2020 Philadelphia Phillies Season News/Notes/Discussion

There is no great way to seed the playoffs if teams play wildly different numbers of games. I am not sure they would revise it that month if everyone at least gets to the 50-game mark. I think you have to have at least 2 per division no matter what. Maybe you could play with the wild card rules a bit.

I wonder how they'd handle the draft in that scenario. Do you give the Phillies/Marlins picks one and two, picks 15 and 16 or some randomly generated pick number?

If we could get the first pick that might be some small compensation to the fans for losing a season. Doesn't make up for the health risks to players/staff of course.

I kind of doubt they'd do it. The soccer was different, reducing the tournament draw (plus MLS currently intends to have a season, including making up three missed tournament games that count in the league standings). MLB or the other 28 teams would also have to pay the salaries of the cancelled teams.

I'm not even suggesting the Phillies and Marlins are the teams it will happen to. They've got time to resume the season, even if obviously truncated. But what if it happens again in three weeks? Five to six weeks and I suppose you do probably just end a few teams' seasons and continue. But what if one of those teams was the Dodgers or Yankees?

Plus the season is so freakin' short. What if our 1-2 Phillies are, say, 10-16 on August 25th? Will players opt-out? Harper's been pretty cavalier about everything, but his wife is still pregnant. And would Didi or Arrieta or JT get traded?

Combined winning percentage for 2019 and 2020? That is probably better than repeating the 2019 order.

I think el-p's first idea is probably better. If your season gets cancelled completely you essentially have a .000 winning percentage. The COVID tank!

If the whole season is cancelled I could see them doing a combined record, or a some kind of lottery on top of that. How did they do it in '96?

Sadly, the only way it will sink in to some of these lunkheads is if somebody they know - or somebody they idolize - falls sick and dies from COVID-19. Somebody's ace starting pitcher, or a perennial All-Star center fielder, or some such. But by the time that wakeup call comes, it will be too late.

No. This "season" is rapidly becoming a joke, and these kinds of disruptions will continue. The 2021 draft? Just use the 2020 draft order (adjusted for any unsigned high-round picks that generate comp picks) and be done with it. There's no reason to pretend that any results that can be scraped together from 2020 will mean anything, or that the represent real qualitative differences between clubs.

Just stop pretending. What we have in 2020 is a circus. I mean, it is, literally, a circus. It's a collection of entertaining exhibitions under the big top. It's not a baseball season. And it cannot somehow be "made into" a baseball season by wishful thinking, or by just declaring it to be so. We all should have learned by now that repeating nonsense repeatedly doesn't somehow turn nonsense into sense (although sometimes that nonsense becomes seen as "common sense"?). Telling the same lie, over and over, doesn't make it true, no matter how loudly you yell.

Well, we could all agree the season should have never been played and definitely should not be played now and just lock this thread. But until then, we can speculate.

While it's true that even if they pull a season off it won't be representative, it still has to be counted. If the Reds and Rangers make the playoffs and we don't, I wouldn't want them still drafting ahead of us. If the season falls apart completely it won't matter. I think it will all be moot, but who knows? While all this has been going on the other teams have continued to play baseball.

Yup, you gotta figure Wheeler and Didi are thinking hard right now.

How about instead of having a 60 man roster with 26-30 active we have two 30 man rosters both of which play double headers each day. Can get the 60 game season in 15 days. Whichever teams still have any not sick make the playoffs.

Or let’s just have a EA Sports MLB 2020 online tournament with the players Playing as themselves from remote locations.

Or better yet, save time and have each team select one player to be sacrificed and see if the Networks and owners are satisfied with that. We can televise the executions, maybe have a Hunger Games style fight to the death with only baseball bats as weapons.

If it's counted, then it has to determine the draft order. Since the 'big market advandtage' has been nulified this year, the additional charity picks should be eliminated and the international bonus pools should be equal.

If the season doesn't count, it would be unfair to reward the 2019 cellar dwellars with the early picks in two drafts, instead of the normal one. Since the draft is likely to be shortened yet again, all teams should be given the same bonus pool. Spend it however you choose. Perhaps draw lots for order in the first round, and then invert that order for all subsequent rounds. Perhaps not even have a draft or slots and just let each team spend the fixed pot of money however they choose. You can try to sign one of the top three projected talents or follow the AF formula and sign 20 mid-priced guys for $400K.

I would have said that even if there were no interruptions given the rules in place this year.

And now this, from @JeffPassan

Positive coronavirus tests with the St. Louis Cardinals have postponed their game against the Milwaukee Brewers, a source tells ESPN, confirming the @jonheyman report. Unclear how many, but to this point positives had been limited to teams in the East. Now in the Central, too.

If MLB is cancelling games due to positive tests, then no way to continue this "season."

That should have been the protocol from the beginning because for a few days after a positive test they have no idea who on the Cardinals has been exposed and contracted.

Unless there is an same day test (and the virus can be detected in this way) there is just no way to do this.

On the upside at least they dont have to refund tickets

I also haven't looked that closely, but there are no indications as to how many people tested positive.

I see no way NFL can do this if they follow a standard of 1 positive test on a team and instant quarantine and shut down.