The 2020 Baseball Season - Things to Come

Of course it has to do with MLB's policies. The lack of any oversight authority saying "hey team, yall don't get to play" is exactly what led to this totally unforeseeable emergency.

 

They "were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

 

Yep, and don't underplay the financial motivation as well.

 

Why would they? They knew an outbreak within a team was a possibility - that's not new. They didn't know how likely it was or how it would play out, and now they are considering additional safety measures, but why would they have cancel the season at this point for something everyone knew was a possibility?

Fans seem to have this extreme either/or mentality. That's not reality. Every business in America is dealing with these same questions and figuring things out as they go. Most are open despite the risks and figuring out, in real time, how to do things as safely as possible. They all are having emergency meetings as situations come up. MLB is not any different or immune to any of this.

 

The chronicle reports he will be out for two seasons.

 

Fair - but that's a discussion that can take place over the next week or two and has probably already taken place in the past. The issue for the meeting is what changes to make today to see if they can stop this from happening again in the near term. If they try a few different things to prevent this and nothing works, then yeah, they have to consider cancelling the season. But that's not today's emergency topic.

My larger point is that MLB is not going to overreact or freak out here. They cancelled the games that needed to be immediately cancelled and shut down travel of the affected parties. They are looking at what changes they can make to their policies to enforce more safety. And then they'll try Plan B and then re-evaluate again. It's exactly what an organization should do in this scenario, and it's exactly what every other big business in America is doing. No one - including both liberal and conservative state governments - has figured out the ideal way to re-open anything safely thus far, and this whole season is going to be a series of crises and responses, and this is just the first of them. The same will be true in the NBA, NFL, and College Football. I would just say get used to it. If they can't figure out how to do it well, they'll eventually shut it down. I'd put the odds at 50/50.

 

Rob Manfred interview with Tom Verducci:

There's been a COVID19 outbreak among the Miami Marlins. It is a crisis obviously unwelcome, not totally unanticipated in today's world. We know that 2 baseball games have been postponed this evening in Philadelphia & Miami. What can you tell us about the MLB schedule going forward beyond tonight?

Well our first concern is the health of the players & their families and making sure we do everything possible to minimize the spread of the virus among our employees. We've been fortunate so far. We've done tens of thousands of tests. Positive rate has been .4% so we feel like the protocols have worked pretty well. Not withstanding, we have made some decisions: the Miami Marlins will not play their two games in Miami tonight & tomorrow. We're doing some additional testing. If the testing results are acceptable, the Marlins will resume play in Baltimore on Wednesday against the Orioles.

Will those two games in Miami be re-scheduled for Baltimore?

Again, we're waiting to see what we get in terms of test results before we make a decision. Right now, the only thing that's firm, if the test results in negative for the rest of the team, we'd play at least two in Baltimore on Wednesday & Thursday.

You, every Monday, have a weekly call with major league owners. Was there discussions, questions about this season if not canceled, put on hiatus?

There really wasn't. We talked about the situation. Most of the owners realize we built protocols anticipating we'd have positive tests during the season. The protocols were built in order to allow us to continue to play through those positives. There was support for the notion we believe the protocols are adequate to keep players safe.

Walk me through that. From what I understand, Marlins players were tested Friday, results the next day. Sunday there's a decision among the Marlins whether they're going to play that day or not. Does all that line up with happened in Philadelphia?

There was testing Friday, one positive on Saturday, testing again on Saturday and the three additional positives on Sunday. Under protocol, we did contact tracing on all four positives. There was a small number of players who met the CDC guidelines. They were quarantined. We ordered additional testing. We did symptom checks. We did temperature checks and decided to proceed with the game on Sunday.

To be clear, CDC guidelines are about close contact. Just being a teammate does not put you at risk.

That's correct. There's a distance requirement as well as a duration requirement.

With the Marlins, have you learned anything about the origin or the scope of the outbreak based on contact tracing?

Each team does have at least one individual who was trained to do contact tracing, supervised by an individual in the commissioner's office. We have some theories as to what might have happened, nothing definitive.

What did you learn about testing during summer camp?

It's been a constant process for us. We have improved the testing. There was a timeliness issue early on. We've completely eliminated the problem of pending tests but that applies across the board in terms of protocol. It is an evolving situation. We continue to look at them. We're looking at them again today to see whether's there's anything we've learned from this situation that might cause us to make alterations.

It's been said one team with an outbreak such as this is baseball's worst nightmare. Is that the way you look at this situation?

I don't put this in the nightmare category. We don't want any player to get exposed. It's not a positive thing but I don't see it as a nightmare. We built the protocols to continue to allow us to play. That's why we have expanded rosters & pool of additional players. We think we can keep people safe & continue to play.

Is there a point that would cause you to shutdown part or all of the schedule.

There's certainly both. A team losing a number of players that rendered it completely non-competitive would be an issue we'd have to address & think about making a change. Whether that was shutting down a part of the season, the whole season, that depends on circumstances. Same with respect to league wide. You get to a certain point league wide where it does become a health threat and we would certainly shut down at that point.

Do you think at all at this point now about whether a bubble for MLB could have been workable?

The decision we made with respect to a bubble was the right one. We're different than other sports. We would have needed multiple locations to make it work. The duration would have been much longer and the longer you go and more people you have, the less likely you can make the bubble work. The NBA/NHL have an advantage: smaller number of players, shorter period of time. I understand why they did what they but I'm not sure it was workable for us.

You and the PA agreed on a manual on health/safety protocols. David Price said "part of the reason I'm at home is because players' health wasn't put first and I can see that hasn't changed." Your reaction?

I disagree with David's comments. Both for the MLBPA and us, health issue was the one that had to be resolved. It was most important to all of us. In terms of the activities in the last few days, we followed protocols to a T. We went beyond those protocols in the sense we canceled games(2) for the Marlins so far. We're open to canceling additional games if it's necessary to keep our players safe.

I know you were hopefully optimistic at the start of this to get through this season uninterrupted. Has this weekend with the Marlins changed your optimism about completing the season uninterrupted?

We expected we'd have positives at some point in time. I remain optimistic the protocols are strong enough that it will allow us to continue to play, even through an outbreak like this and complete our season.

Right now, it sounds like you(MLB) is waiting on test results. How soon can we expect those?

I expect we will have an initial set of test results late late tonight and you'll have an update tomorrow as to how we expect to proceed beyond the couple of days I mentioned already.

You had the best laid plans in place with your protocols. Seems like a fluid situation. Is there anything you're learning about what can be better, what works, maybe what doesn't work?

We had made adjustments to the protocol on an ongoing basis. There were conversations today with the MLBPA about what we should be doing in terms of the protocols themselves and enforcement of protocols, making sure we're following them in every possible way we can. It's an evolving situation. We continue to re-evaluate where we are with protocols and what we can do to keep players safe as possible.

 

Yeah no kidding. Cancelling the season after an outbreak with one team would have been absolutely absurd. I do think they should increase safety measures in light of this, but this is not something that was completely unexpected. This is exactly the point of expanded rosters, and every team has a deep pool of players to choose from because the minor league season was cancelled. It's not ideal to field a roster of half AAA guys, but that's the price you pay for lack of oversight.

Side note: Is there an exception in regards to how calling up minor leaguers affects their service time (in regards to arbitration, contracts, etc.)? I'm not sure how all that works, but I know in the past we have delayed calling guys up that were ready (Springer for instance) due to manipulation of team control, etc. Is there an exception with how that works this year that anyone knows about?

 

Specifically Chandler Rome... I don't understand how anyone is defending his "reporting." Yes, he may end up being correct, but that is still terrible journalism. The report literally said the Astros will announce that Verlander is out for the season, which they did not. Whether or not Verlander actually misses the rest of the season is kind of missing the point. Then doubling down d-bag style about it...okay bro, guess you got the attention you're looking for.

 

The latest round of testing from the Miami Marlins found four new coronavirus positives, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN. That brings the total over the last five days to 17.

Tonight's scheduled game between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies has been postponed.

 

Saw my first little league extra innings last night with the Pirates/Brewers...

We will eventually see a leadoff 2-run HR

The ghost runner does not count against the pitcher, so it does not affect his ERA if he scores

A pitcher will start an inning, pitch a perfect inning, and get the loss (if it hasn't already happened)

MLB players really need to learn how to bunt again, there were a couple of pathetic attempts last night.

 

On the plus side for the Marlins, they are nearly at herd immunity! If all the players and coaches get it, can they all hang out in the dugout again and high-five and such?