bird watcher

If the season is cancelled, do they carry over this years draft order to next year? How long if a season is long enough to warrant changing the draft order?

There will be many new norms learned from this by businesses. I was reading about how workflows have streamlined in some industries because they’ve been forced to move everything between depts electronically. The article was specifically about tv show production (writers, producers, editors, graphics, animators, etc). It noted how much cheaper and time efficient things are now without the need for physical space.

I think most O’s fans would like that option. There is a reason though that they haven’t yet gone that route; it’s not as profitable as the current situation. It also would make situations like this even more economically devastating because they would lose all of their subscriber money. At least with cable they diversify by getting money from subscribers that stay on despite no sports. This could go the other way too, where many people cancel Cable because there is no baseball and cable gets to see how many people really were only having cable for the baseball. But will the casual fan realize they can live without it and not miss it. To be honest, it’s not really at the forefront of my mind these days. I’ve kind of just moved on to other things to occupy my time. Easier to do too when the O’s are going to be terrible too.

How do we know that A. MASN is still being paid by cable despite not carrying intended content or that B. MASN doesn’t have to pay the teams their rights fees despite the work stoppage? Both seem like assumptions unless you know the contract language. There may be some carryover to keep MASN solvent for now but I have little doubt that the trend is not in their favor long term. I think they’ll have to eventually move to streaming baseball and it’ll be sooner than expected. I believe cable cutting over the next month will accelerate.

Hello all, I have been thinking about how this world crisis would affect sports programming and specifically the Orioles. Firstly, without live sports, I have to believe people are cutting the cable cord at and extremely high rate. Sports were the only thing anchoring MANY people from cutting the cord. Less disposable income for many many people and the exorbitant costs for cable don’t bode well for them. Secondly, without cable subscribers en masse, where do MASN and frankly all of the other MLB networks get their revenues? MASN gets huge $ for every subscriber. Cable as we knew it was already dying. I predict the nail in the coffin of the golden goose it near, especially if Live sports continue to be shut down. People will learn to live without it, will enjoy having a smaller bill, and may not have the financial ability to pay for it anyway. How does that affect MLB’s willingness to continue with guaranteed contracts? Nobody knew that an economy could be turned this upside down in a matter of weeks. Long term liabilities just became a whole lot riskier.

This gets harder as the rebuild moves forward but . . . I root for prospects to hit and pitch really well and for filler bullpen guys and journeymen hitters to blow it so we lose and get better draft picks. It’s easy to swallow a loss if the guys that will matter later are playing well. As time moves on there will be less guys to not care about and so losing will mean guys that matter aren’t performing.

Changes to the game to promote offense may take time to yield results. There is a generational gap forming that baseball needs to get ahead of. From what I have gathered younger people aren’t as into baseball as they once were. The pace of play and scoring are obstacles in our culture whether we like it or not. Balls in play equal action. Just my opinion

Says the “already a baseball fan” fan. What about attracting younger kids with super short attention spans? More scoring wouldn’t hurt baseball. It’s obviously a point of focus given the juicing of baseballs. I’m in favor of it. I find it frustrating when a team brings in a specialist for one batter to end a promising rally.

This is true and might be another reason to do it from baseball’s perspective. Baseball gets boring without runs. Pitching duels appeal to the hardcore but nothing gets fans screaming like a line drive double. By making the pitcher stay in the game you’ve increased the chance of a run scoring play in your scenario. This is good for baseball.

You say this like it would negatively influence the choice. Lower OPS's will help ensure one more year of high draft picks which like it or not is likely a goal behind the scenes. I am hoping this is the last year we intentionally tank a season. I'd like to watch some baseball again at some point.

I suspect the majority of discovered efficiencies will remain proprietary and would be non-story/boring to the general consumer much to the dismay of the OH obsessed like you and me.

That bolded part is a quote that any employee of a large company undergoing sea changes has uttered or heard uttered. We as humans love normalcy and routine. We crave it and abhor change because its an unknown and creates fear. 7. No more human emotions getting in the way of making the right decisions. Ironically the most idolized manager we’ve ever had was famous for not giving a damn how people felt about what he knew was the right decision. Bill Belichick is Pretty famous for it too.

I’d say the constant is a pursuit of efficiency; a byproduct of which is not spending until that spending can give the most bang for the buck. The Astros aren’t not spending. They spent when the time was right. Analytics is about efficiency too. How do we get the most out of practice? What type of practice will give the greatest reward for time put in; old normal routines be damned. It is all a whittling away at chaff. 1. No wasted movement in a swing or pitch. 2. No wasted movement in getting a fielder to where he is most likely to need to be when that batter hits. 3. No wasted time scouting without the most exact measures. 4. No wasted/extra $ on seasoned managers when a manager’s decisions can be boiled down to a formula No wasted spending on players giving less than premium runs/$. 5. No spending when those premium runs/$ won’t matter because the rest of the team isn’t ready. 6. No wasted service time when you can wait and bring all the prospects up at the same time and get more runs/$ together at the same time. I am sure there are many more efficiencies being explored. This is the age of The computer algorithm coming to roost in sports.

Good.

You’re right. I wrote that while fantasizing about my follow up post where there wouldn’t be a force out at first. I can’t edit posts