MLB 2020: We're Playing, but We Can't Agree on Anything

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
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Jan 15, 2004
32,082
NHL games are all now off the board at largest offshore bookmakers and reportedly NHL referees were told to not report to arenas tonight. March Madness has to be next announcement.
 

DontTauntOrtizMe

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Jul 18, 2005
1,389
Terrific! Chris Sale can delay TJ surgery even longer! In all seriousness, my kids are going to be sad about this. They love baseball and love the anticipation of opening day. It is the right thing to do and Manfred should be commended for making the tough but correct call.
 

azsoxpatsfan

Does not enjoy the go
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May 23, 2014
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Just like that I’m out of a job :(. This sucks for real tho no basketball no baseball probably no hockey. Idk what I’m even gonna do all day
 

richgedman'sghost

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I see a few Cactus League games have been cancelled but they are still playing in Florida. What's going on?
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
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Oct 31, 2013
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I doubt it, that would be a tough schedule to do 154 from May 1 to September 30

I expect they will reduce the number of games overall
I suspect they go to mid-October. Move the March/April warm stadium games to October.
 

Kliq

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Mar 31, 2013
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Well, this will allow us to finish our late-starting Slow Pick drafts at least.
 

loshjott

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Dec 30, 2004
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Silver Spring, MD
Watching Nats-Yankees now and announcers wondering when the plug will actually be pulled. Midgame? After the game? Very surreal. Imagine much more so being there.
 

BaseballJones

slappy happy
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Oct 1, 2015
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What better year to shut MLB down then when the Yankees and Dodgers appear to be total juggernauts while the Red Sox appear to be not very good?

(kidding)
 

Melrose Diner

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Feb 11, 2020
502
I see a few Cactus League games have been cancelled but they are still playing in Florida. What's going on?
Been raining for two days here in AZ so that might have something to do with this specifically, but it's also only 10:30ish a.m. so they could have just gotten ahead of it
 

Average Game James

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Apr 28, 2016
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Whenever we do get back to games being played, it will be very interesting to see how baseball does against NBA/NHL schedules potentially running into July/August. This has been discussed in the CBA thread, but I really wonder how much the casual fan will miss the game.
 

BaseballJones

slappy happy
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Oct 1, 2015
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From a sports' fan perspective, the timing of this is castrophic. This is one of the peak times of the year:

- MLB getting ready to start
- NCAA tournament
- NHL and NBA seasons wrapping up and starting the playoffs
- If you like soccer, EPL coming to a conclusion
- The Masters and PGA championship
- Even NFL...the draft and free agency, which is always crazy fun

Now all that but the NFL piece is basically kaput. Absolutely brutal.
 

notmannysfault

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if/when they do resume, they aren't going to push the WS into November....

they're simply going to play a 130 (or 120 or 80) game schedule...subject to resumption date.

edit: as stated above, my bad.
 

Harry Hooper

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if/when they do resume, they aren't going to push the WS into November....

they're simply going to play a 130 (or 120 or 80) game schedule...subject to reunion date.

am I alone in my thinking here?
Split season format leads to expanded playoffs, and then Boras gets his wish of a warm weather neutral-site World Series.
 

bosockboy

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Jul 15, 2005
22,106
St. Louis, MO
From a sports' fan perspective, the timing of this is castrophic. This is one of the peak times of the year:

- MLB getting ready to start
- NCAA tournament
- NHL and NBA seasons wrapping up and starting the playoffs
- If you like soccer, EPL coming to a conclusion
- The Masters and PGA championship
- Even NFL...the draft and free agency, which is always crazy fun

Now all that but the NFL piece is basically kaput. Absolutely brutal.
NFL free agency is everything now. And shouldn’t be affected.
 

SoxJox

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Dec 22, 2003
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Rock > SoxJox < Hard Place
As far as I know, the CBA does not address stoppage of this type. I wonder how they'll address things like length of season, annual salary (pro-rated?), AAV, performance awards and bonuses, and service time.
 

DeadlySplitter

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Oct 20, 2015
35,849
Arizona has rain so they just cancelled all those games. suspension is in effect as of tomorrow.

here's a fun question: does a shortened season count as a full year of service time?
 

greek_gawd_of_walks

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Apr 14, 2009
9,470
Wiscansin, by way of Attleboro
From a sports' fan perspective, the timing of this is castrophic. This is one of the peak times of the year:

- MLB getting ready to start
- NCAA tournament
- NHL and NBA seasons wrapping up and starting the playoffs
- If you like soccer, EPL coming to a conclusion
- The Masters and PGA championship
- Even NFL...the draft and free agency, which is always crazy fun

Now all that but the NFL piece is basically kaput. Absolutely brutal.
This is the sporting equivalent of Black Monday. I said last night in another thread, but it's even more so 12 hours later. Goddamn sucks.
 

Plympton91

bubble burster
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Oct 19, 2008
12,408
Suspending spring training games doesn’t necessarily mean suspending spring training. They hopefully will keep working out in their own complexes and staying ready while being vigilant about symptoms. Getting rid of games elimates cross contamination and travel for the teams and tells all the diehard fans to go home.

Too bad we can’t all sue the Chinese government officials who persecuted the doctors who warned them about this instead of acting on it.
 

Shaky Walton

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Nov 20, 2019
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Professional sports fans are going to have a shit load of time on their hands. I picked a bad time to stop sniffing glue.

That said, kudos to all of them for making the right call. I'm not sure what choice they really had but that doesn't take away from the fact that they have chosen wisely.
 

YTF

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I'm guessing the season starts at whatever point they're at in the schedule. For example let's use the round number of 120. Say a few teams have the fewest games left on the regular schedule at 120 and the team(s) with the most games remaining are at 123. The season would start for each team at the point where they would have 120 games left.
 

BaseballJones

slappy happy
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Oct 1, 2015
26,794
No way this is going to end up being "fair" but whatever. Teams are just gonna have to deal. It's an unprecedented situation and everyone is in the same boat so they're just going to have to live with an imperfect setup once (if?) they resume.
 

YTF

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No way this is going to end up being "fair" but whatever. Teams are just gonna have to deal. It's an unprecedented situation and everyone is in the same boat so they're just going to have to live with an imperfect setup once (if?) they resume.
Nope, the only fair thing about it should be equal number of games played. That's the one advantage (for lack of a better word) of having this come at the beginning of the season. That said some will argue that the current scheduling isn't fair either, but that's different kettle of fish.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
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Oct 31, 2013
80,673
Professional sports fans are going to have a shit load of time on their hands. I picked a bad time to stop sniffing glue.

That said, kudos to all of them for making the right call. I'm not sure what choice they really had but that doesn't take away from the fact that they have chosen wisely.
The college sports loss is hitting me a lot harder. At least this year I don't have to complain that they schedule NCAA hockey at the same time as NCAA basketball.
 

BusRaker

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Aug 11, 2006
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Baseball has some precedent with labor relations related shortened seasons so it shouldn't be too tough. Unless someone flirts with a .400 average ...
 

JimD

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Nov 29, 2001
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What better year to shut MLB down then when the Yankees and Dodgers appear to be total juggernauts while the Red Sox appear to be not very good?

(kidding)
Plus less mileage on Mookie when the Sox re-sign him next winter. :eyeroll:
 

MtPleasant Paul

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Dec 28, 2015
172
Based on history it's not too likely that whenever the season begins that each team will play an equal number of games. During the split season atrocity of 1981 which matched the first half and second half winners, the two overall divisional winners in the NL, St. Louis and Cincinnati, failed to qualify for the playoffs.

And a lot of us remember 1972 when the Red Sox played one less game than the Detroit Tigers and finished half a game behind
 

DeadlySplitter

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Oct 20, 2015
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:/

https://theathletic.com/1672917/2020/03/12/whats-next-for-red-sox-after-mlb-shutdown-they-just-dont-know/
Even after the league’s announcement, all plans seemed subject to change. The Red Sox baseball operations department already was scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon to formulate its own plan, and as of mid-afternoon had decided to restrict air travel for scouts. But what to do with players already in camp was still up in the air. Three different team sources — a coach, a player and an executive — said they weren’t sure what would happen next, whether players would continue to work out or simply go home for a few weeks.

...

Reactions in Red Sox camp varied from player to player. During a brief sidewalk interview Tuesday – the day media and other non-essential personnel were banned from the clubhouse – Mitch Moreland seemed to catch himself getting closer than recommended and twice took a small step back. On Wednesday, Marcus Walden shook hands before an interview, seemingly out of habit as much as anything. Another Red Sox player on Wednesday — it wasn’t my interview, so I won’t give the name — specifically said he believed coronavirus to be a hoax.