MLB 2021 Season Thread

[JPhillips]

Yeah, they'll add more games before they'll cut any. The gambling money is just starting to pour in, and that's going to be hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the owners. I think a lot of this lockout is going to be an attempt by the owners to shelter all of that incoming money from the players.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

No way they cut games. They earn so much media revenue at this point that cutting games down by even 10% would be significant. They could make some of that back up by expanding the playoffs, but I can't see them cutting their media inventory unless they could more than make it up with additional postseason games and then they are competing more with the NBA and NFL. I do agree with Jim about the injuries and now that we know so much more about the risk factors, I again come back to thinking about having a taxi squad of extra players. A 5-7 man taxi squad would allow teams to carry an extra catcher around (let's face it, it feels like 80% of catchers are 30-35 year old journeymen that can't hit anyway - they aren't going to be missing out on development time in the minors), let them rest nicked up players that could benefit from rest without going on the DL, and rotate pitchers in and out a little more.

They won't cut games, I agree. But as baseball evolves, the more pitchers they need. This increases the talent range of the league staffs. Who is on these taxi squads? Guys who would ordinarily never make it past AAA.

This has been a long transition. Complete game percentages have dropped steadily throughout the history of the sport - now they're about 1% of all games. Around the turn of the century it was 5%. In the '80s, it dropped from 20% to 10%. In the '50s, from 40% to 30%.

More alarming is the increase in strikeouts over the last decade. If that's a function of more pitchers throwing harder, maybe the ideal maximum number of innings with this schedule is more like 100 to avoid excessive injuries. But it's a different, slower game.

The season numbers may seem sacred, but much of that changed with the steroid era. Is baseball broken right now? If they feel the need to adopt college softball extra-inning rules and seven-inning games for double-headers, maybe it is. Or maybe all games should be seven innings and a tie is a tie in the standings?

[SirFozzie]

None of the rumored rule changes will be part of the CBA Negotiations: (Things like Pitch Clock, Robot Umps, restricted shifts. Universal DH is believed to still be part of it)

Now ya see them, now ya don’t: MLB takes rule changes off the table for this round of baseball labor fight – The Athletic

[sterlingice]

Yeah, no one wants to actually work on the good of the game when money is on the line

SI

[tarcone]

There wont be baseball Im afraid. I do not see either side negotiation realistically.

[sterlingice]

I think the owners think they can break the union while the union thinks this is their change to exact some real change as they've ceded some significant ground the last couple of negotiations. So far, the owners haven't really put forth any real proposals with meat to try and meet the union in the "middle". Owners have a ton of new revenue streams and they're trying to wall them off from the players. Naturally, the players want a portion of it. If the owners think they don't have to and can just wait out the players, then this could drag on.

SI

[miami_fan]

Buck O'Neil joins Gil Hodges, Minnie Minoso, others in being elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

Buck O'Neil, a champion of Black ballplayers during a monumental, eight-decade career on and off the field, joined Gil Hodges, Minnie Minoso and three others in being elected to the baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Former Minnesota Twins teammates Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat also were chosen along with Bud Fowler by a pair of veterans committees.

If he is, I know he must be excited. His constant mentioning of Buck O'Neil actually led me to learn about him and the Negro Leagues in general.

[sterlingice]

I know a lot of us Kansas City baseball fans are excited for this day

SI

[miami_fan]

The Mets have a manager.

New York Mets hire Buck Showalter as new manager

[Ksyrup]

So apparently Ken Rosenthal's contract with MLB Network was not renewed because he said some unflattering things about the Commissioner back in the summer of 2020 which resulted in a 3 month absence from the network at the time and now cutting ties completely. What a joke.

[sterlingice]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/04/fana...ing-cards.html

So does this mean Topps continues making baseball cards in a couple of years when Fanatics has the license? It was just cheaper to overbid Topps on the trading card license and buy them for $500M after their value was destroyed rather than paying $1.5B for them outright the year before?

SI

[stevew]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/04/fana...ing-cards.html

So does this mean Topps continues making baseball cards in a couple of years when Fanatics has the license? It was just cheaper to overbid Topps on the trading card license and buy them for $500M after their value was destroyed rather than paying $1.5B for them outright the year before?

SI

Topps is retaining Ring Pop and Bazooka and Fanatics now owns the Topps card division. Including all of their designs and history. I think Fanatics was also worried that Topps might print the hobby into oblivion given that they were losing their ability to print cards in a few years.

[stevew]

Sign me up for contracting the Pirates also. We can just forever memorialize the stadium forever in the shitty flick "Sweet Girl" starring Jason Mamoa(on Netflix).

[stevew]

Orioles moving back the fences 30 feet in LF and raising the wall height 5 feet. I guess that probably kills Mountcastle’s career?

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by stevew

Orioles moving back the fences 30 feet in LF and raising the wall height 5 feet. I guess that probably kills Mountcastle’s career?

But it might help some pitchers' careers.

[stevew]

I agree with Jomboy and others that at this point we’re likely missing at least the first month of the season.

[Ksyrup]

USFL season starts April 16!

[tarcone]

Tampa Bay Bandits is my team.

[spleen1015]

Just looked at the USFL website. The team logos look like someone on the OOTP forums designed them.

[tarcone]

Those are the original logos. So, really, someone on OOTP forums stole their ideas from the USFL

[cuervo72]

They're not quite the original logos. Someone redesigned them.