Tony-OH

Based on the stuff I saw from Bruce Zimmermann this spring, I think he may be ahead of both. I see Akin as a reliever during his career and I'm starting to get that vibe from Kremer, though I'm not ready to say that yet with him. If they expand the roster to say 30 and there will be double headers and such, I could see all three getting some time this year if they play.

You illustrated part of my point. When and if a summer goes by with no baseball, people will have a whole year to discover that maybe they didn't miss it as much as they thought. People will have found new ways to pass their time and some may find it's better without daily baseball. Now if the die hards like ourselves, could feel a lost season over greed is a last nail, imagine what it will be like for the casual fan or even worse, the next generation of potential die hards.

You have to remember, that's a whole generation ago. 25 years is a long time and I think this latest generation of kids is not into baseball as much as that generation. Baseball's interest level has been dropping across America and in a time when they could be a hero, if they choose to fight over money and there is no season, I think it's going to be a major black eye. I've been an active major league baseball fan for probably 45 years and run a site dedicated to a team, but even I will have a hard time getting over this if the season does not happen because of greed.

Say what you want, put some padding on people and I'd watch that version! Seriously though, we used to use that rule in whiffle ball. I've pelted kids hard enough to leave the whiffle indentations!

That's your opinion and I respect that. When your first two paragraphs make sure to talk about Armageddon like deaths and keeping everything closed or dire consequences will occur, I tend to stop reading and know I'm dealing with propaganda.

How people are not getting early prognosis of potentially deadly things because of this? How many things will be missed due to videocon appointment vs real live hand on assessment? The ramifications of this shutdown is going to linger for years. The longer it persists the more very deadly ramifications will continue to show up. As for baseball, the ramifications of missing an entire season, especially if it comes down to the greed of the owner/players, can have long lasting effects.

Agreed. Sorry I missed this. I didn't click on the link but when I saw the comments I did and sure enough, total and utter propaganda which makes it political. While the 2020 baseball season could be considered "political" overall by some, I don't think saying you want it open or you closed is political per se. People can have any opinion they like, but when you start discussion why and start bringing in politicians and or clear propaganda, that's when it turned political. I think it's valid to discuss the restrictions the players/fans would be under and whether people agree with that or not. I don't believe that becomes political.

In order to not get political and to keep it on baseball, I'm going to delete this propaganda.

Good Lord this is true. And it wasn't just a little quick lick, it was like a disgusting full tongue out slobber. I actually was thrilled when he left the Orioles, not because I thought he was an awful pitcher, but because I couldn't stand when the camera would be on him between pitches as he slobbered all over his fingers.

No worries, and thanks. By the time I saw the post I was surprised there wasn't already responses. Again, everyone is entitled to their political opinions but you just can't share them here. The Hangout has always been about what brings us together (Orioles/baseball) and not what separates us.

Just a reminder, this is not the place to talk the politics of this situation. I just had to delete a post and it has nothing to do with whether I agree or disagree with the post, but because it clearly crossed into politics. Unless a politician or famous person involved talks directly about baseball or makes a decision that affects the baseball season, please refrain from posts discussing them. There are plenty of places around the web to discuss the politics of this situation, but this not one of them. You may discuss your personal feelings of this virus, but do not let it cross into the political side. Thanks for your understanding in these difficult times that has many of us on edge for various reasons.

Honestly, there's a ton of greed to go around but you have to imagine that everyone is going to have to expect to take a cut back. If there are no fans in the stands, it's gotta be hard for players to expect exactly the pro rate of their salaries. To me that was a starting point but I'm not an expert on all of these monetary issues when it comes to revenue streams and pay out and so forth. All I know is baseball will be hard pressed to recover if they blow an entire season because they couldn't figure out how to split the billions up between billionaires and millionaires.

This is not the time to play let's make a deal. If they want to make it easy, prorate the salaries to the number of games they will play during the season, but they are too worried about a "salary cap". Which at the end of the day is the only way baseball will be able to survive long term.

I also think the greed of the player's union will has more a chance of derailing the 2020 season than these restrictions.

It is utterly amazing the ridiculousness of most of these restrictions. Saying that, if it gets baseball back on my TV set, they can wear bubble wrap in the locker rooms for all I care.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/05/16/os-bats-stay-silent-in-3-1-loss-to-rays/

I shopped Givens around and was given a series of offers. I start with one player offered then try to get more players from their system. They'll tell me I'm out of my mind or i need to add a very good player if I try to get too good of a prospect. The computer loves to try and give me very expensive players that are doing well but don't have good ratings, but luckily there's a "make this trade work" button that allows them to tell what players in my system they would want to complete the trade. That's how we ended up sending Hanser Alberto, who had lost his everyday job to Andrew Velazquez, to the trade in order to get Quantrill. My goal has to be to increase the talent level in the organization and I think I have done that. I have way too many pitchers though in the system so I may start trading them off to see if I can some up with a decent 2B, SS, or 3B prospect that's ready or nearly ready.

This will a huge part of it. I don't believe for a second that actually corona virus deaths are under reported in the United States, but the deaths caused by this continual lockdown/shutdown will end up killing 10 fold as many when it's all said and done. Our initial supposed 14-day quarantine to allow our Hospitals to prepare along with social distancing in the beginning made sense. Then, the goal posts kept changing on why we were being quarantined. I saw an eye opening post from a laid of healthcare worker that talked about 1.5 million healthcare workers that were laid off just during the month of April. The person spoke about how cancer diagnosis in the United states were down 30% due to people not getting checked out. How many people will die due to not being diagnosed earlier? These deaths, which are the corona virus reaction related, are not being considered by many who just want everyone to stay home. Since my oldest adult son is intellectually disabled, I'm very familiar with many difficult situations with people who live with someone with behavior issues who are getting no breaks or services and the stress can be unbearable for these folks. It's easy for people to say, "just sit on the couch, watch Netflix," but besides the very real economic problems this thing is causing, there are so many secondary effects that are not being tracked or at the very least, not being reported.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/05/16/sim-orioles-trade-givens-and-alberto-to-sd-for-four-prospects/

I've heard similar stories. Lots of them. Glad to hear you are doing better though!

I would prefer that personally, but MLB makes enough money, that they can afford to pay the guys major league minimum to sit at home, especially since their replacement would be getting major league minimum as well.

I'm starting to hear from more and more people who are doing their own education and looking at the true numbers themselves, and then realizing what's being spread by local government officials and the media is not half as bad as being presented. I don't hold it against anyone or play the "i told you so game" because honestly, it does no good for anyone. So much negative information was inundated that it's easy to see why people thought the black plague was upon us. Some still do, but little by little, as the goalposts consistently keep being moved to reopen up, people are realizing the truth. From a baseball perspective, even if it's fanless games, I think it would do wonders for our country to have some semblance of normalcy. Even if said games are played by minor leaguers and non Union players.

Let's make it easy, any guy who doesn't want to play for "safety reasons", gets the major league minimum and and can stay home. The minor leaguer that takes his place will be happy to have the major league minimum as well. Maybe we'll see guys try harder too, sorta like a replacement player thing. Honestly, since the minor leaguers aren't in the union, I say they just fill their teams up with the minor leaguers that want to play and play with that. The non 40-man roster Orioles team might be interesting to watch play this year.

That is all most of the established players care about really. Let's be honest, like most of this, this is all about money, power and control.

And there you have it. I give him props for be willing to say that publicly. Most fans have no idea that a lot of players are this douchey. He has no care or understanding how the regular Joe, who pays his salary at the end of the day, may look at that and be upset. Be he's gotta get his, ok? Honestly, if the players wipe out this season, I'm selling the Hangout. I don't want anything to do with this sport anymore.