2020 MLB Season

[CS85]

1 hour ago, Sodboy13 said:

I think we're done here. I mean, we should be, but "should" doesn't really apply in the Manfredverse.

 

 

This is pointless. 

[BBTV]

25 minutes ago, Alex Houston said:

The visual of the teams playing in their own stadiums is nice and the experimentation with the crowd visuals, be it cutouts, tarp or the weird and cringey Fox virtual fans, has been interesting to see. But with the travel and so many players involved in a non-bubble situation, I did wonder like many of us how this show was going to go on once positive tests started coming in. It also sort of sucks since I was excited to see how the White Sox were gonna develop after a summer of buzz and high hopes. Sure, it's a small sample size, but man that starting pitching got off on the wrong foot and then some. 

 

I wonder if teams like Oakland or the gross Florida teams might just stick with the cutouts or virtual fans even when things are normal again.  I'm not trying to make a joke - with the technology ever developing, and fake fans and fake noise becoming a thing, could the A's just "project" fans into Mt. Davis?  Could the gross Florida teams put cutouts all through their dump-ass stadiums?

[crashcarson15]

Am I off-base in feeling… shocked/disappointed that MLB’s protocols were so bad here? When someone mentioned that teams were staying in hotels where there were huge wedding receptions going on, or how the Phillies were providing visiting clubhouse attendants to Miami my reaction was just like… wait, they let either of those things happen in the first place?

 

I guess my assumption was that baseball was creating a series of mini-bubbles on the road — staying in fully rented-out hotels, catering meals, players not supposed to go anywhere other than their homes, their hotels, and the ballparks, etc., and they… apparently didn’t do that from the start? Of course this was never going to work if your strategy was this close to “pretend nothing is wrong”.

 

I really don’t think baseball’s approach is that flawed with good protocols, it just either seems like MLB’s original protocols were really bad or they’ve just been entirely ignored. You shouldn’t have team-wide outbreaks in this sport if you’re being intentional about your approach.

[Sodboy13]

MLB's protocol more or less boiled down to "let the states handle it."

[AustinFromBoston]

33 minutes ago, Sodboy13 said:

MLB's protocol more or less boiled down to "let the states handle it."

Which fails when you realize some states aren't handling it. 

[Marlins93]

I'm not surprised at all by what's happening right now. Obviously the Marlins outbreak is sending the season off the rails, but this could have happened to any team. And it's already starting to happen to the Cardinals already. The MLB plan for the 2020 season was always destined to fail. You can't trust young, healthy athletes with loads of money, who are used to partying and sleeping around when on the road, to take the necessary precautions. As soon as the MLBPA nixed the bubble idea, baseball's margin for error became extremely thin. MLB and the MLBPA always seemed to be embroiled in a labor dispute and put player safety (and the safety of everyone the players interact with) on the backburner. 

 

MLB and the MLBPA both seemed greedy during all of the build up for this. This plan always seemed ill-conceived at best, public health hazard at worst to me. Shut the season down; we should have never been playing ball to begin with, especially outside of a bubble.

 

[TrueYankee26]

Goodbye season. Unless MLB halts the Marlins and now Cardinals seasons indfinitely.

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, crashcarson15 said:

Am I off-base in feeling… shocked/disappointed that MLB’s protocols were so bad here? When someone mentioned that the Marlins stayed in a hotel where there was a huge wedding reception going on, or how the Phillies were providing visiting clubhouse attendants to Miami my reaction was just like… wait, they let either of those things happen in the first place?

 

What's your source on that?  There's a very firm limit to the number of people that can be in any indoor activity (and outdoor too for that matter.)  I'm pretty sure it's 25 for a private function in Phila.

 

I haven't found anything that indicates that any reception - let alone a "huge wedding reception" was going on.

[SFGiants58]

Give it another week or so, then organize a bubble tournament for October.

[Cujo]

3 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

You're posts are absolutely annoying.  Why do you spend the extra effort to type like that?  You're not making any kind of point other than that you're very immature, and you're not funny.

 

**Your

 

Isn't there an 'ignore user' function somewhere on here so you don't have to see my posts?  We should look into that for you.

 

  

1 hour ago, SFGiants58 said:

Give it another week or so, then organize a bubble tournament for October.

 

By October, MLB will be dwindled down to like four healthy teams -- so perhaps a traditional, 1980s ALCS/NLCS/WS playoffs by then?

[crashcarson15]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

What's your source on that?  There's a very firm limit to the number of people that can be in any indoor activity (and outdoor too for that matter.)  I'm pretty sure it's 25 for a private function in Phila.

 

I haven't found anything that indicates that any reception - let alone a "huge wedding reception" was going on.

 

(I misread this as being specific to the Marlins when I saw it a couple days ago.)

[Sec19Row53]

Twitter sourced - to someone connected to the Cardinals beat - was that some members of their travel party were at a casino. Marlins were rumored to have gone to a strip club.

 

Not sure that you blame Manfred for individual people being stupid. I'm reasonably certain that neither of those things were allowed in whatever protocol was agreed upon between the players, its union, and the league.

[Sec19Row53]

1 hour ago, Cujo said:

 

**Your

 

Isn't there an 'ignore user' function somewhere on here so you don't have to see my posts?  We should look into that for you.

Ancient Arab proverb - when one man calls you a camel, ignore him. When two men do, grab a saddle.

 

To be clear, I agree that your posts about this are annoying and unnecessary, as well as your style of posting them.

[goalieboy82]

32 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Twitter sourced - to someone connected to the Cardinals beat - was that some members of their travel party were at a casino. Marlins were rumored to have gone to a strip club.

 

Not sure that you blame Manfred for individual people being stupid. I'm reasonably certain that neither of those things were allowed in whatever protocol was agreed upon between the players, its union, and the league.

its this for the League (with the Players and Owners/Manfred)

 

[DEAD!]

Manfred,

End

The

Season

[tp49]

5 hours ago, crashcarson15 said:

Am I off-base in feeling… shocked/disappointed that MLB’s protocols were so bad here? When someone mentioned that teams were staying in hotels where there were huge wedding receptions going on, or how the Phillies were providing visiting clubhouse attendants to Miami my reaction was just like… wait, they let either of those things happen in the first place?

 

I guess my assumption was that baseball was creating a series of mini-bubbles on the road — staying in fully rented-out hotels, catering meals, players not supposed to go anywhere other than their homes, their hotels, and the ballparks, etc., and they… apparently didn’t do that from the start? Of course this was never going to work if your strategy was this close to “pretend nothing is wrong”.

 

I really don’t think baseball’s approach is that flawed with good protocols, it just either seems like MLB’s original protocols were really bad or they’ve just been entirely ignored. You shouldn’t have team-wide outbreaks in this sport if you’re being intentional about your approach.

I thought I was the only one.  After reading the protocols available here for your reading pleasure it's shocking that they failed to account for a number of things most glaring what to do should a team have a mass number of positive COVID tests at one time.  The 113 page document is silent as to how a decision to play a game under those circumstances is to be made.  These things in this day and age are reasonably foreseeable and should have been front and center.  There's no excuse for this on either side and to me this is as egregious as...

 

The lack of mini-bubbles on the road.  I initially had the same assumption as you that teams would be in mini-bubbles on the road using their own clubhouse staff, and the things you listed.  That they didn't is mind blowing.  I wonder if they got caught up in the idea that the players would be disciplined enough to do these things on their own and didn't account for human nature.

 

4 hours ago, Marlins93 said:

The MLB plan for the 2020 season was always destined to fail. You can't trust young, healthy athletes with loads of money, who are used to partying and sleeping around when on the road, to take the necessary precautions. As soon as the MLBPA nixed the bubble idea, baseball's margin for error became extremely thin. MLB and the MLBPA always seemed to be embroiled in a labor dispute and put player safety (and the safety of everyone the players interact with) on the backburner. 

 

MLB and the MLBPA both seemed greedy during all of the build up for this. This plan always seemed ill-conceived at best, public health hazard at worst to me. Shut the season down; we should have never been playing ball to begin with, especially outside of a bubble.

I think this more or less sums up what I've been saying the past week or so here.  One of the things we've learned from the various lockdowns nationwide is that human nature is such that we can't be cooped up for too long before we go nuts without either a release or a high level of discipline.  It will be interesting at the end of the day to see the effectiveness of the NHL and NBA's course of action.

 

1 hour ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Not sure that you blame Manfred for individual people being stupid. I'm reasonably certain that neither of those things were allowed in whatever protocol was agreed upon between the players, its union, and the league.

True but I absolutely can and will blame Manfred and Tony Clark for poor health and safety protocols.  There's more than enough blame to go around on both sides here.  What individual players do on their own is one thing and you can only control it the best you can but to have a poor plan in place from the start is something else and I think the later in this case led to the former.

[AustinFromBoston]

Honestly, let's just make it MLB Survivor at this rate. 

 

Last healthy team remaining wins. 

[Marlins93]

1 hour ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Twitter sourced - to someone connected to the Cardinals beat - was that some members of their travel party were at a casino. Marlins were rumored to have gone to a strip club.

 

Not sure that you blame Manfred for individual people being stupid. I'm reasonably certain that neither of those things were allowed in whatever protocol was agreed upon between the players, its union, and the league.

I'm as appalled by the Marlins outbreak as any fan of another team is, but the strip club rumors were only reported by columnist and he didn't exude much certainty. I wouldn't be terribly shocked if they turn out to be true, but I think it's important to bear that in mind. The greatest issue here is that MLB did not implement strong enough language in their safety guidelines. From what I've read, they've issued a number of "suggestions" about proper conduct while on the road, but shockingly it might end up being the case where the Marlins players actually didn't even explicitly break any rules. That's how weak MLB's safety protocols were.

 

Many people are to blame here, but Manfred and the players themselves are certainly the biggest culprits.

[Cujo]

1 hour ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Ancient Arab proverb - when one man calls you a camel, ignore him. When two men do, grab a saddle.

 

To be clear, I agree that your posts about this are annoying and unnecessary, as well as your style of posting them.

 

First and foremost, l always keep on-topic with my posts. If the SaRcAsM font triggers you, that's kind of on you.

 

I'm actually floored we've now got folks faux-moderating over the "style" members choose contribute. Again, if you dislike, please press ignore.

 

 

Kudos to the North side!

[Alex Houston]

5 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

 

I wonder if teams like Oakland or the gross Florida teams might just stick with the cutouts or virtual fans even when things are normal again.  I'm not trying to make a joke - with the technology ever developing, and fake fans and fake noise becoming a thing, could the A's just "project" fans into Mt. Davis?  Could the gross Florida teams put cutouts all through their dump-ass stadiums?

 

I think going cut-out style would be pretty tacky and unnecessary in normal times. However, would they tarp off already undesirable seats to organizations willing to pay for a promotional visual or say help out local charities? That could be a less harsh way to recoup the losses.