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shadow_operative2.0

shadow_operative2.0 16040

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The Los Angeles Angels, who practically have to remake their entire bullpen this offseason, acquired closer Raisel Iglesias from the Cincinnati Reds for right-handed reliever Noe Ramirez and a player to be named later or cash considerations Monday, the first day of the virtual winter meetings.

Iglesias saved 92 games from 2017 to 2019 but had arguably his best season in 2020, posting a 2.74 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP while striking out 31 batters and walking only five in 23 innings.

 

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Jeter giving the gift of disease is one of those MLB traditions. 

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Am i the only one that feels like clicking on the astros thread is a wormhole to texags?

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shadow_operative

shadow_operative 15932

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On 12/7/2020 at 11:08 PM, shadow_operative2.0 said:

 

And old man LaRussa to fuck it all up. 

seriously- such a terrible fit at manager. an old school, septuagenarian, no frills, my-way-or-the-highway/RESPECT THE GAME manager taking over the league's preeminent young, black/latin, gold-chain-wearing, bat flipping, "let the kids play" team. i can't think of a more tone deaf hire. 

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TonyTexas

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4 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

uh, Rangers win that trade by a mile, yeah? 

I think baseball trades, particularly ones like this, are very tough to grade. Both teams got what they needed. The White Sox are a strong  contender in win now mode. Lynn is a good addition towards that end.The Rangers, on the other hand,  are in a rebuild  and, given that Lynn only had 1 year left on his contract, did well by getting a couple of decent prospects. . But they are still prospects whose future contributions are unknown

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Beau Vine

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On 12/9/2020 at 6:04 AM, TonyTexas said:

I think baseball trades, particularly ones like this, are very tough to grade. Both teams got what they needed. The White Sox are a strong  contender in win now mode. Lynn is a good addition towards that end.The Rangers, on the other hand,  are in a rebuild  and, given that Lynn only had 1 year left on his contract, did well by getting a couple of decent prospects. . But they are still prospects whose future contributions are unknown

Thanks, Drew.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54473

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Charley Pride has died.  Yeah, the first mainstream black country singer.  Did you know he played in the Negro Leagues?

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As a young man before launching his singing career, he was a pitcher and outfielder in the Negro American League with the Memphis Red Sox and in the Pioneer League in Montana.

After playing minor league baseball a couple of years, he ended up in Helena, Montana, where he worked in a zinc smelting plant by day and played country music in nightclubs at night.

Pride was part of the Texas Rangers’ ownership group for the last 10 years and the team will fly the flags at half-staff at Globe Life Field and Globe Life Park on Sunday and Monday in his memory.

“The Texas Rangers join the country music world in mourning the loss of Charley Pride. While Mr. Pride was a legendary performer who entertained millions of fans in the United States and around the world, we will remember him as a true friend to this franchise,” the team said in a statement.

After a tryout with the New York Mets, Pride visited Nashville and broke into country music when Chet Atkins, head of RCA Records, heard two of his demo tapes and signed him.

To ensure that Pride was judged on his music and not his race, his first few singles were sent to radio stations without a publicity photo. After his identity became known, a few country radio stations refused to play his music.

 

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Shoxthemonkey

Shoxthemonkey 1983

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https://www.mlb.com/news/negro-leagues-given-major-league-status-for-baseball-records-stats

Major League Baseball has long celebrated the legacy of the Negro Leagues. But for the first time, MLB is officially recognizing that the quality of the segregation-era circuits was comparable to its own product from that time period.

Addressing what MLB described as a “long overdue recognition,” Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday bestowed Major League status upon seven professional Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948. The decision means that the approximately 3,400 players of the Negro Leagues during this time period are officially considered Major Leaguers, with their stats and records becoming a part of Major League history.

It's about time. It probably deserves it's own thread.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 54473

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JoePos:

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This will actually be two columns, the first a celebration of Major League Baseball’s glorious announcement on Wednesday that it is reclassifying the Negro Leagues as a major league. The second column will get into some of the complications of the announcement.

In a nutshell, this contrast gets to the heart of the complicated story that is the Negro Leagues themselves — beautiful leagues borne out of hate and intolerance, legendary players almost entirely unknown outside of Black communities, awe-inspiring teams that bounced from town to town and played local clubs for a few bucks before loading on the bus and heading to the next place. There is nothing simple about this story.

But let’s begin with this. People used to walk up to Buck O’Neil more or less every day and say something like this:

I’m sorry that you never got to play in the Major Leagues.

And Buck would respond: How do you know I didn’t?

That’s the power of commissioner Rob Manfred’s action on Wednesday: After 100 years of treating the Negro Leagues as a second-class entity, MLB is now admitting that it was wrong. MLB is now acknowledging, finally, that the Negro Leaguers played major-league baseball, that their achievements should be included in the official record, that the leagues were a triumph over MLB’s shameful and secret agreement to keep the game segregated.

And MLB’s shabby treatment of the Negro Leagues did not end when segregation ended. As you probably know, Branch Rickey refused to pay the Kansas City Monarchs a dime for Jackie Robinson, even though Robinson was under contract. He also didn’t pay anything for Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, Joe Black or Junior Gilliam. The Negro Leagues, he said bluntly, were “not a legitimate business.”

And so it went. Cool Papa Bell was not only a legendary player, he was a keen scout of talent. He was involved in helping Robinson develop, in the Cubs signing Ernie Banks and in the Yankees signing Elston Howard. The Dodgers, Cubs and Yankees did not pay him anything for this.

In 1969, MLB put together a Special Baseball Records Committee to decide which leagues qualified as “major league” — this in advance of the titanic release of the first Baseball Encyclopedia. It goes without saying that it was an all-White committee. The Committee chose the National League, the American League, the American Association (1882-1891), the Union Association (1884), the Players League (1890) and the Federal League (1914-15) as major.

They never even considered including the Negro Leagues, even though they existed in some form for many, many more years than the American Association, Union Association, Players League and Federal League combined.

It wasn’t until 1971 that the Hall of Fame finally inducted legend Satchel Paige … this only after an initial effort to put him in a different wing from the plaque room, a “separate but equal wing” in the powerful words of columnist Jim Murray.

So, Wednesday’s announcement is, more than anything, an opportunity for Major League Baseball to cleanse its own soul. I do wish they wouldn’t have used the word “elevating” when talking about Negro Leagues’ status because, as Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Museum says, “The players don’t need MLB’s validation; they knew that they were major leaguers.” But Bob and I talked about how, with this move, MLB can shine a powerful light on the Negro Leagues, inspire countless more people to learn the stories and discover the amazing players, and at the same time, stare head-on at its own sins and failures.

For all this, we say: Good on ya, Rob Manfred and MLB. Yes, it is long overdue, but the easiest thing when you have a long history of doing nothing is to just continue to do nothing. MLB stepped up here and — in the face of what will undoubtedly spark a lot of criticism — did the right thing. Countless young baseball fans over the next decades will be introduced to the Negro Leagues because of this announcement, and I’m proud of the sport for doing this.

People used to walk up to Buck O’Neil more or less every day and say something like this:

I’m sorry that you never got to play in the Major Leagues.

And Buck would respond: How do you know I didn’t?

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WBT

WBT 20677

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So I guess we're doing this dipshittery again where the owners don't want to play a full season to shaft the players out of money.

Stark: How many games in the 2021 MLB season? Take the under

Spoiler

Somewhere over the horizon, there will be a new baseball season. We can see it. We can taste it. We can practically feel it. What we can’t do, unfortunately, is predict it.

On one hand, there’s a real schedule. It was released five months ago. To look at it, in its 162-game splendor, you could almost imagine that life will be normal again. All we need is Opening Day.

But here’s my advice, now that I’ve finished taking an informal survey of baseball officials, managers, coaches and players:

Take the under.

Over the last week, we’ve heard voices from managers to the players’ union tell us that 162 games is still the plan.

Take the under.

We’ve heard dreams of spring training starting on time in February and the season kicking off April 1, all right on schedule.

Take the under.

Why? Because my survey was as clear as a perfect spring training morning. Of the 25 baseball people who answered, only five predicted a full, 162-game season. Three are players who know that’s the union’s position. One was an executive who admitted that’s how he thought MLB wanted him to answer. The fifth — a manager who asked not to be named — said he was so hopeful about the breakthroughs in COVID-19 vaccines, he’d begun to envision “game-changing” possibilities.

But those five were in the vast minority. Here is how the rest of the group responded:

120 games: 4
120-130: 1
120-140: 2
130: 1
130-140: 1
135: 1
135-140: 1
140: 3
144: 2
140-150: 2
145-150: 1
No idea: 1

That was one question in this survey. The other was: When do you expect the season to start? Here’s what our panelists predicted on that question:

April 1: 5
April 1, but won’t play 162: 1
April 22: 1
May 1: 11
May 15: 3
May 1-15: 1
May 1-June 1: 1
Memorial Day: 1
No idea: 1 

So what should we make of these guesses/predictions? And what do they tell us about what 2021 might look like? Let’s work through all of that now.

The great unknown

Amid the many 2021 storylines already swirling in the holiday breeze, here’s what I learned from doing this survey and talking to people in every corner of the sport: Ignore the noise — because no one knows.

Is MLB preparing to play fewer than 162 games? Of course — because no one knows. Is the union preparing to fight for 162? Of course it is, because that’s why it exists. But can the union be sure vaccine distribution and local authorities will allow that to happen? See above: No one knows.

“There’s so much unknown still,” said one AL executive who predicted 120. “That’s why, if you ask me to pick a number (of games), I’ll always go longer, because we need time to figure this out.”

The players who answered 162 acknowledge the immense uncertainties. They just see a greater ability to navigate the unknown after their experiences of 2020.

“While I think the effects of the virus will still be felt as we enter 2021, I’m confident we can play 162,” said Cardinals reliever Andrew Miller, a member of the union’s executive board. “I just think we have a far greater understanding of the virus at this time than we did in March. And the success of last season, despite the obstacles, gives me confidence that we can navigate a full 2021 slate.”

So Miller, like players everywhere, is preparing for 162, even though, like all of us, players get that it’s impossible to predict everything about the COVID-19 future.

“My fingers are crossed that the worst of this is behind us,” Miller said. “The light is at the end of the tunnel. We just have to get there.”

But there sure is a lot of traffic in that tunnel. And navigating that traffic is the challenge — not just for the sport but for the planet. How do those obstacles apply to baseball? Here’s how:

Vaccination anticipation

It’s the vaccine, above all else, that holds the key to what’s possible and when. MLB and the union have stayed in contact with experts, so they have some feel for what the arrival of vaccines will and won’t mean. But here are their biggest questions:

When will the vaccine be available to players? Pivotal question. Not even Dr. Fauci knows the answer. Whatever the priority list looks like in society for the first inoculations, there’s no scenario in which healthy 20-something professional athletes are near the top of that list.

So then the question is: When will the vaccine become available to generally healthy people who aren’t health care workers, first responders, essential workers, seniors and anyone who could be considered vulnerable? And where would baseball players find themselves on the priority list among the healthy? Sorry. That, too, is unanswerable.

Could baseball’s turn arrive before the normal start of spring training, in not much more than a month and a half? Who thinks that’s likely? Anyone?

It might require some sort of government designation that professional sports hold enough economic importance that baseball and other sports get bumped to the front of the line. But would you dream on that designation if you were Rob Manfred?

So barring a development like that, it’s possible players could have to wait until the vicinity of April 1 — maybe later — for their turn in the vaccine line. And what would that mean? Read on.

Would all players get vaccinated? This just in: Players are part of the same species as the rest of us. So with polls already showing that a significant portion of the general population won’t rush to get vaccinated, we should expect that just as significant a percentage of players will prefer to wait and see. But that, naturally, creates its own set of issues.

Would MLB require all players to get vaccinated? This point hasn’t been negotiated yet, so stay tuned. But we haven’t found anyone on either side who expects the sport to impose that requirement. What happens, though, if there are teams that have a large group of players who resist? Excellent question.

Ideally, according to sports health authorities I’ve asked, a practical goal for teams should be to have at least 75 percent of their players and staff get the vaccine. But how would teams be treated if they don’t reach — or even approach — that threshold?

That, too, would have to be negotiated. But what seems likely is that different health and safety protocols would be applied to teams with different vaccination levels. Over 75 percent? Minimal protocols, for example. Under 50 percent? Strict protocols similar to last season, potentially.

So that’s one possible method for incentivizing players to get vaccinated without requiring them to do so. Are there others? Good chance we’ll find out.

Does it make sense to start the season before vaccinations? Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but here’s a shocker: The union and MLB appear to disagree strongly on this.

The union’s position was best summed up by Scott Boras, in his virtual Winter Meetings media scrum last week: “We now know that we can play this game, and we can do it safely — and with the vaccine coming, even at a higher safety level,” Boras said. “So the reality of it is, it’s not a question of whether we can do it, because we’ve already done it. So that unknown is erased.”

But that’s not how the commissioner’s office is likely to see this. Front-office folks who have spoken to the commissioner’s office say they expect MLB to argue that the smartest practice would be vaccinating players and staff during spring training, not during the season. And why is that?

For one thing, we’re talking thousands of people across 30 teams, at two doses apiece. So it wouldn’t be a quick process. For another, it’s likely that at least some players will develop side effects from the vaccine that could keep them from playing for a day or two, possibly longer. So there’s obviously a case for dealing with those issues before the games count.

But there are other reasons, of course, for delaying the start of the season. Such as …

That’s the ticket

In 2020, owners had no choice. It was either play in front of cardboard fans and empty bleachers or don’t play at all.

But in 2021, owners appear ready to dig in. If they can’t open ticket offices and play baseball games in front of real human beings who purchase real tickets, they’re likely to push to delay the season until they can.

“The belief is, we can’t have games without fans anymore,” said one NL club official. “And we understand that in certain parts of the country, it’s going to be impossible to have fans in April.”

So if it’s impossible to have fans in April, they’d prefer to wait until May. If it’s impossible to have fans in May, they’d prefer to wait until June. But even if they’re wrong and fans are permitted as soon as early April, their question is: How many fans?

Would fans have to show proof they were vaccinated in order to buy a ticket? How would that work? It’s already late December, and nobody has those answers. But here’s a reminder that it isn’t just the safety of fans that’s a concern. There’s also …

Player health

Here’s an issue raised by quite a few managers and front-office figures: What’s the risk to the health of players of going right back to a 162-game season?

“From a health standpoint, 162 is scary to me,” said one GM. “Going from 60 games to 162 is a pretty big jump. That’s a hundred more games. It’s not a small number.”

Managers expressed serious concerns about the health ramifications for pitchers who would have to ramp up from 50 or 60 innings to 175 or 200. And front offices worry about the wear and tear on players in general after a year that didn’t present nearly the same sort of physical stresses.

“What about travel?” asked the same GM. “There’s no equivalent for what it’s like to play 162, with all that travel — East Coast to West Coast, West Coast to East Coast.”

So just as the NBA and NHL will play slightly shorter seasons, this GM said he’d feel much more comfortable with 120 to 130 games. And you can see from the survey results, he has lots of company.

“The union talks about how health and safety comes first,” said one executive, who brought up this issue immediately and talked quite forcefully about it. “But they’re demanding to play 162, after playing 60 in a very short period this year, when we saw a ton of injuries. So saying, ‘We expect to play 162,’ should indicate that this has nothing to do with the health and safety of players. It has everything to do with the economics of players. Suggesting we should go from 60 to 162 is reckless.”

And that sort of harsh talk is a reminder that in the end, you should always …

Follow the money

The fight is coming. In baseball, sadly, the fight is always coming. We’ve just laid out how owners, managers and front offices feel about how next season should look. But it’s a funny thing. The Players Association doesn’t seem to share any of that vision — and it has already staked out its territory.

“To be clear, and as we’ve made clear to the league, players are planning on showing up for spring training on time for a full 162-game season,” the union’s Bruce Meyer told The Athletic last week, “as set forth in the collective bargaining agreement and the league’s previously issued schedule.”

At its most basic level, this position is driven by money. Then again, why wouldn’t it be? Are you familiar with what unions do? They fight for their members’ economic interests, first and foremost. And this union will do that, fiercely, just as it always has.

But as Boras suggested the other day, the union has other arguments it can raise, and pointed questions it can ask:

• If we proved we could play a 60-game season with the right protocols in 2020, why can’t we play 162 games, with protocols and the vaccine coming, in 2021?

• Where, in the Basic Agreement, does it say that if owners think they’re not making the money they expected, they can just cut 20 to 40 games off the season?

Let’s address those issues one at a time.

The protocols worked — so what’s the problem? When I asked versions of this question to executives in the game, many of them disagreed with the whole premise.

“We tried it for 60 games last year, and frankly, it didn’t turn out great,” one executive said. “We had major outbreaks. We couldn’t get through the final game of the World Series. So to do what we did for 162, I honestly think it’s impossible. It can’t work.”

It was hard enough, he said, to make up a large number of games with a strictly regional schedule in which teams played the same clubs over and over. But if everyone goes back to a normal schedule, with the normal grueling travel and games against four divisions, any outbreak would create major complications.

“The proof is the NFL,” the same exec said. “They have basically the same protocols we used, or even more stringent protocols, and people are testing positive every day. When the NFL has an outbreak, they have to move one game. We have to move 10 games, and how do you make those up? Then if a team can’t make up all the games, what do you do?”

Tough question. Maybe the Rays, for example, wouldn’t mind if they play 162 games while the Yankees play 140. But why do I think they would? If pushing back the season a few weeks eases those worries and solves these problems, it feels as if it’s worth thinking about. But can anyone truly guarantee that it would?

The labor agreement says 162 games — so how can MLB justify any other number? If there’s going to be a fight, it’s going to come down to this very issue. And it has the makings of as epic a donnybrook as Ali versus Frazier.

Management can come up with 50 reasons that delaying (and shrinking) the season is a sensible idea. But are any of them covered in the labor deal? And if not, what’s the legal argument for trying to force that on the players?

What MLB would seem likely to argue is: Next year is no different than this year. The COVID crisis has created a government-mandated national emergency, which remains in effect. So, in MLB’s view, that gives the commissioner the right to cancel games if necessary.

But when I double-checked that with one sports attorney, he informed me there is a caveat in contracts that applies only to a national emergency “during which baseball is not played.” The union, he said, would no doubt attempt to interpret that as “cannot be played,” and then argue that won’t be the case in 2021. MLB, naturally, would have the opposite interpretation.

It’s not a real entertaining basis for a labor melee, but it could be coming to a sports site near you any week now. When you peel back all the legalities, though, what it really is about is what these fights are always about: $$$$$$$.

“It will come down to this,” one exec predicted. “The union will say: ‘We’re more than happy to play 120 games. Just pay us for 162.’”

Some variation of that battle feels more inevitable at this point than pitchers, catchers and palm trees in February. But at least we made it to Christmas week without the first shot being fired. For the moment, that fight is on hold — as everyone follows the vaccine rollout and waits for signs of hope.

“Sometimes, things become more clear in time,” one exec said, as he pondered the view of 2021 over the horizon. “So who knows. Maybe next week, it will be more clear. All I know is, right now it’s not.”

 

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shadow_operative2.0

shadow_operative2.0 16040

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Phil Niekro passed at 81. 

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First called up by Milwaukee in 1964, Niekro see-sawed between the majors and minors, a pitcher struggling to find a niche, and willing catchers. He found both in 1967, when he was united with Bob Uecker, a veteran reserve backstop with many quips, and sage advice.

"Ueck told me if I was ever going to be a winner to throw the knuckleball at all times and he would try to catch it," said Niekro. "I led the league in ERA (1.87) and he led the league in passed balls."

Uecker acknowledged he did a lot of chasing.

"Catching Niekro's knuckleball was great," said Uecker, now a Hall of Fame announcer. "I got to meet a lot of important people. They all sit behind home plate."

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