Covid and MLB

The Napkin

wise ass al kaprielian
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The thing I keep wondering is if MLB has told their broadcast partners anything about preparing other programming.
 

Harry Hooper

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Cardinals beat guy Goold confirms 6 positives among their traveling contingent, with 3 being players. Some other details:

As of Saturday morning, the team was still trying to understand the scope of the outbreak and had not reviewed or received all of the results from the tests taken Friday, a source confirmed.

Here is the breakdown of what is confirmed by The Post-Dispatch and from officials with the team:

• Six members of the traveling party have been isolated from the team. They will undergo additional testing Saturday as a result of their positive tests. Four were new as of late Friday night or early Saturday.
• The entire traveling party is undergoing more tests Saturday morning.
• Not all of the results from Friday's exams have been reported or reviewed by the team. Once those are available to the team they'll have a better understanding of the reach of the outbreak, the condition of their roster, and whether they can advance on the next few days of the season.

The Commish and MLBPA authorized 7-inning games for double-headers? I can't wait for 5-inning games with ties decided by which batter had the highest exit velocity on a ball hit in play.
 

Comfortably Lomb

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Jerry Hairston Jr. saying Cardinals players went to a casino:


A few Marlins go to a club & now hearin a few Cardinals went to a Casino? That’s not following protocols. #MLB Players are furious cause 28 other teams have worked hard to follow guidelines. #smh.
No word on whether alternate programming will be ready in time or what it will be.
 

CR67dream

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No, but I’m not sure your point. If you say ‘going to.a strip club is bad’ don’t assign extra scorn because naked women = disease.
I know I'm coming in late, but replace strip club with night club and there wouldn't be any difference in how people have responded. It's not the entertainment itself that's a problem, it's the inherent risks with the venue itself.

If the casino thing with the Cardinals is accurate, the same.
 

YTF

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Cardinals beat guy Goold confirms 6 positives among their traveling contingent, with 3 being players. Some other details:




The Commish and MLBPA authorized 7-inning games for double-headers? I can't wait for 5-inning games with ties decided by which batter had the highest exit velocity on a ball hit in play.
That would be stupid. Just place a runner half way between third and home with the understanding that he can't steal home, but he doesn't have to tag up on a fly ball and the pitcher can't try to pick him off.
 
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YTF

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So whomever the Cardinals interacted with in the 5 days prior to Friday could also have been infected? That'd be the Twins, I guess.
Yeah I mentioned up thread that I thought the Twins might be tested yesterday and last night's game postponed pending results. I'll assume (yes, i know) that they were tested, but they played last night. MLB testing results turn around times haven't seemed to come back that quickly in previous cases.
 

Rovin Romine

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I'd be more worried about airborne transmission. I mean, if the Cardinals picked up the virus at some third venue, had low viral counts, and didn't interact much with the opposing team, maybe that team got lucky.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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I know I'm coming in late, but replace strip club with night club and there wouldn't be any difference in how people have responded. It's not the entertainment itself that's a problem, it's the inherent risks with the venue itself.

If the casino thing with the Cardinals is accurate, the same.
Confined spaces = confined spaces. That's my point. There's a tag on strip clubs vs. night clubs or bars or restaurant or coffee shop, etc.
 

YTF

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Are they not thoroughly disinfecting clubhouses after away teams go through? That should be standard operating procedure but considering how crappy the planning was is that not happening?
They should be doing it every day regardless as to if it's the same team returning from yesterday or a new team coming in. My work place does all common spaces multiple times per day.
 

grimshaw

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They need to start suspending players without pay or at least heavy fines if they are caught outside their hotels.
 

CR67dream

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Confined spaces = confined spaces. That's my point. There's a tag on strip clubs vs. night clubs or bars or restaurant or coffee shop, etc.
Ok. I didn't see anything here that explicitly called out strip clubs as specifically bad, just pointing out the stupidity of how irresponsible it would be should the story turn out to be true. I may have missed something, though. I can't get behind the "safer than a grocery store" at all however.

Any of the venues you mention above are riskier given the time spent and the sustained contact. Casinos too.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Ok. I didn't see anything here that explicitly called out strip clubs as specifically bad, just pointing out the stupidity of how irresponsible it would be should the story turn out to be true. I may have missed something, though. I can't get behind the "safer than a grocery store" at all however.

Any of the venues you mention above are riskier given the time spent and the sustained contact. Casinos too.
OK sure, time spent, yes. Agreed. I just seems like a stigma on a strip club is being thrown around pretty easily. Not solely here, but the media too.

I know I'm coming off as "strip club joe" when in reality i haven't stepped foot in one in about ten years, it just sounds ridiculous to me. Maybe it's where I've been but I find crossing someone ini an aisle far more intrusive than sitting in a pretty open venue a couple tables away. YMMV.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Jerry Hairston Jr. saying Cardinals players went to a casino:




No word on whether alternate programming will be ready in time or what it will be.
Gotta say, that's a bold limb Hairston's going out on suggesting that all of the other 28 teams have been "working hard to follow guidelines".

I would expect that if the Marlins and Cardinals players took the view that "if it's open to the public, it must be safe" as rationale for doing something so clearly outside what should be considered safe/smart, players on other teams probably think the same way. Hopefully after these two incidents, every player get it through their heads that they have to be smarter and stop doing these things. Otherwise, goodbye season.
 

E5 Yaz

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If the season isn't called, I suspect new father Mike Trout will opt out as well ... and that will open the floodgates
 

D'Lowe's 'O' face

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I thought the reasoning for the expanded 60 man rosters was to cover situations where multiple players test positive? Why not have an entire 'B Side' squad that can fill in/ be called in when a team needs to be shut down until multiple negative test results are achieved? Games would still be lost, but hopefully not entire series. It also might add some strategy to team construction if you wanted to have a competitive B Side team... this season is a mess anyway, why not?
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Jerry Hairston Jr. saying Cardinals players went to a casino:




No word on whether alternate programming will be ready in time or what it will be.
Please. Anyone who thinks these are the only players who went to a club or casino or similar is just being naive. The other 28 teams are saying “ please don't let us be next”
 

E5 Yaz

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Please. Anyone who thinks these are the only players who went to a club or casino or similar is just being naive. The other 28 teams are saying “ please don't let us be next”
27 ... we know the yankees would never do anything wrong
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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I thought the reasoning for the expanded 60 man rosters was to cover situations where multiple players test positive? Why not have an entire 'B Side' squad that can fill in/ be called in when a team needs to be shut down until multiple negative test results are achieved? Games would still be lost, but hopefully not entire series. It also might add some strategy to team construction if you wanted to have a competitive B Side team... this season is a mess anyway, why not?
40-man roster rules still apply though, so they can't really do a wholesale roster swap without waiving players off the 40-man roster. That's the trouble the Marlins are facing. With 18 players testing positive, plus whoever else is on the IL with injuries, they don't have enough players left on the 40-man roster to field a full team.

The point of the 60-man squads was to make up for the lack of a minor league system. Each team can't have 150+ players staying active in the minors, so instead they have a designated taxi squad of minor leaguers to supplement the 40-man roster players not on the current active roster.

Sure this is something they could have considered in advance, but I'm sure there was or would be all kinds of disagreements on how to handle service time for players the teams might not otherwise want to call up and start clocks on.
 

mikeford

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Honestly since it seems like both teams with outbreaks are ones that straight up broke from protocol, just kick them out of the league and keep going. Cardinals finish out the rest of the season with losses. Marlins too.
 

E5 Yaz

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Honestly since it seems like both teams with outbreaks are ones that straight up broke from protocol, just kick them out of the league and keep going. Cardinals finish out the rest of the season with losses. Marlins too.
How many teams get "kicked out" before you just call the entire thing off?
 

TSC

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Lol, don’t assume you know where I’ve been champ. I’ve been in strip clubs in:
Salisbury mass
Saugus
Boston (proper)
NYC
NJ burbs
Philly
DC
VA burbs
Charkotte
Myrtle
Charleston
Atlanta
Miami
Chicago
Pittsburgh
Cleveland
St Louis (not east)
Denver
Seattle
Vegas
And multiple cities in California. LA, SD, SF, Sacramento.
Oh, I flew a prop plane from Seattle to Spokane and we went to one.
Of those I’d put Miami and Myrtle as the only places I could catch a virus and it’s cause I got a lap dance. Maybe I should have paid more.
This isn't the brag that you think it is.
 

dynomite

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Honestly since it seems like both teams with outbreaks are ones that straight up broke from protocol, just kick them out of the league and keep going. Cardinals finish out the rest of the season with losses. Marlins too.
I assume that’s the choice: kick out the Marlins & Cards and cancel their games (just rely on winning % for playoff seeding) and tell the other teams if it happens again this is over, or just pull the plug now.

I will say this all seems doomed. Asking hundreds of players and coaches to pinky swear they won’t do something stupid — especially when we know a number of players & umpires don’t even believe in masks and social distancing — seems bound to fail.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Honestly since it seems like both teams with outbreaks are ones that straight up broke from protocol, just kick them out of the league and keep going. Cardinals finish out the rest of the season with losses. Marlins too.
What do you do with the teams that were supposed to play them? Random 2-3 day vacations? Do they go home if it's the middle of a road trip or do they spend those days holed up in the previous or next town? Where do they work out if they stay on the road (hitters will want to hit, pitchers will want to throw)?
 

edoug

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Honestly since it seems like both teams with outbreaks are ones that straight up broke from protocol, just kick them out of the league and keep going. Cardinals finish out the rest of the season with losses. Marlins too.
They should lose draft picks. Stealing signs is not as bad as this.
 

edoug

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What happens when you take away 30 first round picks? Or do you really believe these are the only two teams that strayed?
Do I believe other teams strayed? En masse, I can't say. Individual players, it is very probable they broke protocal. Until it the number jumps to 10 teams or more, losing draft picks is fair. Or at least lower their pool money for draft picks.
 

nattysez

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Heyman says there is a "strong commitment" to making the season work.

There was an MLB owners call yesterday about the Covid crisis, and there’s a strong commitment from Manfred (and owners) to keeping health the priority but also to make this season work — and to play as close to 60 games as possible. To sum up, plug isn’t about to be pulled.
View: https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1289632548339900416?s=19
 

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