Frayed Knot

Sonny Gray sounds like a confusing weather forecast.

A quote from one of the teammates in Jim Bounton's BALL FOUR when told that a late morning start was upcoming on their schedule; 'Ten-Thirty .... I'm not even done throwing up at that hour!'

ST games to start on 3/17 ... aka Thursday.

Kershaw stays w/LAD on a one year deal. SS Andrelton Simmons to the Cubby Bears, also one year.

Edgy MD wrote: I'm pretty certain we'll have two leagues of two divisions and eight teams in each division within three years. I doubt it. They'll (stupidly) go to eight divisions of four teams each rather than four/eight.

Willets Point wrote: Three leagues of 10 teams (East, Central, West) with a balanced league-only schedule. ... If they expand to 32 teams, then four leagues of 8 teams each works even better. Unfortunately, the trend in U.S. sports is towards more and more divisions with fewer teams in each (and, of course, greatly expanded post-seasons) and MLB is clearly into chasing trends right now. [Duh, the NFL went to 14 teams so we need to also]

ST is slated to open on Sunday. Not sure about games only that there will obviously be fewer of them with OD being four weeks from today.

=bmfc1 post_id=86769 time=1646955312 user_id=73] I think that they are extending the season by 3 days which partly helps.

So I went onto MLB.com in order to remember which games were slated for the dustbin, only to discover that the the first two weeks of games had already been pre-erased from the calendar issued by the official website of the ruling class. Fortunately we secured a copy in our 2022 sked thred* so I was able to discern that what now has to be made up are two home series: One three-game set vs WAS and a two-gamer vs the Braves. Assuming that this new April 7th Opening Day target remains a fact, the Mets instead will open with seven straight games on the road, first a four game series in DC before heading up the street (I-95) for three in Philly-delphia. Then, following an off day, the home opener on Friday (night of course) 4/15 vs the Snakes of Arizona. That the two series to be made up are both vs division opponents makes things easier but of course that won't be the case with every team, probably not with most of them. I'm not even going to try at this point to look at mutual off-days or travel schedules so as to predict where/when those missing five contests will eventually get slotted. * http://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30650http://phpbb3.leaptoad.com/mets/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30650

Frayed Knot wrote: My line of thinking at the moment is that I'm one more cancelation away from me canceling the season on them. And now I'll never know if I would have really followed through on this.

Edgy MD wrote: Sure, but those other clubs are constrained by bonus caps. I was doing more a history of foreign player scouting/signing, most of which took place prior to more recent per/team Int'l bonus caps. And when Puerto Rican hopefuls were added to the draft procedure (early '90s I believe) the result was a decrease of players coming from that island which in turn led to draft-free DR and Venezuela becoming the more abundant sources of talent.

=metsmarathon post_id=86721 time=1646918480 user_id=83] i don't think the draft pick really kills all that much player salary, whereas the international draft is certainly considered by many dominican players, and from other places, as potentially ruinous. i don't know enough about it, but i could certainly see it being a death-knell to the team-run baseball academies there. why put money into players to no longer get first dibs on a guy?

My line of thinking at the moment is that I'm one more cancelation away from me canceling the season on them.

=ashie62 post_id=86649 time=1646837180 user_id=90] They have to be close, don't they.

Lengthy (~17 hours) bargaining session on Monday, not breaking off until 3 AM Bad news: no settlement [CROSSOUT]Good[/CROSSOUT] Slightly better news: No further cancelations announced, talks will pick up today (Tuesday) with a 162 game sked apparently still on the table Ongoing news: If/when a settlement does get reached I'm not going to like most of the results from it: expanded playoffs; universal DH; shift bans; uniform advertising; games removed to streaming-only services. Plus likely still no real progress on time-of-game/pace-of-play issues and probably some other shit I can't think of of haven't heard of yet.

Willets Point wrote: Can they still have the SS and 2B swap if they want the stronger fielder on the right side of the infield? I assume so.

Willets Point wrote: I'm not even sure how they enforce a ban on a shift. It'll be a simple ban on over-shifts. Two infielders on each side of 2B, and possibly requiring each to be on the IF dirt at the time of the pitch (not out in medium deep RF)

Be sure to familiarize yourself with playoff "Ghost Games" because they may be part of a potential settlement near you.

MLBPA to respond to the owners latest proposal (whatever that was) on Sunday.

Why stop at 14? Every argument that can be made for moving from 10 to 12, or 12 to 14, could be made for expanding to 16 or 18 (I'm not even sure where the NBA is at now, at least 20/30 I think).

Is unanimity needed for approval ownership? If that's the case then we're never restarting.

The two sides met for a few minutes today in what was described as a "two on two" session. Not sure who the two or the two were. Needless to say there was no news to come out of it. In the meantime, it's amazing to read the football news in the papers over the last few days, most specifically about the NYG but the same topics apply to all teams. That news is all about veterans either being cut [read: having their existing contracts canceled] - or being threatened with being cut if they don't "renegotiate" those existing contracts [read: take less money] - or about how teams need to consider whether to sign their QB to a second contract [once the first one with the mandated rookie minimums runs out] and if by doing so how it would affect how much [read: how little] they'd then have to sign other players because how much they give one player by definition reduces what they can then pay to the collective others. And the unmentioned, but often inferred, part of these stories is how much those who cover and follow the sport think these rules are what make the game great.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm thinking that we'll be lucky if the season starts by June 1. So how is deGrom supposed to make the Hall of Fame? Also at stake, and in a more direct way: Pete Alonso's service time. The Mets notably opted not to delay Pete's debut in his rookie year. But if this lockout lasts longer than 15 days, and if the players do not get service time credit for those missed games, then it will have the net effect of delaying his FA eligibility for a full year. Shohei Ohtani and StL's Jack Flaherty are the other players currently in that same boat. Obviously the MLBPA will fight this but so will the other side. Just one more topic on which to disagree.

=kcmets post_id=86430 time=1646315018 user_id=53] Just adding something to the pot. There's slim pickin' out there, and everyone has their hands out for a fee to read all about it these days.

ESPN: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33399780/they-need-stop-treating-us-idiots-how-mlb-salvage-season?platform=amp'They need to stop treating us like we're idiots': How MLB can salvage this season I'll read this when I get some time. But, while I've got nothing against Passan or Kurkjian who are good baseball journos, hearing from ESPN about how they [MLB] 'need to stop treating us like we're idiots' takes on more than a whiff of irony when you consider how much ESPN in general despises baseball (no longer making even the slightest effort to try and disguise it anymore) and how ESPN is the one most responsible for treating hardball fans as idiots or, at best, as either out of touch nerds living in their mother's basements or octogenarians living in nursing homes. So forgive me if my knee jerk response when I see something from the four letter network critical of baseball is: Fuck You.