LOCKOUT '22: When will we see baseball again?

[oblong]

I remember one year, I think it was 2002, where they got a deal done and nobody really knew they were working on it. 

 

[casimir]

18 minutes ago, 1776 said:

Per MLB…just for you casimir.

“Unlike last week’s meeting, which took place on a Zoom call, Monday’s meeting will be held in person in New York.” 

Zoom call?  That's so 2020....

[buddha]

1 hour ago, casimir said:

Zoom call?  That's so 2020....

everyone is on microsoft teams now anyway.

[Jim Cowan]

1 minute ago, buddha said:

everyone is on microsoft teams now anyway.

Microsoft Teams blows.

[casimir]

5 hours ago, Jim Cowan said:

Microsoft Teams blows.

Every morning it opens by default on the work computer.  And one of the first things that I do is close that window.

[Tiger337]

6 hours ago, Jim Cowan said:

Microsoft Teams blows.

correct.  

[Jim Cowan]

Using Microsoft Teams instead of Zoom, that's like using Derek Jeter at shortstop instead of Alex Rodriguez.

[casimir]

16 hours ago, Jim Cowan said:

Using Microsoft Teams instead of Zoom, that's like using Derek Jeter at shortstop instead of Alex Rodriguez.

Has Jeter officially been canonized for sainthood yet?

[IdahoBert]

With this whole lockout thing and all the drippy talk we’ve heard over the years about “the fans“ and how much baseball love us, it just underlines how we’re not even “stakeholders“ in their racket  — you know, the way corporations refer to their disposable employee base. We’re not even included in that food chain. 

[gehringer_2]

the bad news is that Lynn Henning has weighed in with a column assuring us the season will start on time - so figure after July 4.  

Edited January 22, 2022 by gehringer_2

[Cruzer1]

On 1/22/2022 at 11:34 AM, gehringer_2 said:

the bad news is that Lynn Henning has weighed in with a column assuring us the season will start on time - so figure after July 4.  

F***!

[casimir]

2 hours ago, Cruzer1 said:

F***!

You golfing?

[chasfh]

I’m still thinking they won’t talk in earnest until after the Super Bowl, when the spotlight shuts off football and people typically look toward baseball as what’s next. That’s when they know they’ll have to get busy in order to look busy.

I’m still thinking 162 games starting around April 15 and ending October 9, a week late.

[Jim Cowan]

59 minutes ago, casimir said:

You golfing?

I have a friend like that, he is a "whack-f***" golfer.  That's all you hear on the course, all day.  Whack. .. "f***!"

[RedRamage]

On 1/21/2022 at 11:24 AM, Jim Cowan said:

Microsoft Teams blows...zoom out of the water!

FTFY.

[oblong]

corporate wide we use Webex.  A major supplier recently let their WebEx contract expire so they use Teams.  I hate it.  It takes forever to load up on the browser version.  Another uses Zoom which is fine.  But I am spoiled by the WebEx integration.  

 

[RedRamage]

44 minutes ago, oblong said:

corporate wide we use Webex.  A major supplier recently let their WebEx contract expire so they use Teams.  I hate it.  It takes forever to load up on the browser version.  Another uses Zoom which is fine.  But I am spoiled by the WebEx integration.  

 

Getting off topic a bit... I really can't say how good or bad Team Video is cause I haven't used it that much, but I do like some of the other features, like shared files.  That part is nice.

[casimir]

3 hours ago, chasfh said:

I’m still thinking they won’t talk in earnest until after the Super Bowl, when the spotlight shuts off football and people typically look toward baseball as what’s next. That’s when they know they’ll have to get busy in order to look busy.

I’m still thinking 162 games starting around April 15 and ending October 9, a week late.

It'll be interesting to see what schedule alterations might be needed for Detroit, if it comes to that.  They open in Seattle and Oakland, so, if they need to reschedule, that's going to be tough to accomplish if they start X weeks late and tack on less than X weeks on the end yet hope to maintain 162 games.

[chasfh]

1 minute ago, casimir said:

It'll be interesting to see what schedule alterations might be needed for Detroit, if it comes to that.  They open in Seattle and Oakland, so, if they need to reschedule, that's going to be tough to accomplish if they start X weeks late and tack on less than X weeks on the end yet hope to maintain 162 games.

I think it would depend on how much the season gets pushed back, but let's assume for this discussion my scenario of an April 15 start plus an extra week in October happens. That's two fewer weeks on the front end and one more week on the back end.

One way would move part of the first two weeks to the back half, have a combination of doubleheaders and a couple or three fewer off days, and keep everything else as is. The easiest thing for the Tigers in that scenario would be to move the Seattle and Oakland series to the end of the year; move the Red Sox series to current off days July 21-22 (doubleheader on 21); move one of the White Sox games to off-day September 15 and the other two to make doubleheaders in the June 13-15 and September 15-18 timeframes; and add a doubleheader to one of the Royals series. It's all a pain in the ass, but workable.

Another thing they can do is to simply push back the entire schedule two weeks and compress the schedule for some combination of fewer off days and scheduled doubleheaders. This could probably work logistically because teams' travel secretaries may not have made any arrangements with out-of-town hotels in light of the coming lockout and likely schedule rebalancing.

I doubt they would simply reduce the season to the romantic ideal of 154 games because that would cost Baseball TV and gameday revenue, and Players would push for their constituents to be paid for an entire 162-game season, which I doubt Baseball would agree to.

However it comes out, I can't imagine that they would not have the plan for a restructured 162-game schedule in place before they ink the new CBA deal. But who knows, maybe they're unconcerned about all that while no deal's in place. Maybe it'll be just sign the deal and we'll figure out

[casimir]

11 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I think it would depend on how much the season gets pushed back, but let's assume for this discussion my scenario of an April 15 start plus an extra week in October happens. That's two fewer weeks on the front end and one more week on the back end.

One way would move part of the first two weeks to the back half, have a combination of doubleheaders and a couple or three fewer off days, and keep everything else as is. The easiest thing for the Tigers in that scenario would be to move the Seattle and Oakland series to the end of the year; move the Red Sox series to current off days July 21-22 (doubleheader on 21); move one of the White Sox games to off-day September 15 and the other two to make doubleheaders in the June 13-15 and September 15-18 timeframes; and add a doubleheader to one of the Royals series. It's all a pain in the ass, but workable.

Another thing they can do is to simply push back the entire schedule two weeks and compress the schedule for some combination of fewer off days and scheduled doubleheaders. This could probably work logistically because teams' travel secretaries may not have made any arrangements with out-of-town hotels in light of the coming lockout and likely schedule rebalancing.

I doubt they would simply reduce the season to the romantic ideal of 154 games because that would cost Baseball TV and gameday revenue, and Players would push for their constituents to be paid for an entire 162-game season, which I doubt Baseball would agree to.

However it comes out, I can't imagine that they would not have the plan for a restructured 162-game schedule in place before they ink the new CBA deal. But who knows, maybe they're unconcerned about all that while no deal's in place. Maybe it'll be just sign the deal and we'll figure out

It would seem to me that just adding the beginning two weeks to the back end is the easiest way to do it.  When you get into trying to condense two weeks into one or three into two.... I doubt its as easy as looking at the Tigers' schedule and assuming that, well, some doubleheaders here, and take way an off day there.  But what about the Red Sox, Jerk Sox, Royals' schedules and their days off?  Keep in mind, there is the rule of no more than 20 consecutive game days (or thereabouts) without an off day. Scheduling with a the current alignment has to be a nightmare.  

I agree with you that they wouldn't want to reduce to 154 if it isn't necessary, but this is MLB we're talking about.  Sometimes logic (assuming we are using any to begin with) need not apply.

[Motor City Sonics]

36 minutes ago, casimir said:

It'll be interesting to see what schedule alterations might be needed for Detroit, if it comes to that.  They open in Seattle and Oakland, so, if they need to reschedule, that's going to be tough to accomplish if they start X weeks late and tack on less than X weeks on the end yet hope to maintain 162 games.

Won't matter.  No baseball in 2022.   It's over.  It's all over. 

Go Mud Hens !

[casimir]

6 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Go Mud Hens !

I am intrigued to see how this robo ump stuff will work.

It looks like they are still going with weeklong series, too.

https://img.mlbstatic.com/milb-images/image/upload/milb/v5t8krfj3b3ji5fc44vy.pdf

Edited January 24, 2022 by casimir

[chasfh]

2 minutes ago, casimir said:

It would seem to me that just adding the beginning two weeks to the back end is the easiest way to do it.  When you get into trying to condense two weeks into one or three into two.... I doubt its as easy as looking at the Tigers' schedule and assuming that, well, some doubleheaders here, and take way an off day there.  But what about the Red Sox, Jerk Sox, Royals' schedules and their days off?  Keep in mind, there is the rule of no more than 20 consecutive game days (or thereabouts) without an off day. Scheduling with a the current alignment has to be a nightmare.  

I agree with you that they wouldn't want to reduce to 154 if it isn't necessary, but this is MLB we're talking about.  Sometimes logic (assuming we are using any to begin with) need not apply.

My half-baked first idea took the 20-day rule into consideration.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the first two weeks glommed onto the final two weeks, which would create a final day of season of October 16. I wouldn't mind a World Series stretching into mid-November. I think that would be kind of neat.

But I think traditional fans would throw a hairy conniption at the very idea, and even semi-wintery weather would be a real concern for players. Depending on who's playing, they'd be more likely to have neutral site games in domed stadiums or warm weather venues, which would piss off fans of northern cities who would be robbed of the opportunity to see their boys play the Series locally.

It would be a real shitshow to start late and still try to get in all 162. But, to your point, Baseball doesn't seem to care much about inconvenience to cities and fans.

[chasfh]

3 minutes ago, casimir said:

I am intrigued to see how this robo ump stuff will work.

It looks like they are still going with weeklong series, too.

https://img.mlbstatic.com/milb-images/image/upload/milb/v5t8krfj3b3ji5fc44vy.pdf

I would not doubt if they made week-long series a permanent feature of minor-league baseball even post-pandemic. It's certainly cheaper.

[casimir]

1 minute ago, chasfh said:

I would not doubt if they made week-long series a permanent feature of minor-league baseball even post-pandemic. It's certainly cheaper.

Agree, I think that's here to stay.