MLB Thread

[wpr]

ESPN

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association reached a tentative agreement on a new collective-bargaining agreement Thursday, ending the league's 99-day lockout of the players and salvaging a 162-game season, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.

With the end of the second-longest work stoppage in the game's history, spring training camps will open on Sunday, free-agent signings and trades will abound, and baseball will attempt to return to some semblance of normalcy after months of fraught negotiations.

The two sides were so far apart on so many issues I am a little surprised they reached an agreement before July.

 

[ChiefGritty]

I'm surprised too, but relieved.

I do think that in retrospect the acceptance of a 12 team playoff and with it the total devaluation of the regular season will be viewed as the main thing this agreement did, and a total catastrophe for the sport.

 

[RedRocksIllini]

As a Rockies fan, the lockout was the only thing we had to pin our hopes on. This just pushes out getting mathematically eliminated a couple weeks.

 

[Illinirog70]

Now the owners can recede back into anonymity, count their money, and start concentrating on paying minor leaguers and rookies better and we fans can get back to between-the-lines baseball! Any talk of rule changes (pitch timing, limiting shifts, etc.?)

 

[Emerson Bigguns]

I'm surprised too, but relieved.

I do think that in retrospect the acceptance of a 12 team playoff and with it the total devaluation of the regular season will be viewed as the main thing this agreement did, and a total catastrophe for the sport.

It's already at 10 teams. I guess we will have to see the format... In the last 10 years, division winners have won the WS 8 times. Tanking is getting out of hand and is possibly the biggest problem for the sport. (IMO a much bigger issue than too much playoff baseball)

Do you hate the NCAA Tournament? A 68 team, single elimination tournament isn't a very equitable way to determine which team in the country is the best. It certainly de-values the regular season. It is also (IMO) the most fun event of the year.

Maybe it won't be so bad...

 

[wpr]

Now the owners can recede back into anonymity, count their money, and start concentrating on paying minor leaguers and rookies better and we fans can get back to between-the-lines baseball! Any talk of rule changes (pitch timing, limiting shifts, etc.?)

I think the pitch clock, shift and size of the bag will be looked at later. MLB can make unilateral changes with 45 days notice so they will make those effect next season.

Other issues:

On the core economic issues that made up the meat of the negotiations, here’s where the deal reportedly landed:

• The minimum major-league salary will rise from $570,000 to $700,000, and escalate to $780,000 by the end of the deal.
• The competitive balance tax threshold for team payrolls will start at $230 million in 2022 and rise to $244 million over the deal.
• A $50,000 bonus pool will be distributed annually to the most productive players who haven’t reached arbitration.
• A draft lottery — a la the NBA, but with only six picks involved — will be instituted as part of an effort to discourage tanking.
• Teams will be eligible for draft pick incentives if they promote top prospects for opening day.

Yahoo

 

[ChiefGritty]

It's already at 10 teams. I guess we will have to see the format... In the last 10 years, division winners have won the WS 8 times. Tanking is getting out of hand and is possibly the biggest problem for the sport. (IMO a much bigger issue than too much playoff baseball)

The format is that the two division winners with the best record in each league will get a bye, and everyone else will play a best-of-3 play-in. (Not sure whether they play at both cities in the best of 3)

Some of the devil will be in the details, but even in the best case scenario it leaves you with very little to play for over six months and 162 games.

Just as a sidebar, I have seen a couple people mention a failure to address tanking, but I think there are a number of little things in the agreement that add up to make it pretty significantly less advantageous to tank. There are other things I would have done, but that's not at the top of my list of complaints.

Do you hate the NCAA Tournament? A 68 team, single elimination tournament isn't a very equitable way to determine which team in the country is the best. It certainly de-values the regular season. It is also (IMO) the most fun event of the year.

It's an amazing event, and it alone brings in more revenue than the entire rest of the sport. But college basketball is a relatively minor fixture on the sports calendar, certainly much much smaller than baseball and doesn't rely on bringing in big crowds every day all over the country.

By the way, college basketball is an interesting example that I think points in the direction of the right tweaks to make the best of this. Because obviously no one can take any meaningful steps toward a national championship during the entire regular season, but they still have conference honors to play for that are independently meaningful.

Now that MLB will all be playing under the same rules, and have a playoff system with 4 byes, they should realign to just have 4 regional divisions. Cubs and Sox, Yankees and Mets, Giants and A's.

Call them leagues (Midwest League, Eastern League, Western League, Southern League). Make a big deal of it. That's the best you're going to do in terms of providing some juice outside of the inherently random and because of that low-key unsatisfying baseball playoffs.

 

[the juiceman cometh]

I don't love the 12 team playoff but it is certainly better than the 14 team playoff the owners initially proposed. I get the argument that it will devalue the regular season, but think there's as strong an argument to the opposite proposition as with a couple more playoff spots, there will be a few more teams in playoff contention down the stretch. A lot of years lately you've had situations where there are something like 3 teams in contention for 2 playoff spots and nobody else has anythjng to play for with a month to go.

I think the main thing is I'm thrilled we will have baseball this season. I really don't know if baseball could have survived this lockout dragging on. There's a lot of promise there with the crop of young stars in the MLB there, hopefully the MLB can capitalize on guys like Tatis, Soto, Vlad Jr., Wander and Acuna to bring young fans back in.

 

[bdutts]

Now that MLB will all be playing under the same rules, and have a playoff system with 4 byes, they should realign to just have 4 regional divisions. Cubs and Sox, Yankees and Mets, Giants and A's.

Call them leagues (Midwest League, Eastern League, Western League, Southern League). Make a big deal of it. That's the best you're going to do in terms of providing some juice outside of the inherently random and because of that low-key unsatisfying baseball playoffs.

Why? No other professional league does that.