through mlb.tv)

i'm currently watching Astros vs Astros

no need for banging the can

seemingly no audio, cuz the broadcasters have standards?

👀 @ynscspds pic.twitter.com/xYc91xfz0T

— New York Mets (@Mets) July 14, 2020

jfc the long-ass interview going on with the cardinals front office mozeliak

https://www.mlb.com/cardinals/video/cardinals-intrasquad-live-stream-1440

hey there are like ten free “spring training” games on mlb.tv today! watching the brewers blue v. golf game.

can't find the 'playing baseball' thread but yeah, hitting is hard.

Time to practice your español! I've known Miguel Sanó for a long time and I've always admired his candor. When I asked him about testing positive for COVID-19 and what was the hardest part, he said ‘crying myself to sleep in the basement, away from my family.’ Incredible honesty. https://t.co/gU3v19i5cY

— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) July 16, 2020

VHS i’ve found that doing it right usually doesn’t feel “natural”, at least if you’re not manny ramirez. it’s often about little adjustments that seem fucked up at the time, like “swing an inch lower than you think you should” etc

New info on the fake crowd noise:

* Every team is using it

* MLB is giving clubs the sounds (but teams can have their own) & a touchpad device to use it

* There are 75 effects/reactions

* MLB-provided sound is derived from audio recorded for "MLB The Show" at real MLB games https://t.co/Nl501rjSWt

— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) July 16, 2020

Will the fake stadium ambient noise have trash can banging?

Papi and his cowbell better be an option or gtfo

I hope there are pretend lines for imaginary $14 beers

I would also ask to be virtually frisked before not entering the stadium

the NYPD is ready to help

this should free them up for some extra murdering

so where are the archives for yesterday's intrasquad games on mlb.tv?

puig and gregory polanco have tested positive

Didn’t Puig literally just sign?!

apparently the contract wasn't final and now he's a FA again

wow this guy

yoinka

BREAKING: The Blue Jays have been denied approval by the Canadian government to play in Toronto amid the coronavirus pandemic. An official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press of the denial. https://t.co/vk267cZ0Wd

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 18, 2020

In a precarious house of cards, that seems like a pretty big one.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ottawa-to-reveal-blue-jays-decision-1.5654846

just go to Buffalo?

Apparently the facilities are garbage and too small for appropriate distancing etc. I read they had some other AAA fields picked out as a back-up

canada otm

^^^

also lol at how touchy mlb is about facilities when they think other people should pay to upgrade them

So I guess it will be buffalo after all!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EdPUxlWWAAEiZlz?format=jpg&name=small

are that dynamic pair doing all the road games from the Bronx booth?

it's the Sunoco Broadcast Booth, get it right

i'm physically intolerant of their utterances

#TorontoIsInAmerica - trending 48 hours ago

Ya, that was because that wanna be nazi Barbie chick apparently failed geography.

Woah, she knew all along! #wwg1wga #Qanon

NY (state) has 3 teams again

Gary Cohen reported from the Mets booth last night that they Jays were going to Buffalo, but that appears to be unconfirmed by anyone else.

Yet another milestone in Buffalo's quest to become the most Ontario city in the world.

Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom BOOM

Quasi update on “The Chop”: This wood sculpture outside the Braves’ stadium near the third base entrance has been removed. I asked the Braves about it but they have chosen not to respond to requests for comment. ⁦@TheAthleticATL⁩ ⁦@TheAthleticMLB⁩ pic.twitter.com/ZdqKUP91um

— Jeff Schultz (@JeffSchultzATL) July 19, 2020

i haven't watched a game with the piped-in crowd noise yet. is that what's happening in this clip (wait til after the injury report)?

The Kraken Strikes. pic.twitter.com/5OYrYhFw6z

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 20, 2020

Piped in noise is annoying. I watched a couple innings of a Reds inter-squad game and it was just weird.

seeing rumors that the blue jays could play in pittsburgh? apparently their schedules do not overlap much

How bad is the ‘vid in Pittsburg?

same as the situation anywhere else in the united states - there is a wall of protection and antagonization along our political borders that prevents making any effort to improve testing turnaround times, rendering contact tracing completely useless. recognizing this, the white house has decided to try to prevent funding for contact tracing. because contact tracing is bad, and impossible. *SHRIEKS IN PARALYZING HORROR*

well upper NY state doesn't sound too terrible; whereas anywhere in florida sounds like a nightmare deathtrap. wasn't sure where Pittsburg fell on that scale

i'm afraid you can't come if you keep misspelling it

22 of the bridges tested positive

Thermo thinking of Pittsburg CA

Pittown.

P-burgh

As #BlueJays/MLB look at ballparks like PNC Park in Pitt as @longleysunsport first reported, a source says Jays operations people have arrived in Buffalo to assess Sahlen Field.

Hearing work to upgrade lighting, turn suites into extra clubhouse type areas would take about a week

— Scott Mitchell (@ScottyMitchTSN) July 20, 2020

Fucking idiots should have been doing this weeks ago.

who could have predicted that a national government would prioritize the health of its citizens over the requirements of major league baseball

is there any treaty with canada we can break? america needs a W

several border disputes we could go to war over

ok toronto: get courageous and let our infected baseball men run around your stadium, or you're all gonna fuckin die

Give us the panhandle back and we’ll think about it.

*immediately cedes Florida panhandle to canada*

btw is contact tracing allowed in Canada? that whole fucking panhandle could use some. it's banned here and highly frowned on

OTHER PANHANDLE! OTHER PANHANDLE!

Ontario isn't doing tracing because reasons; but i think some of the smaller provinces with lower numbers are.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EdZUmMAXsAMLT_U?format=png&name=small

Thermo thinking of Pittsburg CA

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, July 20, 2020 9:26 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

rip the jacka

nats w/ the sick burn

lol

New MLB sign-stealing, video rules not yet finalized with season near https://t.co/6TwoASC3Yb

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) July 21, 2020

aw man, no around the horn? :(

"The spitting is going to be tough."

As the Giants approach opening day, they're rushing to break lifelong habits. No spitting, no seeds, showers are discouraged, there's no throwing it around the horn. A story on baseball in 2020: https://t.co/nmd0YmXWdu

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) July 21, 2020

wait is the MLB the first American sports league (besides the WNBA maybe?) to explicitly *endorse* kneeling? pretty cool

Members of the @SFGiants kneel during the National Anthem. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/QbvAvCZiEs

— MLB (@MLB) July 21, 2020

watched one inning of cubs-sox last night and did notice a catcher start/stop throwing down to third after a K -- figured it was just some scrub playing out of position at 3B and not paying attention

vary proud of my Giants for how they handled kneeling and Farhan Zaidi put the whole thing best:

"We support those who knelt peacefully to protest racial injustice and those who stood to express love of country. We do not see these as mutually exclusive sentiments and believe the freedom to express both is what our country is about," the statement said. "As an organization, we reaffirm our denouncement of acts of discrimination and violence against members of the Black community and our pledge to work together with those who seek to end racial justice in America."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/san-francisco-giants-manager-several-team-members-take-knee-during-n1234447

not only that, they also made MLB history with a women coach at first base:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/21/us/woman-coach-san-francisco-giants-spt-trnd/index.html

"A woman made Major League Baseball history Monday by coaching first base for the San Francisco Giants during an exhibition game Monday.

Alyssa Nakken, the first female coach on a Major League Baseball staff in league history, became the first woman to coach on the field during a major league game on Monday."

The Dodgers are going to be good, but if Seager goes back to his pre-TJ surgery self... oh dear.

assuming the quote there was “ending racial injustice” c’mon editors

Should we just use this thread to throw down some predictions? I feel like short season predictions will be fun.

the Astros trash can scheme is gonna be real fuckin' obvious this year

Since they hit off BAL, TOR, and BOS for half their games, I suspect NYY will win at least 40.

Hey no talkin' bad 'bout.... Dylan Covey, proud owner of a 6.54 ERA in the bigs

OK, talk away

wait, isn't that the guy the Brewers drafted a decade ago, only to drop out because he discovered he had diabetes? good for him

this is not a very hot take but i expect a strong white sox performance, especially bc they play the royals and tigers a lot. gonna predict a wild card spot for them.

i could see them finishing above the Twins for sure.

dodgers 'closing in on extension' with mookie

Hunter Dozier is confirmed covid. He is symptomatic and was playing against the Astros on Monday.

I prefer the now-with-Donaldson Twins, but I can see the White Sox finish above the Cleveland Naps. I think the Rays have one WC spot taken.

A lot of their players last year had outlier-ish good seasons. And Even if their starting staff wasn’t a fluke, three of them are gone - tho the guys replacing them are ok, there’s no way their starting staff is as good this year.

The outlier-good season applies to a lot of the hitters too.

pending approval of the stae of PA, hohoho

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29515522/sources-blue-jays-expected-play-home-games-pnc-park-pittsburgh

HARRISBURG, Pa. (@AP) _ Pennsylvania Department of Health won't allow Toronto Blue Jays to play at PNC Park in Pittsburgh amid pandemic.

— Marc Levy (@timelywriter) July 22, 2020

well that i did not expect

i'm sure having the pirates and phillies play at home is much safer

rip PJays

I get why the Canadian government didn’t want a bunch of dudes from a country with out of control covid rates flying in on a weekly basis.
I don’t understand what Pennsylvania thinks would be happening with the Jays that already isn’t happening there.

infection rates are not evenly spread throughout the country and having more people moving in and out of the area from elsewhere is indeed not ideal

my question is, where is the line? preventing the pirates and phillies from playing would further protect pennsylvanians, after all. my guess is that the jays (and mlb) simply didn't have the political influence that the local teams do

supposedly andrew cuomo is willing to do 'anything' to have the jays play in buffalo, though, so that's nice

having this issue unresolved the day before the season starts is pretty half-assed all around!

Nats have asked Fauci to throw out the first pitch

New favorite team

I KNEW IT xxxxp

supposedly andrew cuomo is willing to do 'anything' to have the jays play in buffalo

Blue Jay Cuomo

http://theplayersalliance.com

dodgers 'closing in on extension' with mookie

And not a bad one it is.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mookie-betts-extension-with-dodgers

In game interviews with one camera on the interviewee in his office miles away and the other camera on the broadcast booth that doesn't even have a line of sight on the field while an at-bat is going on is just not how you sell the game.

i don't think the average viewer has such demanding aesthetic standards

hate all in-game interviews

this is apparently how you sell... stuff

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/07/mlb-rumors-expanded-playoffs-2020-last-minute.html

I feel like the A’s winning the World Series this year would be very A’sesque.

MLB trying to expand the playoffs to 16 teams, when what they'd prefer is, let's expand the playoffs to however many teams it takes to get Mike Trout in.

— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 23, 2020

lol imagine seeing this graphic on a broadcast a year ago and trying to parse it pic.twitter.com/PvoU9mv7KZ

— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) July 23, 2020

lol it is absolutely insane to drastically change the fundamental question of a season ('what does it take to make the playoffs?') on its opening day

iirc a while back the NBA announced, in late march, that the first round of its playoffs would suddenly become best-of-7 rather than best-of-5. that was more defensible

i would probably use "typically desperate" rather than insane

of course, in this season the fundamental question of the season has become "how many of your dudes will be standing at the end"

Plan for 16 teams, get 10 viable ones maybe

How about everybody gets a fucking participation trophy

I'm increasingly wondeirng if looking back it will have been these past few months that did in my baseball fandom

or the kind of fandom I've always had

Their grieving families can put it on the mantelpiece

"It was worth it lil' Bobby. That's a cool 300M your daddy's team has now that it wouldn't have otherwise had"

it takes a ton of suspended disbleief to hold onto this love in the 21st c

maybe I'll feel differently when the "season" is underway but I really wish MLB wasn't putting us through all this

I have been a Red Sox fan and season ticket holder since 1937. I was there when Teddy Ballgame homered in the ‘46 All-Star Game. I can’t feel my fingers anymore and only eat soup. My grandson is typing this tweet for me.

— zak 🗣🍼💜💪 (@ZakKondratenko) July 23, 2020

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-official-zips-2020-projected-standings/

Had the city of DC not changed their rules, a positive test for Soto would have forced many others into a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Am told the team is doing its due diligence with contact tracing and Soto is doing "fine" all things considered.

— Britt Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) July 23, 2020

The worst part is that Soto had been quarantined for 14-days prior to this because he was an exposure risk from another player who had tested positive.

ffs

MLBPA and MLB have agreed on a $50 million postseason bonus pool for players with 16 teams for this year. In negotiations last month, MLB offered $25 million. Players have voted, now up to owners to ratify.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) July 23, 2020

i guess owners vote will be live on pregame show

i know it seems like a million years ago but the idea to expand the playoffs and have a ridiculous The Decision show where GMs hand out roses to the teams they want to face was originally floated by manfred long before coronavirus happened. the union just showed that they're generally cool with it.

this is the future

i guess i'm an old fogey (32) but this might kill baseball for me. postseason at least. i'll keep watching regular season to see how good mike trout does.

Rob Manfred has now done more to help Mike Trout make the playoffs than Arte Moreno, Jerry Dipoto, and Billy Eppler ever did. Combined. https://t.co/oLIs3U4iJx

— Joe Sheehan (@joe_sheehan) July 23, 2020

Anyway, if you're the Tigers, Royals, etc. and you don't now shift into playing all your best players regardless of service time, you should be ashamed. Expanded playoffs and a 60-game season is baseball welfare.

— Joe Sheehan (@joe_sheehan) July 23, 2020

lol by zips the angels will still be tied with boston for the final spot

Clayton Kershaw is hurt.

Sheehan did say "help"

Expanded playoffs was going to happen one day or another, I made peace with it a while ago.

going back to 10 in 2021, or i will say sayonara

so ZIPs predicts a three-way tie for second place in the NL Central, which would also be a 3-way tie for the second division spot in the playoffs, as well as potentially ties for the 7th or 8th seeds, depending on the other NL division standings?

this is gonna be great wow

hoping the WS gets delayed til November

am i naive in thinking this really is a one-season only stupid playoff format? 2020 special? or is this the way that they get their hooks in

The expanded baseball playoff is an abomination and must be resisted in the future at all costs.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) July 23, 2020

am i naive in thinking this really is a one-season only stupid playoff format? 2020 special? or is this the way that they get their hooks in

― The GOAT Harold Land (Karl Malone), Thursday, July 23, 2020 9:37 PM (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

when has rob manfred shown that he has any shame at all

in five years all the teams are going to be named after sponsors like in korea

have fun rooting for the bank of america cardinals i'm gonna move into the woods and take up skeet shooting

excuse me, we are monsanto nation

We know baseball is back when people are shitting on the commish instead of celebrating Opening Day after the longest winter break in the game’s history.

my understanding is that playoff (tv) revenue goes straight to the owners

so if the players can get a part of it or bargain it for something else, they will probably do so

much like the economy in general, there is no one looking out for what is best in the long term

Anyone who bemoans the death of baseball over expended playoffs sound like those gents who just couldn’t adapt to numbers on shirts.

no.

^

if every half-decent team makes the playoffs and is subject to a best-of-three series, there's little incentive to play hard or spend much on the regular season

why bother signing mookie? the dodgers can hardly miss the playoffs, at which point having two good starters and a bullpen will matter much more

baseball has some great teams, all of whom are gonna make the playoffs, and a lot of mediocre teams, some of whom are still gonna make the playoffs. why even play 60 games?

You’d also get way fewer teams saying “fuck it” and punting the season tho. I’d say that’s more of a problem in baseball (not that I love the idea of baseball doing an NBA/NHL style playoffs either).

there are routes you can take to stop tanking that don't involve cheapening the entire season and turning the playoffs into even more of a crap shoot

with 16 teams the playoffs become an exhibition connected to the regular season by a thread. gonna get a world series between two 78-win teams with zero great players between them

i'm much cooler with the superteam/tanking team era than the future where regular season games matter half as much for everyone

i think that would be a fitting ending to this season, all the same. this whole season is already inescapably weird. it doesn't matter if some shitty team wins. who cares? whichever team gets the least covid19 wins! store up on fuel, because next season takes place in mad max

i don't think most of us have a problem with this season, it's about all the ones after it

the key is going to be the "it was all a dream" sequence after the end of coronavirus (an age that was foretold by john the baptist), when some will want to continue the new ways of the coronavirus format, and others will speak of returning to the olden times

many will fall. another catcher's testicle will explode on live tv

Ok, what's with the Bronx Stankers' rain-shortened win last night? I thought all delayed games were going to be played to a full 9 on another day if necessary. Apparently it's just previously suspended games, eh?

mmhmm

#Braves are without BOTH of their catchers, Tyler Flowers and Travis d'Arnaud. Both tested negative for COVID-19 but both have symptoms and are back in Atlanta. Again, both tested negative. But they're without the for at least today. Alex Jackson will catch.

— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 24, 2020

also the blue jays are supposedly gonna play in buffalo 100%

will this season reach 30 games before being called off? it seems like we're just on a glide path to some player getting so sick they have to retire (or worse)

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2020/07/24/16280/friday-roundup-the-baseball-gods-are-very-very-angry/

So wait, we have two 2020 season threads?

Cubs Install Cardboard Cutouts Of Fans Pissing All Over Streets Outside Wrigley Field https://t.co/jqOTzB6U1x pic.twitter.com/W2Gv7aZlvm

— The Onion (@TheOnion) July 24, 2020

looool

Despite no minor league season this year, there will be professional baseball in upstate New York. The Blue Jays announced they will play the "majority" of their 2020 home games in Buffalo (former home of the Triple-A Mets).

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) July 24, 2020

i thought this was the general news thread, the other one is 'rolling game action' or somesuch

gonna get a world series between two 78-win teams with zero great players between them

― ℺ ☽ ⋠ ⏎ (✖), Friday, 24 July 2020 08:02 (thirteen hours ago)

In all fairness though, 78 wins this season will be rather impressive.

lol matt adams is back with the braves

he just keeps cycling between the same 3-4 teams

i saw max muncy last night and thought he was matt adams for a second

Yoenis Céspedes has a 3-game home run streak.

And those three dates:

May 13, 2018
July 20, 2018
July 24, 2020#Mets

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) July 24, 2020

orlando arcia just hit a single, and once he was at first base, anthony rizzo pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer and offered him some

Moustakas "woke up sick" and is now on the 10-day IL, and while there's nothing official stating COVID, yahoo! fantasy awarded him the red badge of COVID... are fantasy site updaters more in the know?

It's related to Matt Davidson's positive test, I think

Sources: Marlins new positives include Cooper and Ramirez in addition to Urena, plus Alfaro had been positive. So they’ve now lost their starting RF, DH/1B and C in addition to one of their better pitchers. @ByRobertMurray 1st on some names

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 26, 2020

If I was an opposing team, I’d be worried just sharing a field with them. MLB should step in and make these guys wear facemasks whenever they’re around other players.

amazing scene in st louis - first on-field argument i've seen. dyson got tossed (i think?), and the pirates manager (shelton) came out to argue with the home plate umpire. the camera showed both men pausing to put their masks on. halfway through the argument, shelton takes his mask back off, then put it back on a few seconds later.

sorry, not "amazing", exactly. just very weird, sign of the times, etc

If MLB has a number of simultaneous positive tests on a team that would shut things down, they haven’t made it public. But an epidemiologist @jaysonst talked to before the season started thought that number should be three or four. https://t.co/5Jv4ohyaqT https://t.co/TFkN4jA9vg

— Emma Span (@emmaspan) July 26, 2020

there was some question of whether (pirates manager) shelton would be ejected from a game before winning a game, and how often (if ever) that had happened

this seems bad

Four Miami Marlins players have tested positive for the coronavirus, including Sunday's starter, Jose Urena, according to sources familiar with the situation, leading the team to delay its postgame trip home amid concerns about a possible outbreak.

The Marlins will be without the services of Urena, catcher Jorge Alfaro, who was placed on the injured list before their season opener on Friday, infielder Garrett Cooper and outfielder Harold Ramirez. The news of the positive tests was first reported by baseball writer Robert Murray.

It's possible that the infections occurred Wednesday on the team's trip to and from Atlanta, where the Marlins played the Braves in an exhibition game. Since leaving Atlanta -- after a flight delay -- the Marlins have been in Philadelphia all weekend for the team's opening series.

i didn't watch a whole lot this weekend, but i still saw spitting, unmasked people hanging out closely in the dugouts, etc. not throwing the ball around the horn doesn't seem likely to cut it

in bosox news, E-Rod with myocarditis, a heart inflammation caused by covid. Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor also both recovering from cv-19

Marlins next series is cancelled.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29546814/sources-marlins-cancel-game-virus-spreads

b-b-but what about the tax squad?

taxI

Sources: The Phillies are quarantining their entire visiting clubhouse staff after exposure to the Marlins this weekend. Some were tested yesterday and waiting for results. Yankees brought their own clubhouse staff to Philly last night.

— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) July 27, 2020

waiting for the other shoe to drop, 2020 baseball

yankees-phillies also postponed tonight

also, am i crazy or is the fucking NHL about to re-start games? how is that even possible

GREAT SEASON SO FAR

NHL is putting everyone in two bubbles fwiw

Ya. The thing they said mlb should do but the players, in their infinite wisdom, decided was not for them.

something tells me that's not going to work

this was pretty inevitable but less than a week in wow

move both Florida teams to ...?

buffalo obv

I find talk about fixing the MLB process strangely dystopian

The problem is not MLB's failure to hermetically seal in a baseball Arcology. The problem is there's an essentially uncontrolled pandemic raging through the country. Maybe we should fix society, then worry about sports

— Dan Brooks (@brooksbaseball) July 27, 2020

also, am i crazy or is the fucking NHL about to re-start games? how is that even possible

― The GOAT Harold Land (Karl Malone), Monday, July 27, 2020 9:46 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

nhl just put out a statement that claimed there were 2 positive results out of 6000+ total tests. plus, they're doing a bubble, and they're in canada, not coronamerica

Marlins’ group text message decided game vs. Phillies would be played Sunday after COVID-19 outbreak https://t.co/ixGIxNu23F

— Philadelphia Inquirer Sports (@phillysport) July 27, 2020

xp

that's good! 43 NHL players tested positive during "Phase 2" of re-opening process, though, from June 8 to July 12. are the players allowed to see their family or any other "non-bubble" people during the season? if they truly are isolated, maybe they'll be able to pull it off.

xp i can't wait until official team physician yadier molina is asked to make the call about whether or not cardinals games should be played when members of the team starting going down. something tells me he's going to say they can play

did anyone in the marlins group text think about asking the phillies if they were cool with playing?

i have to say i've been shocked that the entire team doesn't kneel during the national anthem. with the bosox i think it's just jackie bradley jr. it looks like his teammates don't agree with him, or are hanging him out to dry. completely bizarre to me.

by way of contrast, soccer teams in the premiere league are ALL taking a knee, every player, before every game. little something called 'team spirit', look it up

last week some giants reliever was asked why he didn't kneel; his response was 'because i'm a christian'

sounds like he follows andrew sullivan on twitter

Another concern for Phils: Due to incubation period, tests they are taking today and tomorrow might not show whether they were positive from contact yesterday. Team supposed to travel to NY tomorrow night, but how confident can players be knowing results will not be up to minute? https://t.co/fPs9Cgm1xI

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 27, 2020