2019-2020 MLB Non-Phillies News/Notes Discussion

[phillychuck]

If you are a 28 or 29-year-old baseball player you might be able to afford not to play financially, but historically a year or more layoff has a significant chance to kill a player's career if the player is at any skill level--starters, all-stars, hall-of-famers often really struggle when coming back from long lay-offs. I don't think the players have as much leverage as some seem to think. Honestly, it's just a bad situation all around.

[zambonir]

I was actually looking forward to the expanded playoff too, given the shortened season.

It will be interesting to see how many players really choose to sit out. Would they still get their service time if they did that? I suppose that doesn't matter to anyone who is already out of the arbitration years anyway. Things will also get heated, I'm sure, with regards to eligibility (players whose wives are pregnant or have otherwise vulnerable family members).

For all intents and purposes the entire league will have had almost a year off (9-10 months without playing a real game) so I'm don't know if sitting out what will be just 10 weeks will reallly have that big an impact on the average player. If you're a little older (as most players with that option would be) or coming off an injury (like Cutch) it's a tougher call. In some cases the rest might do you more good than not, especially with risk of injury if you play.

At the same time if I'm Roman Quinn or Jay Bruce I show up for work, once they get hurt again it's free money.

We'll be 30 games into the season before anyone will be sharp (but everyone's in the same boat). Getting hot and staying healthy will really be a huge factor come October. If some star players sit out it could also affect which teams are truly the favorites compared to when things were normal.

[Lucky_Beagle]

I find it hard to believe how little I am actually missing baseball. Granted it may seem like this is still one really long off season. I am able to go about my typical day without even really giving a lot of thought to planning things around whether the Phillies have a day or night game.I have found other things to put on the tv at night instead of MLB (I do want a refund from mlb.com though for my package!).

[BaseballCat]

My habit now is to wake up to Korean baseball. It has actually been fun. I am a NC Dinos fan - picked because of their name - but they are best team in league currently. Also liked that the linked up with minor league teams of North Carolina and had cardboard cutouts of the various teams set up behind home plate (Woolie Bull, Muddy the Mudcat, etc). Aaron Altherr is on that team. Still miss my minors and Phillies. 2020 really sucks...

[zambonir]

I definitely miss having baseball on in the background. Being on the West Coast I'm used to just catching the last five innings most nights, and watching early on a Sunday. And yammering a lot here. But life goes on (and is weird). I would watch a lot less news if there was sports, so I would definitely prefer the latter.

And yeah I gotta do that for MLB.TV. I assume they will be making an offer once the schedule is announced. Either a prorated refund or they'll offer to include 2021 for free. I could probably live without it entirely, as with only 50 games, odds are the Phillies will be on normal TV 12 or even 20 times (depending how robust the national broadcast plans are).

[phillychuck]

How is Altherr doing?

[allentown]

That's what happens after work stoppages as well. If baseball doesn't get its act together, it is going to find itself with a lot fewer fans when play resumes after strike/lockout coming after this Covid lockdown. Not the environment for expansion. Prices will be down from what they would otherwise be and cities/states are going to be less eager to spring for a new stadium.

[zambonir]

MLB will be even more eager to get into a couple of new markets as a result (whether it is expansion or franchise moves). But agreed, between the state of the game and the likely state of the economy, it's hard to imagine anything happening for another 2-3 years, even if the CBA does include an agreement to expand. What they've been sellling here (in Portland, OR) is that no taxpayer money would be used and (still-unidentified) owners have deep pockets, but in reality there'd be a ton of tax breaks and infrastructure funding, most of which could be used for other things, and I bet the ownership financing would be the same as Houston and Chicago, i.e. dependent on debt and real estate.

In other news, since we don't really have a Penn State thread anymore (I think putting it in the Eagles thread would be even more dubious )

Former Eagles QB now eyeing baseball career

[BaseballCat]

After a slow start, he is doing pretty good. Announcers seem excited about his numbers. Seems to be providing a power element many players lack.

Aaron Altherr KBO League Batting Stats - NC Dinos

[andyb]

The latest from Fangraphs:

Players Ask Owners How Much Baseball They Want

I really hope Manfred does the right thing and pushes for 72-78 games. At that point the players would probably agree to the expanded playoffs that would be worth over $200 million in revenue, most of which could go to the owners to help them with the 100% pro-rated pay.

A little less sophisticated take here from Tom Boswell. Owners are basically asking to break even on this season as everyone else in the country takes a hit. Franchise values increasing by over $100 million a year really make the owners' claims of poverty pretty hollow. The owners could also share more revenues among themselves if they cared about the smaller markets.

Perspective | Don’t let MLB owners cry poor. They can afford to do what’s right...

[bkeich]

To me Altherr was a shame. He seemed to have everything that someone like Jayson Werth had, he had speed, big guy, athletic, good attitude. Never heard a bad thing about his work effort or personality.

He LOOKED like a guy that should be a solid baseball player for a long time. He just would get himself into a funk and not get out. He didnt actually seem to be that good at hitting, he had everything else, but it was almost like he was just an athlete trying to use his athleticism on a baseball field without actually being a baseball player.

Hope he has a long career in front of him. Shame, I thought he would be a Jayson Werth / Bake McBride kinda guy. Not a star but a guy that could really help a team.

[el-pietro]

Teams have made profits for years without offering the players more than their contracts dictated, it is unfair to ask the players to subsidize losses in a bad year. Especially when they have already agreed to pro rated payments, and the owners refuse to open their books to show how significant their losses are.
Its exactly like the investment firms and banks in 2008/09 who made profits for years but then asked to have their losses bailed out by governments across the world.

At this point the clubs have offered the same deal 3 times just packaged up slightly differently. It is clear they have a specific dollar number in mind and will not pay more than that, and will run the clock down until the amount of games left to be played conveniently matches that dollar amount when players are played Pro Rata.

Why should the the players play more games than those they are being paid for when the clubs have been messing them around for years (all within the CBA of course), especially when extra games means extra risk to the players. There is no health risk to the owners, they will not be obliged to go to games/travel and can sit in their bubbles if they wish.

We're going to end up with about 50 games Pro Rata and the two sides will beocme more entrenched ahead of the new CBA.

[Philsmania]

The MLBPA basically called the owners' bluff. It's too bad the owners bluffed as long as they did and precluded what could have been a Fourth of July opener which would have been important for symbolic and national morale reasons.

[Philsmania]

To me Altherr was a shame. He seemed to have everything that someone like Jayson Werth had, he had speed, big guy, athletic, good attitude. Never heard a bad thing about his work effort or personality.

He LOOKED like a guy that should be a solid baseball player for a long time. He just would get himself into a funk and not get out. He didnt actually seem to be that good at hitting, he had everything else, but it was almost like he was just an athlete trying to use his athleticism on a baseball field without actually being a baseball player.

Hope he has a long career in front of him. Shame, I thought he would be a Jayson Werth / Bake McBride kinda guy. Not a star but a guy that could really help a team.

It should be noted that Werth was once a first-round draft pick (Orioles in 1997, 22nd overall) so he always had star potential before injuries derailed him for a number of years. Bake was a former ROTY and All-Star when the Phillies got him. But yes, it would have been nice if Altherr could have been a surprise consistent contributor.

[andyb]

I think Altherr lost a crucial development year with the injury when he was just learning how to hit, and to adapt when major league pitchers adjusted on him. While he had pretty similar athleticism to Werth, Werth was always a better baseball player before the injury issues.

This is why I worry about a bunch of prospects too. If you are a B-level prospect and you miss your age 22 or age 23 year, that might sink your entire major league career. Whatever you think about Mickey Moniak as a prospect, missing a year is not good for his future.

[zambonir]

I felt injuries were Altherr's main issue. Certainly true about his development as well, but, bottom line, he was healthy in 2015 and 2017 (until he got hurt) and wasn't (or was still recovering) in 2016 and 2018. Bouncing around the waiver wire last season obviously didn't help either. He eventually got outrighted to AAA last year and was injured there for a few weeks too. I'm sure he could still carve out a career in his 30s as a AAAA player or 5th OF, if he does well enough in Korea he might even be able to come back to a major league contract.

[BostonRoss]

I propose that the owners pay out 100% of pro-rated salaries, but only, say, 80% goes to the major league players. The other 20% goes into a fund to make sure that full 2020 salaries are paid to minor leaguers, non-baseball personnel employed by teams, and stadium workers. The positive publicity would help the game going forward.

[zambonir]

That would have been a smart proposal when 90-114 games were still on the table. Now that it's going to be 48 or 50 I don't think that burden should be on the players. Give the minor leaguers and workers a cut of the playoff money, which would cover them and then some.

[andyb]

There is still time to have 72-78 games. The 48-50 just complies with what MLB owners say they can afford to pay (and likely make a profit of course).

The September 27 end of season should not be written in stone. They can still do a neutral site World Series and other playoff rounds if they needed to. Even getting done in October as they would need fewer off days at neutral sites (like the World Series could be done in 8 days with one break after game 3 or 4.

[BostonRoss]

Think outside the box. A World Series doubleheader! No need to worry about the reduced gate.