Covid and MLB

bosockboy

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Goodell just shit himself. No way the NFL can make it. Imagine an entire offensive line being taken out and an NFL quarterback being protected by street players.
 

DJnVa

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Dec 16, 2010
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I wonder if this is the Rudy Gobert moment from the spring when everyone just realizes they can't do this and everything shuts down.
No. We won't shut "everything" down based on an outbreak on one MLB. We might shut MLB down though.
 

loshjott

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This isn't a real option for a 60 game MLB season because they dickered over non-covid stuff for so long.

@DPLennon

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The KBO’s plan for an outbreak is to shut down the league for two weeks, then reassess. They haven’t needed to do that, but speaks to how seriously such a problem is viewed, both for player safety and public as a whole.
 

grimshaw

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I don't think they can save the season, but they ought to consider having as many "home" games as possible by the Braves, Marlins and Rays be played in opponents stadiums. It should have already been considered before the season started given the number of cases in Georgia and Florida at the start of the season. I mean if the Blue Jays have to play in Buffalo, that doesn't seem unreasonable.
 

PedroKsBambino

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If the season is killed because the Marlins played a game they should have canceled/forfeited does that mean we can blame Jeter for everything?

That would be a (very small) silver lining
 

loshjott

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I don't think they can save the season, but they ought to consider having as many "home" games as possible by the Braves, Marlins and Rays be played in opponents stadiums. It should have already been considered before the season started given the number of cases in Georgia and Florida at the start of the season.
D'Backs and all California and Texas teams also. That's 11 teams, more than a third of the league.
 

JCizzle

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D'Backs and all California and Texas teams also. That's 11 teams, more than a third of the league.
At that point, what folks seem to be describing seems an awful lot like a...bubble... in safe cities. Hmm.
 

bsj

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This isn't a real option for a 60 game MLB season because they dickered over non-covid stuff for so long.
@DPLennon
·
4m

The KBO’s plan for an outbreak is to shut down the league for two weeks, then reassess. They haven’t needed to do that, but speaks to how seriously such a problem is viewed, both for player safety and public as a whole.
That they havent needed to speaks 100% to the mentality of the American athlete, and really the general public, in contrast to the folks over there. So much more willingness to personally sacrifice for the greater good over there.
 

DJnVa

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The NBA hasn't had an outbreak yet. The Premier League. the NWSL. The KBO. The NHL.

Good job being a leader MLB.
 

DJnVa

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I dunno, maybe read the thread, and see if anyone said that.
I don't get the snark. We just had outbreak, and the "plugged in guy" I'm supposed to listen to basically said they don't know what's going to happen.

But, I'll award you an internet point.
 

PedroKsBambino

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One huge unknown which the earlier thread could not address is what the MLBPA is going to say about the Marlins outbreak and players willingness to continue this.

I would guess that's at or near top of the list for Manfred right now
 

DJnVa

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Then the country deserves to go down in flames.
It's an outbreak among a group that spends lots of time together in close proximity and we don't know what happened yet. And if we don't shut everything down we deserve to go down in flames?
 

terrynever

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Scientists say you can’t beat Covid-19 unless everything shuts down for two months. Look at Australia. it had things under control but now Melbourne is hosting an outbreak. The virus can pop up anywhere.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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I wonder why MLB seems to have such a high percentage of positives versus any other league in existence, and the general public at large? I also question if these are all asyptomatic positives, if their tests are accurate.
 

OurF'ingCity

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I wonder why MLB seems to have such a high percentage of positives versus any other league in existence, and the general public at large? I also question if these are all asyptomatic positives, if their tests are accurate.
I think it’s largely a question of timing - it’s not that other leagues didn’t go through this,they just did so earlier. This is basically what happened in the NBA in March, with numerous players testing positive (but because the NBA shut down quickly the spread was somewhat contained more than what MLB might be facing now).

Regarding asymptomatic positives, given the relative health and youth of MLB players I don’t think it’s that surprising - again similar to the NBA. And it’s not like ALL positive MLB cases are asymptomatic - EdRo’s entire career may be in jeopardy as a result of COVID and there have been other players that have described varying levels of symptoms.
 

loshjott

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The Marlins had positive tests yesterday and were allowed to play. Seems like MLB fucked up here.
The players who tested positive did not play. Like Soto last week. However, the difference from the Nats situation is several players tested positive, enough to credibly call this an outbreak, and yet the team still played. And of course later more positive tests came back. Agree MLB screwed this up.
 

Gash Prex

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I’m extremely concerned about the fact that internal controls/procedures they had in place to prevent spread among the team failed spectacularly - this speaks more to the viability on the season than anything in my opinion.
 

Ed Hillel

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I wonder why MLB seems to have such a high percentage of positives versus any other league in existence, and the general public at large? I also question if these are all asyptomatic positives, if their tests are accurate.
They work in the clubhouse still. One person gets it, so do many others. Leagues outside the US should not be compared because they have not fucked up Corona to the extent we have.

NFL has not shot, maybe the NBA can work, but one person can fuck that entire thing up, too. Or, you know, a false negative, which is quite common at this point.
 

CoffeeNerdness

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The NBA hasn't had an outbreak yet. The Premier League. the NWSL. The KBO. The NHL.

Good job being a leader MLB.
I haven't watched much of the other sports but the MLB players clearly haven't been taking this seriously. Limited mask use, spitting, no masking/distance in the dugout, pig piling after walk-offs, etc.
 

jmm57

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I could actually see NFL working better than baseball. At first I couldn’t, but the 1 game a week may turn out to be a huge advantage. Test everyone Friday, then bubble until game time?
 

The Gray Eagle

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They should have used a "bubble" system instead of doing so much traveling. That was the only possible way to have done this.
If the NFL wants to have a season, they'd better realize that soon.
 

bsj

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They should have used a "bubble" system instead of doing so much traveling. That was the only possible way to have done this.
If the NFL wants to have a season, they'd better realize that soon.
Correct. Its a shame that the sport that was most likely to have been able to be done safely if in a bubble also has the strongest union
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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I wonder why MLB seems to have such a high percentage of positives versus any other league in existence, and the general public at large? I also question if these are all asyptomatic positives, if their tests are accurate.
MLB is seeing more positives than the other leagues because they're not isolating players the way the other leagues are. NBA players arrived in Orlando and were shut off from the outside world. NHL players are arriving in their bubble cities and aren't going anywhere. Meanwhile, MLB scattered players to 27 different cities and while they've got a robust testing procedure in place, players aren't holing up in isolation. They're free to go out into the real world when they want. Should it really be a surprise that the first team with a substantial outbreak was based in one of the hottest of COVID hotspots over the last few weeks?

This season is fucked.
 

BigSoxFan

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Curious to see where MLB goes from here. Sounds like other games are going to be played, unless something changes.
 

cornwalls@6

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They can't continue this season, under the circumstances of our catastrophic national non-response to the virus. Any teams from CA, TX, GA, Az, and FLA are matter of when, not if, they also have an outbreak. And northeast/midwest markets are a real possibility of having significant spikes in infections as well. It was fun having it back for a few days.
 

OurF'ingCity

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It baffles me how MLB could have no contingencies in place for this type of situation other than “we’ll just cancel a few games and hope the rest works itself out.”

Trying to play a sports season in America outside of a “bubble” right now might be a fool’s errand regardless to assuming MLB was never going to take that route, what they should have done was keep the 60-game schedule but start a month earlier and build in tons of off days to address this inevitability (e.g. teams get a day off between every series or something like that). Not saying that was ever likely to happen given the competing demands of ownership and players but not building in that extra time was so shortsighted.

They maybe can still get to Sept 1 if this is the only “outbreak,” but there would seem to be little chance of that happening and even one or two more outbreaks - particularly within the same division - will fuck up the schedule beyond repair unless they are going to say that some teams can finish the season having played fewer than 60 games, which would just make this “season” more of a joke than it already is.
 

uncannymanny

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Jan 12, 2007
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They need to be shut down, by force if necessary. Letting these guys go out into the world unchecked and fly all around the country is like a live contact trace. I wanted baseball too but JFC this is not going to work.
 

absintheofmalaise

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Per the Matt Breen, Phillies beat writer for the Inquirer.

Matt Breen @matt_breen
9m


The Marlins learned before Sunday’s game that three players had tested positive for COVID-19. So they held a player’s meeting to decide if they should play against the Phillies. Can’t find that protocol in MLB’s 101-page manual.
 

burstnbloom

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Jul 12, 2005
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I really wanted to get to September 1st but it seems unlikely we'll even get to August 1st at this point. What a mess. If they are going to keep going, I think there needs to be a real public accounting of what their plan is in a situation like this. There is no way the Marlins are the only team that is going to get sick. The quotes from Mattlingly and Rojas are not encouraging.