Topic: Any Baseball Lovers Around

[rafathegaffa83]

Ian Desmond has opted out playing this season due to COVID, he's also criticized MLB for a number of other things (sexism, lack of diversity etc)
https://t.co/lBTlkaIjf7?amp=1

[Gerry Attrick]

Ian Desmond has opted out playing this season due to COVID, he's also criticized MLB for a number of other things (sexism, lack of diversity etc)
https://t.co/lBTlkaIjf7?amp=1

I think Mike Leake has opted out too, so that's a boost for the Dbacks.

[rafathegaffa83]

David Price sitting out the season

[arthur sarnoff]

I'm not sure how MLB can complete a season, to be honest.  The whole country is fucked. 

[rafathegaffa83]

So the Blue Jays players will have to stay in the hotel built into the Rogers Centre during the season. Failure to do so will result in a $750,000 fine as per the Quarantine Act

Scott Mitchell@ScottyMitchTSN
Here is what’s going to keep #BlueJays players in their stadium/hotel bubble this summer: Per multiple sources, players have been told penalty if seen outside ballpark is $750,000 fine and potential jail time.

[Gerry Attrick]

So the Blue Jays players will have to stay in the hotel built into the Rogers Centre during the season. Failure to do so will result in a $750,000 fine as per the Quarantine Act

Scott Mitchell@ScottyMitchTSN
Here is what’s going to keep #BlueJays players in their stadium/hotel bubble this summer: Per multiple sources, players have been told penalty if seen outside ballpark is $750,000 fine and potential jail time.

Stupid. No other word for it. 750,000 fine or potential jail time? Do me a favour ffs.

[rafathegaffa83]

Stupid. No other word for it. 750,000 fine or potential jail time? Do me a favour ffs.

Rules are the rules. Everybody who enters the country Canadian or not is subject to them. They've already been granted an exemption to play in Toronto.

And MLB has done such a great job with regard to testing players who have flown in

Jesse Dougherty@dougherty_jesse
MLB chartered two flights from the Dominican Republic to Miami on July 1. They didn't test players + staff members before they boarded. Since, multiple players have tested positive for coronavirus and many others are isolating.

[rafathegaffa83]

Blue Jays reportedly will now play the season in Buffalo

Toronto Star@TorontoStar
#Breaking Toronto @BlueJays will play their home games in Buffalo, N.Y. this season after the federal government rejected a plan that would have allowed them to use the Rogers Centre.

Jeff Passan@JeffPassan
There had been discussions between Blue Jays and players about the team paying off apartment leases, putting them up at the Rogers Centre Marriott and giving hardship pay of $20,000+, sources tell ESPN. All of it is moot after Canadian federal officials said no MLB in Toronto.

[Gerry Attrick]

Betts signed a 12 year contract extension with the Dodgers worth $365m according to Rosenthal. So, he'll be there until he's 39. I absolutely hate these kind of contracts, especially for NL teams. Running 35 year olds out in the field when they're earning over 30 a year will never result in nice things.

[Oskar]

Judging by the social media reaction I've seen, I think I'm in the minority of Red Sox fans who can understand to some extent why FSG didn't want to give him the contract he was looking for.

I'm just glad this season is a short one given it looks a bit of write-off from a Boston perspective. But I am excited to see what Chaim Bloom can do in rebuilding post-Dombrowski.

[rafathegaffa83]

Betts signed a 12 year contract extension with the Dodgers worth $365m according to Rosenthal. So, he'll be there until he's 39. I absolutely hate these kind of contracts, especially for NL teams. Running 35 year olds out in the field when they're earning over 30 a year will never result in nice things.

The DH has come to the NL. I doubt it leaves

[rafathegaffa83]

Soto becomes the first player in MLB due to a positive COVID test

[Ray K]

Tampa Bay Rays  @RaysBaseball

Today is Opening Day, which means it's a great day to arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor

[rafathegaffa83]

Tampa Bay Rays  @RaysBaseball

Today is Opening Day, which means it's a great day to arrest the killers of Breonna Taylor

I did not have woke Rays Twitter on my 2020 Bingo card

[rafathegaffa83]

MLB's COVID approach is going great Possible outbreak in the Marlins squad involving at least 4 players, possibly 6
https://apnews.com/a6c8bb2e07f35c8771a0d3d5f77ed852

[rafathegaffa83]

Marlins home opener cancelled. 14 positive COVID tests

Jeff Passan@JeffPassan
Eight more players and two coaches with the Miami Marlins have tested positive for COVID-19, as an outbreak has spread throughout their clubhouse and brought the total of cases in recent days to at least 14, sources familiar with the situation tell me and @JesseRogersESPN

[arthur sarnoff]

Another 8 players and 2 coaches test positive for the Marlins.  Their home opener is off, as the team is still in Phily awaiting more results.

This season is going to get cancelled at some point.

EDIT:  Beaten to the punch.

[rafathegaffa83]

Amazing what a shitshow MLB's COVID management has been. Soto having to miss Opening Day because of this, Eduardo Rodriguez having a heart condition because of it. And now more than a dozen players and staff with it in one team after less than a week. And they played yesterday against the Phillies

[arthur sarnoff]

And the Phillies are playing the Yankees tonight.  This is an absolute shitshow.  Factor in the amount of time these guys spend flying as well....

[Dim Glas]

Not even been watching the games that the Mets have played.

Not intersted, with that stupid DH now being in the national league, they can do one.

And not surprised to hear of this happening, MLB is a shit show.

 

[Oskar]

I've enjoyed having games to watch again, but it needs to shut down.

The season should have been cancelled, but they've tried to make it work and this has happened. Watching the Braves/Mets game last night, they showed a video of Freeman talking about his experiences of the virus and it sounded horrific - no one should be putting themselves at risk of that kind of suffering for baseball.

[rafathegaffa83]

And the Phillies are playing the Yankees tonight.  This an absolute shitshow.  Factor in the amount of time these guys spend flying as well....

Should be cancelled. There seems to be suggestions this morning that MLB allowed the Marlins to play yesterday before all their test results came back, which is insane given the news had already broken about some positive tests

[arthur sarnoff]

It has to be cancelled, you'd have thought.  Given the delays in test results and of course symptoms, this could be all around the league before they've played a month.  Not to mention all the people outside baseball, like hotel and airline staff that these guys are coming into contact with.

[arthur sarnoff]

Yankees-Phillies is now cancelled tonight. 

[rafathegaffa83]

Yankees-Phillies is now cancelled tonight. 

It's the only route they could have taken. To do otherwise would have been gross negligence

[arthur sarnoff]

MLB holding an emergency meeting today as well.  If the season isn't done today, it will be soon.

[rafathegaffa83]

MLB holding an emergency meeting today as well.  If the season isn't done today, it will be soon.

Wouldn't surprise me if they try to alleviate it. There will be huge pressure from broadcasters. The fact this happened on the opening weekend is a huge problem. The Canadian government rejecting a travel exemption for the Blue Jays is looking better every minute. MLB's problem is that it's plan always looked exceptionally fragile given squad size and travel distances. The NFL must be shitting itself

Rob Gillies@rgilliescanada
"Baseball is in huge trouble, huge trouble," Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor of infectious diseases at the U of T and a medical director at Sinai-University Health Network. "It makes me wonder if they are listening listening to the advice of experts."

Rob Gillies@rgilliescanada
"The sports broadcasting industry has a conflict of interest. They are interested in a good product and minimizing the whole COVID situation. You are not going to hear good commentary from people who have the most interest in sports continuing on," Dr. Andrew Morris said.

Rob Gillies@rgilliescanada
"Baseball is in huge trouble, huge trouble," Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor of infectious diseases at the U of T and a medical director at Sinai-University Health Network. "It makes me wonder if they are listening to the advice of experts."

Rob Gillies@rgilliescanada
"Anyone who knows anything about this problem and infectious disease epidemiology could have anticipated this," Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor of infectious diseases at the U of T, said about baseball. "This plan was designed to fail and they went through with it anyways."

Rob Gillies@rgilliescanada
"There are Lou Williams type stories in MLB that we are just not hearing about because they are not tightly controlling their players as the NBA is trying to do. It's going to end with a headline saying the first player is admitted to the intensive care unit," Dr Morris said.

Rob Gillies@rgilliescanada
"This was not a plan that anyone who knows what they are talking about would have conceived," Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Toronto and a medical director, said of baseball. "It's playing out like it was supposed to play out."

[Lynndenberries]

Not even remotely surprised. They spent months arguing over money and never took the time to come up with a plan to avoid a COVID outbreak.

[rafathegaffa83]

Not even remotely surprised. They spent months arguing over money and never took the time to come up with a plan to avoid a COVID outbreak.

This. They spent most of the time wrangling over pro-rated salaries, rather than addressing safety. The players nixed the bubble idea as they wanted access to their families

[arthur sarnoff]

I actually agree that they'll try and alleviate it as well, because Rob Manfred can be relied on to make the worst decision trying for a compromise.  But if they keep playing, this will only get worse.

Manfred should really resign after all this is over, but I won't hold my breath.

[rafathegaffa83]

If true, this makes the situation even worse. Phillies don't come out of this well either

“He’s kind of an unofficial team captain of our club,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said of Miguel Rojas. “He’s always texting the group and getting the feelings of the group. So when we’re dealing with situations or things, that’s usually who we’re working through.”

Major League Baseball issued a 113-page operations manual to all club employees before the start of the season. It outlines everything from on-field rules to testing procedures and what happens if a player tests positive. But Sunday afternoon, the status of the game amid a coronavirus outbreak was decided by a group text-message between Marlins players.

“We made the decision that we’re going to continue to do this and we’re going to continue to be responsible and just play the game as hard as we can,” Rojas said.

But did the Marlins ever consider not playing?

“That was never the mentality,” Rojas said. “We knew that this would happen at some point. We came to the ballpark and we were ready to play. That was never our thought that we weren’t going to play.”

The opinion shared in the group chat was the same as the opinion of the Marlins organization, as both parties thought the team took enough precaution to play Sunday’s game. Those opinions were then provided to the joint committee of Major League Baseball and the players’ union, which is tasked with the day-to-day oversight of the monitoring and testing plan.

The operations manual says that after a player tests positive for COVID-19, the club must conduct contact tracing to identify the individuals who had close contact with the infected individual. The Marlins flew together to Philadelphia from Atlanta, traveled by bus to a Center City hotel, traveled by bus to the ballpark, dressed in the clubhouse, and sat in the dugout.

It could be easily argued that every Marlins player and staff member came in close contact over the weekend with the infected players. If so, the operations manual says those individuals should be quarantined or isolated pending the results of an Expedited Diagnostic Test, which the Marlins received Sunday morning. Instead of quarantining and thus postponing Sunday’s game, the Marlins played a 3-hour, 44-minute game against the Phillies and then learned Monday morning that eight additional players had tested positive.

The Phillies were alerted Sunday morning about the Marlins’ situation and sent a text message to their players. They didn’t know exactly what Marlins players were positive, but told their team to take precautions. Bryce Harper wore a mask when he ran the bases. Rhys Hoskins had a mask on when he played first base.

But the Phillies never considered not playing. Manager Joe Girardi said he thought the Marlins “followed protocol.” Harper said the Phillies do “all the things the right way to hopefully not contract that.” So they played Sunday, but can’t play Monday.

https://www.inquirer.com/phillies/miami-marlins-coronavirus-outbreak-phillies-mlb-season-20200727.html?

[Dim Glas]

So let me get this right, the Marlins managment, players and every fucker involved in the day to day of the club, KNEW a player had tested positive, but just went about their business like it didn’t matter much including travelling to Philadephia, and the Phillies where ok with it, and played on as normal, with the only precaution of 2 of their players worse masks?

 

[rafathegaffa83]

So let me get this right, the Marlins managment, players and every fucker involved in the day to day of the club, KNEW a player had tested positive, but just went about their business like it didn’t matter much including travelling to Philadephia, and the Phillies where ok with it, and played on as normal, with the only precaution of 2 of their players worse masks?

 

Sounds that way. The more you step back from it, the more insane and outrageous it sounds. A team with an outbreak took it in their own hands to decide to play a game despite knowing that the results of multiple tests were not finalized. And the opposition knew of an outbreak, but not the individuals infected. And yet they both decided to play.

Sports writers will focus on MLB's dreadful COVID management, but there needs to be some major focus on this part of the story. Isn't it the entire point that players and staff aren't supposed to be running this circus?

[Statto Red]

4 more from the Marlins organisation test positive for the virus.

[rafathegaffa83]

4 more from the Marlins organisation test positive for the virus.

So 19 in the travelling party. I'm pretty sure that's more than half of it, or close to it

Jon Heyman@JonHeyman
Phillies had no positive tests among players in results that came back this am. Game was canceled out of caution due to Marlins being there over the weekend.

[red_Mark1980]

Slight aside but I'm watching 42 on prime. Is there a standout Jackie Robinson book  I should read. I always "knew" the story but would be genuinely interested to read more.

[rafathegaffa83]

Slight aside but I'm watching 42 on prime. Is there a standout Jackie Robinson book  I should read. I always "knew" the story but would be genuinely interested to read more.

He did write an autobiography (I Never Had It Made)

[red_Mark1980]

He did write an autobiography (I Never Had It Made)

Cheers, will give it a look.

[newterp]

Marlins games through Sunday are postponed

[rafathegaffa83]

Marlins games through Sunday are postponed

Phillies-Yankees games also postponed