MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

[aparch]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

My heart is going to break with the '82 Brewers losing in a devastating late inning, clinching game, again, aren't they?

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Statistically the top 6 non WS winners (of those listed) are: 81 Yankees, 85 Blue Jays, 80 Yankees, 85 Yankees, 88 Mets, 82 Angels.

But we probably want more diversity than 3 Yankee clubs.

So then the top 6 are: 81 Yankees, 85 Blue Jays, 88 Mets, 82 Angels, 87 Tigers, 88 A's

Next 6 (w/ diversity) are: 82 Brewers, 80 Orioles, 83 White Sox, 86 Red Sox, 80 Royals, 86 Astros

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Not looking great for a season right now.

A’s announced they will stop paying their minor leaguers $400 a week. Per Jeff Passan, it would cost them roughly 1 million dollars to pay them through August. The A’s owner is worth 2 billion. He also said they can’t look to sign with other teams.

And the latest proposal to the MLBPA didn’t go over well.

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Thats what happens when the financials are private. Players cant trust owners.

 

[Drew S.]

Not looking great for a season right now.

A’s announced they will stop paying their minor leaguers $400 a week. Per Jeff Passan, it would cost them roughly 1 million dollars to pay them through August. The A’s owner is worth 2 billion. He also said they can’t look to sign with other teams.

And the latest proposal to the MLBPA didn’t go over well.

If I were a player not sure I would want to take on the health risk for what they want to pay.

 

[aparch]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

The Athletic, filling their quota of stories have dug deep for some actual gem of stories during this pandemic, and one writer had a "what-if" regarding the AL-NL alternates first pick that the draft had for forty years. The same draft that the Mariners lucked out on twice with Griffey and A-Rod. The premise: What if this obscure rule didn't exist, and the worst team got the first pick no matter the league.

But, more interesting to me was this little tidbit burred way at the bottom discussing more in-depth Chipper Jones' pick.

Jones wasn’t a slam dunk, either. The week of the 1990 draft, Jones had hardly heard from any top-four team — the Braves, Tigers, Phillies or White Sox.
“I was totally expecting to go to Pittsburgh at five or Seattle at six,” Jones said. “I knew Seattle wasn’t going to let me fall past them.”

1990 Draft:
1 Chipper Jones Atlanta Braves SS
2 Tony Clark Detroit Tigers OF
3 Mike Lieberthal Philadelphia Phillies C
4 Alex Fernandez Chicago White Sox RHP
5 Kurt Miller Pittsburgh Pirates RHP
6 Marc Newfield Seattle Mariners 1B

Hypothetically, if the Braves got cold feet, we know Van Poppel told the Braves he wanted to go to college instead of the minors. So they probably would have skipped him anyway. So exploring this, do the Braves take Tony Clark? (I can hear Hammer rummaging around for a shovel if in some alternate history his Tigers never got Jones OR Clark.)

But let's pretend somehow Chipper falls to 6th. Mariners. They're absolutely snagging Chipper. Marc Newfield didn't see much time, and was traded to the Padres in 1995 for a player who also didn't see much playing time for the Mariners. So no loss.

But Chipper came up in 1993. Which would likely mean no Mike Blowers. Or you move Blowers to first, moving Tino Martinez sooner, and never having Paul Sorrento.

Which would give you a 1995 ALDS Game Five starting lineup against the Yankees of:
Vince Coleman LF
Joey Cora 2B
Ken Griffey Jr.
Edgar Martinez DH
Chipper Jones 3B
Jay Buhner RF
Luis Sojo SS
Dan Wilson C
Mike Blowers 1B

Andy Benes P


They could have had Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Chipper Jones during their Death Star years. ****.

 

[Hammer]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

With the front office we had in the 90's, it wouldn't have mattered. Ilitch was still 2 years from owing the team, Monaghan had already milked the team for everything he wanted from 1984, the scouting department was atrocious, the farm system had been a disaster for a decade, and this team wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. The Tony Clark-Damien Easley-Bobby Higginson teams were simply not very likable.

I wasn't a big Tony Clark fan, either. Still not a big fan of him now. Best 1B in the game......after June 15th, when the Tigers were already 20 GB. THEN he'd start hitting home runs. 30 HR and 95 RBI by the end of the season, but about 8 homers and 30 RBI when the chips were down and it mattered.

And besides, Randy Smith would have dealt Jones for Brad Ausmus, some weak bullpen arms and a #4 outfielder.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

The Athletic, filling their quota of stories have dug deep for some actual gem of stories during this pandemic, and one writer had a "what-if" regarding the AL-NL alternates first pick that the draft had for forty years. The same draft that the Mariners lucked out on twice with Griffey and A-Rod. The premise: What if this obscure rule didn't exist, and the worst team got the first pick no matter the league.

But, more interesting to me was this little tidbit burred way at the bottom discussing more in-depth Chipper Jones' pick.

1990 Draft:
1 Chipper Jones Atlanta Braves SS
2 Tony Clark Detroit Tigers OF
3 Mike Lieberthal Philadelphia Phillies C
4 Alex Fernandez Chicago White Sox RHP
5 Kurt Miller Pittsburgh Pirates RHP
6 Marc Newfield Seattle Mariners 1B

Hypothetically, if the Braves got cold feet, we know Van Poppel told the Braves he wanted to go to college instead of the minors. So they probably would have skipped him anyway. So exploring this, do the Braves take Tony Clark? (I can hear Hammer rummaging around for a shovel if in some alternate history his Tigers never got Jones OR Clark.)

But let's pretend somehow Chipper falls to 6th. Mariners. They're absolutely snagging Chipper. Marc Newfield didn't see much time, and was traded to the Padres in 1995 for a player who also didn't see much playing time for the Mariners. So no loss.

But Chipper came up in 1993. Which would likely mean no Mike Blowers. Or you move Blowers to first, moving Tino Martinez sooner, and never having Paul Sorrento.

Which would give you a 1995 ALDS Game Five starting lineup against the Yankees of:
Vince Coleman LF
Joey Cora 2B
Ken Griffey Jr.
Edgar Martinez DH
Chipper Jones 3B
Jay Buhner RF
Luis Sojo SS
Dan Wilson C
Mike Blowers 1B

Andy Benes P


They could have had Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Chipper Jones during their Death Star years. ****.

That’s... incredible.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/nWKtqGSQo4">pic.twitter.com/nWKtqGSQo4</a></p>— Max Scherzer (@Max_Scherzer) <a href="https://twitter.com/Max_Scherzer/status/1265842546619691010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

As you can see, things are going well.

 

[aparch]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

And on top of this, the CBA expires December 2021.

This is going to be so great for baseball.

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Im still putting together this 80s tournament. Ive been pulling rotations and lineups (left/right) to ensure the sim is reasonably accurate.

Ive learned some things as well. Not everyone used 3 man rotations in the WS. Some trotted out 5 different starters.

 

[Hammer]

And on top of this, the CBA expires December 2021.

This is going to be so great for baseball.

If they don’t shoot themselves in the foot now, you can be assured that they’ll do it after next season.

 

[Kepler]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Well, if we're lucky by next year capitalism will be a distant memory and the players' soviets will come to an agreement. Seize the means of run production!

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

There was a mass release of minor leaguers yesterday.

Quite a few people on Twitter made the same observation. Why, in MLB, do teams try to do as little as possible to help the minor league players, when investing more would help player development? European soccer has the academy system that has kids 10 and up on a training and diet regimen.

You could blame it on The American Way, given that the NFL and NBA treat college teams as free minor leagues, but the NHL has the most similar structure to MLB and is able to pay a 50k minimum salary to AHL players. Even an ECHL player making the minimum salary is making more than the median AAA player did in 2017 (12k compared to 10.7k).

 

[mookie1995]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

You could blame it on The American Way, given that the NFL and NBA treat college teams as free minor leagues, but the NHL has the most similar structure to MLB and is able to pay a 50k minimum salary to AHL players. Even an ECHL player making the minimum salary is making more than the median AAA player did in 2017 (12k compared to 10.7k).

they are able, but why when one doesn't have to?

 

[RaceBoarder]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

I'd wager that MLB teams view it as something that has a 90%+ failure rate, so don't waste serious money until you are sure you have that top 10% that have a shot.

 

[Kepler]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

I'd wager that MLB teams view it as something that has a 90%+ failure rate, so don't waste serious money until you are sure you have that top 10% that have a shot.

And then they argue that since they assume the risk they should have exclusive rights for longer.

I feed you so I own you but since I own you I don't have to feed you.

 

[Jimjamesak]

There was a mass release of minor leaguers yesterday.

Quite a few people on Twitter made the same observation. Why, in MLB, do teams try to do as little as possible to help the minor league players, when investing more would help player development? European soccer has the academy system that has kids 10 and up on a training and diet regimen.

You could blame it on The American Way, given that the NFL and NBA treat college teams as free minor leagues, but the NHL has the most similar structure to MLB and is able to pay a 50k minimum salary to AHL players. Even an ECHL player making the minimum salary is making more than the median AAA player did in 2017 (12k compared to 10.7k).

Even MLS teams have free academies, plus I think the USL players make than 10k minimum.

 

[RaceBoarder]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Debated putting this here or in the Drinking Thread:

I have a new favorite brewery in Jersey

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: MLB 2020: We'll Play Ball, I Guess.

Surprised Twins are stepping up.

Twins, Royals, Astros and Reds to Pay Minor Leaguers for Entire Year, With No Releases

https://flip.it/43ssUG