MLB - NEWS & NOTES

For those of us missing the MLB season, Strat-O-matic Baseball is doing a 2020 season simulation. It's got the daily recaps of all the games as well as stat leaders, standings, etc.

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/2020-season-simulation/

 

Red Sox docked draft pick; video replay operator suspended for cheating scandal

Major League Baseball handed down its punishments for the Boston Red Sox following an investigation of the 2018 World Series-winning team.

MLB's report places blame not on the front office or manager Alex Cora, but on the team's video replay system operator, according to The Athletic's Evan Drellich.

The league has suspended the video operator, J.T. Watkins, through the 2020 playoffs, docked the Red Sox a 2020 second-round draft pick and banned Cora through the 2020 playoffs.

Rob Manfred found that Watkins illegally utilized game feeds in the replay room to help players during games. He also found that this misconduct did not continue into the 2018 playoffs or the 2019 season.

Banning Cora relates directly to the Houston Astros sign-stealing incident and has nothing to do with the Red Sox, according to Drellich.

While these punishments for the Red Sox aren't as bad as they are for the Astros, they do fit the crime. Houston's scandal was far worse, and the punishments that came out of that were necessary to try and uphold the integrity of the game.

The Astros were fined $5 million, docked first- and second-round draft picks, and GM Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch were suspended for their involvement in the scandal. Luhnow and Hinch have since been fired by the organization.

Although Cora will not see the dugout this season, there have been rumors that Boston plans to bring him back once his suspension is over. This would seem likely considering Cora was not punished for the Red Sox incident in 2018.

If Cora does return in 2021, it'll be much to the delight of Red Sox fans who have enjoyed Cora's coaching abilities for the past two seasons.

YardBarker

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost...-fight-with-cancer-stricken-trey-mancini/amp/

 

Love the bat flip!

 

Holy shit, Dad, act like you’ve been there before. Jesus.

 

Agent Scott Boras, who represents about 100 major league players, told USA TODAY Sports that all of his players are prepared to play right now and are willing to squeeze in as many as 124 regular-season games through October.

On one condition.

They will not accept a penny less than the prorated salaries they agreed to following negotiations with the owners on March 26.

“After this agreement was reached," Boras told USA TODAY Sports, “you can’t come forward with a dynamic and say, 'Hi, I want to privatize the gains and socialize the losses.'"

The biggest concern he hears from his players, Boras says, is not for their safety and welfare but their rights. The players trust that MLB will have plenty of testing and safety measures during the season but, considering they are taking the health risk, believe it’s unfair to ask them to assume any further financial hits.

They already will earn about half of their salary during the proposed 82-game regular-season schedule, but owners say they will lose 40% of their revenue if the season is played with no fans.

And if there’s a second wave of COVID-19 and the season is shut down, it would be disastrous, losing all of their postseason TV rights fees.

 

Appearing on MLB Network ahead of the 2020 draft, commissioner Rob Manfred addressed a wide range of topics. Among them was the likelihood of the league holding a 2020 season. Manfred said, “We’re going to play baseball in 2020, 100% .” He noted that concerns over safety protocols have almost completely been addressed.

Manfred said that while the MLB Players Association’s recent proposal of an 89-game season isn’t realistic, the league will soon make a proposal in the players’ direction. However, he wants the players to “get off the 100% salary demand.” Manfred doesn’t want the 2020 season to extend into November because of a second wave of the coronavirus, as well as TV partners being promised postseason baseball in October.

Manfred also discussed the reasoning behind the league’s late statement on the death of George Floyd and the ensuing nationwide protests. He said, “I was responsible for the timing and it was because I was listening.”

Overall, Manfred didn’t say anything we didn’t expect or know already. We’ll have to see exactly how far “in the players’ direction” the owners will come on a 2020 season proposal.

NBC

 

Owners to have a conference call Monday, could decide on length of 2020 season

Over the weekend talks between the owners and players over the shape of the 2020 season broke down.

The players have told the owners that they’re done talking and that if the owners plan to unilaterally set a season then, pitter patter, they should get at ‘er.

To that end, the owners and Rob Manfred are reported to be having a conference call today to consider next steps. While it’s possible that a new proposal to the players comes out of it, it’s unlikely given that the owners are the ones who made the last offer. My guess is that a decision will come today to simply impose a season length pursuant to the March Agreement at the length of ownership’s choosing but with players receiving prorated pay.

A couple of weeks ago Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that such a season could be as short as 48 games, with the short duration a function of owners wanting to minimize their losses or maximize their gains, depending on your point of view. Jon Heyman is hearing that it might be a tad longer than that:

Given that the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals began the season 19-31 and, even after 60 games, stood at a mere 27-33, it’s unlikely that such a season will represent a true test of teams’ strengths in the way we normally understand it.

Then again, nothing else that has happened in 2020 has gone on the way that we normally understand it, so it’s probably among the least of our problems.

NBC

 

Aw, this kinda makes me nostalgic for Cat to come back and bitch about the greedy players that refuse to honor their contracts...

 

IOW the owners can fuck themselves with a bat, barrel end in.

 

First Manfred says he's confident there will be a 2020 season... he changed his tune already.

 

MLB could’ve been the first sport back and created a ton of goodwill and a generation of loyal new fans. Instead the owners are trying to break the union and flushing the league down the shitter.

For a bunch of successful rich guys, they’re pretty fucking stupid.

 

I don’t blame Manfred for any of this. He’s not a real commissioner and is just the owners’ mouthpiece. He’s even more useless than Goodell. The owners are the real problem. It would help if the MLBPA would push back on having a real independent commissioner that would work in the best interest of the game again instead of being a worthless branch of ownership, though.

 

That is it in a nutshell. There really aren't any sports to watch on ESPN or elsewhere for a lot of fans. I've seen Cornhole tournaments on ESPN for heaven's sake! Baseball TV viewership has been dropping for years. With not much else to watch, they could have hooked a bunch of new people to watch and come back out to the games when crowds are permitted again.

 

Major League Baseball statement on 2020

June 22, 2020
Major League Baseball issued the following statement Monday night:

“Today, the Major League Baseball Players Association informed us that they have rejected the agreement framework developed by Commissioner Manfred and Tony Clark. Needless to say, we are disappointed by this development.

“The framework provided an opportunity for MLB and its players to work together to confront the difficulties and challenges presented by the pandemic. It gave our fans the chance to see an exciting new Postseason format. And, it offered players significant benefits including:

1) The universal DH for two years
2) A guaranteed $25 million in playoff pools in 2020
3) $33 million in forgiven salary advances that would increase the take home pay of 61% of Major League players
4) Overall earnings for players of 104 percent of prorated salary
5) Over the last two days, MLB agreed to remove expanded Postseason in 2021 in order to address player concerns

“In view of this rejection, the MLB Clubs have unanimously voted to proceed with the 2020 season under the terms of the March 26th Agreement. The provisions listed above will not be operative.

“In order to produce a schedule with a specific number of games, we are asking that the Players Association provide to us by 5:00 p.m. (ET) tomorrow with two pieces of information. The first is whether players will be able to report to camp within seven days (by July 1st). The second is whether the Players Association will agree on the Operating Manual which contains the health and safety protocols necessary to give us the best opportunity to conduct and complete our regular season and Postseason.”

 

Thanks for that update @Willie . With the uptick in Covid case numbers, I'm wondering what happens when one player gets it. Do they quarantine just that player, a whole team or just call it quits again?

And on a smart ass side note:
(1.) Will they make them not sit together in the dugout/bullpen?
(2.) How about using folding chairs 6 feet apart down the foul lines?
(2.5) If a fly ball hits one of the players in a folding chair on the foul line, would it be ruled fan interference?
(3.) Will there be more seeing-eye singles and errors due to the fact players won't want to get too close to each other during play?
(4.) Can Covid virus be spread thru chewing tobacco spit? (And I can't help but picture the scene form The Naked Gun with the players' wives)

Sorry. These are just the things that pop into my head when it comes to pondering the possible idiocy of others.

 

Your welcome... Im kinda surprised at how its happening, but it looks like we will see some baseball, at least an attempt at it.

You cracked me up with your 'side notes', but hell, they just might have to do stuff like that. Players better be careful spitting chew and seeds with a mask on also. Some of the Umps will appreciate the coaches and managers wearing a mask as when they go out to argue, some of those guys were known spitters when they yelled in an Umps face, lol.

I'll just be glad to see some live sports as sir real as all this stuff is these days.

 

This is wild...

 

Ump earned his money on that one I’d bet lol