Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Labor Dispute News
The Players Association has apparently had it with the negotiations and said to just go ahead and schedule a season. Tell them when and where to show up. They’ve washed their hands of the matter. They’ve called your bluff, MLB. Just schedule a season already! At least one voice says the impasse could easily be solved, but I think it’s a little late at this point. The two sides could argue about safety protocols for a few more weeks. At that point, why bother having a season? Right on cue, Rob Manfred says he is now not 100% sure there will be baseball in 2020. He is attempting to get the MLBPA to waive its right to a grievance hearing. If only the fans could file a grievance.
Angels Draft News
The Angels have already signed 3rd round pick David Calabrese (for $744,000) and are likely to sign 4th rounder Werner Blakely for $900,000. They have also come to terms with 5th round pick Adam Seminaris. He signed for a below slot bonus of $140,000.
General Baseball News
MLB authorized a resumption of scouting activities, almost just in time. A judge has ordered a letter from Rob Manfred to the New York Yankees about a cheating investigation be opened to the public. The Yankees and MLB both oppose this; each for their own reasons. The Yankees are appealing the order. A team official claims there is no smoking gun. Christian Hackenberg is the latest NFL train wreck who is going to try to make it in professional baseball.
I’d just like to say a big FUCK YOU to Manfred and his puppet masters.
This is, indeed, the grandest and least lubricated screwing of a pooch I have seen in my sports lifetime. The only way this can get more fun is if a bunch of owners go belly up and Chinese billionaires buy their teams. If this keeps going and spills into a protracted labor fracas then MLB might as well just admit they don’t mind if every kid ages 8-15 just takes up soccer and gets it over with.
On the bright side, my dream of watching the USA win a World Cup someday, and then care about 10% as much as any other country in the world, could come true if all those kids start learning to take a dive and cry like they have been shot now.
I think you just stumbled onto the plan…
Bankrupt MLB, sell to Chinese investors, install 5G towers at the stadiums, infect the whole country with COVID-19, and then Bill Gates can microchip us all with a vaccine! How did we not see this before?!?!
/s (Just in case)
In all seriousness, losing a season of Mike Trout is what saddens me the most of all this.
When Americans are all soccer fans we are one giant step closer to the New World Order. I see through the veil of lies and below the truth because I am stuper smarts.
I see through the lies of the Jedi!
https://twitter.com/MikeTrout/status/1272939469788688384?s=20
Just let the kids play…
KiiiiiiiiD!!!
If this season is truly lost, and not going to be played, it better not add another season onto Pujols playing contract. certainly there would be some sort of impact whether it is a shortened, pro rated season or a completely lost season.
What a pain in the ass this situation is. No season means a bunch of wasted time negotiating a 1 year contract with Jason Castro. Bye bye Simba. Bye Bye La Stella.
Yep, there will be a lot of issues that arise from this, including if there is no season, then when will free agency actually begin, since there will be no World Series? This thing is going to spill over into the next labor agreement too.
too bad it’s impossible to declare all contracts invalid. I’d like to see an actual players league. I know it’s been tried before and it didn’t work. Something about stadiums being “unavailable” and probably a lack of business acumen from the players and their representatives.
But honestly….these owners are terrible. Manfred has been shown to be nothing but the owners’ mouthpiece. For years they’ve tried to make it seem like the Commissioner was an intermediary. Well, until they fired Vincent and put in one of their own, Selig. They should rename the position to Owners Rep.
Have you ever had a mean boss? Didn’t you want to quit because of him/her? The last time I had one of those I didn’t bother sticking around after 6 months. Things are so bad now between the players and owners that I’m starting to enjoy Trevor Bauer. Yes! It’s that bad!!
Six owners don’t wanna play the season ( i smell a rodent here! ).
Hope YKW isn’t one of the secret six. But wouldn’t surprise me if he was!!!
I’m convinced he is.
I read various people saying “that’s it, I’m through with baseball” and I think they’re being silly. But here I am, for the first time ever, re-thinking my fandom. If we lose Trout’s age 28 season in part because of Arte…..
I was wondering if Cheap Arte and his cabal of billboard selling stripper sniffing Christians were the ones dragging this out. It seems like the sort of “fly off the handle” things Arte may do sometimes. But then I realized he’s just launched his whole master plan to build a stadium and all the stuff around it. He just signed Rendon and Trout to huge long deals. He may even see some value in milking all he can out of his dwindling Pujols supply. He has to figure out if Simmons should be retained, not to mention Eppler, he probably wanted to generate some positive momentum with the new manager and star players before labor strife starts….
He has a fair amount of important stuff in suspended animation right now. I can think of at least six teams that would be far more interested in skipping 2020 than the Angels. The Angels are still profitable. The A’s, O’s, Pirates, Tigers, Marlins, Royals etc etc…. I could see them passing on paying for half a dead dog season if they can do so. Also some teams with injury/payroll issues, Rockies, Red Sox, Cubs, Mets et al. The heel dragger’s not likely to be our Chief of Cheap.
What you say about Arte and the Trout/Rendon deals is sensible. Surely he’d want to take advantage of his superstars.
But consider the Stripling/Pederson deal. There we see when things don’t go exactly the way he expected them to he reacts rashly, ready to throw everything out.
Yes it’s all speculation. No game threads, that’s why.
It’s all of the owners. They would lose money if they held the season, but think they could make money if it was canceled, but not by the COVID-19. They need for someones to not come out and play. Then the savior will kick in. The New York teams, from what I have heard last, haven’t even been cleared to play in the own stadiums yet.
The A’s are still gunna beee good. let’s see should we keep Eppler or not?
Does a dog wanna keep it’s tapeworms or not?
About the Hackenberg news- next Tim Tebow? Doesn’t he want to be more than a bad joke? Honestly, why do people think they can just pick up and start a baseball career? This is a difficult game. Maybe it’s because it looks so effortless when played extremely well.
He wants to pitch. Watch the Angels pick him up.
Seriously, though, I think these guys probably do figure “I was pretty good at baseball in high school. Therefore I could become a professional.” After he gets shelled in A ball reality might start to sink in.
Jim Morris says hello.
He was in the minors, had an injury and was released. (At least according to Disney)
I’m completely overwhelmed with all the 2020 MLB Undrafted Free Agents that the Angels have signed. It’s hard to keep track of all these 20k bargains. With only 5 rounds of a normal 40 round draft, I was expecting 10 maybe 20 bargain signees. But the Angels have proved my low expectations wrong. Can’t wait to see the final list.
That was my initial reaction as well.
I’m sure there’s many reasons that the Angels have not yet signed any UDFA, and we can blame ownership/management for all of them.
it’s really sad to see the list of UDFA signings, by team, and see that empty space.