John_Havok

I was in a golf pool on yahoo once. Got 2nd over the season not knowing a damn thing and just looking up picks from sites the day before the event. Wasn't a cash league or anything, but was still a great way to add some excitement to watching golf.

For 13 seconds.

I guess you missed all the ludicrous ideas from the owners that were submitted first. And dropping some issues off the table IS actually concession since that topic will no longer be on the table for discussions, which is exactly what the owners want. Giving the other party something they want is the definition of a concession.

So far, the most important words i have read... "talks continue tomorrow." Nobody took their ball and went home. Progress.

Summary: Sounds like they're taking the road I thought might be the most productive, dispensing with some unattainable changes and focusing on a couple they really want.

What we know so far (via Even Drelich of The Athletic): The Major League Baseball Players Association dropped its request to introduce an age-based free agency system into the sport on Monday, withdrawing a proposal in one of the three major areas MLB had shown no interest in changing, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Athletic. That means the amount of service time it takes a player to reach free agency — six years — is most likely going to remain unchanged whenever the sides reach a new deal. The players had previously proposed a system to get some players to free agency after five years if they had reached a certain age: 30 1/2, and then eventually, 29 1/2. The union also revised its proposal to alter revenue sharing between the teams, another of the three areas MLB has resisted changes toward — and traditionally, a hot-button topic for the owners themselves. Between revenue sharing and free agency, the union feels it made two significant concessions. The union on Monday also rejected most if not all of what MLB had proposed in the sides’ most recent meeting. With the time-to-free-agency question gone, the two major hurdles remaining are whether MLB could become amenable to any changes to revenue sharing; and what will happen to the other particularly contentious bucket, the time it takes a player to reach arbitration. The players’ decision to drop their request to get players to free agency sooner wasn’t particularly surprising, considering what the union has been talking about for years, publicly, is the plight of younger players. The union’s proposal to get players to arbitration after two years from November went unchanged on Monday. At the time, the league said it had no interest in discussing it.

Confirmed the MLB owners contingent arrived at the hotel an hour ago. Should be in the middle of the proposal right now.

Correct, there were rumours, but nothing was confirmed. Its all speculation. Essentially he got 1 million more per year in Seattle, so yeah.. it does make a bit of sense that the offer may have been on the table for both guys and Gausman took it first. But, if that was the case, why would Seattle have paid more if they knew Toronto was out of it after signing Gausman? Meh. I really find Ray's statement after signing with Seattle interesting. It's like he had it pre-made for either Seattle or the Jays. "There's something special going on here with a team coming off a 90 win season and I'm excited to be a part of it."

Depends on why he felt the need to clarify the issue. He could have just been addressing rampant twitter speculation from fans that he chose Toronto over SF with offers from both. Toronto never offered Ray or Semien anything in the offseason officially other than the QO's either... so did we know something the other teams didn't?

I think we do miss some spring training games, but I also doubt any regular season will be missed.

Agreed, but telling dinosaurs that they need to move out of the dinosaur age is easier said than done.

They'll never do anything like that though. The only time anything gets done is when games being missed is on the line. If they agree to extend the current CBA for 1 year, they will literally do NOTHING until January of 2023 when games are on the line... may as well do it now and get it over with

I'm not optimistic either. What will likely happen is the players will submit their proposal containing 15 things they want but know they wont get. The owners will look at it and completely disregard it, just like the union did on the owners first proposal... and Manfred will come out and say "based on this offer it's clear the union is not interested in negotiating...etc etc blah blah" and the union will say "we submitted what we think is a fair and reasonable offer and it's now out of our hands until we see the owners next proposal....etc etc blah blah..." This negotiation could really be over soon if the players union accepts they cannot get everything they want and truly just focus on 1or 2 wins... get your minimum salary increase (but make it worth it), arbitration at the start of year 3 - and call it a win. In exchange, you keep the luxury tax as is for now and agree to expanded playoffs. Universal DH both sides want, so that gets thrown in, and the deal is done by the end of the week. Save the service time manipulation and revenue sharing until the next go around.

How is it ironic that a computer needs assistance from a human? All computers and programs are created from human input.

Really the only good thing overall from the first offer by MLB was that the PA didn't just laugh and leave the room.

I think it measures when the player is in their stance. But, it's not stupid, if someone just radically and intentionally over crouched it would be able to compensate.

Guys like him don't survive prison. As soon as he hits general population, he'll be dead inside of a week. Criminals don't take kindly to people that mess with kids

10 days from when they got the offer from MLB... what took so long? SPEED IT UP BOYS!

Follow up to the above: It sounds weird, but every one in the world would actually be better off mentally if they really understood how inconsequential they are to the rest of the world. It seems like the opposite should be true, but it's not.

Bit of psychology actually. If we spend too much time worrying about what the world as a whole thinks about us as an individual (and really, the whole world doesn't give a rats ass), living up to those hypothetical expectations becomes impossible. It's the very reason why more and more kids have crippling anxiety before they're even teens over not getting enough thumbs up on their social media posts. They don't realize that their posts are only being seen by like 20 people, but they think that the entire world is watching and should be agreeing and commenting.

Why should anyone care about what other people they'll never meet think of him or her? Like honestly, your family, friends and maybe your employer (to a point) but outside of that... who gives a s***? Too many people are paralyzed by the fear of what someone they'll never meet thinks about them. This imaginary audience that people worry about is mind boggling to me. All that s*** is what leads to the massive anxiety problem in the world today.

Bauer is just a fascinating situation. it's very clear from the things he says, he gives 0 craps. Like, if a reporter asked him the most obvious follow up question of "who do you know who has paid hush money to a ..." it's like he probably wouldn't name the names, but he would put some kind of number out there as to how many players he KNOWS has done it.

I lean towards agreeing with him. I suspect that non-disclosure agreements and hush money payments are quite common. There players are on the road so much, away from their wives, girlfriends, families etc... with snatch being flung at them from every direction at all times. They're only human. It probably happens way more than we think. And understand, I'm not excusing the behavior at all, it's still the player's choice whether they do whatever it is they do and they are still responsible for their decisions and actions. It's also common knowledge that some completely moronic fans of a certain sex frequent the hotels and hangouts of baseball players, hoping to score, get knocked up or entrap them in controversy (just like this) and enjoy a big payday if they can find the right mark. Ditto for all other athletes, actors, famous people etc. And in no way am I implying that this is representative of all fans of that sex. 99.9% of them are completely normal I'm sure.

Yeah that's a bit better, but again, lets hope for a bit more. Would love to see at least a 6 footer to give at least some projection for power.