MLB 2025 Season

Indifference71

bootlegger10 said:

To be honest, they could miss the first 40 games of the year and the season would still be about 20 games too long.

While I do agree the season is too long, this lockout under the guise of the owners having trouble making a profit is laughable.  

DewieCox

tempo_n_groove said:

To Our Fans:

I had hoped against hope that I would not have to be in the position of canceling games. We worked hard to avoid an outcome that is bad for our fans, bad for our players and bad for our clubs.

I want to assure our fans that our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort on the part of either party. The Players came here for nine days, worked hard and tried to make a deal. I appreciate their effort.

Our committee of Club representatives committed to the process, offered compromise after compromise, and hung in past the deadline to exhaust all efforts to reach an agreement.

So far, we have failed to achieve our mutual goal of a fair deal. The unfortunate thing is that the agreement we have offered has huge benefits for fans and players.

We have listened to the Players Association throughout this process. A primary goal of the Players Association has been to increase pay for younger players. As I have said previously, we agree and share that goal. We offered to raise the minimum salary to $700,000, an increase of $130,000 from 2021. We offered to create an annual bonus pool of $30 million for the very best young players. In total, we are offering a 33% raise to nearly two-thirds of Major League players and adding more than $100 million annually in additional compensation for younger players.

The proposal also addressed player and fan concerns about issues like service time and competitive issues. Baseball would for the first time have a draft lottery -- the most aggressive in professional sports. Also, for the first time ever, we agreed to an incentive system to encourage clubs to promote top prospects to their Opening Day rosters. We also proposed that the first andsecond-place finishers in the Rookie of the Year voting in each league would receive a full year of service.

The MLBPA asked to make free agency more robust. For the first time ever, we agreed to eliminate direct draft pick compensation, a change the MLBPA has sought for decades. On the Competitive Balance Tax, we offered a significantly larger first-year increase than in the last two agreements, bearing in mind that the Competitive Balance Tax is the only mechanism in the agreement that protects some semblance of a level playing field among clubs.

The International Draft would have more fairly allocated talent among the clubs and reduced abuses in some international markets.

We also listened to our fans. The expanded playoffs would bring the excitement of meaningful September baseball and postseason baseball to fans in more of our markets. While we preferred a 14-team format, when the format became a significant obstacle, we listened to the players’ concerns, and offered to compromise by accepting their 12-team format.

Finally, we offered a procedural agreement that would allow for the timely implementation of sorely needed rules like the pitch timer and elimination of shifts to improve the entertainment value of the game on the field. And we agreed to the universal DH.

So, what is next? The calendar dictates that we are not going to be able to play the first two series of regular season games and those games are officially canceled. We are prepared to continue negotiations. We have been informed that the MLBPA is headed back to New York meaning that no agreement is possible until at least Thursday. Currently, camps could not meaningfully operate until at least March 8th, leaving only 23 days before scheduled Opening Day.

We played without an agreement in 1994 and the players went on strike in August, forcing the cancellation of the World Series. It was a painful chapter in our game’s history. We cannot risk such an outcome again for our fans and our sport.

The Clubs and our owners fully understand just how important it is to our millions of fans that we get the game on the field as soon as possible. To that end, we want to bargain and we want a deal with the Players Association as quickly as possible.

Hard to buy any of that when the “last chance” offer was more of a “let’s open negotiations” offer.

If I hear “I’d play for the league minimum” or “getting paid millions to play a game” a few dozen more times from somebody that couldn’t get off the bench in little league I’m going to clothesline somebody. 

The Juggler

Indifference71 said:

bootlegger10 said:

To be honest, they could miss the first 40 games of the year and the season would still be about 20 games too long.

While I do agree the season is too long, this lockout under the guise of the owners having trouble making a profit is laughable.  

But a 162 game season means you don't need to put half the league in the playoffs like the other sports do. That's part of what used to make baseball unique. 

HesCalledDyer

Maybe if some owners (coughcough Cubs' Tom Ricketts cough) weren't so god damn busy donating millions & millions to Trump's campaign and various farcical election fraud organizations, and instead actually invested in the fucking baseball team, they wouldn't be having so much "financial trouble."

HesCalledDyer

DewieCox said:

tempo_n_groove said:

To Our Fans:

I had hoped against hope that I would not have to be in the position of canceling games. We worked hard to avoid an outcome that is bad for our fans, bad for our players and bad for our clubs.

I want to assure our fans that our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort on the part of either party. The Players came here for nine days, worked hard and tried to make a deal. I appreciate their effort.

Our committee of Club representatives committed to the process, offered compromise after compromise, and hung in past the deadline to exhaust all efforts to reach an agreement.

So far, we have failed to achieve our mutual goal of a fair deal. The unfortunate thing is that the agreement we have offered has huge benefits for fans and players.

We have listened to the Players Association throughout this process. A primary goal of the Players Association has been to increase pay for younger players. As I have said previously, we agree and share that goal. We offered to raise the minimum salary to $700,000, an increase of $130,000 from 2021. We offered to create an annual bonus pool of $30 million for the very best young players. In total, we are offering a 33% raise to nearly two-thirds of Major League players and adding more than $100 million annually in additional compensation for younger players.

The proposal also addressed player and fan concerns about issues like service time and competitive issues. Baseball would for the first time have a draft lottery -- the most aggressive in professional sports. Also, for the first time ever, we agreed to an incentive system to encourage clubs to promote top prospects to their Opening Day rosters. We also proposed that the first andsecond-place finishers in the Rookie of the Year voting in each league would receive a full year of service.

The MLBPA asked to make free agency more robust. For the first time ever, we agreed to eliminate direct draft pick compensation, a change the MLBPA has sought for decades. On the Competitive Balance Tax, we offered a significantly larger first-year increase than in the last two agreements, bearing in mind that the Competitive Balance Tax is the only mechanism in the agreement that protects some semblance of a level playing field among clubs.

The International Draft would have more fairly allocated talent among the clubs and reduced abuses in some international markets.

We also listened to our fans. The expanded playoffs would bring the excitement of meaningful September baseball and postseason baseball to fans in more of our markets. While we preferred a 14-team format, when the format became a significant obstacle, we listened to the players’ concerns, and offered to compromise by accepting their 12-team format.

Finally, we offered a procedural agreement that would allow for the timely implementation of sorely needed rules like the pitch timer and elimination of shifts to improve the entertainment value of the game on the field. And we agreed to the universal DH.

So, what is next? The calendar dictates that we are not going to be able to play the first two series of regular season games and those games are officially canceled. We are prepared to continue negotiations. We have been informed that the MLBPA is headed back to New York meaning that no agreement is possible until at least Thursday. Currently, camps could not meaningfully operate until at least March 8th, leaving only 23 days before scheduled Opening Day.

We played without an agreement in 1994 and the players went on strike in August, forcing the cancellation of the World Series. It was a painful chapter in our game’s history. We cannot risk such an outcome again for our fans and our sport.

The Clubs and our owners fully understand just how important it is to our millions of fans that we get the game on the field as soon as possible. To that end, we want to bargain and we want a deal with the Players Association as quickly as possible.

Hard to buy any of that when the “last chance” offer was more of a “let’s open negotiations” offer.

If I hear “I’d play for the league minimum” or “getting paid millions to play a game” a few dozen more times from somebody that couldn’t get off the bench in little league I’m going to clothesline somebody. 

I'll be your tag partner. And don't forget "millionaires vs. billionaires" while we're clotheslining folks!

igotid88

https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1499437478985408546?t=aaNDEDKln5DgTUyziwezRw&s=19

Ledbetterman10

"Oh NOW they want to ban the shift." ---Ryan Howard

cutz

igotid88 said:

https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1499437478985408546?t=aaNDEDKln5DgTUyziwezRw&s=19

Don't ban shifts
Pitch clock, but there is a rule on time between pitches in the Official rule book already? (If so, enforce the rule)
No bigger bases either

The Juggler

Bigger bases? Why?

Poncier

The Juggler said:

Bigger bases? Why?

For Jeff

DewieCox

The Juggler said:

Bigger bases? Why?

The Juggler said:

Bigger bases? Why?

Safety I’m guessing, but they’ll still have the neighborhood play.

I like the no shift idea. Hard enough to hit a baseball and  I bet about every team has a guy who’s career was wrecked by emphasizing the long ball. Chicks dig the long ball but opening up more small ball makes for more entertaining games. 

Wobbie

I’m down with banning the (extreme) shift.

xavier mcdaniel

If you guessed Arizona, Cincinnati, Detroit and the Angels as four teams to reject increasing the CBT to 220 million collect your prize and there's this from the Athletic:

"One of the league’s efforts that irked the players was a proposal to incorporate meal money and the stipends players receive into the luxury-tax calculations. MLB, in other words, wanted to count the amount of money players receive for food against the amount of money teams can spend before they are taxed."

Cliffy6745

I say ban the shift

and universal dh obviously 

The Juggler

Wobbie said:

I’m down with banning the (extreme) shift.

Absolutely.

But fuck the DH from here to eternity. 

tempo_n_groove

DewieCox said:

The Juggler said:

Bigger bases? Why?

The Juggler said:

Bigger bases? Why?

Safety I’m guessing, but they’ll still have the neighborhood play.

I like the no shift idea. Hard enough to hit a baseball and  I bet about every team has a guy who’s career was wrecked by emphasizing the long ball. Chicks dig the long ball but opening up more small ball makes for more entertaining games. 

In co-ed softball we have a line painted where the outfield is not allowed to cross until the ball is hit.  Banning the shift gives the hitter the same help as the people in co-ed softball.

Apples and oranges maybe but it came into my mind.

Leave the shift, learn to pull or swing later.  Bunt maybe?  Figure out a new strategy.

tempo_n_groove

xavier mcdaniel said:

If you guessed Arizona, Cincinnati, Detroit and the Angels as four teams to reject increasing the CBT to 220 million collect your prize and there's this from the Athletic:

"One of the league’s efforts that irked the players was a proposal to incorporate meal money and the stipends players receive into the luxury-tax calculations. MLB, in other words, wanted to count the amount of money players receive for food against the amount of money teams can spend before they are taxed."

Why a player making that much money has a stipend/per diem is ridiculous to me.

MayDay10

Im kind of split on the shift...  I hate it, but Im not sure that restrictions like that help the sport/game.

Just hit the other way, fatso

Poncier

tempo_n_groove said:

DewieCox said:

The Juggler said:

Bigger bases? Why?

The Juggler said:

Bigger bases? Why?

Safety I’m guessing, but they’ll still have the neighborhood play.

I like the no shift idea. Hard enough to hit a baseball and  I bet about every team has a guy who’s career was wrecked by emphasizing the long ball. Chicks dig the long ball but opening up more small ball makes for more entertaining games. 

 

Leave the shift, learn to pull or swing later.  Bunt maybe?  Figure out a new strategy.

Hitters have stated (and rightfully so) that with the advantages pitchers have these days it's just not that feasible to just hit the ball the other way.
Now if you take every little aid away from pitchers, no rosin no spider tack (which I know they outlawed but we all know still gets used), etc., then fine, leave the shift in place. Otherwise, I say even with the 2nd base bag should be as far as an infielder can shift towards the other side.

xavier mcdaniel

tempo_n_groove said:

xavier mcdaniel said:

If you guessed Arizona, Cincinnati, Detroit and the Angels as four teams to reject increasing the CBT to 220 million collect your prize and there's this from the Athletic:

"One of the league’s efforts that irked the players was a proposal to incorporate meal money and the stipends players receive into the luxury-tax calculations. MLB, in other words, wanted to count the amount of money players receive for food against the amount of money teams can spend before they are taxed."

Why a player making that much money has a stipend/per diem is ridiculous to me.

who knows, but food stipends don't seem like they're tied a team's payroll, at least they shouldn't be.