2022 MLB Thread

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

For all the Brewers fans here, Sophia Minnaert was at the Marquette Circles event in NYC last night.

With the lockout going on, and no spring training she was available for the event.

[MU82]

Mets owner Steve Cohen liked a tweet that indicates the owners will never accept an offer from the players.

As the guy from The Athletic said: "I’m no business expert, but that plainly indicates bad-faith negotiations to me."

[muwarrior69]

Universal DH coming in 2022 

https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/sports/mlb-commissioner-universal-designated-hitter-2022-season

Banning the shift in 2023.

https://clutchpoints.com/mlb-news-mlbpa-shockingly-agrees-to-ban-shift-other-rule-changes-in-latest-lockout-negotiations/

[4everwarriors]

For all the Brewers fans here, Sophia Minnaert was at the Marquette Circles event in NYC last night.

With the lockout going on, and no spring training she was available for the event.

O, eye cee, hey?😎

[MUBurrow]

What particulalry sucks about baeball labor negoations compared to other sports is how drastically each CBA negotiation impacts the product on the field.  The owners' success in installing salary caps in the other sports means that CBAs are mostly about negotiating on the margins.  Sure the luxury tax threshold and repeater penalties in the NBA has some impact on team spending, but not to the degree we see in baseball. 

Meanwhile, baseball's CBA negotiations include the universal DH, pitch clocks, trying like hell to install meaningful salary floors, service time manipulation for star players, on and on and on.  That's not "how much of the pie do we each get" stuff.  And its just friggin exhausting. 

I generally lean pro-players in these labor negotiations, because I think that owners buying pro sports teams motivated by profit is stupid.  I understand pro sports teams are businesses, but if you re looking to wring out the washcloth on an investment, get into PE, don't buy a small market sports team.  But over the past 20 years, its starting to feel like the MLBPA fighting against the inevitability of a salary cap is harming the sport. 

[Jockey]

I have no problem with a salary cap as long as there is a salary floor. With revenue sharing, teams like the Pirates get a windfall every year for intentionally being bad with no desire to ever try to win.

The Cubs and Astros used tanking as a tool to become a contender. The Pirates use it for the owner’s bottom line.


I expect the lockout to end in 2 more weeks - give or take 2 days. The owners wanted no part of April games. They do want to play by May1.

[MUBurrow]

I have no problem with a salary cap as long as there is a salary floor. With revenue sharing, teams like the Pirates get a windfall every year for intentionally being bad with no desire to ever try to win.

I agree with this.  I feel like sports that have a relatively narrow permitted payroll range with exceptions to the cap for a short-ish time periood to "go for it" have the best competitive balance.  Part of the problem in baseball, I think, is that the gap between the owners' ability to spend has gotten so great with no cap, that then implementing a sensible number to bring the bottom teams up and cap the top teams is damn near impossible.  Le Batard's fight with Manfred about the Marlins stands out as an example. 

[ZiggysFryBoy]

FS1 reporting a deal has been reached.  🕺🕺🕺

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

FS1 reporting a deal has been reached.  🕺🕺🕺

That will be the icing on the cake if MU wins today.

[Uncle Rico]

FS1 reporting a deal has been reached.  🕺🕺🕺

Good.  The sooner the season starts, the sooner Yadier Molina’s career will be over

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Good.  The sooner the season starts, the sooner Yadier Molina’s career will be over

Will he play 2 weeks in 2023, to make up for the missed games this year?  One can pray.

[DegenerateDish]

Starting in 2023, everyone will play everyone at least one series a season. Way less divisional games starting next year.

[Uncle Rico]

Starting in 2023, everyone will play everyone at least one series a season. Way less divisional games starting next year.

Honestly, I like this. 

[Lennys Tap]

Honestly, I like this.

So do I. 19 games against one team is way too many.

On another point, the players executive committee voted unanimously to reject the owners’ offer bur the rank and file voted overwhelmingly to accept it. Why such a disconnect?

[Jockey]

So do I. 19 games against one team is way too many.

On another point, the players executive committee voted unanimously to reject the owners’ offer bur the rank and file voted overwhelmingly to accept it. Why such a disconnect?

The executive committee is made up of guys who have already received huge contracts - bigger than they will ever get again because of age or length of contract. This was one case where the rich guys (MLBPA executive board) was actually looking out for and trying to get a better deal for lower and mid-tier guys. those guys just needed to get back to work and were willing to take less.

[Lennys Tap]

The executive committee is made up of guys who have already received huge contracts - bigger than they will ever get again because of age or length of contract. This was one case where the rich guys (MLBPA executive board) was actually looking out for and trying to get a better deal for lower and mid-tier guys. those guys just needed to get back to work and were willing to take less.

Less? The guys at the bottom got a 23% raise tu 700,000. That’s huge, and basically what the Union was asking. I’m not as clear on the mid tier guys. What did they sacrifice in this deal?

[CTWarrior]

Honestly, I like this.

I don't.  Divisional games are the best games of the year.  I don't want to give up divisional games to play the Marlins, Reds, Padres, Diamondbacks, etc.

[MUBurrow]

I don't.  Divisional games are the best games of the year.  I don't want to give up divisional games to play the Marlins, Reds, Padres, Diamondbacks, etc.

I agree that I like the primacy of divisional games, but now that only two of the three division winners get a bye, they had to do something to at least come closer to balancing schedules across divisions.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I don't.  Divisional games are the best games of the year.  I don't want to give up divisional games to play the Marlins, Reds, Padres, Diamondbacks, etc.

Me neither.  It sounded good until I did the math. 
Minimum 3 games per team.  That's 87 games.  I assume the local rival will get another 3 games (for example Yankees vs. Mets).  That's 90.
Are they playing divisional rivals 18 times for the rest?  Or rotating 15 games a year vs a division in their own league?  Then playing 57 games in the division which is a weird number because you need an extra game vs someone?

[CTWarrior]

Me neither.  It sounded good until I did the math. 
Minimum 3 games per team.  That's 87 games.  I assume the local rival will get another 3 games (for example Yankees vs. Mets).  That's 90.
Are they playing divisional rivals 18 times for the rest?  Or rotating 15 games a year vs a division in their own league?  Then playing 57 games in the division which is a weird number because you need an extra game vs someone?

My guess is 3 games against other league plus an extra 3 against your rival, so that is 48 (14*3 + 1*6)
Then home and away against the balance of your league, outside division.  That is 60 more (6*10)
That leaves 54 for division games, which would be 13 or 14 per team.  Probably 13 and 2 extra games against same league teams out of division, or 14 and you make your opposite league rival 4 games instead of 6. 

I'm a fossil, I get it, but I would prefer no interleague games, and 8 playoff teams.  Why are you playing 162 games and having 40% of the teams make the playoffs?  Why do I care about the regular season?  If 84 wins are pretty much a playoff guarantee, salaries are going to go down, I would guess.  And you know they are going to expand to 14 as soon as they possibly can.

[Jockey]

Less? The guys at the bottom got a 23% raise tu 700,000. That’s huge, and basically what the Union was asking. I’m not as clear on the mid tier guys. What did they sacrifice in this deal?

Salary for an individual year is not the only monetary situation. In fact it was a small consideration. Player salary is affected more by the CBT and arbitration rules. CBT was the biggest reason for the lockout. Minimum salary didn't really affect the negotiations one way or the other.

[MUBurrow]

HOT STOVE IS BACK BABY!!!

Good deal for Rodon.  That's one of the most valuable opt outs I can recall off the top of my head.

[Lennys Tap]

Salary for an individual year is not the only monetary situation. In fact it was a small consideration. Player salary is affected more by the CBT and arbitration rules. CBT was the biggest reason for the lockout. Minimum salary didn't really affect the negotiations one way or the other.

Wasn’t the CBT also raised substantially also. And when you said low and mid tier players were being looked out for by the rich guys on the executive committee - a higher CBT favors the big free agents, the mid and low tier guys are insignificant to the CBT, no?

[wadesworld]

Somebody told me MLB is going to do double headers to get all 162 games in without extending the season. With universal DH now, are they expanding the active roster so you can both cover your DH and have extra pitchers on your roster for the more games in a condensed period of time?

[DegenerateDish]

Somebody told me MLB is going to do double headers to get all 162 games in without extending the season. With universal DH now, are they expanding the active roster so you can both cover your DH and have extra pitchers on your roster for the more games in a condensed period of time?

There’s been discussions about going to 28 this season.