Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
MLB has now made a counteroffer involving a 76 game season plus further pay cuts to the players. Specifically, the pay proposed is 75% of the normal prorated pay for a 76 game season. Expect this to be rejected by the MLBPA. Bob Nightengale says that players who opt out because of risk would still get paid and still get service time. MLB also offers a 16 team playoff format that appears to be traditional bracket playoffs, e.g. with the number 8 seed in each league being matched up with the number 1 seed in its league etc.
In their ongoing discrimination lawsuit, MLB now claims Angel Hernandez eavesdropped on a confidential telephone call it had with umpire Ed Hickox during an investigation into a 20 minute delay of a game between the Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays at which Hernandez was acting crew chief.
Matt Harvey is receiving interest from at least one team in the KBO. Apparently, the Mets don’t want him back. They are playing in front of stuffed animals now in the KBO. No masks. No social distancing. At least the sex dolls tried to stay safe.
And Now For The Angels News
The Angels are going to pay their minor league players at least through June. The Angels picked Jo Adell with their last number 10 pick overall. Cross your fingers about this number 10 pick. The Angels appear to have made a statement in response to the Black Lives Matter protests, although they did not mention any of the recent victims by name. At least they said something.
So is MLB looking for some way to dump Angel Hernandez? I sincerely hope so. And Joe West. Welcome back, Grandpa!
I think their first order of business is to defeat his discrimination lawsuit.
That stuff about eavesdropping on a confidential call between MLB and another umpire smelled a little bit like MLB wants the other union umpires to hate him. If the other umpires shun him and treat him like crap he might opt for early retirement or something. I am not sure exactly what is going on, though. I might be able to look up the case and peruse the docket if anybody is interested in an article about that clown show.
It looks like they have been fighting recently about Hernandez’s files with the umpires union and generally “weaponizing” the discovery process.
11 years ago today, the baseball team in Anaheim drafted some guy with a fish name to play CF. Early reports said he was too fat.
https://twitter.com/Angels/status/1270429982213300225
Kids today don’t remember the pre-Trout years. Y’know, the ones with all the winning.
And now, we offer the following notice as a public service for our members… Especially Designerguy…
‘splain to me where the sign says pants. I’ll wait.
AOC is personally reminding you DG
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1270080752185675778?s=09
This doesn’t explicitly say it’s the Angels but I’m gonna guess it’s us
I would have a really difficult time supporting this team with my money if this happened. On the heels of the “family organization” furloughing most of their staff, screwing with a prospect’s career path like this should warrant a sanction from the league.
Let’s not forget we might still have some horrible surprise come from the Skaggs investigation too. Maybe that’s why Arte is pinching pennies, he knows he’s staring at a huge settlement.
Now that I think of it, Arte trying to save money by punting this year’s draft for an extra pick next year only to have that pick stripped away due to a Skaggs revelation with added fines would be the most Arte Moreno move of all time.
Yeah, I feel similarly. I said this the other day but I doubt I’d want to spend any more money than necessary to support the Angels.
Arte is the kind of boss who would make me quit.
meanwhile, in the replies to that tweet…
and also…
I was thinking more like:
The owners offer to the players: “How about a burger?”
Players: “No.”
Owners cut burger in half, keep half, and start to eat it: “How about a burger?”
Players: “That’s only half a burger.”
Owners cut the half burger into half’s again, and they are still eating that other half: “How about two burgers?”
Players: “WTF?!?”
Owners place uneaten part of the burger on the table: “Final offer, it’s the best we can do. By just holding the season we will lose billions, even if we don’t pay you guys. Three burgers.”
Charles help me out a little here ok, how is getting paid 75% and working less than 50% plus a full season of service time a crummy deal. If my family and l are capable of re-opening our business and l am able to retain my former employees l certainly would not be able to match what MLB Owner’s are proposing to the players. Covid 19 has wiped out a lot of business’ and impaired many more so even if a vaccine were found tomorrow the fans may not return for many years. Unlike the NFL, MLB is very dependant on the gate and proceeds from inside the stadiums. Not every team has huge TV and Radio packages. At this point a good many jobs for the working class folks are dependant on what the player’s decide. On the player’s side l see only greed at this point. Some players are going to be in real good shape after all this mess especially those that are coming into their Free Agent years. The Players Union really needs to rethink their stance here imho unless l am missing something here.
Under this proposal, they would be getting paid 75% of their prorated salaries, or 35% of their actual salaries, for nearly 50% work. Basically, the common wisdom is that owners should bear the majority of COVID costs because they reap the fruits of labor when times are good (a player is never paid more than his salary). That’s generally the logic, so many people feel that players should get 100% of prorated salaries for however many games there are.
If you do the math, the players are being offered the same money they would have made if they got their full prorated salaries for the 50 game season, but they would have to play 76 games in order to get that money. The only incentive for them to do that is the additional playoff money (if they can make the playoffs), the service time, and the pay for the opt-out players. Most of those issues are likely to drive a wedge between different classes of players.
The ones who will actually play can vote this down so Manfred will implement the 50 game plan. Then they get the same money for fewer games.
Not an ownership guy in this debacle but players can’t have it both ways and need to pick a lane. If this is a bad deal because of “if the playoffs happen” risk in October, then why is the union pushing for more games extending through November? They want a plan with heightened risk of COVID in November but say the league’s proposal that hinges on games played in October is too risky? Huh?
It’s a bad deal because accepting cuts to already prorated salaries is setting a poor precedent for all players who follow. Feels like owners are deliberately making offers they know will get declined so as to delay the start of the season and force players into caving because they’d run out of time in the calendar otherwise. We thought originally there was a chance at a June start, now we would be lucky if we get a mid-July start.
If it is delayed much longer then the season can’t be played, it will be lost and the next season will be 2021. Then there will be tax write offs and huge losses on the books. Starting the season with no fans allowed is not a very good thing for the owners. The gate, beer/food, souvenir sales being lost really brings little incentive for the owners to want to hammer out a deal and get baseball games back.
Good Morning folks, l have finally recovered 80% from a prolonged illness that darn near took me. l really missed reading everything on this wonderful site for a long time.
The Angel Hernandez issue should have been addressed many years ago and never should have gone this far. first of all how did the guy even get to the Majors? Was it that the Major League Umpires Assoc. was trying to show racial disparity? If so then it failed as a Union in choosing this guy to umpire. After his first season or two he should have been demoted. Expect witnesses down to the average knowledgeable fan could line up for a month to get a chance to speak before a jury about the bad performance that this guy has done. He complained about not doing enough Playoffs and World Series, PLAYOFFS!, PLAYOFFS!, this guy never should have been in the same zip code as the Playoffs! Heck make that the same state.
Good to have you back. Glad you’re on the road to recovery.
Hope you are okay!
Glad you’re back and that you are okay. 🙂
Sorry to hear you were so sick, GPB. Glad you’re back!
It’s good to have you back!