MLB 2020: We're Playing, but We Can't Agree on Anything
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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I would strongly prefer ties, if we're changing rules in response to the pandemic.
I'm still not sure why with roster sizes doubled, they're worried about extra innings?
Edit: which is not to say why I don't get why they're doing it and using it as a backdoor to get it into the game normally.
Edit: which is not to say why I don't get why they're doing it and using it as a backdoor to get it into the game normally.
Roster sizes aren't doubled, they start the season at 30 active and later have to cut to 28 and then 26. The 60 man rosters include everyone from your organization who might potentially be active at any point this season, anyone not on that list cannot be called up or traded.
If they're going to insist on all of these changes, couldn't they just make this an exhibition season?
If they're really going to do this, games are going to have to matter to some extent.
Well, it’s technically possible to pitch a perfect game and lose, even under the normal rules. This rule change just makes it more likely.
Team forfeits after 27 outs have been made. Pitcher is credited with perfect game (because no batter reached base while meeting the minimum number of outs) and the loss (because 9-0 score). Improbable, but not impossible.
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I looked it up; there have been 5 forfeits since 1970. Three were from fans storming the field which seems unlikely this year. A 4th was from fans who received baseballs at the gate and were winging them on to the field, which also seems unlikely to happen this year. The other was from putting tarps over the pitcher's mound in the visitor's bullpen during a game.
Combined with the total of 23 perfect games in MLB history, I calculated odds of the perfect game/forfeit scenario happening at roughly a gazillion to one.
I am assuming this is their plan to institute this moving forward in an attempt to speed up the pace of games. As usual, MLB is doing this and nearly everything else, all wrong
I think it's safe to say that Rodriguez is the single most important player to the Red Sox competitive hopes.
View: https://twitter.com/jcmccaffrey/status/1279087667960053761
View: https://twitter.com/jcmccaffrey/status/1279087667960053761
It can shorten the length of the game, but starting an inning with a runner on second automatically slows down the pace of the game. Unfortunately, I've had the displeasure of watching it a couple of times in minor league games.
Uh. Come again Joe? Would you like to re phrase your statement?
View: https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1279085563031650304
View: https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1279085563031650304
So teams don’t have to disclose whether players tested positive, they can just put them on the IL no questions asked?
Wow. The fact that he says this as Trout is considering opting out due to his wife's pregnancy makes it even worse.
EDIT: Also, Trout is wearing a mask during drills today, per Twitter.
View: https://twitter.com/TomHanslin/status/1279096484932263938?s=20
Seems to me that it will be pretty easy to figure out who goes on the covid IL. In most if not all cases anyone put on the regular IL is listed/announced as having been put there with a "strained" whatever or a "broken" whatever. If there's no reason given it's likely due to covid although we won't know if the player has tested positive or has just been exposed and quarantined.
The new clubhouse/suite setup is pretty awesome:
View: https://twitter.com/section10pod/status/1279083397927907329?s=21
View: https://twitter.com/section10pod/status/1279083397927907329?s=21
Angels players reportedly tested positive, I wonder if he knows more about the precise situation he's in than you do (answer: yes, yes he does).
Why?
If that's what he has to do to feel comfortable being on the field, more power to him. Who cares if the necessity of it is low to nil? It's not doing anyone any harm. If the alternative is that he sits out the season altogether, I'm not sure what the objection really is.
Okay, how about a runner on second and they can’t take a lead until the ball is pitched? Once any batter reaches base, that restriction is lifted. That should correct the pace problem, right? The runner on second is quite a departure from the norm already so why not?
Sure, he does. However our healthcare workers do not wear them unless they are specifically performing certain tasks - trach care for example - and they are not outside having a catch with a baseball. They are in a small room, with people who they actually know have tested positive for Covid and have active symptoms. The rest of the entire building wears surgical masks. So, while some Angels may have tested positive for Covid, he does not need an N95 mask outdoors while playing catch. It is almost as ridiculous as when players pretended they were more concerned about their health, and not about their money. A guy like Trout is literally almost at a 0% risk for any actual negative effects from Covid.
You don't need an N95 mask outdoors around people who are not symptomatic and presumably do not even have a positive test. If that is what he feels he needs to do, sure go ahead - but he still looks ridiculous and pretty much on par with the people who wear a mask in their own car by themselves while driving.
Right, but his pregnant wife at home is at risk and he has no desire to contract the virus and bring it home to her. Again, if it's what it takes for him to be comfortable on the field, who cares? If he wants to play in a fucking hazmat suit, he can do that.
Sure. I am not arguing that he cannot do whatever he wants - let him wear a gas mask if he wants to - I was just saying it is ridiculous. Maybe a better way would have been to say he looks ridiculous.
I mean, he looks like maybe the best baseball player ever and someone who will end up worth over half a billion dollars. You look like a guy critiquing the safety precautions a professional athlete with a pregnant wife is taking to stay healthy.
FWIW, I'd rather see someone wearing a mask in situations they might not need to, like in their car, rather than see so many assholes out and about without one. But, I get that Trout's situation is not the same. Regardless, I don't think people being cautious is worth ridicule.
Cool that you know more than anyone else in the world about the long-term ramifications of this, because everyone else seems to think that there are all sorts of potential long-term effects which we're not sure about yet.
Where do you get that from? I know a healthy person a couple years older than Trout who had a severe case and missed work for nearly two months and is psychologically traumatized and who knows what physical traumas exist. I know people younger than Trout who have smell/taste disturbances months out. I have never seen data that the negative effects in the 20-30 year old range are 0%, only that death and hospitalization rates are very low.
If there is such data I’d be interested to see that.
From what I've seen, it's two players to a suite. Don't think they have enough suites in the park to give every player their own.
Also, with the way they've structured the workouts so the players aren't all there at once, I wouldn't be surprised if the "roommates" are on different schedules and are rarely in the suite at the same time.
Eh, maybe MLB just left a bad taste in my mouth while billionaires and millionaires argue over money under the pretext that they are scared of Covid, while people with actual jobs where they have been dealing with positive symptomatic covid patients for months go to work day in and day out for a very small fraction of the money they are making, or while countless others are out of jobs altogether because states unnecessarily have remained closed down or refused to open certain things which would enable people to get back to work and earn a living for their family.
I already explained my mask comment. Wearing an N95 mask to have a catch looks ridiculous to me. YMMV.
He also plays for a team in an area where people have been raging anti-mask. Maybe Mike Trout wearing a mask will make at least a few of those assholes feel stupid and put one on when they go out in public.
I probably wouldn't do it either. But I'm not a $400M athlete with a pregnant wife at home. While the risk is very low, as you point out, it's not impossible. Maybe he just wants to make it a little less likely given the severity of the impacts of the tail risks involved?
When you say "you don't need to wear...", that's your risk assessment, and you're leading a very different life than he is. On top of this, you use the idea that his teammates are asymptomatic as part of your rationale, when we're pretty damn sure that asymptomatic carriers can transmit.
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Again, have to ask what your expertise is to make this comment and to criticize someone wearing a mask because they "look stupid"? You understand what that combination portends, yes?
While I 100% agree with you on MLB’s handling of this being just terrible, I’m glad to know where you stand about re-opening. After all, opening up has gone so well so far, right?
Also as a respected veteran, he's trying to lead his teammates, to set the example that we're taking this seriously, etc.
I also thought Maddon's comments were really astute, once I saw the whole statement. He's acknowledging that the team is asking a lot of the players in terms of compliance, and noting that everyone will need to stick to the program very closely for it to work, especially in some of these markets where there's a ton of virus. So players with reservations about it should think hard about whether they're ready to commit to that.
I'm sure you're right about hospital practices, but this last part is uninformed. People talk about the fatality rate, but it isn't binary: as we see the longer-term picture for early patients, some people are coming through this thing, even survivors, with organ damage that for all we know may be permanent. Damage to the lungs, the brain, the liver, the kidneys. This thing is no joke, and nobody on earth has had it for longer than what — 8 months? We know very little about its consequences over the long haul.
If we're going to start piling gimmicks on top of gimmicks, why not just say that the fielders in extra innings cannot wear gloves? That would really speed up the pace of the game, and it would return baseball to a simpler time!