COVID-19 impact on MLB season

[CheezWizHed]

I'm not sure the NBA bubble is even feasible in MLB. They have all the basketball courts they need in walking distance from each other. Hard to do that with baseball fields. Even in FL/AZ for spring training, the fields are hours away from each other.

 

I think they should've been more specific about some activities that aren't allowed that are inherently higher risk (i.e. bars, clubs, etc.) and held people to 14 day quarantines if they broke those rules.

But this all started when you (OSS) mentioned golf (along with some high risk activities) and I simply asked if golf was prohibited by MLB. I wasn't sure at the time.

[Eye Black]

Per Ken Rosenthal: A Reds player has tested positive for COVID-19, sources tell The Athletic. Team defeated Pirates on Friday night, scheduled to host them again at 6:10 p.m. ET on Saturday. Status of that game not yet known.

[Eye Black]

The Reds-Pirates games for both today and tomorrow have been postponed.

 

It will be interesting to see if MLB makes the Pirates take additional precautions since they presumably played last night against the player that tested positive. They did in the case of the Phillies (after they played the Marlins), but did not do so in the case of the Twins (after they played the Cardinals). I think it’s generally considered a low probability of anyone getting infected on a mostly well distanced baseball diamond.

 

The Reds are currently scheduled to play the Royals and Cardinals this week, while the Pirates are supposed to play the Indians before a weekend series with the Brewers beginning next Friday.

[stalton]

Is it too early/cynical to start a pool on how the player probably contracted it?

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

I'm not sure the NBA bubble is even feasible in MLB. They have all the basketball courts they need in walking distance from each other. Hard to do that with baseball fields. Even in FL/AZ for spring training, the fields are hours away from each other.

 

The NHL situation seems better. 2 bubbles. Different cities. You'd really only need two diamonds per site to make it work.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Apparently multiple players on The Indians are prepared to opt out of the season if clevenger and plesac are not demoted.

[homer]

Apparently multiple players on The Indians are prepared to opt out of the season if clevenger and plesac are not demoted.

 

But it's the evil media's fault...

 

Clevinger must be a real turd.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Apparently multiple players on The Indians are prepared to opt out of the season if clevenger and plesac are not demoted.

 

I thought that already happened? Both were demoted over the weekend.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29679378/sources-choices-mike-clevinger-zach-plesac-break-protocol-caused-rift-cleveland-indians

 

Good to see the players taking it seriously and policing themselves.

[DuWayne Steurer]

according to the ESPN story, most of the players were pretty pissed that clevenger got on the plane without telling people he had been out. I mean, that is a pretty crappy thing to do right now. He's not just putting people's jobs at stake he's putting people's health at risk to go out and have a night.

 

What kills me is pleasac saying he has a mom who's a nurse and a brother who's diabetic so he knows how serious it is. no dude, if you know how serious it is you wouldn't go out, go to a bar, and then try to sneak back into the team hotel. That's why your teammates are pissed at you and don't want you on the team anymore despite your obvious talent.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Also I apologize for the lack of punctuation and caps and weird line breaks. this new phone just capitalizes and uses punctuation kind of when it pleases. I'm not sure I'm in charge anymore.

[homer]

Also I apologize for the lack of punctuation and caps and weird line breaks. this new phone just capitalizes and uses punctuation kind of when it pleases. I'm not sure I'm in charge anymore.

 

I think the wine breaks are the issue

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Apparently multiple players on The Indians are prepared to opt out of the season if clevenger and plesac are not demoted.

 

But it's the evil media's fault...

 

Clevinger must be a real turd.

 

I'm honestly shocked by that. I fully expected this to read they were going to opt out if the players were not brought back to the MLB roster.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Also I apologize for the lack of punctuation and caps and weird line breaks. this new phone just capitalizes and uses punctuation kind of when it pleases. I'm not sure I'm in charge anymore.

 

I think the wine breaks are the issue

 

Yeah I'd rather it was a wine break rather than a line break

[RollieTime]

I mean if they want to permanently move on from Plesac because of his decisions, I would gladly take him on the Brewers. If it causes enough of a rift where players despise him and refuse to play with him again, a trade may happen. It may sound unlikely, but it’s a possibility. I imagine that he absolutely learned from his mistake and won’t try anything like that again whether that’s with the Indians or another organization.

[Eye Black]

Here we go again. Tonight's Mets-Marlins game has been postponed because someone in the Mets organization has tested positive for COVID.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Sounds like 1 player, 1 staff member for the NYM.

 

At this point, MLB is just treating this as business as usual, cost of the season. That's weird. Well, it's not surprising, but it makes me feel weird. All this talk of safety is so hypocritical at this point. Sure feels to me like MLB is fine with entire, team-wide outbreaks, provided they only hit one team at a time.

[adambr2]

Sounds like 1 player, 1 staff member for the NYM.

 

At this point, MLB is just treating this as business as usual, cost of the season. That's weird. Well, it's not surprising, but it makes me feel weird. All this talk of safety is so hypocritical at this point. Sure feels to me like MLB is fine with entire, team-wide outbreaks, provided they only hit one team at a time.

 

What else do you do?

 

This is not a rhetorical question. What else can they do?

 

I'm not saying this was a great plan, but it's the one MLB and the players BOTH agreed to. The Marlins thing was handled like crap but ever since then I think things have been handled about as well as can be expected.

 

It IS the cost of having a season. Don't know what else can really be done without just shutting it all down.

[SomewhereInTime]

Sounds like 1 player, 1 staff member for the NYM.

 

At this point, MLB is just treating this as business as usual, cost of the season. That's weird. Well, it's not surprising, but it makes me feel weird. All this talk of safety is so hypocritical at this point. Sure feels to me like MLB is fine with entire, team-wide outbreaks, provided they only hit one team at a time.

 

Yep. Manage it the best you can and move on with life.

[Oxy]

Sounds like 1 player, 1 staff member for the NYM.

 

At this point, MLB is just treating this as business as usual, cost of the season. That's weird. Well, it's not surprising, but it makes me feel weird. All this talk of safety is so hypocritical at this point. Sure feels to me like MLB is fine with entire, team-wide outbreaks, provided they only hit one team at a time.

 

Remember that nobody is forcing anybody to play. If any individual thinks it's not worth it they opt out and go do their thing where they think that are safer. Obviously, they don't get paid then, but that's life.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Sounds like 1 player, 1 staff member for the NYM.

 

At this point, MLB is just treating this as business as usual, cost of the season. That's weird. Well, it's not surprising, but it makes me feel weird. All this talk of safety is so hypocritical at this point. Sure feels to me like MLB is fine with entire, team-wide outbreaks, provided they only hit one team at a time.

 

Remember that nobody is forcing anybody to play. If any individual thinks it's not worth it they opt out and go do their thing where they think that are safer. Obviously, they don't get paid then, but that's life.

 

I understand this, certainly. This is a voluntary thing. What really bugs me is MLB's insistence that the protocols are fine. It's their attempts to blame players (which is different than when teams themselves do it, ala the Plesac situation). It's Manfred saying he'll scrap the season if an outbreak renders a team basically depleted and then watching two teams get depleted and sitting on his hands. It's not setting red-lines. It's clear that MLB just decided to play no matter what, and that's okay, but then just say it! Say, "we're going to play, and players are free to opt out if they think the risk is too high." But they don't want to do that because it sounds crass. And they don't want the PR backlash. They want to posture like they care and then play anyway, and all I'm saying is you can't have it both ways.

 

Look, I get it. I like having baseball too. But the basic dishonesty of MLB is really bothersome. For the life of me, I just don't understand why organizations insist that they're doing such a great job and are creating such wonderful protocols rather than owning up to what's actually happening, which is that the risk is fairly well known, and they think the money's worth it. Just say it out loud: "We want our money, and we'll take the risk of positive cases to get it."

 

If this were an honest deal from the beginning, fine. But MLB has clearly been trying to play the PR-game when it was obvious from the beginning that this was just very likely going to result in a lot of postponements and a significant number of positive tests. Pretending the plan was anything else is the very definition of spin.

[jerichoholicninja]

Sounds like 1 player, 1 staff member for the NYM.

 

At this point, MLB is just treating this as business as usual, cost of the season. That's weird. Well, it's not surprising, but it makes me feel weird. All this talk of safety is so hypocritical at this point. Sure feels to me like MLB is fine with entire, team-wide outbreaks, provided they only hit one team at a time.

 

Remember that nobody is forcing anybody to play. If any individual thinks it's not worth it they opt out and go do their thing where they think that are safer. Obviously, they don't get paid then, but that's life.

 

I understand this, certainly. This is a voluntary thing. What really bugs me is MLB's insistence that the protocols are fine. It's their attempts to blame players (which is different than when teams themselves do it, ala the Plesac situation). It's Manfred saying he'll scrap the season if an outbreak renders a team basically depleted and then watching two teams get depleted and sitting on his hands. It's not setting red-lines. It's clear that MLB just decided to play no matter what, and that's okay, but then just say it! Say, "we're going to play, and players are free to opt out if they think the risk is too high." But they don't want to do that because it sounds crass. And they don't want the PR backlash. They want to posture like they care and then play anyway, and all I'm saying is you can't have it both ways.

 

Look, I get it. I like having baseball too. But the basic dishonesty of MLB is really bothersome. For the life of me, I just don't understand why organizations insist that they're doing such a great job and are creating such wonderful protocols rather than owning up to what's actually happening, which is that the risk is fairly well known, and they think the money's worth it. Just say it out loud: "We want our money, and we'll take the risk of positive cases to get it."

 

If this were an honest deal from the beginning, fine. But MLB has clearly been trying to play the PR-game when it was obvious from the beginning that this was just very likely going to result in a lot of postponements and a significant number of positive tests. Pretending the plan was anything else is the very definition of spin.

 

That's the players' stance too. If they were really concerned about COVID they would have flatly refused to play. They refused the bubble and it seems like the COVID cases so far have been from the players' own stupidity or ignoring rules.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

The difference is the players aren't making as much. And they haven't been actively dishonest about it.

[jerichoholicninja]

The difference is the players aren't making as much. And they haven't been actively dishonest about it.

 

I'm not sure what the owners are being dishonest about. They want to make money and they will put on a season that will make them money. The players pretended at the beginning they were concerned about health and then it quickly turned to money and even now you can tell there is very little care about protocols during games. I'm sure it's not a whole lot better when they're off camera either.

[djoctagone]

the cactus league has told mlb that they want to delay the start of spring training.

[JohnBriggs12]

the cactus league has told mlb that they want to delay the start of spring training.

 

That's about money too. They could sell tickets to anyone who's been vaccinated and there's a lot of people in Arizona and Florida over 65 that will have been a month from now. Florida's been vaccinating all 65 and over for a month already.