glory

Man, the Jays playing in the Trop as a road team is bad enough. Thank goodness they said no to that option.

Hard to say. I think we are one serious hospitalization away from all sports shutting down, but if athletes are simply testing positive and being quarantined, then I think every sport will try to work through it. I'd say 50/50 right now for all sports.

I actually think because of not having any long term commitments aside from Grichuk, the Jays should hold off from signing Giles to an extension. The free agent market might be crowded with bargains this winter. Even the top end free agents probably won't get paid as much as they expected prior to Covid. Before sinking in to a longer deal with Giles, which we might be able to do anyway if we wait, I'd prefer seeing what's out there first. If owners don't spend money this winter, then the Jays are one of the few teams who could benefit (low payroll, a s*** load of players making the minimum, etc).

Wow. I was a big supporter of starting Pearson in the rotation from the start, but having him miss one start and then getting an extra year of control out of it is a no brainer, and this coming from someone who thinks hoarding service time for pitchers is stupid due to their enormous injury risk. Go with Ryu-Shoemaker-Roark-Anderson-Thornton for the first five games, Ryu-Shoemaker for games 6 and 7, and then Pearson for 8. Done and done.

Ryu is not one of them according to Daniel Kim. His test came back negative.

Based on the schedule (assuming it’s similar to the 2018 setup), if I were the Jays I’d be less inclined to try Anderson, Yamaguchi, Borucki, etc in the rotation. Mediocre innings eaters have way less value in a 60 game season, and the Jays could easily plug in Pearson in one spot and Thornton (who at least has some upside) into the other to go with Ryu, Roark, and Shoe. The Jays are going to face almost all good offences in the 60 games except the O’s and Marlins. Need to worry about getting the best guys the most innings, and not about who can soak up 5 average innings at best.

Phillies: 6 Mets: 4 Braves: 4 Marlins: 3 Nats: 3 That’s how it broke down for the Jays in 2018.

Universal DH will happen in 2020 to avoid additional injury risk for pitchers. Expanded playoffs seems like a no-go because the owners want it and the MLBPA wants to hold that over them for the next CBA drama, so unless something changes, looks like the regular playoff format in 2020. Whatever your feelings are on expanded playoffs, this was the year to do it since there will only be 37% of the regular season played. Missed opportunity for the league, but that's on the players. Also the trade deadline is August 31. I think this deadline will resemble the waiver deadline of year's past where vets will be moved for practically nothing. I find it hard to believe any team would trade even a remotely decent prospect for 20-30 games of a player in a truncated season with no fans and no guarantee of the playoffs concluding. But I guess if the Jays fall out of it and want to get Julian Merryweather part II for Ken Giles, that's still a possibility.

Since teams face their own division opponents 10 times each, I wonder if they will do a pair of 5 game series' or spread it out more. For example, if the Jays are the road team going to Yankee Stadium, just get through all 5 games there in one series, and be done with it. Seems pointless to spread them out more as it will just add more travel than necessary.

Baseball is officially back.

We are in the launch angle, exit velo era of baseball. Most teams are not going to bunt with a runner on 2nd in extra innings. You might see the home team do it as mentioned if the team in the top of the inning doesn't score, but beyond that, most teams are going to try for a 2 run HR. In fact it would be smarter for the road team to try to score as many runs as possible, so bunting the runner over would be pointless as the home team could do the exact same thing. Count me in as being fine with that rule change. I don't need to see a 17 inning game where half the pitching staff has to be demoted to the minors afterwards. This isn't 1973. Torch all the traditional BS that just makes the game longer and more boring to the average fan.

Read it on Twitter. Don't think it's official yet, but that seems to be the framework to avoid excessive travel.

With the region based schedule the Jays play the AL and NL East for all 60 games. That's a good thing when we face the O's and Marlins, but beyond that it's the Yanks, Rays, Red Sox, Mets, Nats, Braves, and Phillies. Not going to be easy. Expanded playoffs there would have been a shot. Regular playoff format is going to be tough.

With no minor league season, it would be insane not to have him on the roster from day 1. He already missed all of 2018, and now 2020 is compromised due to Covid. He turns 24 in 2 months, and pitchers who throw that hard have an unpredictable shelf life. I mean, if everyone stays healthy (big if), he'd only start about 12 games in a 60 game season, but that's better than being on the taxi squad throwing fake simulated games. Of course, starting him on the roster right away means that him, Vlad, Bo, and Biggio become free agents at the same time, but between potential work stoppages, CBA changes, etc, in the coming years, just put the best players on the field when it makes sense to do so. If Pearson is on the taxi squad because we have to take a long look at Chase Anderson, Borucki, Yamaguchi, etc, in the rotation, then even a 60 game season will start to feel long. A rotation of Ryu-Pearson-Shoemaker-Roark-Thornton actually looks decent on paper, and the other guys can be used as depth in case of injury. Although they have to explain how the 40 man roster situation works in a truncated season.

The players getting screwed under the leadership of Tony Clark is like the sun rising every morning. Some things don’t change. You’re right they have no chance of winning this grievance, so this seems pointless, but whatever. I’ll take the 60 games. I really wanted expanded playoffs, though. I might be the only one but make it happen some day.

The players would be idiots if they didn't report. Some may not report for other reasons (health), but I'd expect most/nearly all players to be ready for ST on July 1. Where the Jays report is the question. Florida seems like a s*** show right now, and getting into Canada is likely a no go for the rest of the season. Maybe Buffalo is the solution here.

Agreed. Also, if Manfred implements a 60 game season fully prorated, then the only thing the players gained by rejecting the last offer was the ability to file a grievance. What are the odds that they can even win that? How do you prove Manfred acted in bad faith when states were locked down for months and ST facilities in mid June had to be quarantined due to positive tests? If he mandated a 48 game season, then maybe, but he is apparently about to give them the same amount of games as he offered them in the last proposal, only there won't be expanded playoffs, which would have helped the sport recover revenue and get more markets in the playoff race. If I cared about who looks better between these two unlikable factions, I'd actually score a point for Manfred here. The players look a lot worse than they did before. It's clear neither side cares about the general growth of the sport, but at least MLB will do things based on the financial growth of the game. Not sure the players can spin this positively. Whatever. Implement a season, make sure the players can stay safe, and lets get this circus on the road.

Hopefully all the people who were white knighting for the players will enjoy this. Expanded playoffs would have helped the sport. Universal DH would have helped the sport. The MLBPA said "when and where" because they weren't being offered their prorated salaries, but then when MLB gave them prorated salaries for 60 games, they said "sorry we meant 'when and where' on our terms". This is why I'm in the middle on this. There is no sympathetic side here. Both sides are crap. When owners don't spend money this winter, and free agents are getting squeezed because owners were not allowed to recover some of the lost revenue in 2020, then Tony's going to have to explain to the union how he screwed them again.

$20k is nothing. Anyone half way decent is better off going back to school, or if possible go the Carter Stewart route and sign with a team in Japan/Korea/etc where they might actually make a livable wage for a few years. I think the 20k signings will mostly be underwhelming.

I actually think the positive tests and having to quarantine out of Florida is going to help MLB's case here. The chances of MLBPA winning a grievance case after rejecting the latest proposal and the virus forcing the league to have a shorter time frame to get the games in will be damn difficult. I think Manfred ends up proposing a season (between 50-56 games) and then from there it is up to the virus as to whether they start/finish the season.

Players in every sport are going to test positive. They either have to figure out a way to work around it without shutting the season down or don't start it back up at all.

Stro Show.

My guess is they will settle at 66 games like Rosenthal suggested, which would be 40% of the season and players getting full prorated salaries.

Yeah, looking at the standings you posted, the 14 team playoff format would have included Boston (84 wins) and Arizona (85 wins). Those are average or slightly above average teams making it, but I could live with that. I believe the format I mentioned above, which Trevor Bauer took a giant s*** on, would have made the playoffs in 2019 look like this: AL 1. Astros (107-55) - bye ---- 2. Yankees (103-59) 3. Twins (101-61) 4. Athletics (97-65) WC 5. Rays (96-66) WC 6. Cleveland (93-69) 7. Red Sox (84-78) Yankees and Twins get to choose their opponent in the Wild Card games, let's say Yanks pick Boston and Twins pick Cleveland, so the A's would play the Rays. All of those series would be 3 games, and winners advance to the DS with Houston already in. Same applies in the NL. Or they can scrap the "higher seed picks opponent" gimmick and just have 2-7, 3-6, and 4-5 match ups, which is how most teams would probably choose anyway. Then again, if the season is only going to be 60-66 games long, then going with 16 teams just for this season wouldn't be terrible. There will no doubt be a good team who starts off slowly and ends up being average or worse after the season is over, so more than half the teams making it just for 2020 might be more reasonable.