2019-2020 MLB Non-Phillies News/Notes Discussion

andyb 2020-04-28 15:50:28 UTC #842

Jeff Passan does a pretty good job of going though the various options out there for baseball. If we are thinking about June and beyond, I don't think MLB will be limited to a Arizona/Florida plan. If travel to certain cities is too risky, a divisional hub system with 6 pods that would then produce two playoff "winners" that would go onto a NL or AL 6-team playoff pod might make more sense.

This is more the 2-month season option where fans are impossible and too much travel is risky. I guess these options could be interesting, including a November neutral-site World Series somewhere. My guess is that they will not want to go too late into December because the real goal is probably figuring out how to have a full 2021 season if possible.

Philsmania 2020-04-28 16:19:16 UTC #843

Baseball really is dead as a doornail right now. We are supposed to be one month into the season but the Inquirer sports section has not had a baseball-related article in over a week. They are still talking about the Sixers, Flyers and, at this point, boring us to death with the ongoing debate over the Eagles drafting Hurts.

This is offseason all over again. I wish I knew when I can restart the Countdown to Spring Training 2020 2.0.

DurhamBull 2020-04-29 01:30:41 UTC #844

Thanks, @Lawman. Trey Mancini's article on theplayerstribune.com is wonderful.

andyb 2020-04-29 21:23:25 UTC #845

One thing that could be in play this year is the DH. If they go to these mixed league solutions, I think they have to put the DH in full time. The Phillies do have an obvious candidate in Bruce, and maybe Bohm for DH. Not sure it helps them relative to the rest of the league of course. If they still have NL and AL league play for the most part it would put the DH decision off another year, but I would not be surprised if this is the start of a permanent DH.

Lawman 2020-05-01 14:27:30 UTC #846

Story about Dock Ellis. Great read. Enjoy.

Philsmania 2020-05-01 18:13:16 UTC #847

I have no doubt that it would be--as well as possibly a geography-based "radical realignment".

andyb 2020-05-11 17:47:47 UTC #848

MLB is very aggressive in their new revenue sharing proposal. This fits is line with their draft proposal of taking a very aggressive stand on revenues to prevent short term losses due to the virus. Of course they keep ALL the long term gains.

Players need to figure out a way to push back here. Owners were already in a favorable position profit-wise with the current CBA. It is logical that they should take the greater hit here with the virus since theoretically their long term revenue streams (and franchise values) will not take much of a hit. Asking players to share the hit equally is really unfair to the non-star player.

In other words, this could get ugly and it is mostly the owner's fault:

zambonir 2020-05-11 19:48:50 UTC #849

Yeah I'm wondering just how ugly it can get immediately (as in, this week). The union's current position, understandably, is they already made a final deal in March. If the owners made that deal thinking they were gonna have 120 games with people in the stands instead of 80 with none, well, oops.

But they are also gonna want to play, and public sentiment won't be on the players' side even if the media, blogs and most people on these boards feel otherwise. So they might have to take the hit with an agreement to negotiate again for 2021 - or a plan to demand a whole lot come CBA time.

I suppose it could just end with MLB making a better offer than 48%, but that's still a huge pay cut from the guaranteed prorated salaries the players are already entitled to receive this year.

A normal business would also be approaching its landlords and vendors for delayed payment and discounts, but most pro sports teams don't truly pay rent (or taxes).

I'm sure it's true that a few teams will be in serious financial trouble. But most won't. And most owners won't be separate from their teams.

andyb 2020-05-11 20:05:56 UTC #850

The parameters of the proposal are coming into focus:

paired regional divisions (i.e. NL East with AL East). For some reason the Braves were not in the east when the first version of this proposal came out. 12/13 games against 4 in-division opponents (48-52). 6 games against the other division (30 total). 78-82 games total
June Spring Training, probably in home stadiums. No games other than internal scrimmages
30 man roster, 20 man taxi squad (assumes no minors I guess. So this is the 40-man roster plus 10 more players that could be high level prospects (like Bohm or Howard) or maybe more AAAA players like Josh Harrison. No idea how they would deal with waivers and options.
Start around July 4 weekend.
14 team playoffs (by traditional league). 3 division winners, 4 wild card. Best record bye. Other 2 division winners plus best wild card host other 3 wild cards for a 3-game play in series
50/50 revenue split. Assume much more revenue sharing. Player split up from 48% that was leaked. As I alluded before, this is worse for players than owners because of shorter careers. Though I assume there might be a deal at 52%-54% of revenues.

No idea if this will happen as the virus plays by its own rules. Probably as good a plan as any other league has at the moment.

andyb 2020-05-11 20:10:31 UTC #851

One question with Bohm and Howard here is what to do with them if it is impossible for them to get AAA experience? I assume they could hold them off for 10-15 games to get the extra year of service time, but I really think Bohm needed defensive work for a couple of months and Howard really needs to pitch with the AAA/MLB baseball. Putting them in this year might be throwing them to the wolves.

Unless they outright win a job in Spring Training, I might be resigned to not using either this year no matter how tempting it would be. Or at least go through half the games and hope there is some AAA type competition that evolves in Spring Training sites.

allentown 2020-05-11 21:10:22 UTC #852

Since there likely won't be minor league play, a first round college pitcher might go right to MLB on the expanded 40-man roster. Even with top talent, this would have been difficult in prior seasons, because of wear-and-tear of college season, but now all the college pitching draftees should be very well rested. How many teams will have 40 other players who would give more value to big team than a first-round college pitcher. First-time-around-the-league effect may also benefit them. MLB pitching coaches get to tweak their approach in the shortened ST, so opposing teams will not have much idea what to expect from them.

rpmcmurphy 2020-05-11 21:53:35 UTC #853

I’d be more inclined to give Bohm a real shot, especially if there is a universal DH. I would have Howard on the roster. I think that he would benefit from working with the big league coaches and players, but unless he is very impressive in the training period I would not want to use him much, especially early on.

Although I will be very pleased if a season happens, I will believe it when I see it. The same is true for the other sports. Even though the stats would count and be official, this baseball season will not feel the same and will forever be regarded by many as a weird one-off exhibition season. At least hopefully a one-off.

zambonir 2020-05-12 00:09:39 UTC #854

I would think that while there is not going to be a minor league season with spectators in AAA or below, there may still be some kind of complex league, including players from the higher levels and the taxi squad?

On another note:

bkeich 2020-05-12 13:43:09 UTC #855

I think we will probably see Bohm at 3B sooner rather than later.

It would have been nice to have a AAA season for Bohm to hone his skills in, but frankly I just dont see that happening. I think there is a 5% chance you might see a "pseudo"-AAA using the stadiums and the taxi squads that teams will have, but my guess is those taxi squads will be in teams spring training complexes and might play some unofficial games against each other.

This is a lost season, if it even happens. If the Phils were smart they would throw Bohm in the mix with time off for mental breaks and to work on this skills and let him learn against specific pitchers. The Phils probably are probably still only a .500 team, so it is not like they are going to risk some championship season by having him commit errors or having Howard get a little pounded.

2020 Phillies Spring Training News, Notes & Discussion

andyb 2020-05-23 18:30:17 UTC #856

Orioles saving their pennies by releasing lots of their organizational minor leaguers:

It will be interesting if other teams do this. I have no idea if there are going to be any minor league games this year. DSL seems likely in some form. Then probably some complex stuff that looks like extended Spring. I could also see a higher level version of the Arizona League in both Arizona and Florida for AAA and AA level prospects. Beyond that maybe nothing.

Even if they are not paying them, teams might question why they keep a 24-year-old college player in Low A. Or a 22-year-old Dominican player who is still in short season ball. If there are no reps to develop them, might as well let them go. I am not endorsing this, and I hope good organizations can avoid it, but this seems to be the future. MLB organizations releasing a bunch of players. Maybe they won't have enough players to field that extra minor league team by the time they are negotiating to cut it.

zambonir 2020-05-23 19:37:17 UTC #857

At least if the Phillies do anything to cut costs they've promise to keep all the employees on.

Philsmania 2020-05-23 20:24:43 UTC #858

Middleton doesn't strike me as a warm fuzzy (or particularly nice) guy but there may well be some principle behind his generous philanthropic efforts.

zambonir 2020-05-23 22:08:49 UTC #859

He can also afford it, not that Moreno can't. Some teams are going to treat this like a budget item - including cutting player payroll next year - and others will just take the hit. With so many front offices viewing human scouts as a luxury item (much like extra minor league teams) to begin with, this just accelerates the process.

We'll see what Middleton does if there is actually no season, or in between seasons. I don't imagine the same size sales and marketing staff is going to be required heading into 2021 (though there will certainly be a lot of hard work required to deal with the likely decline in group outings, corporate season ticketholders and individual sales).

andyb 2020-05-27 21:24:50 UTC #860

A's to stop paying their minor leaguers the $400 weekly stipend after May 31st.

Chances of any sort of minor league play seem to be gravitating towards zero. Was at least hoping for extended Spring complex leagues after the draft. At least for the better prospects.

bkeich 2020-05-28 00:40:20 UTC #861

Will be interesting to see if some lawyer tries to make a case for “they are now free agents”. If something like that happens they could be way, way ahead.