Covid and MLB

richgedman'sghost

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edit: wrong thread

to give some content: White Sox manager tested negative I think I heard
Occam's razor everyone. The Marlins are among the youngest teams in baseball. They are in Miami, long one of the hottest of Covid hot spots in the country and still is. The hottest Covid hot spot in Miami is South Beach, an enclave of nightlife for the young and beautiful people who throw caution to the wind and party until all hours with no regard for distancing or masking. I think it's safe to speculate they got their infections right at home.
I think the current theory is that the Marlins went to that nightclub /strip club in Atlanta (the same one that Lou Williams went to) and got infected there. It is worth noting that the Braves last week were minus their 2 top catchers. Must be something in the wings
 

Ale Xander

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I think the current theory is that the Marlins went to that nightclub /strip club in Atlanta (the same one that Lou Williams went to) and got infected there. It is worth noting that the Braves last week were minus their 2 top catchers. Must be something in the wings
Has to be the hot sauce.
 

LoweTek

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Rovin Romine

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Forgive the defects in my sarcasm radar. Are you disagreeing with the assertion? The crowds down there are all over the news in my area. The numbers seem to back up the assertion. No offense intended...
No, I think it's pretty accurate all around. I was just a bit aflutter over being lumped into the young and beautiful crowd. ;)
 

joe dokes

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Because things are going so swimmingly?
Cynic that I am, yes, precisely because of how things are going.
Is there some provision under which things are operating that gets more $$ to active players if/when the season is cancelled, than to those who opted out before cancellation.
 

joe dokes

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If he's gaming the system, then yeah, well done on his part. Just seems odd if not, especially given what Freeman went through if he's spoken to him at all.
I think it's precisely because it looks odd that using the system is why he's doing it. Or maybe he has nowhere else to go after he got kicked out of the house for taking all those Marlins to the strip joint.
 

trekfan55

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Phillies won't play Friday either, DH against the Jays on Saturday. Guess internally they think wait until Saturday is ok.
I had a similar experience with contact.

My niece and brother in law tested positive and I had had contact with them the day before. Actually my whole family. This was on a Thursday. We all got locked in and following doctor's advice did a molecular test on Tuesday (4-5 days after contact was the recommendation). Results came in on Wednesday (longest 36 hours in my life) all negative (not detected was the official designation). Dr said we can act prudently and wait the full 14 days but we were essentially scott free.

Niece and brother in law are fine now, as is the rest of the family.

My point is that after contact with an asymptomatic positive you may not actually get it and after a couple of negative tests you should be fine. So the Phillies may be fine.

I talked to a doctor friend, and he sees COVID cases and he is up to speed on this.
 

mauf

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Phillies won't play Friday either, DH against the Jays on Saturday. Guess internally they think wait until Saturday is ok.
We don’t know much for sure about COVID, but I believe a person who tests negative 5 days after exposure is generally considered to be in the clear. So you test the Phillies on Friday (5 days after the last Marlins game), and if the results come back clean, they’re clear to play on Saturday.
 

loshjott

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We don’t know much for sure about COVID, but I believe a person who tests negative 5 days after exposure is generally considered to be in the clear. So you test the Phillies on Friday (5 days after the last Marlins game), and if the results come back clean, they’re clear to play on Saturday.
Tests on Friday will likely not come back until Sunday.
 

DeadlySplitter

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https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29561640/mlb-requiring-teams-add-coronavirus-protocol-compliance-officers
Following the coronavirus outbreak that infected nearly half of the Miami Marlins' roster and prompted the temporary suspension of the team's season, Major League Baseball is encouraging players not to leave hotels in road cities except for games, mandating the use of surgical masks instead of cloth masks during travel and requiring every team to travel with a compliance officer who ensures players and staff properly follow the league's protocol, sources told ESPN.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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It’s not like MLB is sending players to the local drive-thru testing site. I’d be shocked if they aren’t getting results in <24 hours.
Actually a nugget in Passan's article posted above is the tests conducted every other day are then sent to MLB's Utah lab, where it is typically processed "within 36 hours". That tells me a test would have to be conducted very early on a Friday to get a result back for a Saturday night game.

Another laughable anecdote was when contact tracing was done on the initial 3 positive players, ONE (1!) player was determined to be subject to quarantine based on exposure within 6 feet over a 10-minute period. The player, Sandy Alcantara, tested positive. Seeing all the subsequent positives, the Marlins contact tracing was hot garbage.
 

mauf

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Actually a nugget in Passan's article posted above is the tests conducted every other day are then sent to MLB's Utah lab, where it is typically processed "within 36 hours". That tells me a test would have to be conducted very early on a Friday to get a result back for a Saturday night game.
Thanks. I’m surprised that MLB couldn’t do better on testing turnaround time.


Another laughable anecdote was when contact tracing was done on the initial 3 positive players, ONE (1!) player was determined to be subject to quarantine based on exposure within 6 feet over a 10-minute period. The player, Sandy Alcantara, tested positive. Seeing all the subsequent positives, the Marlins contact tracing was hot garbage.
Contact tracing is not a complex process. We’re training unemployed people with no relevant experience to do it. Maybe MLB’s process is screwed up, but I think it’s much more likely that MIA players didn’t tell contact tracers the full truth about where they had been and with whom.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Contact tracing is not a complex process. We’re training unemployed people with no relevant experience to do it. Maybe MLB’s process is screwed up, but I think it’s much more likely that MIA players didn’t tell contact tracers the full truth about where they had been and with whom.
Agree, if the strip club story is true that is the case. The players are probably thinking, "man that would be a little embarrassing if I had to tell the tracer to contact that stripper named Ginger in Atlanta for quarantining". However it is easier to pass this by a team contact tracer who is probably reassigned in the organization from other duties or someone off the street. Now with MLB itself trying to get to the bottom of the causes the players will probably be a little more forthcoming.
 

donutogre

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Has there been any substantial update on what the plan is here? I'm reading 17 players on the Marlins have it. How the fuck are they supposed to continue their season any time soon?
 

Max Power

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Jeter and Mattingly are going to come out of retirement to fill a couple spots on the infield. The mechanical dolphin will be playing center.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Has there been any substantial update on what the plan is here? I'm reading 17 players on the Marlins have it. How the fuck are they supposed to continue their season any time soon?
This is where someone more optimistic would step in and point out that that's the whole point of the 60-man rosters, to whether the outbreaks. That's the plan. If enough of them clear the testing hurdle by the end of the weekend, they'll play while their COVID-positive teammates quarantine until they've recovered.

If the Phillies come out of this without any positives, then MLB will have dodged a major bullet. They're giving lip service to clamping down on teams on the road, but they're going to have to put some teeth into their rules or this is bound to happen again. The Marlins aren't the only team in the league with dumb young men on their roster. Someone else will slip up at some point.
 

DeadlySplitter

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the ESPN article I linked mentioned MLB recommending every team has a hall monitor on the road. basically going back to high school!
 

Sandwich Pick

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The only precedent I could find for this situation was in 'The Mighty Ducks'

The Panthers got the measles and had to forfeit the season.
 

jon abbey

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Right, forgot about the 60-man roster. Man, that's going to be some deep depth they're going to be getting into there...
The problem is that the 40 man rules haven't changed, so MIA is much more likely to just use scrubs they can release when their regulars are healthy again. If they use the 60 man depth, they will be forced into 40 man decisions they don't want to make later on, it's a bad flaw in this system.
 

sean1562

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Thanks. I’m surprised that MLB couldn’t do better on testing turnaround time.
I got a drive-thru test from a Walgreens in Illinois about two weeks ago and had my results within two hours. Insane that MLB doesn't have the infrastructure required to give test results that quickly with all the money at stake.
 

OurF'ingCity

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2 people on the Phillies staff tested positive. All activities at Citizens Bank Park have been shut down today. One is a coach and the other one is the home clubhouse manager.
Two equally bad scenarios here. The first is that some Phillies did in fact catch the coronavirus from the Marlins. The second is that they didn't but that protocols weren't sufficient to protect the Phillies from getting independently sick.
 

Ale Xander

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You wonder if the players and coaches should start to co-manage their clubhouse themselves. Crazy idea in a crazy time.
 

Ale Xander

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Baseball's toast. It's just not out of the toaster yet so no one apparently believes it.
MLB needs to remove the plug from the socket before the kitchen catches on fire, but they're too cheap/greedy to waste a slice of bread.
 

mauf

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This is where someone more optimistic would step in and point out that that's the whole point of the 60-man rosters, to whether the outbreaks. That's the plan. If enough of them clear the testing hurdle by the end of the weekend, they'll play while their COVID-positive teammates quarantine until they've recovered.

If the Phillies come out of this without any positives, then MLB will have dodged a major bullet. They're giving lip service to clamping down on teams on the road, but they're going to have to put some teeth into their rules or this is bound to happen again. The Marlins aren't the only team in the league with dumb young men on their roster. Someone else will slip up at some point.
Best thing they could do is cancel the Marlins’ season. Players are much more likely to self-police if irresponsible players are putting their teammates’ livelihoods at risk. (Yes, there is also the risk from the virus, but it seems clear now that not everyone is taking that risk seriously.)
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Yeah it's already a bit tacky to be going on to the "normalcy" of playing sports with very little sacrifice (as opposed to other leagues taking the bubble precautions), but when you are also helping to spread the virus into the world in the amount of dozens of cases and not just a few...

If MLB doesn't pull the plug soon the state and local governments will.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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The only thing I can't find is whether or not the Phillies have continued to work out while they've been shut down. The press release says all activity at Citizens Bank Park has been shut down, which implies there was some kind of activity that needed to be shut down. I would assume that given the nature of testing (not all that reliable until 4-5 days after potential exposure), they weren't relying the early negatives and coming to the ballpark for bullpens and BP and what not. The Phillies wouldn't be that stupid, would they?
 

JCizzle

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Two equally bad scenarios here. The first is that some Phillies did in fact catch the coronavirus from the Marlins. The second is that they didn't but that protocols weren't sufficient to protect the Phillies from getting independently sick.
I just dont see how any protocols short of a bubble are going to be sufficient. By "allowing" people to be living at home, the odds are that someone will catch it even if they're being fully responsible and only going out to get groceries.

Basically the NFL is fucked.
 

dynomite

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Who could have seen this coming? .... Oh right, everyone.

It's probably doomed, but I wonder what would have to happen for this season to continue? Seen a few people mention some of these online:

1) Pull the plug on the Marlins season now. They're done. Their games are cancelled and playoffs will be determined by winning %.
2) Announce Phillies won't play until X consecutive days of no positive tests among all players/staff. Same with all other teams who have positive tests. None of this "Oh, two Reds tested positive, we're calling up taxi squad players all good."
3) Perhaps a mandated day off tonight or tomorrow with a full day of safety training for all teams.
4) Mandated mask wearing in dugouts and on basepaths, actual warnings from umpire to teams for spitting or shaking hands followed by ejections.

Ideas? Probably can't/won't happen. It's ending anyway. But dammit I miss real baseball.
 

OurF'ingCity

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Entire weekend series between the Jays and Phillies has now been postponed.

View: https://twitter.com/bnicholsonsmith/status/1288889756793950209
I would assume that MLB will try to move the Nats-Jays series to this weekend, similar to what they did with the Yankees/Baltimore. But the scheduling here is going to get increasingly difficult for them.

Edit: never mind, forgot that the only Nats-Jays series is concluding this week. Like I said, scheduling is going to get quite difficult.
 
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OurF'ingCity

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Who could have seen this coming? .... Oh right, everyone.

It's probably doomed, but I wonder what would have to happen for this season to continue? Seen a few people mention some of these online:

1) Pull the plug on the Marlins season now. They're done. Their games are cancelled and playoffs will be determined by winning %.
2) Announce Phillies won't play until X consecutive days of no positive tests among all players/staff. Same with all other teams who have positive tests. None of this "Oh, two Reds tested positive, we're calling up taxi squad players all good."
3) Perhaps a mandated day off tonight or tomorrow with a full day of safety training for all teams.
4) Mandated mask wearing in dugouts and on basepaths, actual warnings from umpire to teams for spitting or shaking hands followed by ejections.

Ideas? Probably can't/won't happen. It's ending anyway. But dammit I miss real baseball.
Those are all extremely reasonable steps and, more importantly, things that MLB absolutely should have already had established prior to the season. (On that last point, I found it darkly amusing that MLB made a big deal about how they were going to emphasize no handshakes, high-fives, and spitting and yet just during one inning of the Dodgers-Astros game I saw last night players continued to be tightly grouped in their dugouts with minimal mask-wearing, were fist-bumping, etc. and spitting all over the place - Dusty Baker was wearing a mask, but pulled it up every time he needed to spit sunflower seeds, which MLB purports to have banned entirely this year.)
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Who could have seen this coming? .... Oh right, everyone.

It's probably doomed, but I wonder what would have to happen for this season to continue? Seen a few people mention some of these online:

1) Pull the plug on the Marlins season now. They're done. Their games are cancelled and playoffs will be determined by winning %.
2) Announce Phillies won't play until X consecutive days of no positive tests among all players/staff. Same with all other teams who have positiv
3) Perhaps a mandated day off tonight or tomorrow with a full day of safety training for all teams.
4) Mandated mask wearing in dugouts and on basepaths, actual warnings from umpire to teams for spitting or shaking hands followed by ejections.

Ideas? Probably can't/won't happen. It's ending anyway. But dammit I miss real baseball.
The biggest problem that baseball has that doesn't necessarily exist for other sports is the daily play. Removing a team entirely creates giant holes in the schedule. All the teams in the east would now have 2-4 day long gaps in their schedule if the Marlins were shut down for the year.

At least with two teams currently down, they can take their opponents and match them up. But that can't work forever, particularly if it ends up throwing the balance of the schedule off. The Yankees and Orioles playing two games this week and presumably squeezing in make-up series with the Marlins and Phillies instead of a future Yanks/Orioles series might work. But the Jays and Nats (the opponents left in the lurch this weekend) are concluding their season series tonight. They're not supposed to play each other again, so it doesn't seem right to push them together for three more days.
 

dynomite

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The biggest problem that baseball has that doesn't necessarily exist for other sports is the daily play. Removing a team entirely creates giant holes in the schedule. All the teams in the east would now have 2-4 day long gaps in their schedule if the Marlins were shut down for the year.

At least with two teams currently down, they can take their opponents and match them up. But that can't work forever, particularly if it ends up throwing the balance of the schedule off. The Yankees and Orioles playing two games this week and presumably squeezing in make-up series with the Marlins and Phillies instead of a future Yanks/Orioles series might work. But the Jays and Nats (the opponents left in the lurch this weekend) are concluding their season series tonight. They're not supposed to play each other again, so it doesn't seem right to push them together for three more days.
Totally, I wonder whether you have to just give up the idea of all teams playing the same number of games. Some teams will play 50, some will play 58, etc. and use winning % to determine standings. With expanded playoffs, those kinds of disadvantages would hopefully not matter as much?

I mean, obviously having to play a season with this many bizarre changes means you probably shouldn't play that season, but if they're set on plowing ahead anyway I think this could make more sense.