MLB 2019-2020 Offseason Thread

[Maxx]

10 hours ago, B-li Manning said:

The MLBPA's counter-proposal to the owners:

-114 game schedule from June 30 - October 31 (that's 10 off days per team unless they create off days by scheduling doubleheaders in advance)
-Expanded playoffs in 2020 and 2021 (warm weather or domed cities in 2020 since they'd be playing deep into November)
-Should playoffs be cancelled due to another outbreak that causes playoff cities to shut down, owners can defer up to $100 million in player salaries (any player making over $10 million would be eligible for the deferral)
-Any player who does not feel safe playing can opt out of the season, players who opt out will earn service time but no pay unless they are high risk or live with a high risk individual

Reasonable.  Though that proposed season start date seems impossible 

[Meacon Keaton]

It’s possible but they need to approve it immediately to get in a three week spring training.

[Maxx]

5 minutes ago, Mr. Meacon Moneybags said:

It’s possible but they need to approve it immediately to get in a three week spring training.

There’s no way the owners are going to approve it.  Even if there are only minor tweaks, they’re going to try to make it just that much more favorable to them.

[The Buscher]

With the general consensus being that baseball will permanently lose a lot of fans if the season is fully cancelled, I do wonder what the mindset is of people who walk away.  Like yeah nobody wants to hear about millionaires arguing with billionaires in times like these.....I can understand casual fans not bothering anymore but it's just odd to imagine somebody who is passionate about the game being like "I love baseball but I can't watch these greedy people anymore, I'm out!" thinking it's some moral high ground when there's way worse shit going on.

The only other perspective I can maybe see is people now having realized they can live a year without baseball, they don't feel the desire to go back to spending countless hours watching baseball every spring and summer...turning passionate fans turn more into casual observers.

[Meacon Keaton]

I think the obvious answer is that it’s not the passionate fans who will walk away. It’s the casual fan who puts on the Sunday Night game or who checks the Twitter of their local team or checks the standings in August and see’s their team in a playoff hunt. The passionate fans will be there with bells and whistles as soon as games are played. Whether we get games in July 2020, April 2021, or May 2022, I’ll be right there watching as always, like the other passionate fans.

The issue isn’t, the passionate ones are the vast minority and it’s the casuals who will be driven off in droves. And if someone claims to be a passionate fan and they can just walk away from watching the sport, they’re only just a casual anyway.

[DYSI]

I've been more on the casual side of late and I'm fully expecting no baseball this year. Although if it does come back, does it really expect to garner any attention when it's going to be a condensed season going up against the NBA, and to a lesser extent NHL, playoffs? The time the casual fan is done with that then the NFL is going to be on its way back. I feel that it's a lose-lose situation that is being made much worse by the constant back and forth over money during the time we're all in. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Oh MLB is absolutely toast this year in terms of popularity. People aren't watching a random baseball game when there is going to be NBA or NFL on. A huge thing baseball has been able to save itself with is the in-game experience. People watch 3-4 games a year and those are the games they're in attendance for.

But people just aren't going to be going out in droves again like they were before this. At least not for a few years. It'll be devastating for baseball. As those TV deals come up again and ad fees drop it's gonna be ugly.

[The Buscher]

Assuming the season is cancelled, which is a safe assumption at this point...I'd say there's a good chance the December 2021 CBA expiration ends up becoming bunk and there will be substantial pressure to agree to a new CBA a year early.

Especially since the big sticking point (fans being able to return) could very easily still be a problem by next spring.  Nobody can know what the world will look like in a month, let alone late February.  Even in the most optimistic scenario of a vaccine dropping this fall in world record time, I doubt it'll be available to the extent that you can comfortably fill tens of thousands of fans into a ballpark.  Crowds will still have to be limited at best, if not continue to be banned outright.

Players will be even more tempted to strike if/when the owners try to suppress the market for Betts and everyone else that hits free agency without playing this season.

[The Buscher]

Owners counter back with a 50ish game season at full prorated salary.  I'm sorry but anything less than half a season doesn't seem worth playing. 

50 games goes completely against what baseball is supposed to be.  If it happens, Manfred's comments about the WS trophy just being a piece of metal will be accurate because nobody is going to view that as a legitimate championship year.

[gunnar hendershow]

Why would the owners be able to pay more at a 50 game season than an 80 game season? The operation costs since there's no travel shouldn't be dramatically increased and they're airing more games on TV which should increase ad revenues.

[Maxx]

15 hours ago, B-li Manning said:

Owners counter back with a 50ish game season at full prorated salary.  I'm sorry but anything less than half a season doesn't seem worth playing. 

50 games goes completely against what baseball is supposed to be.  If it happens, Manfred's comments about the WS trophy just being a piece of metal will be accurate because nobody is going to view that as a legitimate championship year.

Well the players have apparently agreed to a team realignment for whatever this season turns out be, so even if they somehow managed to play a full season, the title is going to mean something different.

I don’t think it’s really productive to start questioning the legitimacy of a season or a championship with what’s going on in the world.  This isn’t 1981 where they are halting the season due to a strike.  It’s a world wide pandemic, the major reasons for this season being delayed were completely out of the hands of owners and players.  You can question its legitimacy if you want, but how many seasons have involved the players and coaches putting their health and the health of their family at risk to play the game?  Kind of legitimizes the whole thing in a different way in my opinion.

That being said since they are seemingly going to do a special realignment for this, they may as well just brand the entire season as something different and create a new trophy specifically for this. 

[The Buscher]

It’s strange to imagine a scenario where a team may have a 2020 GRAPEFRUIT LEAGUE CHAMPIONS pennant hanging in their stadium next year.

[gunnar hendershow]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29262696/mlb-rejects-114-game-plan-tells-union-no-counteroffer

That's all folks.

[The Buscher]

Chris Archer to undergo surgery for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, will miss 2020 even if the season were to go forward.

Normally I’d say at this point that any player with any sort of nagging injury should get it cleaned up right now.  But TOS is not good at all.  Very low track record of pitchers remaining effective after it, basically killed Matt Harvey’s career.

[MalaCloudy Black]

A’s have reversed course on not paying their minor league players, after public outcry. 
 

good. 

[Meacon Keaton]

And rightfully so. People who try to make it seem like that franchise survives on peanuts are idiots. Their ownership is just cheap. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Billy Beane is both brilliant as well as a schmuck. He found a way to compete while spending as little as possible but he also played into the owners acting like they were one bad weekend away from the poor house.

[The Buscher]

Latest offer from MLB:  76 game regular season at 75% prorated salary (about a $200 million increase in salary from their last offer).  A one-time increase in playoff teams to 8 per league.  So that would mean over half the league makes the playoffs, but the idea would be to keep as many teams as possible in the playoff chase for this shortened season, hoping to increase viewership for the regular season not to mention all the extra playoff TV revenue.

The union rejected the offer almost immediately and it's now coming out that the league tried to sneak in a risk acknowledgment that every player would have to sign in order to play...essentially getting MLB free and clear if they failed to follow guidelines on safely opening.

The league continues to insist that their March agreement allows Manfred to unilaterally mandate a schedule if no other agreement can be reached, and the league is probably only about a week away from shutting down negotiations and installing a 50 game season.

Anyone gonna go to open tryouts when they need to fill all 30 teams up with scab players?

[MalaCloudy Black]

 

[Maxx]

That’s my response when players and owners don’t realize they’re obliterating fan interest in their sport.  This is only going to lead to another lockout come CBA negotiations.  lol indeed.  Enjoy the diminished revenues going forward everyone!