We might as well get out of the way that the United States reaches an all-time high in daily cases. Regardless of the myriad of circumstances that may have led to this statistic, it is still very concerning. Our neighbors over at Disneyland delay reopening. I hope all the players, coaches, umpires, staffers, TV crews, and necessary support needed to run the season stay healthy. I hope everyone stays healthy.
The trade deadline for the year will be August 31. I sincerely wish that no player gets traded in the middle of all this and has to uproot his family. Trader Jerry, you’ve been warned…
Roster rules will be very complicated. Teams can start out with 30 on the active roster, but that drops off to 28 after a few weeks…of course, there’s the 40-man roster with which we’re all familiar…I wonder if they’ll just travel with the team. And then there’s a “taxi squad” that allows the total number of available players to reach 60. Apparently, the players on the taxi squad will be sequestered and will get MLB meal money, although they will not get service time and will be paid minor league wages…
The Angels might go with a 6-man rotation. Shohei Ohtani is back to healthy, and after all the uproar about him delaying TJ surgery to win the AL Rookie of the Year award, he will seemingly not miss any extra time. Just dreaming about an Ohtani MVP award…Felix Peña and Griffin Canning are also healthy. I assume Max Stassi is ready to get on with the framing too…who knows, in such a short season, Stassi could slug .600 and win league MVP with his amazing defense–Vegas, get me those odds!
Fangraphs projects the Angels to finish 30-30, with a 16.6% chance of winning the division and a 32.4% chance of making the playoffs. With a decently hard schedule (no Central teams or Baltimore on which to feast), the Angels will have to play good ball the whole way to have a shot. Still, these playoff odds are a 13.5% increase from what Fangraphs had them at in February.
Yes, the runner-on-second-in-extras rule is terrible. Not sure who likes it. It’s still happening.
Emma Baccellieri wonders about a possible bubble in which to hold the season. It’s probably important to note that although the players and owners have agreed, the situation is still fluid, and COVID-19 could conceivably shut the whole thing down again. No one needs to die for baseball.
Completely off topic, but please enjoy this PSA courtesy of Designerguy (who isn’t aware that I’m posting this)
Pants optional always means you can see any critter that’s trying to run a sneak attack using your legs as a highway.
It boils down to a safety issue.
OSHA hung up on me when I called to inform them my employer was requiring unsafe pants conditions.
I tells ya, it’s a government conspiracy!
I found DG on reddit
I can relate…
The struggle is real…
DG’s request for a pants exemption card aside, those cards are bogus.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/valid-face-mask-exemption-card/
And here…
That’s I treat this as my AMEX…don’t leave home without it.
Catch 22
“Sir, is this a gamethread?”
I learned that the hard way.
Hunting for shrooms. I had a pack of yellow jackets fly up my trunks. Dropped the trunks, and ran like the wind, commando crazy. Never got any magic, and was afraid to put my pants back on.
Coming to an Angels game near you (and yes, of course it is a trap).
I think Rev. made that gif many years ago. It
is awesome.
Yes. It. Is. Amazing.
They should have gone with Little League rules this season.
Everybody on the bench needs to play at least three outs; get one at bat; courtesy runners, the whole shebang. With MLB rules mixed in to bring things up to size and talent on the field. Kids sliding down BigThunderMountain® (brought to you by Lackey Stud and Stables). Wouldn’t it be nice.
when I was a kid, back in the 1960s (!) my family moved from NYC to the New Jersey suburbs and Little Leagues had different participation rules. In NYC everyone had to play two innings. In New Jersey, at least in my town, that was up to the discretion of the manager. So when I was 10 years old I barely played. I hated it. When I was 12 I always played, was never subbed for, which was incredibly unfair to the 10 year olds on the team.
Sorry…I got to reminiscing. We never had courtesy runners. That’s a horrible idea!
Courtesy runners were for the catchers, so they could get their gear on for pace of play.
Minimum playing rules are set by the League in Williamsport, but you local League can go beyond them.
Normally we did minimum; start two innings, 6 outs, one at bat, during the regular season. Training seasons had a three consecutive inning rule minimum. Managers had no say in the rules. The rules were for player participation, player development, and League development. I asked players one question, “Do you want to play again.” and I only ever got one no.
Four out of five years we made it to the West Regional in San Bernadino in the Majors Division. Two times to Williamsport finishing those seasons with two Championships.
We also dominated in the other Divisions during tournament time.
Any complaint about a playing time could be brought up to me anonymously, and I would discuss this with the teams manager by just telling him to “let the kids play”. Explaining to them that the League only sets the minimum rules for playing time, and every player goal to play every position, start, and finish, every game. They are just there to mack sure games are played safe, fair, by the rules, and to all of the players best abilities.
Sorry for so long of a reply. I miss the game, and I miss the game.
Those poor taxi squad guys will probably feel like they are in limbo.
I’m not exactly sure how the catcher can stay 6 feet away from the home plate umpire. I guess I’d just try to minimize conversation with the guy in case something I said was construed as an argument.
OK, I’m clueless. In this instance, how do we define a taxi squad?
It is 20 of the better minor league guys who are designated as back up players in case the 40 man gets decimated by illness or injury. There is also the idea that some guys, such as starting pitchers, will get too used up because the shortened spring training didn’t give them enough time to get stretched out. (At least it’s a way for them to get paid something. The minor leagues won’t be playing this year.)
I knew Disneyland was a big deal, but just minutes after reading this I saw a story on Bloomberg about Disney’s overall impact. 78,000 jobs including 35k at the park, economic impact of $8.5 billion per year in SoCal (a number that is up 50% since 2013) and estimated tax revenue of over $500 million per year.
I loathe the place, but wow that is huge.
Disneyland opening is being held up by the SEIU. Disney will have to pay a price though negotiations to open back up.
Health related I’m thinking?
Yes, and they are going to have to hire MORE SEIU members for the new “cleaning/wipe down” protocols. There will be issues discussed regarding hours, extra breaks, compensation, etc.
Interesting. Never thought of that.
Are Victor and Gubi going to be calling the games at the stadiums or will they be calling them from a video feed? I heard that the latter is the case.
With no fans, and if they don’t interact with players, they could be relatively safe there in the announcer’s box. I read that they would do the away games by remote feed, but I don’t know about home games.
Yes, I think it’s home in the booth, away remotely. And to eliminate camera crews, only the home team’s video feed will be used.
Great questions for another interview. I’ll set one up with him.
Max Headroom will probably do play by play.