It's entirely possible that with COVID still gunking things up, the owners may actually prefer to lock out the season. I just wish both sides would have done this last year when they were sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
If the union can be doing this with the players, it seems only right that the owners and MLB should be able to pressure each other not to sign free agents to huge extended contracts too. One is called collusion and the other is considered normal
Hiraldo feels like a mistake. Maybe they think he's not close enough for someone to roster him a full year? Seems risky since someone will probably just give him a year-ending papercut or something.
I wonder if there's something in the CBA talks that changes things?
You really can't even in the bullpen between innings. It's too hard to predict inning endings and the pitchers need to have the rest period for their arms. The commercial break is important for monetary reasons anyway, so I doubt shortening it is overly feasible. If they can speed up the time between pitches, that'll do more than anything else possibly could. Deadening the balls slightly and moving the mound back a half inch wouldn't hurt either. It would likely reduce the number of pitches thrown.