ChiSox59

Shrug. I guess all this talk about catering to the causal fan or people who aren't interested in baseball is kind of dumb, IMO. I get the idea of wanting to get more people interested in the game. But people who hate baseball or find it boring aren't suddenly going to change to their tune due to some minor rule changes or expanded playoffs.

Chuck's 7 game proposal is better than that IMO. Any scenario where a division winner is playing an around .500 team in a 1-3 game win or go home series is awful, IMO.

For sure - was moreso talking about adding games from the expanded teams. But yes, making the DS a 7 game series is a no brainer. I've always hated it as a 5 game series. As far as 14 team proposals go, this is by far the best I've heard.

I definitely agree that this is a palatable 14 team format (as someone that staunchly opposes further playoff expansion). As long as the division winners aren't getting fucked which totally cheapens the regular season, I can live with it. Problem is - does this really move the needle much at all from the current format for the owners? This is literally adding just 1 game per league to the playoff schedule. I don't think that is really what the owners are after with expansion - can't imagine those 2 extra games change the TV revenues all that much.

He's right though. Eloy needs to be the primary DH. Good thing is, we don't have a primary DH and Vaughn is a comparable OF to Eloy and isn't a risk to hurt himself, Luis, Yoan and TA on every play that goes to LF. Vaughn should be the primary LF moving forward. This also assumes the Sox sign a real RF, which I fully expect them to do.

If they wanted Rodon, he’d have been extended a QO. Ship has sailed.

Right!? Nothing worse than all those off days the first week! I just sit and twiddle my thumbs and wish like hell I had Sox baseball to watch.

Yeah - mlb.tv on the phone for sure if I can't actually park in front of a tv.

Yeah....I am with you. Doesn't matter if the Sox are 10 games up or 10 games back. I am on the edge of my seat for all 162.

Really? I can't look away at the beginning of the season. So damn excited to watch baseball again. Then again, I probably watch 155+ Sox games a year, so month doesn't matter much.

Well then why didn't they agree to the deal that is by all intents and purposes a large move in the right direction for the players? I definitely think there is some spite at play here for sure, but the players saying they would agree to the old deal is complete BS.

They wouldn't. The players are lying. The deal put in front of them is SIGNIFICANTLY better than the previous CBA.

I mean, that's quite obviously not the reason. They got what they asked for on the pre-arb raises (sans $25k, I mean cmon - thats not the reason). They got the never before seen bonus pool, and while I don't doubt they'd like to be closer to $85M than $30M, they did get their bonus pool. They got the full year of service for top 2 ROY the finalists. I don't doubt that the size of the bonus pool is 2nd biggest holdup, but its quite obvious to me that the CBT threshold is the main issue. Sorry, but the CBT threshold has nothing to do with younger pre-arb players at all, and everything with stars wanting to get paid more on their mega deals.

Is there any indication the sides are meeting or talking today? Don't have the energy to read the last 24 hours or so of posts.

Math and stuff.

At this point, I am not even going to think about transactions until we have a fucking game to watch. Pretty disgusted rn tbh.

The deal offered yesterday by the MLB/owners was a significant step in the right direction for a player like this. SO yes, he would have gotten the raise if the PA agreed to it and he actually played in the bigs. Now he gets paid nothing, can't work and is driving uber while the uber-wealthy Max Scherezer's of the league are arguing for higher CBT thresholds so his $43.3M AAV contact can become more commonplace. So yeah, have a little bit of a hard time believing that the PA's stance on the current offer isn't more about the elite players getting max pay as opposed to really helping the little guy (as they claimed). The little guy got a ton of help in the proposed deal they snap-rejected.

Here is a good example of the little guy getting crushed. You think this guy wasn't happy to get a $130k raise? What exactly are these negotiations (at this point) doing to help a player like this?

MLBs position is that players are not getting paid for games not played. Bonilla isn't getting paid for playing in 22; he gets paid deferred compensation. Completely different thing.

Yawn. This sucks. I totally get the players position. Its a tough spot. I definitely side with them in all of this, but I am able to see both sides. Biggest issue I have is that this started out as being largely about getting the younger players in a better spot. The proposed "best and final" offer from league/owners largely did that. $130k raise for pre-arb players. A bonus pool that never before existed for the best players. Full year of service for the top 2 in ROY to try to help curb service time manipulation. It seems to me like the CBT threshold was the biggest hold up. This isn't impacting the little guy. This is impacting the guys getting mega deals, who are largely the guys at the front and center of this (Scherzer, most notably). Giolito's comments about having a 15-20 year career and wanting to make a change is great and all, but the dudes that really get fucked in all of this are the little guys. Giolito is going to sign a big contract is 2 years that sets him up for life no matter what the new CBA looks like. How about the guys on his team (and many more around the league) that will never get a big FA contract and didn't get a big draft signing bonus? Those are the dude's that have to be scratching their head right now. And the game is predominantly made up of those guys. They just got 22.8% raise. And now they're getting nothing until the big dicks figure it out. They just got one of their limited opening days taken away that they'll never get back. I have to imagine most of the younger players that don't have star upside think the proposal put in front of them wasn't that bad. Its certainly an improvement on the previous CBA.

This fucking sucks. What a whirlwind of 36 hours. Really just want some baseball.

It’s better than $0. Which is what tbe bonus pool has always been. A $130k raise for all pre arb players and a bonus pool (for a small number of elite pre arb players) is a nice move in the right direction. Wish MLB was willing to go to $230m on the CBT and $15-20M higher on the bonus pool, but doesn’t appear to be in the cards.

Yeah I just disagree. $85-100M is a huge number and it’s a brand new concept that never existed before. I don’t think $30M is the answer. But $85M isn’t. $40-$50M seems reasonable. It’s also a small number of guys that are even going to play in this pool. If MLBPA makes that the sticking point, it’s kind of dumb. They’re not going to get everything they want.

The PAs ask on the bonus pool is unrealistic IMO.

$225/$227.5/$230/$232.5/$235 seems reasonable enough. Both sides should be able to make that part happen. Its a joke if not. Its rather immaterial difference in the beginning.