Gates wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2020 4:20 am
Great move from the union. This might actually give us a 70 games season. I could completely be in left field here but let see. If MLB wants to start the season mid July. There is 11 weeks up to Sept 27. If they wish to play let say 55 games, that would be 5 games a week. How can MLB at this point say that 7 games a week is too much? Health? What is the difference on a health front between 5 or 7? Not an excuse, Right. Now if MLB change the prorata % because of a higher number of games to play,they would not respect the initial agreement (100%). Didn’t MLB just lose their best angle, « time ». How can Commish explain that 50 is what needs to be enforced Now? They have enough time to play at least 66 games at the very least if they wish to implement a travel day each week.
I think MLBPA just played their best card.
You are exactly right Gaetan. The PA has told the owners to decide when and where the season starts by Monday, June 15th. If it takes a week to bring players in and three weeks for spring training the selected start time of July 14th makes sense. The owners don't want that because to limit the regular season to 48-50 games they'd have to start after August 1st and end by September 27th. And now there's no expanded playoffs for two years, which was estimated at $180 million per year for the owners.
The owners were never going to give a new proposal, so the players did the right thing. Manfred can mandate how many games to play per the March agreement and any players with existing conditions don't have to play this year. It's a mess all around, but especially for the owners now. They likely will come back with something like 60-65 games and as you say play 5-6 games per week, which everyone knows could be expanded to 6-7 games per week. If they want the players to agree to the expanded playoffs then they need to spice up the number of games. If they don't want all players to avoid playing this year, they MUST offer more than 48-50 games. If they do that, the season is dead.
It's a mess all around, but the owners should have agreed to 72-75 games with pro-rated salaries (100%), get the two years of expanded playoffs and ask for deferred payments for some players into 2021. That's the best solution now to start on July 14th and keep some semblance of peace. And the players realized that.
I think the players also know that the March agreement had language in it that they did not have to take any less than full salary and Manfred is in hot trouble with the owners over that language. A grievance against the owners could be in the players' favor, resulting in damages. Just poorly, poorly played by the management side and a fiasco for baseball fans everywhere. Including here.
Let's see what comes out of Monday's announcement and then we'll quickly decide what needs to be done here. Thanks all.