Will There Be a 2020 Season?

[hogan873]

With the curve being bent/flattened and at least a dim light being seen at the end of this tunnel, and as more chatter about a potential 2020 season bubbles up, let's discuss what we THINK will happen.

[DoUEvenShift]

Jeeze so many pessimistic people here

[ptatc]

23 minutes ago, DoUEvenShift said:

Jeeze so many pessimistic people here

Noooo. Here??

[hogan873]

25 minutes ago, DoUEvenShift said:

Jeeze so many pessimistic people here

I'm one of the more optimistic, I think.  It's hard to stay optimistic when you read or watch the news, but I keep reminding myself that it's mid-April.  A lot can transpire over the next 3-6 weeks.  I think MLB will do just about anything to have some sort of season.  If they get the green light from health officials, I think they move forward.

As optimistic as I am, I think the best case scenario is teams playing at spring training sites with no fans all season.

[Squirmin' for Yermin]

I am surprised that many people think the season will get cancelled.

[poppysox]

49 minutes ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

I am surprised that many people think the season will get cancelled.

With my optimistic reputation I for sure think there will be a season.  I voted for home parks with at least some limited attendance by later in season.  Both sides will work hard to do something … even with limited attendance and reduced salaries if necessary.

[Jack Parkman]

1 hour ago, Squirmin' for Yermin said:

I am surprised that many people think the season will get cancelled.

I don't think that the FL/AZ plan is realistic because of the weather in both places. If it was a realistic option, I'd think it was possible to have a partial season. 

IMO the only way they can do this is if they could play in each team's home park and charter an extra plane or two for team personnel. Maybe they could play minor league games in FL at the ST ballparks and the WWOS complex. 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Jack Parkman

[yesterday333]

3 hours ago, Jack Parkman said:

I don't think that the FL/AZ plan is realistic because of the weather in both places. If it was a realistic option, I'd think it was possible to have a partial season. 

IMO the only way they can do this is if they could play in each team's home park and charter an extra plane or two for team personnel. Maybe they could play minor league games in FL at the ST ballparks and the WWOS complex. 

Every year they have a minor league season in Arizona. I don't think the weather is as big of a deal as you are making it out to be.

[southsider2k5]

 

[greg775]

The optimist in me says yes there will be a season (all teams in Zona with TV coverage but no fans). Why? Because if there is no season at all that means we've agreed to shut down the United States of America for way too long — so long life will never be the same.

Can you imagine the great joy when baseball is played? I will add one thing: If we can't put baseball players on a field and have them play without causing huge coronavirus problems (players sit in the stands six feet apart, with all players wearing masks etc) in America, then God help us cause this virus will have put an end to life as we knew it.

Edited April 18, 2020 by greg775

[MiddleCoastBias]

I feel like MLB and the owners really want to find some way to happen for financial (current, and building/keeping a generation of new fans), so I picked "season starts in June either in AZ or spring training sites, and limited attendance is eventually allowed by late summer"

BUT I feel the limited attendance will result in a bounce back of covid cases and people will realize it was too soon, and the season will be cancelled thereafter in embarrassment for the league. 

If anything, I think they should do "all AZ, no fans" to limit exposure and just play ball, but it makes sense to just cancel it.

[default]

Who let Jack Parkman vote 13 times?

[vilehoopster]

Let me ask a question. Let's say that they do the Arizona thing with the players quarantined. But I saw a couple articles where Mike Trout and Zack Wheeler both said they want no part of that, both mentioned that they wouldn't be away from their families for that long and both had babies on the way. Now both of those players will make over 20 million this year.

I would like to have MLB tell them, "Fine, don't play, don't quarantine, stay home, but you don't get paid. I would like it to be that simple. Other people, lots of lots of people have jobs where they have to be away from home for long stretches of time, missing family event like child births, and they are not making 2 million dollars a month or so. So what I am voting for is that MLB do this league and make it work, and those players who don't want to play don't have to play, but they don't get paid.

It took me a long time here, but here's my question: Let's say they have this Arizona/Quarantined league, but some of the Sox player decline to play, Would you still watch it? Would you still be excited? But it's still an MLB season with trying to get into the playoffs and the World Series.  Let's say that half the Sox roster chooses not to play (just assume a random 13 players of our 26 players choose not to play). Would you still tune in to those games and be excited to watch? 

I would 100%. I cheer for the White Sox, not the players. I love the players we have, but I am a White Sox fan, not a fan of a bunch of individual players. I say put together a team and get them out there playing another MLB team (assuming they will be missing a bunch of their holdout players also) and I am totally there. I'm watching every game. I'm getting excited and nervous and cheering and cussing the umps. I would be totally for this. 

I'm not saying this is ideal or as good as what we all expected, but put a White Sox team out there, LIVE, playing for the playoffs, even if half or most of it is made up of minor league players, and I am 100% behind that White Sox team. 

Edited April 18, 2020 by vilehoopster

[Y2Jimmy0]

31 minutes ago, vilehoopster said:

Let me ask a question. Let's say that they do the Arizona thing with the players quarantined. But I saw a couple articles where Mike Trout and Zack Wheeler both said they want no part of that, both mentioned that they wouldn't be away from their families for that long and both had babies on the way. Now both of those players will make over 20 million this year.

I would like to have MLB tell them, "Fine, don't play, don't quarantine, stay home, but you don't get paid. I would like it to be that simple. Other people, lots of lots of people have jobs where they have to be away from home for long stretches of time, missing family event like child births, and they are not making 2 million dollars a month or so. So what I am voting for is that MLB do this league and make it work, and those players who don't want to play don't have to play, but they don't get paid.

It took me a long time here, but here's my question: Let's say they have this Arizona/Quarantined league, but some of the Sox player decline to play, Would you still watch it? Would you still be excited? But it's still an MLB season with trying to get into the playoffs and the World Series.  Let's say that half the Sox roster chooses not to play (just assume a random 13 players of our 26 players choose not to play). Would you still tune in to those games and be excited to watch? 

I would 100%. I cheer for the White Sox, not the players. I love the players we have, but I am a White Sox fan, not a fan of a bunch of individual players. I say put together a team and get them out there playing another MLB team (assuming they will be missing a bunch of their holdout players also) and I am totally there. I'm watching every game. I'm getting excited and nervous and cheering and cussing the umps. I would be totally for this. 

I'm not saying this is ideal or as good as what we all expected, but put a White Sox team out there, LIVE, playing for the playoffs, even if half or most of it is made up of minor league players, and I am 100% behind that White Sox team. 

If the league and players association decides to play baseball games in Arizona, the players will play baseball games in Arizona. As I've said, it's the only way they're getting paid. The players will play regardless of what they say in April and May. 

[Dick Allen]

1 hour ago, Y2Jimmy0 said:

If the league and players association decides to play baseball games in Arizona, the players will play baseball games in Arizona. As I've said, it's the only way they're getting paid. The players will play regardless of what they say in April and May. 

I think everyone understands that and agrees with you, but rom a practical matter, anyone would have to wonder if it would work. If a player tests positive, is the entire team in quarantine? Does the league shutdown like the NBA? It isn’t like they would have time to make up a couple weeks of games. I hope they play. It is way better than watching reruns, but I just don’t know how practical it is unless something big happens fairly soon.

[greg775]

47 minutes ago, Dick Allen said:

I think everyone understands that and agrees with you, but rom a practical matter, anyone would have to wonder if it would work. If a player tests positive, is the entire team in quarantine? Does the league shutdown like the NBA? It isn’t like they would have time to make up a couple weeks of games. I hope they play. It is way better than watching reruns, but I just don’t know how practical it is unless something big happens fairly soon.

This is a good post. The ONLY downside is the scenario you suggest. The commissioner has to discuss this with all parties. OK, Soxtalk. What happens if somebody tests positive, which the way this is going, is almost 100 percent certain? What is the plan? Now if the response would be to quarantine the whole team for a while or similarly harsh response, then yes I guess COVID has won and will force cancellations of all seasons.

We have to look at odds here. The odds are almost 100 percent that a player or coach or trainer has coronavirus and is a carrier of the virus. If somebody gets it during the season ... does all hell break loose in terms of quarantining the whole team and the opposing team that have played the exposed player?

I sure hope they think of a suitable response to a player or coach testing positive. Otherwise we're just praying for a miracle: that no ballplayer has it. This I repeat is the ONLY CONCERN to playing all games in Zona with no fans.

[Y2Jimmy0]

1 hour ago, Dick Allen said:

I think everyone understands that and agrees with you, but rom a practical matter, anyone would have to wonder if it would work. If a player tests positive, is the entire team in quarantine? Does the league shutdown like the NBA? It isn’t like they would have time to make up a couple weeks of games. I hope they play. It is way better than watching reruns, but I just don’t know how practical it is unless something big happens fairly soon.

Not sure. All these plans require the players and everyone else involved to get tested a lot. Testing will be better by the time they'd start playing. Ideally if someone gets it, they retest everyone and go from there. If the testing capacity improves to this level, I don't think the league will need to shut down. On the other hand, if testing doesn't improve to this level, the entire economy will crash and we'll likely all die anyway. 

[jasonxctf]

How do teams currently handle things when players/clubhouses get the flu currently?

[greg775]

5 hours ago, jasonxctf said:

How do teams currently handle things when players/clubhouses get the flu currently?

That's not a bad reply. Flu is contagious and in flu season it will go through some college basketball teams for instance but never seems to decapitate a whole team at one time. You'll hear about a player being sick for one game then he's better and the next game u hear somebody else is under the weather.

[SCCWS]

7 hours ago, greg775 said:

That's not a bad reply. Flu is contagious and in flu season it will go through some college basketball teams for instance but never seems to decapitate a whole team at one time. You'll hear about a player being sick for one game then he's better and the next game u hear somebody else is under the weather.

There is a difference.  MLB teams offer Flu shots to their teams so in most cases it would lessen the effects of a virus. 

 

https://www.google.com/search?as_q=&as_epq=do+mlb+players+get+flu+shots&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=&as_occt=any&safe=images&as_filetype=&as_rights=

[Balta1701]

10 hours ago, greg775 said:

That's not a bad reply. Flu is contagious and in flu season it will go through some college basketball teams for instance but never seems to decapitate a whole team at one time. You'll hear about a player being sick for one game then he's better and the next game u hear somebody else is under the weather.

I think a lot of times when you hear a team say that a player has the flu, it's actually something else. 

[bmags]

On 4/18/2020 at 2:55 PM, Y2Jimmy0 said:

Not sure. All these plans require the players and everyone else involved to get tested a lot. Testing will be better by the time they'd start playing. Ideally if someone gets it, they retest everyone and go from there. If the testing capacity improves to this level, I don't think the league will need to shut down. On the other hand, if testing doesn't improve to this level, the entire economy will crash and we'll likely all die anyway. 

Right. NBA shut down at a time where testing was at like 3k total a day. It’s closer to 160 now but needs to be north of 300k a day so that the sports teams won’t feel like they are stealing. A lot needs to happen to get there, but if someone tests positive, you have a contained group of contacts. Test them, and move on and five days later retest.

[SCCWS]

15 hours ago, bmags said:

Right. NBA shut down at a time where testing was at like 3k total a day. It’s closer to 160 now but needs to be north of 300k a day so that the sports teams won’t feel like they are stealing. A lot needs to happen to get there, but if someone tests positive, you have a contained group of contacts. Test them, and move on and five days later retest.

I agree but I am not sure the testing is the biggest obstacle. Say you test all the players and none test positive and so you begin play w no fans. What happens if a player(s) tests positive on the retest in 5 days or 10 days? That team has to have some degree of isolation and it could extend to other teams they played.  

[bmags]

 

I've been fairly optimistic but yes, the mlb being a regional game kinda kills it here. While you'd think the exclusivity of being the only sport playing would help...you then remember NBA will now be playing over mlb now, and then football.

MLB.tv could try to recoup some of that.

But anyway, I'd suggest that any owner that doesn't want to play this season because of financials of their hobby purchase they will still certainly make money on in a sale to please just go ahead and sell it off now. Hell the league should buy them on leverage, guide them through this then sell it at a profit and distribute to the rest of the teams and players. That will never happen because it is too anti-owner, but it should.

[Harold's Leg Lift]

https://twitter.com/HotStoveintel/status/1252176881295777796?s=20

yep

Not sure why the tweet didn't show up.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by Harold's Leg Lift