glory

NBA and NHL played most of their regular season already, so it's just a matter of finishing the playoffs for them. MLB hasn't even started the season yet so they haven't begun to see revenue at all. If MLB had already played 130 games and just needed to crown a World Series champion, then this issue between the league and union probably wouldn't even exist right now. But they are literally starting from scratch. I think we can assume that safety isn't a big sticking point. The players actually want to play more games than the league does, so they clearly don't have an issue with the safety protocols. If they want to play more and get a prorated salary based on games played, then it's 100% about money. Call a spade a spade here. Owners want to maximize profit and players want to make as much as they can. It's not about the sport or the fans at this point. Bad optics would be an understatement.

Yeah, I'm not a draft expert, but I'd be pretty underwhelmed if the Jays drafted Gonzales. Someone who profiles exclusively as a 2B better be a can't miss offensive talent if he's a top 5 pick.

According to Heyman, 65% of MLB players make $1 million or less. The owners were pretty slick in proposing this because 65% of the league in this scenario will end up getting a prorated cut of their 2020 salary (as the MLBPA originally accepted). Someone who makes $600k (the Jays have a lot of these types) will end up getting around $300k for playing half the amount of games. Someone making $1m is getting slightly less than $500k. So the owners created a proposal that benefits the majority of the league, and only hurts the players making $5m or more per year. I don't think the players will accept this anyway, but smart move on their part. I understand both sides. Owners are owners because they make good financial decisions. They don't want to pay players out of their own pocket, they want to use revenue to pay players/expenses and pocket the rest. That is how all businesses work. So while it looks greedy as hell, the owners are within their rights. Just as the players are within their rights. They have guaranteed contracts and there is no salary cap or revenue sharing, so it revenue goes up or down, it shouldn't impact their money. So I can see their side as well. We just have to hope there is a happy medium.

There needs to be a clear definition of what the role of the taxi squad will be. I'm assuming it is in case of injury to anyone on the big league roster in the absence of the minor leagues to promote/demote players. If that's the case, then top prospects who aren't ready yet won't really serve a purpose. If the taxi squad is partly to counter injuries, and partly to get top prospects reps since there won't be a minor league season, then that's different. Not sure if it's been defined yet.

Yeah, that's going to have to be tweaked.

I think MLB will eventually cave and have a season, but if I could picture any league not coming back in 2020 when it was feasible to do so, it would be MLB. Tone deafness is the calling card for both Manfred and Clark. If MLB does not have a 2020 season because of finances, then they are in for a shock when a lot of fans find something else to do now and moving forward. As I mentioned before the 2020-2021 NBA season is likely going to run head to head with MLB's 2021 season until September, which is when the NFL starts. If that becomes a long term change for the NBA, and MLB decides to cut bait on 2020 (alienating a s*** ton of people in the process), then it might be a hole they can never climb out of.

At least the NBA is coming back.

I don't have ESPN+, but based on one of the Twitter comments it seems Kiley has the Jays taking Meyer.

Taxi squad is probably going to be 40 man roster players + maybe some older AAA prospects (Wall, Palacios, whoever they signed to minor league deals, etc). I doubt anyone is going to dip into their prospect pool of low A-AA guys for this. The MLBPA is not going to allow teams to use players and not have them accrue service time in the process so it would make no sense for any team to do that. Most likely teams send their good prospects to fall leagues (assuming they are open by then) to get their reps in.

The NBA looks like it will come back in late July if all goes well, so MLB better be ready by July 1. That 2-3 week window where they are the only sport in town is better than nothing.

Cuban has an ax to grind with MLB too since they wouldn't let him buy a team many years ago. He hated Selig, and hates Manfred as well. This would be the ultimate payback. MLB is a $10b a year industry and that's with a fanbase that has an average age of 57 and a league that has practically no social media presence or marketing. A league run by smart business people who also know how to use social media to generate engagement and present a product that visually might actually appeal to younger people without fully alienating the older demo could work if stadiums and TV rights were not an issue. Even if the league's talent is watered down compared to MLB, if you market something properly, it won't make much of a difference. Tim Anderson in a hypothetical Mark Cuban run league with social media and marketing ability could easily be a bigger star than Mike Trout is today. That's how bad MLB is. Damn, I wish this was actually happening. It's much better than hoping Manfred and Clark respectively grow a brain, which will never happen. Someone send a tweet to Mark Cuban.

That's an interesting discussion. With the slow destruction of the minor leagues, and now MLB trying to kill itself, would a new baseball league run by people who actually know what they are doing actually work (be profitable) in North America? I don't know how it would work with TV rights, RSN, and stadiums, but dammit, having baseball without having to deal with Manfred, Clark, etc, would be damn appealing.

Yeah it is strange how they are acting as if this is an election and they need to paint the opposite side negatively in order to win an optics battle that literally no one other than MLB and the MLBPA cares about. Fans don't care who gets paid what. The sport is either going to return or it won't. If it doesn't return because of money, then baseball will lose A LOT of fans because not only will it look bad to the public and not only will baseball be out of the public eye for over a year in that scenario, but the NBA will find a way to return. The NFL will find a way to return. Then next season the NBA will probably begin their 2020-21 season in December, which means their playoffs will end in August. Football then begins in September. So all of 2021 baseball is likely going to go head to head with two sports that are massively more popular. It's a bad situation for them, made worse if they turn fans off now. On the flip side, if MLB returns on Independence Day weekend, then they can wrap themselves around the flag as being the first sport to come back from the pandemic, and maybe get more eye balls on the product (at least until the NBA returns to steal their shine). The fact that money is not only this big of an issue but they want to drag this into the public is not a good sign at all for 2020 or 2022 (which is probably going to end up being a lockout if they can't even play nice during a pandemic).

https://nypost.com/2020/05/19/mlb-thinks-email-is-smoking-gun-in-salary-fight-with-players/ Wow, both MLB and the MLBPA can F off at this point. No one is going to choose a side in this stupid war, they'll just tune out completely.

I remember having so much optimism in 2002-03. Halladay broke out. A position player core all coming up at the same time in Wells, Phelps, Hudson, Hinske (ROY season), Werth, etc. Made some interesting trades for Prokopec, Jason Arnold, JF Griffin, etc. All of them busted, but looked decent at the time. Escobar was wasted as a RP but was finally moved to the rotation for good in 2003 and looked to be turning into a long term piece, though they ended up not re-signing him and he turned into a really good SP for a few years with the Angels. Not finding a way to bring him and Carpenter back really hurt long term, obviously Carpenter more so. More than anything, the Jays hired someone from Beane's front office before Moneyball was a thing. I thought we were going to be the Toronto A's, which would have been a huge compliment around that time. Regardless, in hindsight, 2002-08 wasn't that bad. Had some fun years and there wasn't the level of ineptitude like there was during Ash's years. Still wasn't a good period in Jays history, but from 94-14, we had to take what we could get.

Those late 90's Jays teams should have made the playoffs at least once or twice during that time. Ash didn't do much to help those teams aside from the one great trade he ever made (Jose Cruz Jr). Let Alomar go for nothing. Traded Olerud AND CASH for Robert Person. Traded Cone (for s***) and Clemens to the Yankees because why the f*** not help a dynasty in your own division get even better. Didn't get a damn thing for the remnants of the World Series crew (Julian f'n Merryweather might end up having a higher big league WAR than any player Ash got back for Alomar, White, Olerud, Guzman, Leiter, etc). Traded Woody Williams for Joey Hamilton for no reason other than because Dave Stewart (we know how great of a GM he ended up becoming) liked Hamilton from his Padres days. Signing Clemens was a Beeston move if I recall, but could be remembering that wrong. Ash also cut resources with the DR when he took over (an area the Jays were dominating during their heyday), which caused a rift with Epy Guerrero, if I'm remembering that right. I could go on and on. All Ash did was sprinkle in the players he inherited into big league spots (Delgado, Green, Stewart, Carpenter, Escobar, etc) but did such a piss poor job in practically every trade and FA signing he ever made that he wasted what should have been a much better run for the Jays. Yes, I'm bitter about those years! Ricciardi wasn't great either, but his only real weakness was drafting. Ash's weakness was everything related to baseball.

Yeah that WS team had to be dismantled as it had run its course, but Ash was not the guy who was going to squeeze more juice out of that roster, and he was not the guy who was going to pivot to maximize assets. That 1995-2001 team had no chance because they had the worst GM in Toronto sports history running it (Babcock wasn't GM long enough to hold that honor).

The problem with the 1995 team was Gord Ash was the GM. No amount of talent was going to compensate for that, as we saw through 2001.

Yelich talking about Bonds helping his swing.

Most if not all of us are employees somewhere, so we can naturally see/agree with the player's POV, but the owners will always have the leverage. For one thing, if the players get their way and get a prorated salary in 2020 rather than 50/50 revenue split, will the MLBPA complain when owners don't spend money on players in 2021?Because that will ultimately happen. With so many teams losing out on revenue, there will be a tornado of non tenders, and lack of spending on free agents this winter. Of course, owners are not obligated to spend money, just as players are not obligated to split revenue. See where this is going? It's not going to end up good for the players. Players do not move revenue in baseball. Mike Trout can be replaced by Jo Adell for $600k and the Angels (in a normal circumstance) will probably see little to no difference in revenue. Fans cheer for the front of the uniform in baseball. It is a regional sport. That is why it is not as popular in the mainstream. Players are not recognizable, and fan bases are loyal to the franchises. The MLBPA should not die on this hill. Teams will pay for age and performance, so the most important aspect here is to get players to make more money in years 0-6 of service time when the next CBA rolls around. If they piss the owners off for a prorated salary in 2020, it will screw them badly in the end. Of course, both sides appear to want a lockout for some reason based on the way they are acting, so maybe that's their plan all along.

Yeah, I kinda wish we had Sanders for this draft given how condensed it is, but Shatkins has done a good job picking up player development/scouting talent, so I'll trust them here. Plus, a Farrell has never let us down before! Is this draft going to be like the NFL draft in presentation? I liked that set up with the virtual setting and seeing the player reactions with their families.

Owners are billionaires and do make a lot of money off the investment (most of them anyway), but they are owners for a reason. They use revenue to pay players, not their own dime. If revenue is compromised due to something completely out of anyone's control, then most businesses will let people go to avoided losses. Some owners will probably lose more money if they play the 2020 season and pay the players their prorated salary, so what's their incentive to even have the season if there isn't a reasonable split on money? On the flip side, I understand the players' POV as well. They have guaranteed contracts. If revenue increased, their salaries would stay the same, so why shouldn't it stay the same when revenue is down? Logical stance. Only issue is revenue is down because of a pandemic, not normal business issues. If owners were losing money because people suddenly stopped going to baseball games out of choice, then that's a different story. That's not the case here. I'm always going to be on the side of wanting to see players to get paid. In this case though, I don't see how they (the players) can win in the court of public opinion.

Yeah if the deal doesn’t happen because the players don’t want to risk their health, then that might be easier to explain to the public, but if it’s money, then people will be tripping over themselves to get in line to say f*** You to MLB and the MLBPA. If any league is going to mess this up, it’s the one with Manfred and Clark as the figureheads.