Owners submit new economic plan to union : UPDATED

[DrungoHazewood]

10 hours ago, Philip said:

I am more interested in strategy, and there is more strategy when there is no DH.

As I mentioned before, that's at least a matter of debate.  With pitchers batting there are more moves, but I argue they're mostly automatic moves to compensate for a batter that can't hit at all.  That's not strategy, that's button-pushing.  It's not strategy when you pinch hit for Chris Davis, it's button-pushing. And Chris Davis' 2019 OPS was almost double that of an average pitcher.

[Tony-OH]

2 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

As I mentioned before, that's at least a matter of debate.  With pitchers batting there are more moves, but I argue they're mostly automatic moves to compensate for a batter that can't hit at all.  That's not strategy, that's button-pushing.  It's not strategy when you pinch hit for Chris Davis, it's button-pushing. And Chris Davis' 2019 OPS was almost double that of an average pitcher.

Exactly. I never found NL baseball fun to watch, particularly early in games when there would be a rally going with maybe 2nd and 3rd and one out with the 8th hitter coming up. All the pitchers does is pitch around (basically intentionally walk) the 8th batter and go after the .370 OPS pitcher coming next who wails away before striking out. 

I really don't have an issue if NL fans like it and they want to play without the DH when it's pure NL playing, but anytime they play an AL team the DH should be allowed.

[drjohnnyfeva]

Whether it's the union not giving or the circumstances of social distancing, I just don't see how a season gets underway in anything more or less than an exhibition season.  All it's going to take is one case of covid-19 on a team or two to throw everything into a tailspin.  Any schedule would be effectively destroyed if that were to occur.  Then there would be the required self-isolation of players on the two teams and maybe even the teams that had played the team in the last 7-10 days prior.  As much as I'd love the diversion of having baseball back, even if it's an exhibition season, dealing with rescheduling games that get impacted by an infection - - - which is probably a foregone conclusion - - - seems a daunting, if not impossible, task to me.

[Philip]

36 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Exactly. I never found NL baseball fun to watch, particularly early in games when there would be a rally going with maybe 2nd and 3rd and one out with the 8th hitter coming up. All the pitchers does is pitch around (basically intentionally walk) the 8th batter and go after the .370 OPS pitcher coming next who wails away before striking out. 

I really don't have an issue if NL fans like it and they want to play without the DH when it's pure NL playing, but anytime they play an AL team the DH should be allowed.

I don’t disagree with that, I actually oppose inter league play. It defeats the purpose of having leagues at all. if you’re going to play everybody, then why not just play everybody and if you’re going to have leagues, then have leagues.

It’s another one of the things I detest from our current commissioner. However if you are going to have interleague play, then of course you should play according to the rules of the home team.

But I’ve made my thoughts on the DH clear, if you disagree that’s quite all right.

[bpilktree]

Here are some comments from Blake Snell of the Rays.  If other players have this attitude you can wrap up the season and start the death of baseball .

Y'all gotta understand, man, for me to go -- for me to take a pay cut is not happening, because the risk is through the roof," Snell said while answering questions on his Twitch channel. "It's a shorter season, less pay.

"No, I gotta get my money. I'm not playing unless I get mine, OK? And that's just the way it is for me. Like, I'm sorry you guys think differently, but the risk is way the hell higher and the amount of money I'm making is way lower. Why would I think about doing that?"

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, bpilktree said:

Here are some comments from Blake Snell of the Rays.  If other players have this attitude you can wrap up the season and start the death of baseball .

Y'all gotta understand, man, for me to go -- for me to take a pay cut is not happening, because the risk is through the roof," Snell said while answering questions on his Twitch channel. "It's a shorter season, less pay.

"No, I gotta get my money. I'm not playing unless I get mine, OK? And that's just the way it is for me. Like, I'm sorry you guys think differently, but the risk is way the hell higher and the amount of money I'm making is way lower. Why would I think about doing that?"

Walmart gave hourly employees a $300 dollar bonus for working through the Pandemic.  I think MLB can follow suit.

[bpilktree]

5 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Walmart gave hourly employees a $300 dollar bonus for working through the Pandemic.  I think MLB can follow suit.

Did they say you only have to work half your hours and still get paid 100% of their salary too?

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, bpilktree said:

Did they say you only have to work half your hours and still get paid 100% of their salary too?

You didn't get what I was trying to say.

[Redskins Rick]

17 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Walmart gave hourly employees a $300 dollar bonus for working through the Pandemic.  I think MLB can follow suit.

I think I read, they were going to give them a second bonus check.

[DrungoHazewood]

25 minutes ago, bpilktree said:

Here are some comments from Blake Snell of the Rays.  If other players have this attitude you can wrap up the season and start the death of baseball .

Y'all gotta understand, man, for me to go -- for me to take a pay cut is not happening, because the risk is through the roof," Snell said while answering questions on his Twitch channel. "It's a shorter season, less pay.

"No, I gotta get my money. I'm not playing unless I get mine, OK? And that's just the way it is for me. Like, I'm sorry you guys think differently, but the risk is way the hell higher and the amount of money I'm making is way lower. Why would I think about doing that?"

I think we've discovered one of the guys who has a contract for $633,333 a month, and has monthly expenses of $630,000.

Or he failed both math and public relations in school.

[bpilktree]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I think we've discovered one of the guys who has a contract for $633,333 a month, and has monthly expenses of $630,000.

He is scheduled to make 7 million this year.  His comments get worse the more you read on it.  https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29174318/rays-ace-blake-snell-says-refuses-play-reduced-salary
 

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

I think I read, they were going to give them a second bonus check.

That is the word.  Of course the part time workers only get half (half of Walmart's hourly workers are part time).

[DrungoHazewood]

1 minute ago, bpilktree said:

He is scheduled to make 7 million this year.  His comments get worse the more you read on it.  https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29174318/rays-ace-blake-snell-says-refuses-play-reduced-salary
 

Yes, and that divided by 12 is about $630k.

The players are going to lose on this.  It's not a case of bookkeeping sleight-of-hand and trying to get one up on the other side in CBA negotiations.  With nobody in the stands and season ticket refunds revenues are going to fall off 50% or more.  The idea that the owners can just keep paying 100% of salaries is kind of nuts.  They'd have to take out multi-million dollar loans or dip into other sources of money.  The players are going to take a severe public relations beating if they don't relax their position.

[Redskins Rick]

8 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

That is the word.  Of course the part time workers only get half (half of Walmart's hourly workers are part time).

A growing trend of businesses, mostly only hire part-time employees to fill out their roster.

[atomic]

I have totally changed my opinion about the situation. I think baseball will be played.  The players need to play. If they don't play they won't get anything in free agency.  As the leagues revenues will be down to a point where they can't support the big contracts.  

The owners need to play.  Football will start up in September.  They will lose more fans to other sports if they don't start up and everything else is back to normal.  

It is in both their interests to start back up.   

I will also admit I was wrong about the disease. It isn't anywhere near as deadly as the experts were saying.