glory

A shorter season means less time for teams to regress to their true talent level. That can only help the Jays. If they start the season hot, and there's only 80-100 games, then the "coming back down to earth" phase is greatly reduced. I think a shorter season can only hurt the good teams and help the average ones, but ultimately it probably won't make too much of a difference. Maybe one team that otherwise would have been average overachieves for 80+ games and goes into whatever type of playoff format the league has in mind. Another interesting question is whether the World Series champion in 2020 (assuming there is a season) will even be looked at fondly by the fanbase whose team wins. Like, if the Jays overachieve in a 100 game season, make the playoffs where Manfred plays around with the format, and somehow we end up winning a title with no fans in attendance and possibly no games even played in Toronto, how would the fanbase react to it? I mean a win is a win but it would have to be diminished to some degree.

I guess it depends on how many players live in Toronto/Canada. I can't imagine that list is long but who knows. Ideally all the home teams play in their regular parks, but with Canada being a different country and the issues with border, customs, different quarantine mandates, etc, it just seems like a pointless hassle. If no fans are in attendance, then the Jays home field can literally be anywhere and it wouldn't matter. With that said, one of the reasons why I like the 3-5 hubs idea is because of what I said above. If there are no fans, then the venue really isn't all that important. Even if they decide that Arizona/Florida/Texas/Vegas/whatever is the best plan, then that works too.

If fans are not allowed, then I honestly don't think the Jays should have any home games in Toronto even if every other team is in their regular stadium. What is the point of going through customs and traveling to a different country multiple times just to play a game that could easily be duplicated in the Jays ST facility in Florida? In that 10 team division idea, the Jays are in the same division as the Rays and Marlins, so home games in Dunedin shouldn't impact that alignment.

Yeah, Passan is hyping up the Korean league on ESPN. No mention at all about this. Troll thread.

We won't see fans in attendance in any sport for the rest of the year, most likely. There will have to be a vaccine before they can pack 20k+ anywhere. Baseball from July-Nov with no fans in attendance either in regular stadiums or in 3-5 random places in the US works for me. Baseball is baseball.

I hope this is true, and I'd expect unless something drastically wrong happens in the next 30 days that some variation of this is likely going to happen (even if it's in hub spots rather than all the stadiums), but Trevor Plouffe is not the source I'd use to get excited about this. Once Passan, Rosey, etc, start talking about, then it might mean something. I will say though that if MLB is the first US sport to return and it happens to fall on July 4th weekend, then that's a huge opportunity to build some new fans.

Yeah seriously. Without fans it really doesn't matter where the games are played. If all of them are played in Arizona, Texas, and Florida, then so be it.

Regular season games with no fans probably won’t be that bad. Most stadiums look half filled/empty routinely anyway. I mean, no fans is going to suck, but is it really any different than 18,000 fans at Rogers Centre on a random Tuesday night? It’s not like the latter causes a great atmosphere. It’s just background noise until something happens for the most part. Where no fans is going to hurt is the playoffs. That’s when every crowd is crazy loud and can impact a game. Regular season, it will probably take a week to get used to it and it will seem common place. Basketball is a game that will look weird without fans.

I believe the tentative plan (based on Nightengale's article) is for spring training to happen in June, and the regular season to begin in the beginning of July. By then I would imagine every state in the USA and Toronto would have opened up, even if it came with heavy restrictions. With that said, if every game is going to have an empty stadium, then realistically the location doesn't even matter. There's no home field advantage with no fans, and teams don't build their rosters around their home stadium (though some will argue the Yankees do), so even if Toronto is still shut down in July, then play the games in their Dunedin complex. Play the games anywhere. As long as there are games and everyone involved is safe, then that's all that matters.

Man, I know MLB wants to save money, but a 5 round draft even in these circumstances sounds very light.

Even if play resumes with no fans, next year’s free agent crop is f***ed. No team is going to spend money. Lots of QO acceptance most likely, and Mookie’s not getting $400m. Time for the Jays to swoop in and sign Betts since the 2021 payroll figures to be minuscule.

I know nothing about amateur talent so I won't speak on the players themselves, but a 2B as a top 5 pick seems like a real bad idea. If it was a SS who had a chance to stick at short and had to move to 2B down the road, then that's more acceptable, but if it is strictly a 2B, there isn't much defensive wiggle room there. If offensive profile is similar, I'd take the CF over the 2B easily. Now, whether to draft a P or a position player is a different discussion. I hate pitching prospects (high volatility, get hurt easily, etc), but have to go with BPA.

I would guess that teams would be allowed to carry their entire 40 man rosters (or damn close to it) instead of 26 if they resume the season. With the amount of games they will want to cram in, combined with no minor leagues, there is no way they can rely on just 26 players for the entire length of the season. There will be injuries, doubleheaders, rest, heat exhaustion if they play in Arizona, etc. If they start the minors up as well then that changes things, but that doesn't look very likely. If the MLB season does begin in June/July, then I hope the Jays just call up Pearson and have him start in the bigs from the beginning. Will definitely miss the minors. The sheer volume of prospects the Jays have at every level would have been just as much fun to watch as the big leagues.

Agreed. I’d have to see the finished product before saying one way or another but there are too many rounds in the draft and too many minor league affiliates. Cutting it down might help somewhat. The only issue might be if it’s harder to make it to the minor leagues (much less the Majors), then it might make it less appealing of a sport to seriously consider for many athletes, but with Covid, Manfred is going to get his wish either way.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/16/salary-structure-likely-point-of-contention-if-mlb-goes-fan-less/ Man, even during a pandemic the MLBPA and MLB can't agree on money. I actually side with the owners here, and I'm usually always pro player. If they are losing a large chunk of revenue by not having fans then they'd be operating at a loss just to pay the players their full salary. It would make no sense. The owners would have no incentive to have a 2020 season at all in that case, and it would just end up hurting the MLBPA because no owner is going to spend money the following season (which might happen anyway) if they end up losing so much in 2020. Ultimately I think they'll agree to a percentage drop in 2020 salary when all is said and done, assuming they get the green light to play somewhere.

Amir Garrett wins on a bunt. I'll take it.

Nice rountable with Bichette, Donaldson, Judge, and Tatis Jr. If you go to the 15:15 mark, you will start to miss Josh Donaldson as a Jay.

I know he’s not popular on this site for some reason but this would have been a perfect place for Stroman. He’s outgoing, can appeal to a young demo, and would probably hold people’s attention by just being himself. Missed opportunity.

Yeah this is a nice move by MLB. Jumping on the Esports bandwagon especially at a time like this is only going to help the league. I would have liked some bigger names in this tournament, or at least more charismatic personalities (Baez, Lindor, Anderson, Harper, etc), but they do have some really young stars in there (Soto, Tatis, and Bichette) so it's a start. Agreed that 3 innings is too short. I think 5 innings would have been more reasonable. I remember reading MLB were setting up a Esports league in China, but they really should do one in the States (if they haven't already).

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29020150/sources-players-all-30-teams-form-mlb-show-league I doubt a network will air a gaming tournament like this, but MLB should plaster this everywhere they can.

Twitter timeline is talking about Game 3 of the 1993 World Series. I completely forgot that Cito benched John Olerud in that game so that Molitor could play 1B and Sprague could stay at 3B when THE VERY NEXT DAY he put Molitor at 3B and Olerud back at 1B. In other words, he intentionally benched one of the best hitters in the game that year for Ed freakin Sprague. 1993 Season Olerud: 8.1 WAR, 179 wRC+, .363/.473/.599, 24 HR, 107 RBI, 679 PA Sprague: 1.4 WAR, 85 wRC+, .260/.310/.386, 12 HR, 73 RBI, 596 PA I included the traditional stats in there as well because those are what Cito (and to be fair most of the league) was looking at during those days, and it's still not close. They were facing a lefty that game, so Cito likely went for the platoon advantage, except for this: 1993 vs LHP Olerud: 213 PA, .291/.413/.424 (.838 OPS) Sprague: 158 PA, .247/.304/.363 (.667 OPS) I mean, we won the World Series that year (and won that game) so it's not a big deal but can you imagine that happening today? The Brewers benching Christian Yelich in a playoff game so Ben Gamel could stay in the lineup instead? Insanity. Luckily that 1993 lineup was deadly even without Olerud.