MLB Implements 60 Game Season

[InsideCoroner]

Here’s my problem with this season — if you can play some games, and keep the players safe, then sure, I welcome the distraction and would love to see some baseball. But what I dread is that charade of a postseason. Seriously, just skip it this year. Play an extra 15 games or so, but I would never want playoffs beginning in mid-June in a normal season, and no drama surrounds any team’s formidable two-month climb to victory. The only thing dumber would be an All-Star Game shoehorned in four weeks into the season. 

[rudyrooster]

I've got a pretty strong feeling that MLB will not even make it through Spring Training 2.0 before shutting down.  Hope I'm wrong.

 

 

[FlipTheBird]

5 hours ago, Fan4Life said:

This all is going to end. When Disney offered their online programming in competition with their own cable channel, they were telling everyone that cable is not the future. That being said, the media contracts that feed this greed will crash and reset. Players won't be making $30m a season to play sports again. I for one will be happy to see that day. 

So I can only presume your reasoning for this is sheer jealousy.

[BMann]

So what was the O’s best 60-game stretch last year? I figure a shorter season helps bad teams since any team can get hot over a brief stretch. 

[DrungoHazewood]

5 hours ago, FlipTheBird said:

So I can only presume your reasoning for this is sheer jealousy.

Or, perhaps, a general uneasiness about a paradigm where these four players could exist:

Player #1: had a big year in his age 30 walk year, was signed to a $23M, 8-year deal, is now an unproductive 34-year-old making $23M, living in a 12,000 square foot mansion with a butler and a Ferrari

Player #2: had a very similar year to #1's walk year, but in a pre-arb season and is making $650k

Player #3: had an MVP season in AAA but won't be called up because of service time issues and is making $45k a year

Player #4: was signed for $20k out of the DR, is now a good prospect, and is in low-A pulling down $12k a year and sleeps on the futon of a host family

It may not be a great setup when four players of fairly similar ability have a 2000x spread in salary.  In my job I've been there almost 30 years, run an organization of several hundred people with a budget of almost $100M, and have a salary about 2.5 times what a entry-level employee straight out of college makes, and just 50% more than someone with five years of experience. 

I have no problem with players making what they can get, but the setup that exists now bizarrely makes the case that David Price (1.8 WAR) is worth 55 times as much as Lucas Golito (5.7 WAR).  It's not a free market, and it needs to be changed.

[UpstateNYfan]

19 hours ago, Tx Oriole said:

I don’t believe there will be baseball this season at all. Why have any season at all? 2020 baseball season is kaput. IMO 

I really hope it works out. Even if it does happen it will be MLB in name only. Huge rosters, lots of MiL pitchers, players not exactly playing all out. I would also expect teams to have to drop out, unless they ignore CDC guidelines. If any of you believe 21-35 year olds are going to sit in hotels and not go out when on the road, drinking and partying,  you are crazy. This proposal is likely to be more of an attempt to say we tried, for PR purposes. Good luck, I hope I am wrong.

[TommyPickles]

I'm just happy that baseball is back!

[interloper]

22 hours ago, Jagwar said:

I actually expect the chances of completing the season at 25%. What do they do if a player/coach/staff tests positive? Wouldn't every player have to be quarantined at that point, forfeiting games as a result? 

Yeah. July 23rd is a looooong way away, too. Will we even see a game played? Questionable at best.

[SteveA]

So a 16 team playoff?  That's 8 in each league.  3 division winners and 5 wildcards?  Or top 2 in each division and 3 wild cards?

Extra innings begins with a runner on 2nd.  Who can that be?  Anyone who hasn't been used?  Someone who wouldn't bat until 7th or 8th in the inning?  Someone who was in the game but had been taken out?  I assume the same guy can be used in multiple extra innings?

So you start the 10th with a man o. 2nd.  Is the pitcher who starts the 10th "responsible" for that runner?  If he scores does he go against that pitcher's ERA?  Say the pitcher strikes out the only batter he faces and then a lefty comes in to face the next two batters, and the lefty gives up am RBI hit to end the game?  Does the original pitcher who pitched one third of an inning and struck out the batter get the loss?

[eddie83]

21 minutes ago, SteveA said:

So a 16 team playoff?  That's 8 in each league.  3 division winners and 5 wildcards?  Or top 2 in each division and 3 wild cards?

Extra innings begins with a runner on 2nd.  Who can that be?  Anyone who hasn't been used?  Someone who wouldn't bat until 7th or 8th in the inning?  Someone who was in the game but had been taken out?  I assume the same guy can be used in multiple extra innings?

So you start the 10th with a man o. 2nd.  Is the pitcher who starts the 10th "responsible" for that runner?  If he scores does he go against that pitcher's ERA?  Say the pitcher strikes out the only batter he faces and then a lefty comes in to face the next two batters, and the lefty gives up am RBI hit to end the game?  Does the original pitcher who pitched one third of an inning and struck out the batter get the loss?

No. Still only 10 playoff teams in each league. That fell through when the players rejected the one offer.  

[incubus]

One thing to consider with this:

even a perfectly healthy, low risk player could have their career ended by getting covid 19. Most reports of patients from 6-7 months ago are showing long term repercussions to lungs. If a player ends up with a lung capacity permanently decreased by 25% that could very easily spell the end of their career.

[Redskins Rick]

On 6/23/2020 at 9:52 AM, Can_of_corn said:

But then the owners would have had to pay the players more money.

Why would this be a problem?

TV revenue, ticket sales, concession sales, and parking lot.

Maybe, they are not making what they could in a "normal" season.

But, you are making more money, then with the lights off and the gates locked with the no trespassing signs up.

[Redskins Rick]

6 minutes ago, incubus said:

One thing to consider with this:

even a perfectly healthy, low risk player could have their career ended by getting covid 19. Most reports of patients from 6-7 months ago are showing long term repercussions to lungs. If a player ends up with a lung capacity permanently decreased by 25% that could very easily spell the end of their career.

I guess I am really lucky then, so far, month, but its only been almost 3 months since my COVID attack.

 

[Number5]

22 minutes ago, incubus said:

One thing to consider with this:

even a perfectly healthy, low risk player could have their career ended by getting covid 19. Most reports of patients from 6-7 months ago are showing long term repercussions to lungs. If a player ends up with a lung capacity permanently decreased by 25% that could very easily spell the end of their career.

If there are long term effects, that is bad, of course, but do we have cases from November and December?

[osfan83]

42 minutes ago, incubus said:

One thing to consider with this:

even a perfectly healthy, low risk player could have their career ended by getting covid 19. Most reports of patients from 6-7 months ago are showing long term repercussions to lungs. If a player ends up with a lung capacity permanently decreased by 25% that could very easily spell the end of their career.

True but that same player could also be seriously injured driving to the ballpark. Most of these players probably engage in some risk behavior at some point in their careers that put them more at risk than Covid.