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so where we at NOW?Comment -
On May 22 in Baseball History... - 1963 - Mickey Mantle hit a pitch from Kansas City's Bill Fischer off the right-field facade at Yankee Stadium in an 8-7 victory over the A's.
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Mickey Mantle?
He died 25 years ago.
Where am I at now?
Home in Connecticut.
Where is MLB at now?
Who know, they keep kicking ideas around, nothing is in writing.
Hope for July 4 but don't be shocked if the suits in charge call of this season all together.
I see it coming because they can't come up with a solid plan to get going.Comment -
Just me billing silly and jacked up on caffeine.
Amazing what you can get done with the right amount of coffee in your system.
Never mind me I was just having fun with myself too,
It's really a 'my bad' thing.
When I initially read your post it looked like you were asking where is Mickey Mantle now?
Like I said it was a 'my bad' which is pretty surprising as I pride myself on my reading comprehension skills.Comment -
Any current knuckleballers in MLB?Comment -
2020 salary terms are set to be hammered out in the coming days. But what about what’s owed to players beyond that point? The near-term economic picture remains questionable at best. That’ll make teams all the more cautious with guaranteed future salaries.
Every organization has some amount of future cash committed to players, all of it done before the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe. There are several different ways to look at salaries; for instance, for purposes of calculating the luxury tax, the average annual value is the touchstone, with up-front bonuses spread over the life of the deal. For this exercise, we’ll focus on actual cash outlays that still have yet to be paid.
We’ll run through every team, with a big assist from the Cot’s Baseball Contracts database. Next up is the Astros:
(click to expand/view detail list)
Astros Total Future Cash Obligation: $254.79MM
*includes buyouts of club options
*excludes remaining obligation to Zack Greinke retained by Diamondbacks
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Seeing a bunch of knuckle curves, but no strictly knuckle ball pitchers anymore sadly.Comment -
Korea Baseball not badComment -
The hitting is good but the bullpens are absolute dumpster fires. No other way to explain nine run innings in the Ninth inning like we saw from the Dinos the other day. Like they say the game doesn't start until the 7th inning when the teams are forced to call upon their bullpen.Comment -
No thanks on Korean baseball, I’ll take Netflix first.Comment -
On this day May 23, in 2019 exactly 1 years ago today, Trevor Story became the fastest shortstop to reach the 100 career HR plateau.
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After undergoing back surgery in early February, Yankees southpaw James Paxton was given a timeline of three-to-four months before he could return to the field. As we approach the end of that estimated recovery period, Paxton described his back as “a non-issue” in an interview Friday on the YES Network (hat tip to ESPN.com). “I feel totally healthy, so I’ll be ready to go as soon as the season comes about….I think I’m back to full strength,” Paxton said, noting that he has already thrown an estimated 12-14 bullpen sessions.
If there is any silver lining for the Yankees in this league-wide shutdown, the lack of game action has allowed several injured Yankees to recover without missing any time. As such, should the 2020 season begin in early July as rumored, New York could have Paxton, Giancarlo Stanton, and possibly Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks all available for the roster. It will be a particularly important season for Paxton, who is scheduled to hit free agency this winter and projects to be one of the top starters available on the open market. While the back surgery only adds to Paxton’s not-insubstantial injury history, a big performance in whatever consists of a 2020 season would certainly help Paxton’s case at a healthy multi-year contract in the offseason.
More from the AL East…
- Rays players will begin limited workouts at Tropicana Field on Monday, and the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin details how the club will take a very measured approach to restarting its preseason preparations. “There’s a lot more downside to moving too fast than too slow,” GM Erik Neander said. “Our priority remains the health and safety of our players, staff and their families. We will learn a lot through this initial, conservative step, and that will serve us well as we continue to ramp up.” Only small groupings of players will be allowed to work out or use the field at any given time, rather than the entire roster; the Rays will take some time before deciding whether to bring Yoshitomo Tsutsugo and Ji-Man Choi back to North America.
- The Orioles inked Jose Iglesias to a one-year deal last winter with the expectation that the veteran could help both on the field and in the clubhouse. Third base coach and infield instructor Jose Flores tells Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com that Iglesias already started to develop a mentor/student relationship with young shortstop Richie Martin. “Josie shares a lot of his ideas, we share with Richie, and he seems to take all that into play,” Flores said. “And I think Richie has actually become a better infielder just by having Josie working out with him during the course of Spring Training.”
- It remains to be seen if Martin will make Baltimore’s MLB roster if/when the season gets underway, as while the former Rule 5 pick definitely wasn’t ready for big league competition last year, Martin won’t be able to get any further minor league seasoning if there isn’t any official minor league ball in 2020. Therefore, Martin could wind up on the “taxi squad” rumored to be planned in support of teams’ Major League rosters, or an expanded 30-man roster could provide room for Martin to land more playing time with the Orioles. Flores noted that Martin had been playing some second base during spring camp in order to help boost his versatility and chances of making the club as a backup infielder. For what it’s worth, Martin had also been hitting well before Spring Training was shut down, with an .869 OPS over 30 plate appearances.
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Ok, maybe I will tune in for the cheerleaders, haha.Comment -
So they're gonna start to begin training camps?Comment -
MLB already has proposed massive health changes to how players and coaches can act once games resume, including no spitting, high-fives, fist bumps or hugs, among other ways of the game in a 67-page document.Comment -
As talks continue about the possibility of the 2020 season getting underway, “the greatest differences between the players and owners, for now, remain economic,” Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic (subscription required) write in their latest update on the status of the negotiations. While nothing concrete has been established between the two sides, June 1 is seen as “an informal deadline for negotiations to be completed if the season is to start by early July.”
On Tuesday, the league will present the MLB Players Association with a proposal for how finances and revenues will be divvied up over a shortened 2020 schedule. Rosenthal and Drellich hear from sources that the owners’ reported original desire for a 50/50 revenue split will not be included in this proposal, though owners will still seek to reduce player salaries in some fashion, as per Major League Baseball’s claim that paying prorated player salaries while still hosting games without any fans in attendance would result in a loss of over $4 billion in free cash flow.
That $4 billion figure was delivered as part of a financial document presented to the MLBPA over a week ago, which naturally resulted in the union requesting for the league to back up this claim with more paperwork and documentation. According to Rosenthal and Drellich, the league provided the players with some but not all of the requested information this past Friday. It isn’t clear whether the documentation provided will be sufficient for the MLBPA, or whether there is enough time for the union’s analysts to properly access the league’s financial claims by the informal June 1 deadline.
At least one agent, Seth Levinson of the ACES agency, believes “there isn’t sufficient time,” and that “MLB doesn’t just seek further salary reductions from the players but also their blind faith” that the losses will be as steep as the league suggests. Levinson also added that “any agreement must protect the players heading into 2021,” as several agents are concerned that the loss of 2020 revenues will result in a crunch for free agents and arbitration-eligible players in the 2020-21 offseason. To this end, Rosenthal and Drellich write that some agents might prefer some manner of “financial protection for players this offseason” in exchange for players agreeing to accept less than their prorated salaries for 2020 games.
These longer-term issues add another layer of difficult to the talks between Major League Baseball and the players’ union. The majority of current negotiations are centered around the 2020 season first and foremost, and there are already enough logistical hurdles (both financial and health/safety related) yet to be cleared that it seems difficult at first glance to imagine an agreement being reached by June 1. That said, the June 1 date only applies to the rumored early-July start date for an 82-game season, so everything could be pushed back or reduced. The length of the regular season, Rosenthal and Drellich note, is another possible negotiating point between players and owners: “The league also prefers a shorter schedule to enhance the chances of playing the postseason, when greater revenues are assured.”Comment
