Play Ball! After months of idiocy, schedule is in place & camps open July 1st

[Taro Tsujimoto]

Another week, another possible plan. Games split between Florida (Miami/St. Pete), Texas (Arlington/Houston), and Arizona (Phoenix):

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Just what the great city and people of Houston deserve.

f*** me

 

[IU Hawks fan]

A+ tweet

 

[John Price]

 

[Oheao]

Houston cheats and gets to host MLB games right after?

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Cities will slowly start to open this month. Hoping MLB does as well.

 

[John Price]

It's coming back. The matter is about the isolation and whether fans are allowed or not.

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

Maybe it’s a dream scenario.

Maybe it’s premature to get excited.

Then again, maybe it just might work.

Major League Baseball officials have become cautiously optimistic this week that the season will start in late June, and no later than July 2, playing at least 100 regular-season games, according to three executives with knowledge of the talks. They requested anonymity because the plan is still under consideration.

And not only would baseball be played, but it would be played in their own major-league ballparks, albeit with no fans.

MLB is considering a three-division, 10-team plan in which teams play only within their division – a concept gaining support among owners and executives. It would abolish the traditional American and National Leagues, and realign the divisions based on geography.

The plan, pending approval of medical experts and providing that COVID-19 testing is available to the public, would eliminate the need for players to be in isolation and allow them to still play at their home ballparks while severely reducing travel.

The divisions would keep many of the natural rivals together, while playing one another before an expanded playoff format.

Here's a look at the possible realignment structure:

EAST

• New York Yankees and Mets, Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins

WEST

• Los Angeles Dodgers and Angels, San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners

CENTRAL

• Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers

This seems like a dream scenario more than a realistic scenario, IMO.

 

[PanthersPens62]

I'm sure there will be 15 more scenarios before a final decision is made, but at least they are trying to come up with something that may work depending on how the virus is later on this spring.​

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Houston cheats and gets to host MLB games right after?

The world we live in right now.

 

[John Price]

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/mlb-return-june-july-report-1.5548104

 

[KevFu]

Not a fan of the 10-team divisions, because if you're going to do that don't make it East/East, Central/Central, West/West (with ATL/PIT swapped).

Do it AL East/Central, NL East/Central and AL/NL Wests, which makes far more sense competitively.

"Oh, but they're doing it that way for travel purposes!" is non-sense. This plan is built on travel not being a problem.

If travel is a problem, you're playing quarantine ball in AZ/TX/FL.
If travel isn't a problem, then playing the East/Central/West in their league because there's no difference.

The pandemic related travel issues are: hotels being closed in some places and not others. This will always be true based no matter whom plays whom. They fly charters. The length of the flight doesn't matter because they're not sitting next to a random stranger who bought a ticket and didn't bag check their infectious pathogen.

This is MLB using the opportunity to try this so they can say "No one was too upset with 2020" when they want to implement their 156-game, radical realignment plan that leaked in Baseball America in 2017 (Which is a plan that's bad for baseball).

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Swapping Pittsburgh and Atlanta doesn't make any sense to me. I understand that Atlanta is west of Pittsburgh. It's also west of Cleveland & Detroit, and even with Cincinnati. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is just over 2 hours driving from Cleveland, while being 4 to DC & Baltimore and a bit longer to Philly.

The Braves are on a island compared to rest of the all-northern Central. They should stay with the Florida teams and their rivals.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Why are they overcomplicating this? It's not like these guys are flying coach on American Airlines.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

I'm surprised that the idea of teams playing games in their home parks, and possibly some with limited fans in attendance based on their state's/province's rules, isn't generating more buzz. That's a huge revelation.

 

[KevFu]

Swapping Pittsburgh and Atlanta doesn't make any sense to me. I understand that Atlanta is west of Pittsburgh. It's also west of Cleveland & Detroit, and even with Cincinnati. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is just over 2 hours driving from Cleveland, while being 4 to DC & Baltimore and a bit longer to Philly.

The Braves are on a island compared to rest of the all-northern Central. They should stay with the Florida teams and their rivals.

Honestly, I think the reason for that is the ridiculous strength of the East.

AL/NL East: 7 of 10 were .500 or better.
AL/NL Central: 5 of 10 were .500 or better.

Swap ATL and PIT and both "new divisions" have 6 of 10 teams over .500

 

[KevFu]

I'm surprised that the idea of teams playing games in their home parks, and possibly some with limited fans in attendance based on their state's/province's rules, isn't generating more buzz. That's a huge revelation.

I think it's because most people don't think we are there yet.

I don't want to bring politics into this, because it's a lightning rod, but all the talk of "opening things back up" has nothing to do with public health; it has to do with "Government shut down business = government pays unemployment; government lifts ban, people don't show up to businesses, that's the 'marketplace/supply vs demand, and sorry about your luck."

What's changed since when we shut down everything? Nothing.

It's like this: Poisonous snake in your bedroom. Do you close the door, hang out in the living room all day, then because it hasn't bitten anyone in a few hours deem the bedroom safe? NO! You gotta kill the snake.

That's why I've been saying they should do quarantine ball. The number of staffers needed to run an MLB game is much higher than anyone things. You do 5 groups of 6 teams each, in domes, play tripleheaders and you need 5 facilities instead of 30. Double the staffs because of how long the days are, and it's 10 crews instead of 30.

Use AZ, TX, FL and you have no travel, so you need 3 governors to okay, not 21.

 

[John Price]

They will almost certainly play in 2020 again because the owners need to generate money. The players won't like it, and many have been vocal about missing kid's births for this, but sadly it has to be done. It's even feasible too. When you see what's going on in the CPBL as well as the KBO this is probably the most likely situation which will happen in a few weeks. Heck, ther eis already talk of the season restarting in June or July.

 

[KevFu]

They will almost certainly play in 2020 again because the owners need to generate money. The players won't like it, and many have been vocal about missing kid's births for this, but sadly it has to be done. It's even feasible too. When you see what's going on in the CPBL as well as the KBO this is probably the most likely situation which will happen in a few weeks. Heck, ther eis already talk of the season restarting in June or July.

But it's a simple cost analysis for MLB. Do they lose less money playing, or less money not playing?

NORMALLY: 10.7 billion revenue, 4.0 billion player payroll, 5.2 billion operating expenses = 1.5 billion profit

NO FANS: Only TV revenue of 4.5 billion, 4.0 billion player payroll, 4.2 billion (say 80% guess) operating expenses = LOSS OF 4.7 BILLION

NO SEASON: Zero revenue, Only $170 million to players, 4.2 billion (say 80% guess) operating expenses = LOSS OF 4.170 BILLION.

Of course, the financial value of playing games right now when there's no new content in the world and they could get massive ratings and generate new fans needs to be factored in.

I would guess based on their discussions and problem solving tactics, they'll play because of two scenarios:
1. If the get the players to do some kind of pro-rated pay structure that saves the $600 million and results in less losses than no season.
2. If they believe the outlook is one where they can START without fans and start selling some amount of tickets halfway through or for the playoffs.

 

[Bondurant]

Does anyone play Strat-o-Matic? I've never played but have debated getting into the game for awhile. Might be something fun while there's no sports and I am stuck working from home. Love to read and binge Netflix and Prime but need to diversify a bit.

 

[Taro Tsujimoto]

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

• A regular season beginning in early July and consisting of approximately 80 games. The number might not be exactly 80 – both 78 and 82 are possibilities.

A 78-game schedule might look like this: Four three-game series against each division opponent, and two three-game series against each non-division opponents.

• Teams would open in as many home parks as possible, with even New York – the major-league city hardest-hit by the coronavirus – potentially in play by early July.

Toronto also might open by then, though non-essential travel between the U.S. and Canada is restricted through at least May 21 and all travelers to Canada currently are subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

• Expanded playoffs similar to the idea first reported by the New York Post in February, with an increase from five to seven teams in each league.

Under that plan, the team with the best record in each league would receive a bye in the wild-card round and advance to the Division Series. The two other division winners and wild card with the best record would face the bottom three wild cards in a best-of-three wild-card round.

Because games, at least initially, will be played without fans, the players would be asked to accept a further reduction in pay, most likely by agreeing to a set percentage of revenues for this season only.

The idea behind such a plan, from the league’s perspective, would be to protect the players and owners against the economic uncertainty created by the virus.

 

[John Price]

 

[John Price]

 

[John Price]