[ESPN] MLB suspends spring training, delays Opening Day at least two weeks

Yea this is where I’m at

Both sides are dumb enough to think this won’t have major repercussions long term and they are wrong. The chances of a work stoppage are great either during or after 2021, they should be doing everything possible to make sure we have as much of a season this year as they can

They are screwing themselves not the other side

 

...and therein lies the beauty of my proposal - it's not necessary to 'open the books' when only a semi-transparent part the top-line is being shared. Ticket revenues are easy to calculate (attendance is public info and average ticket price can be backed into) and not as proprietary/confidential as other forms of revenue... and the cost structure remains private... so it's an easy give. Additionally, no games can be played with cost allocations, accounting, or other funny business, since you are dealing with top-line only. It's a brilliant proposal, from a brilliant businessman.

 

I side with the players. The owners can make up their loss when they sell for 5x what they paid. The players don't get any of that equity.

I don't understand when business owners in America stopped keeping cash on hand for lean times.

 

How did the owners not budge? Each of their offers either offered players more total money or less total work. In each successive offer, the % of their prorated salaries increased. The players never budged at all and stayed at 100%.

 

My opinion is that there is no good reason for the players to agree to less than the prorated salary. Their salaries weren’t tied to revenue before, so why should they be now?

 

Buster Olney just can't leave it alone...

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29302203/how-astros-luhnow-mindset-ruining-mlb

 

Well, the argument would be that Covid-19 has changed the reality of the economics of the sport.

That said, they are certainly under no particular obligation to adjust. Similarly, MLB is under no obligation to have a long season where they lose money. The result will be that players will lose a ton of money this year. And if the owners lose a ton of money this season, they are just going to be more conservative with contracts next season as well to make up the losses.

 

We will see if teams just start dumping salary or non-tendering big money arbitration players. THAT is truly a sign of teams struggling financially.

I highly doubt it. Especially the big money teams that can afford a lot of this. And market forces had already been stifling contract offers for everybody other than the super-super stars.... they’ll use the pandemic as a further reason, yet there will still be a mega salary offer on the table for the games best when they’re due.

 

Just total bullshit... can’t believe he gets paid to write speculation bbs-post worthy articles

 

I think it was also him that had one the other day where they brought up the Astros holding Springer back and didn't mention any of the other multiple examples of teams that did the same.

 

Did Correas champagne create a hate so strong for the Astros in buster.

 

Plus every article that has a negative connotation towards the happening in baseball has a picture of the Astros as the tag... whether its major league players or minor league players.

Other teams, and media members, are starting to get sick of the "extra" coverage the Astros are garnering... even if its all negative.

 

Luhnow was in HS in '81 and a decade away from working in baseball in '94...he's a bigger genius than I thought.

 

The article headline has now been changed (presumably just to get more clicks)...:

"Why don't we have a 2020 season? Blame the Astros"

Just utter bullshit!

 

Max Kellerman still had a job also...

 

They have nothing else to report.

It is a sport and industry that is bloated on entitlement.

They are watching their sport fall into decline like Sears did.

What a lot of these sport entities need to realize is that most fans have learned they don’t NEED sports as much as they thought.

Just because the ritual of something has always been there doesn’t mean it is a MUST.

Adapt or die... and while the rest of the sports landscape is changing and adapting, all of baseball operates in a bubble.

Puke up more stories on the Astros and a joke scandal everyone that cares to investigate knows is a joke.... throw it on top of every other poor decision made surrounding baseball... which is ran like a used car lot.

 

Yeah...i saw that and wondered how I missed that earlier... because it wasn't there

 

Kellerman rose through the ranks as a boxing analyst... and in the end, was a studio host first before he became a blowhard.

Baseball writers have always been baseball writers... the ones on TV feel they're more accomplished because they're on TV, but they really should be better at their primary skill and not have to resort to angles such as this one that are absolutely cringe-worthy no matter what your distaste for Jeff Luhnow is.

 

Cooperstown needs to take away voting from the writers somehow...

 

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told ESPN on Monday he's "not confident" there will be a 2020 baseball season and that "as long as there's no dialogue" with the MLB Players Association, "that real risk is going to continue."

In a conversation with Mike Greenberg for ESPN's "The Return of Sports" special, Manfred walked back comments made to ESPN last week, when he said "unequivocally we are going to play Major League Baseball this year" and pegged the likelihood at "100%."

"I'm not confident. I think there's real risk; and as long as there's no dialogue, that real risk is gonna continue," Manfred said when asked if he was confident there would be a season.

Manfred was asked about what the talks are doing for the optics of MLB while the country has been shut down by the coronavirus pandemic and only recently starting to reopen.

"It's just a disaster for our game, absolutely no question about it. It shouldn't be happening, and it's important that we find a way to get past it and get the game back on the field for the benefit of our fans," he said.

Manfred said the MLBPA's "decision to end good-faith negotiations" and the need for an agreement with the union on health-and-safety protocols "were really negative in terms of our efforts."

"The owners are a hundred percent committed to getting baseball back on the field," Manfred said. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you that I'm a hundred percent certain that's gonna happen."

Manfred said he believes the union intended to file a grievance that the league had not fulfilled its obligation under the March 26 agreement to play the most games possible, which he deemed a "bad-faith tactic."

"I had been hopeful that once we got to common ground on the idea that we were gonna pay the players full prorated salary, that we would get some cooperation in terms of proceeding under the agreement that we negotiated with the MLBPA on March 26th," Manfred told ESPN. "Unfortunately, over the weekend, while Tony Clark was declaring his desire to get back to work, the union's top lawyer was out telling reporters, players and eventually getting back to owners that as soon as we issued a schedule - as they requested - they intended to file a grievance claiming they were entitled to an additional billion dollars. Obviously, that sort of bad-faith tactic makes it extremely difficult to move forward in these circumstances."