Major League Baseball, players union reach tentative agreement to salvage 2020 season

[Benjamin Grimm]

I was wondering if they'd have fake ballpark noises for the players' benefit. Will there be a public address announcer so that we know when the pinch hitter is officially in the game? Probably not necessary. I imagine they'll play a recorded national anthem.



I have to say, I REALLY hope this works out. I'm wanting to watch baseball now more than I have in years.

[MFS62]

The first game back could get as emotional as the post-9/11 Piazza game, for some fans.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Will there be a public address announcer so that we know when the pinch hitter is officially in the game?

Yes, but he'll only have to whisper since he doesn't have to be head over crowd noise.

[ashie62]

BOC

[ashie62]

According to Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal, the league is planning to implement a safety protocol in which all baseball personnel would be tested for coronavirus multiple times a week, with results available within about 24 hours. Diamond outlined more specifics of the plan, including that the league's proposal does not require quarantining players or automatically suspending play if a player tests positive.



MLB believes that it will be able to gain access to the tens of thousands of testing kits required for this plan without taking tests away from the frontline workers or hospitals, Diamond adds. This plan's safety measures are not as intensive as some of the other previously ideas the league had considered, like quarantining all required employees and players.



Calling bullshit on this until all Americans have equal access to testing

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Players should totally not be having this conversation through the press.

That's precisely what I mean by potentially losing the pr war even if they manage to 'win' by holding out for all the pro-rated money AND have the owners blink about canceling

the season. I mean the Alex Wood stuff (above) wasn't too bad, but now for exhibit A in how NOT to handle things, I give you Blake Snell, Tampa Bay Rays:



"I gotta get my money. I'm not playing unless I get mine, okay? 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? Like you know, I'm just, I'm sorry. ... “Like, I ain't making s–t. [his contract for 2020 is $7 mil]

And on top of that — so, all that money's gone, and now I play risking my life. And if I get the ‘rona — on top of that, if I get the ‘rona — guess what happens with that? Oh yeah,

that stays, that's in my body forever. That damage is not gonna be like — the damage that was done to my body? That's gonna be there forever.”





https://nypost.com/2020/05/14/blake-snell-slams-mlb-coronavirus-plan-risking-my-life/https://nypost.com/2020/05/14/blake-snell-slams-mlb-coronavirus-plan-risking-my-life/

[batmagadanleadoff]

Jesus Christ, what an asshole that Snell is. Guys like that should be forced to work in a supermarket for minimum wage in this pandemic next to others like him, who won't get tested unless they can't breathe.

[Benjamin Grimm]

From SNY's website:

May 14, 1:57 PM: MLB has partnered with a Utah lab in order to provide coronavirus testing to players and support staff, in addition to "thousands more in the general public," reports Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated, who says the testing plan was presented by the league to the Players Association on Tuesday. The lab, The Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory, will turn its current lab (which currently performs testing for performance enhancing drugs) into a coronavirus testing facility. Any return by MLB this season has been expected to include a coronavirus testing element, but there had been questions surrounding the ethics of potentially using thousands of tests on players during a time when many in the general public are still unable to get tested. It's fair to believe the above agreement would allay some of those concerns.

[Edgy MD]

To be fair, you don't name a kid "Blake Snell" and not raise him to be an asshole, if you know what I mean.

[Frayed Knot]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=36858 time=1589486017 user_id=68]
Jesus Christ, what an asshole that Snell is.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Frayed Knot wrote: =batmagadanleadoff post_id=36858 time=1589486017 user_id=68] Jesus Christ, what an asshole that Snell is.

Sure, but what if he gets the 'rona?!?

[dgwphotography]

I've come to a realization - I miss local sports, and covering them the way have been able to the last several years.



I really don't miss Major League Baseball.

[ashie62]

The Owners have a "nuclear option."



Players are to be paid a full salary even if the season is lost if they reject the compromise.



I also understand what paragraph 11 can do to that payment schedule and if invoked long court cases will follow



With no games MLB has zero operational revenue and existing TV contracts possibly stacked with rebates. Franchise TV networks ala SNY have little content to air and charge advertising revenue



So, couldn't distressed franchises file for bankruptcy and let a trustee pay out pennies on the dollar to players and other creditors? I understand the history of owners not being forthcoming about their revenue but individual franchise losses could be and likely will be in the billions



I don't think this will happen, but players have to get beyond the idea the MLB is coming off a record revenue year so in turn, we the players should be made whole this go round



This is an economic catastrophe that is only in its' beginnings and a pandemic that is not contained and evolving daily



Advice to MLB? safety first and serious serious compromise so that we still recognize the game in 2020 or even 2021



Hoping for the best

[MFS62]

Jesus Christ, what an asshole that Snell is. Guys like that should be forced to work in a supermarket for minimum wage in this pandemic next to others like him, who won't get tested unless they can't breathe.

And we already knew this guy's a dick:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/bryce-harper-backs-blake-snells-stance-on-not-accepting-pay-cuts-somebodys-gotta-say-it-033514803.htmlhttps://www.yahoo.com/sports/bryce-harper-backs-blake-snells-stance-on-not-accepting-pay-cuts-somebodys-gotta-say-it-033514803.html



Later

[G-Fafif]

No exchanges of lineup cards. New baseballs any time a ball is put in play and touched by multiple players. Players wearing masks except while on the field, standing six feet apart during the singing of the national anthem and “God Bless America,” sitting six feet apart in the dugout and, if necessary, even in the stands. These are just some of the proposed protocols in a 67-page document concerning health and safety that Major League Baseball delivered to the Major League Baseball Players Association on Friday night. For the proposals to be enacted, the union must agree to the procedures outlined in the document, making them subject to change. The operations manual for the abbreviated 2020 season, a copy of which was obtained by The Athletic, covers medical and testing protocols for COVID-19, spring training, facility protocols, on-field operations, league operations and transactions, travel, and player and staff education.

https://theathletic.com/1818308/2020/05/16/exclusive-mlb-proposes-medical-protocols-to-players-in-67-page-document/https://theathletic.com/1818308/2020/05/16/exclusive-mlb-proposes-medical-protocols-to-players-in-67-page-document/

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Blake Snell is, by virtue of being a Major League Baseball player, one of the very best in the world at what he does. I'm sure he thinks that entitles him to a lot of money. What he is forgetting is that he is an entertainer, and that as much as I enjoy watching him and the others perform, it's hardly essential to my life. Right now, the clerks at Walgreens, the people restocking the shelves at the grocery store and the guys removing the trash each week are more essential to me.



While I know he is being honest and no doubt speaks for others, it sure does come off as insensitive to every waitress, small business owner and others who can't earn anything right now and probably need it more.



I'm not saying he should play for free. But he might realize there is a greater good to some to some kind of agreement that is fair to both sides and that tone deaf statements only insult the people he relies on to pay his salary.

[Frayed Knot]

And I didn't even print Snell's comments to say that he's wrong for being concerned with the chances of players getting the illness ... excuse me: 'the Rona'.

But, jeeez, he's got to find a better way of saying it than: 'I gotta get me mine first'. It's due to statements like this that, even when the players' side is more in the

right, they still manage to lose the pr war during these negotiations and a sizable percentage of fans wind up taking the seemingly odd choice of backing the owners

in these millionaire-v-billionaire tussles.



It doesn't surprise me that any number of players are going to support at least the end game of what he's trying to say - even if most are smart enough not to quite put it

in those terms. But I also think a lot of this has to do with the players, egged on by their union chiefs, wanting to keep their record intact of never agreeing to anything

that even resembles a salary cap, not even for a half season under extraordinary circumstances. They've already shown that they're buying into the slippery slope theory,

that agreeing to a quasi-cap here will somehow lead to permanent caps in the future, as if that can happen without their consent. It's a stupid argument when it's used

politically -- 'If I agree to let you take away my rocket-launch bazookas then it's only a matter of time until you take away my single-shot hunting rifle' -- it's a stupid

one here and it's another way in which they manage to lose the pr wars on these types of issues.

[Fman99]

Blake Snell can eat a bag of stewed assholes.

[LWFS]

He's coming off like an asshole-- because, y'know, education and all-about-the-memes expression emphasis, and all... and he's kind of an asshole, to boot-- but he has a real, absolutely-legitimate point. The owners are essentially trying to renege on contracts.



And contrary to capitalist bullstink, they absolutely are NOT taking "all the risk."



What you're seeing here is a pandemic edition of the typical boo-the-millionaires-keeping-baseball-from-you, as-brought-to-you-by-the-billionaires shtick.

[Edgy MD]

Indeed, I think most here have acknowledged his general point is valid. They are essentially being locked out and asked to return to work under more hazardous conditions than the contract has outlined. Absolutely, this needs to go through the bargaining table.



He just needs to have this conversation with his union brothers, though. As certain as I am that there are probably five or six people out there dying to see some Rays games, airing this shit out in public serves no healthy end.

[LWFS]

Well, yeah. This shit's throwing off the appropriateness-radars of some seasoned life-vets... never mind the I-get-all-the-life-experience-I-need-from-CoD-allnighters set.



(By way of underlining my point, I'm not sure that MOST here have acknowledged that, btw.)

[ashie62]

Snell spoke out about the obvious



In other MLB rumors today, "Same as it ever was."

[Benjamin Grimm]

Here's a way for teams to make money from the empty seats: https://frntofficesport.com/mlb-team-tarp-advertising/Tarp advertising



The article mentions that advertisers would want to make sure their ads appear on screen often enough. The most effective way to do that, and it's a slippery slope, is to have an advertising scroll at the bottom of the screen. It's probably inevitable, and this may be the year that it takes a leap forward. (I think we do see ads at the bottom in the form of sponsorship of out-of-town scores, but I'm not sure of that.)

[Willets Point]

Hasn't Oakland been doing that for some time?

[metsmarathon]

=metsmarathon post_id=36806 time=1589392998 user_id=83]
maybe they could recoup some of the attendance cash by selling advertisements on tarps that could cover the empty seats.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, it'd be better to have corporate logos behind the action than in front of it.

[Lefty Specialist]

The Mets have had Chevy trucks running across the screen for a few years now.

[Benjamin Grimm]

But the new wrinkle might be a constant scroll. TRY THE NEW RASPBERRY LATTE AT DUNKIN followed by LOVE - IT'S WHAT MAKES A SUBURU A SUBURU followed by PORK THE OTHER WHITE MEAT etc etc.

[ashie62]

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-mlbpa-talks-progressing-toward-deal-for-2020-season-says-very-confident-player-representative/https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-mlbpa-talks-progressing-toward-deal-for-2020-season-says-very-confident-player-representative/



An encouraging statement from a player rep

[Frayed Knot]

The initial player/union reaction to the thought of a revenue split was that the March 26th agreement settled the topic of 2020 salaries at simply a pro-rated reduction based on the length of the season.

iow: too late to change your stance now ... no takesy-backsies.

But an email from an MLB lawyer (obtained by the NY Post) claims to have emails showing that the union asked for and got a clarification that further talks would be required to deal with the "economic feasibility"

of playing games at neutral sites and/or with fan-less stadiums.



Not sure where this leaves us or if the optimistic comments from player rep Austin Hedges [Ashie's link above] essentially acknowledges as much and means that this is a gap which can be overcome.







https://nypost.com/2020/05/19/mlb-thinks-email-is-smoking-gun-in-salary-fight-with-players/https://nypost.com/2020/05/19/mlb-thinks-email-is-smoking-gun-in-salary-fight-with-players/