Leaderboard

I posted some signings on twitter for people to see. I wrote about these for patrons back in February but I corresponded with Ben Badler recently and the players will be in his International Previews on Baseball America. Norge Vera RHP Cuba $1.5 million bonus Victor Quezada 3B DR $525K Manuel Guarimon C Venezuela $475K Dario Barrero OF Venezuela $350K Adrian Gil RHP Venezuela $250K Gabriel Rodriguez IF Venezuela $100K Antonio Jimenez OF $90K Quezada is a big, strength/raw power guy. I tweeted a video. Sox had decent luck with pitchers similar to Gil the past few years with (Cristian Mena and Manuel Veloz). Badler said he expects another "big Cuban signing" due to their history and available pool space.

Feels weird to have many stores opening up in Lawrence, Ks. We've only got 2 active cases now and only had 60 or so total at its worse. Should be interesting to see how it spikes after the protests. Also teams start arriving June 15.

The players want 100 plus games? Yes! Adopt that. That would be so cool to get that many games out of the 2020 season. Game after game til Halloween, then the playoffs? Yes!

This will end up being 82 games.

I'd wager 0 players would opt out... 1. They make no money. 2. Their teammates and fans would hate them.

Yep

To me, this proposal is showing that the players aren't worried very much about contracting the virus as much as getting paid...they want to extend the season by another month.

If you want to listen to a bunch of infectious disease doctors, epidemologists, and virologists talk about this stuff weekly, you can check out this podcast. They seem to understand that they've gotten a broader audience than they're typically used to over the past couple of months and so do a decent job of explaining some of the jargon. https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/ Interesting case/treatment updates and discussions of latest research out there.

There's no way the owners go for 114 games but the players opened the door to deferrals. The owners will agree on expanded playoffs and the opt-out for players. They should meet in the middle by the end of the week. Owners defer a portion of full prorated salaries and players agree to a shorter season.

Some footage I shot of the protest last night that made it to CNN. The big one they used was of a cop car on fire. I was there protesting from 4pm to 2am. Everyone was peaceful until some of the police started getting aggressive and when people from outside the protest started to loot. It’s important to separate the looters from the people who were down there protesting peacefully. As a black person we’re expected to just swallow it every time an unarmed black person is killed, especially by the police. And everytime we do protest peacefully, we’re told we’re going too far and are vilified. People are fed up with being gunned down in the streets. People are fed up with police officers not being held accountable for their actions. If there are people out there who truly feel that the only way they can get their voices heard is by rioting, we have to ask ourselves what brought us to this point. I saw people looting grocery stores and pharmacies last night because they‘re hungry, because they don’t have access to health care and because they’re out of work/the government hasn’t provided for them since the pandemic started. The system has failed these people and it has to be addressed.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/18/coronavirus-vaccine-266679 Probably not....it will take 2-3 if not 3-5 years to fully distribute, and then there’s going to be global political/economic battles if it comes from either the US or China. Maybe it’s better for the world if France, UK or Germany gets there first...or the Gates Foundation.