The New Summer Season

[G-Fafif]

https://twitter.com/marlyriveraespn/status/1286388376468434944?s=21https://twitter.com/marlyriveraespn/status/1286388376468434944?s=21

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm glad it's (seemingly) happening in 2020, and glad it's not happening in 2021.

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm ... glad it's not happening in 2021.

Yet!

[G-Fafif]

[ashie62]

Juan Soto tested positive today. D.C. has a strict quarantine protocol. Rut roh

[G-Fafif]

[Benjamin Grimm]

https://twitter.com/jaysonst/status/1286394398767550466?s=21https://twitter.com/jaysonst/status/1286394398767550466?s=21

That's a good idea.

https://twitter.com/buster_espn/status/1286397258666319872?s=21https://twitter.com/buster_espn/status/1286397258666319872?s=21

I suppose this is done so that it's more likely that a sub-.500 team will win the World Series???



This one is much less of a good idea.



Looking at last year's standings, this formula would have given the Wild Card to the runners up with the best winning percentage, so the weird way would have had the same result as the logical way.



The second-place teams that would have advanced would be the Rays (.593), Spiders (.574), Athletics (.599), Nationals (.574), Brewers (.549) and Diamondbacks (.525).



The other four slots would all have gone to third-place teams: Red Sox (.519), Rangers (.481), Mets (.531) and Cubs (.519)



So we'd have had one sub-.500 team, the Rangers. And the Mets would have been in as a third-place team (if it makes any practical difference) even though they had a better record than the second-place Diamondbacks.

[bmfc1]

=ashie62 post_id=41325 time=1595535913 user_id=90]
Juan Soto tested positive today. D.C. has a strict quarantine protocol. Rut roh

[Lefty Specialist]

So I guess the Mets almost HAVE to make the playoffs now. Things are so screwed up this year.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Disgusting!

[MFS62]

The game we love starts on a slippery slope:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Umpire Angel Hernandez, who has sued Major League Baseball over a lack of top assignments, will serve as an interim crew chief this season after a dozen umps decided to sit out amid the coronavirus pandemic. Eight crew chiefs and four other umpires have opted out.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

Tyler Kepner, The Thriving New York Times wrote: The new format — which covers only the 2020 season — will eliminate the wild-card play-in games, which had been held since 2012, when the playoff field was expanded to 10 teams from eight. Now, M.L.B. will begin the postseason with eight best-of-three matchups (four in each league), before the usual best-of-five division series and best-of-seven league championship and World Series rounds.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/sports/baseball/mlb-playoffs.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/sports/baseball/mlb-playoffs.html



So a team that runs away with the division could be eliminated from the postseason after two games. (I guess it's not that different from how it's been, where a dominating team can be eliminated in three games.)



I hope this format doesn't stick. I'm okay with it for 2020 because this year is entirely screwy anyway. And it's still not nearly as bad as the "international tiebreaker" (the runner starting the inning on second base, thinking he hit a double.)

[Frayed Knot]

Except that now, in addition to the shorter and more luck-determined outcome in the 1st round matchup, a dominating team now will have three opportunities to be eliminated before even getting to a WS instead of just two.

The 'benefit' that top teams are getting is that they'll be the home team in each of those three games. But three home games instead of two is barely a factor in determining who wins the overall series and the real reason this is being done is to get Round One in with no travel days/no off-days. If you're going to have additional series I have no problem with fewer off days (the fewer the better IMO) it's just that the cited advantage isn't what it's made out to be.



My fear is that they'll declare this experiment a success based on whatever 'evidence' they feel like citing ('Hey, wasn't that one mini-series exciting?!? .. we should do this every year!!') and continue to be duped into thinking that the more-is-better theory of playoff participants is the way to go.

[bmfc1]

"So a team that runs away with the division could be eliminated from the postseason after two games." ... by a team that finished under .500. (Texas would have been the 8th seed in the AL last year despite being under .500.)

[G-Fafif]

Rockies reliever Tim Collins opts out in the wake of the Marlins' outbreak.

[G-Fafif]

Doubleheaders will now contain two seven-inning games. Because 14-man pitching staffs aren't deep enough.

[Benjamin Grimm]

And each inning will start with the bases loaded.

[Frayed Knot]

I assume this [the 7-inning DH's] pertains to DH's caused by weather related reasons and not just Covid-caused postponements.



MLB is simply adjusting on the fly here, which is probably a good thing as long as this doesn't lead to some of these tweaks becoming permanent (because you know such talk will be in the mix).

[G-Fafif]

Lorenzo Cain has opted out.

[MFS62]

=G-Fafif post_id=42252 time=1596159838 user_id=55]
Doubleheaders will now contain two seven-inning games. Because 14-man pitching staffs aren't deep enough.

[batmagadanleadoff]

This is exactly what I was thinking, especially the last sentence, when I saw no more than an inning and a half of a pre-season exhibition game between the DBacks and the Dodgers in which only one player wore a mask on the field:

Yet, it didn't take training as a compliance officer to see high fives after homers, dogpiles after walk-offs, and spitting — lots of spitting. If players were having trouble following those rules while the cameras were on them in a ballpark, it doesn't exactly bolster confidence about adherence away from the cameras and away from the ballpark.

https://theathletic.com/1951436/2020/07/31/big-week-for-baseball-30-teams-30-thoughts-and-the-ripple-effect-of-outbreaks/https://theathletic.com/1951436/2020/07/31/big-week-for-baseball-30-teams-30-thoughts-and-the-ripple-effect-of-outbreaks/



OTOH, this current outbreak could be a wake-up call for MLB to get its act together and flatten -- no, squash - its curve.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez is out for the season. Rodriguez has developed myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, believed to have been caused by complications from his recent bout with covid-19. Rodriguez was slotted as his team's #1 or ace pitcher for this season.

[MFS62]

The Astros have been virus- free.

I guess they saw the signs coming.

(ducking)

Later

[G-Fafif]

Lefty Specialist wrote: Boy, never saw this coming. Jed Lowrie Placed on IL

Jed's been moved to the 45-day IL, despite also being on the 7-, 10-, 15-, 21-, 30-, 60-, 180- and jillion-day IL.

[nymr83]

Lowrie should just duck out citing 'covid' and call it a day.



'While I realize covid isnt the most dangerous thing the world for someone my age, you all know I can't be described as "in good health", so i'm going to step aside and stay safe because anything I can catch I WILL catch"

[G-Fafif]

Thirty-man roster will be trimmed to 28 as scheduled on Thursday, but won't be reduced to 26 two weeks later as previously planned (just heard Howie say MLB will stick with 28 because 2020).

[batmagadanleadoff]

If the 2-1 Marlins keep on coming down with the coronavirus, they'd finish in first place with baseball's best record (.667), with whatever home field advantage that gets them.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Steven Matz leads the league in HR's allowed (most) and hits allowed (also most).



Also, the Mets are only one game behind the NL's current eighth-seeded team.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Health experts worry coronavirus could cause lasting heart complications for athletes



[FIMG=555]https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/X6QPZRWUKII6VATLZQ4U3ASOGU.jpg&w=916[/FIMG]

Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez was sidelined for the season after screening revealed he had myocarditis. (Michael Dwyer/AP)



Excerpt:

“They think, ‘If I get, it's not a big deal; it's going to be like having a cold,' ” Schneider said. “It may not just be a cold. It may end your sports career. Hopefully not, but there is a sense it's much more serious than we are thinking, or in particular our young athletes are thinking.” Schneider is one of many cardiovascular experts concerned about the nascent, growing body of evidence about how covid-19 affects the heart. The studies have not focused on athletes, but their findings have implications for the sports world. Research raises the possibility that athletes who recover from covid-19 may face dire or lasting heart complications, and medical experts have urged cardiac screening for athletes returning to play after contracting the virus. Two high-level athletes — including the projected Opening Day starter for the Boston Red Sox — have reported heart issues in the wake of recovery from covid-19. [***] Dean Winslow, an infectious-disease doctor at Stanford University, said research has shown as many as 20 percent of people who recover from covid-19 show cardiac abnormalities.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/08/athletes-coronavirus-heart-complications/https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/08/athletes-coronavirus-heart-complications/

[batmagadanleadoff]

If this furshlugginer baseball season ended right now, the ninth seeded 6-9 Mets would miss the playoffs by half a game.