Adam Wainwright: MLB Players Will '100 Percent' Go on Strike

They might...but if they do, it will be a crushing blow to MLB. They are already trying to find ways to change the game to attract young fans. Piss off a bunch of us old ones, then go see where else you can make millions of dollars. It took steroids and HR derby style games to get fans to come back from the last work stoppage.

With so much to lose and so much time between now and 2021, if they don't come up with an agreement in time to avoid a strike, both sides deserve to lose their a$$

What happens to the television money if there is a strike/lockout? All those hundreds of millions in guaranteed money?

 

Very well put. "MLB players will '100 Percent'"...consign their sport to permanent 4th or 5th tier in terms of American professional sports if there's another strike. Basically, a death sentence. Or a walking death sentence, since MLB will never go away, but it will never be relevant again. Hope both sides have some people that aren't completely myopic and can understand this.

 

Average MLB fan is 57 years old (up from 53 in 10 years) compared to 50 for the NFL and 42 for the NBA.

They can't afford to strike.

None of the National sports shows cover baseball much at all. ESPN barely touches it. The only time I remember the Astros being mentioned during the regular season on shows like First Take, Get Up, Colin Cowherd, Undisputed,etc were when we traded for Osuna and they were bashing the Astros about domestic abuse. Other than that it is Yankees vs Red Sox and not much else.

 

MLB needs to be mindful of the 90’s NHL strike lest they go down the same path.

 

No one will care if they strike through April or May or even June - people get over that pretty quickly and it would actually make for a fascinating sprint to the playoffs. What really will kill the golden goose is if they start a season but don't end it (like 1994) - a strike after people are invested in the season is where the real damage happens.

 

It was always odd to me that baseball contracts keep getting bigger and bigger at the same time it's ratings, attendance, and overall fan interest keeps declining.

 

Only leverage players have is to strike at end of season. Playoffs is a bigger money maker for owners than regular season, and players just got a paycheck.

 

Man I'm sick of the players b****ing. They negotiated themselves into this situation by f**king over the young players most in need of the money for decades. Stop playing this "it's so unfair" crap. If they want to be angry, direct that anger towards their predecessors

Owners are owners, concerned with on field results and bottom line. They aren't about being nice (neither are the veteran players), this isn't a charity. The players are the ones who chose to allocate salaries this way.

At least the owners are acknowledged as being greedy.

 

Ratings down in all sports. The decline on baseball attendance can almost single-handedly be attributed to the debacle that is the Florida Marlins. Lastly, baseball has always been a locally-driven sport. Most passionate fans of their team tend not to follow other teams concurrently. Yes, cities that have no team really don't have fans that are glued to their TV's nightly to try and watch any baseball... but as long as the local markets support the teams, the sport will overall be fine.

Thus that involves doing something about the markets that have shown again and again that pro baseball may just never work there... Miami and St. Petersburg are really the only ones that come to mind (no surprise they're both in florida, a state dominated by north-eastern transplants that remain loyal to their original teams).

 

I'm not looking to defend the players by any means... but the contracts that were being handed out as recently as 2 years ago supported their stance immensely during the last negotiations.

The Cubs and Astros very well may have "changed the game" moreso than any Michael Lewis book could have ever done... because those teams actually did win it all, while saving their owners from having to shell out an exponential payroll.

 

Agreed - but that's also how players lose support from the fans because they'll take the blame. Also, if revenues drop, then they cost themselves money too assuming MLB tries to keep a range where players get x% of total revenues, so they might be shooting themselves in the foot.

If I'm the players, I aim for small changes and a short-term CBA so I can keep trying to get incremental changes every few years. Not sure how viable that is.

If I'm the owners, I tell the players you get X% of revenues - how would you ideally like it allocated? If the vets want more, they need to figure out who should get less and why. Pit the players against themselves and see what happens.

 

I will always side with owners! You get to play a game for a living and get paid handsomely...w/o owners you have a regular job like most of us

 

The baseball CBA is a mess because no one can be a free agent that is decent (except JD Martinez) before six years of major league service time. Plus three years for minor league options, no wonder why players in their primes are not getting deals (and why Kyler Murray is choosing football.) Compared to NBA and NFL, the players are at a disadvantage... this wasn't always the case. Heck, Tracy McGrady if he chose baseball, would still be lingering in the minors by the time the Rockets traded for him.

 

This was always the case... its just that as of 2 years ago, owners were willing to pay free agents more basically for past performance.

It was common knowledge that all free agents signing a huge deal would only really live up to it for the first couple of years, but for some big market/contending teams, they were willing to take on that risk of declining years if it gave them a big enough edge.

It was also suspected that as PED's went away, players wouldn't be performing as good, as long, as they had been doing in the mid to late 90's.

A perfect storm of actual statistical data confirming the latter, along with rebuild models like the Cubs/Astros that translated into championship seasons, and you end up with today's MLB free agency dilemma.

 

Damn where did you see those numbers? That's crazy to see, but I do believe it.

 

Here's how I would fix things... that would benefit the product on the field for the fans... which of course won't happen...
1) Draft lottery to deter tanking;
2) Rule V eligibility being 3 years after initial signing regardless of age;
3) Service time clock starts at the time of signing initial contract -- not major league debut;
4) Replace the qualifying offer system with a NFL-style restricted free agency system;
5) Allow trading of draft picks.

 

You are right that they will never happen because while they are great for the players, they are not so much for the owners.

 

How about maybe these free agents weren't as great they were hyped to be? Harper picked a bad year to have a down year. Machado acts like a dummy in the playoffs and says in an interview 3 months before he's supposed to get paid he won't hussle. Kimbrel was struggling in the playoffs and Keuchel had a down year. Corbin got paid, McCuthchen got paid, Eovaldi got paid, and Zach Britton got paid.

In the end, I think Harper and Machado are going to get 8 years or more at 30 million per season. Their agents are just mad they won't shatter the record for new contracts with all the hype coming into this offseason. Teams aren't going to do stupid deals and pay mega money for players when they will be in their mid to late 30s anymore. The 12 and 14 year contracts that were floated out there were insane.

 

who gives a **** about national sports and how much they cover baseball wtf? Baseball has grown over 40% in the past decade. We dont need bullshit espn covering our sports daily. Count me as one of those fans thats happy how baseball is covered today.