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Nah, you're just an ass for free

Abreu is signed through 2022. Vaughn won't be in the Bigs until 2021 at the earliest. Eloy can hold down LF for 2 more seasons. Not to mention, according to you, baseball is cancelled until 2023.

This stands to get the White Sox valuable playoff experience in a developmental season where they otherwise might not have gotten it. That's really all I care about.

tHeRe WoN't bE bAsEbaLl TiL 2023

Fully agree. I definitely undersold our chances a bit. It’s going to be interesting how guys like Kopech, Rodon, & Madrigal fit into the equation with the shortened season. If you can’t game service time, will we just start the season with Kopech & Madrigal on the 25 man roster? And will Rodon be ready for some role if the season starts in mid July? Imagine something like this right out of the gate: Anderson, SS Moncada, 3B# Abreu, 1B Encarnacion, DH Grandal, C# Jimenez, LF Robert, CF Mazara, RF* Madrigal, 2B IF: Mendick OF: Engel UT: Garcia# UT: Collins* BC: McCann Giolito Keuchel* Cease Lopez Kopech CL: Colome SU: Bummer* SU: Herrera SU: Rodon* MR: Cishek MR: Fry* MR: Cordero MR: Marshall LR: Gonzalez*

See ya.

It's crazy how people have responded to that simple request. Live your life as you normally would, except in situations around many people you should wear a mask to protect yourself and everyone around you. Why is that so angering?

And I don't get why people refuse to wear masks. It's easy, and it shows others you actually give a fuck about something other than yourself.

^^^^^^ Some people think one is being a Negative Nancy when you say that Covid isn't going away. I hate to burst your bubble, but that's reality. Anyone who thinks that Covid is going to magically disappear by March 2021 is living in a world with unicorns farting rainbows. I've maintained this position all along, that the following are true: 1. Covid isn't going away until there's a vaccine 2. A safe vaccine isn't going to be around until the 2nd half of 2023 at the earliest. Prepare yourselves, folks. This is life until there is a vaccine. There are also no guarantees that a safe vaccine will exist that quickly either. The 2020s could be known as the "covid decade" because it might take that long before we get a vaccine. I also shudder to think what would happen if a vaccine isn't found. We have far worse problems in the world than whether or not sports come back. Any society that values personal freedoms is in for a round of deep shit over the next 3-5 years at least.

I would guess the guy that registered for an account just to make controversial posts on the Covid thread isn't interested in actually having a discussion.

The point of the long season is so I can enjoy as much baseball as possible. That's the only thing that matters.

NBA regular season is absolutely horrible and so are most of the playoffs. I wouldnt consider that a good example.

That’s the thing. Once they start something, there are too many stupid people to ever reverse it. It’s a bad idea. Plain and simple. 10 out of 30 is perfect. 12 out of 32 someday (maybe), would be fine. This 14/16 stuff is just terrible.

Expanded playoffs could win us a World Series. It might be hard to beat out the Twins for the division just yet. But if the Sox can squeak in the playoffs, then guys like Kopech and Cease start to show their potential....ok I'm dreaming now lol.

I don’t look to other sports and think Baseball should follow. Baseball should do what it does well, and make it the best they can. The everyday nature of MLB makes the six month grind special, and being one of 8 or 10 teams to make the postseason a huge accomplishment. That’s why they celebrate in locker room just for making it. If they go to 16 permanently, under .500 teams will make the postseason, and really make the regular season pointless.

About time you knuckleheads

COViD is not going away anytime soon. However, it could decrease to such low levels that life could return to normal if everyone would wear a mask for 6 months. Since it’s not happening, I think Jack is closer to being right than being wrong. Sporting events will not happen in front of a live audience for 2-3 years minimum. It’s a sad state of affairs but we have to look at science for the answers.

I am constantly amazed at your ability to turn any small bit of bad news into the end of the world. The amount of assumptions in here to create a certain narrative is staggering.

How about ditching all of that and just doing this “funk rule”... If you score 7 or more runs in a single inning on 4 or fewer base hits, without encountering more than 2 errors by the defending team — then the shortstop is replaced by a free standing donkey tied to an installed post. Anyone who can then mount the donkey while going from second to third base on a hit or stolen base attempt without becoming tagged out in the process, will then be considered a “super pony” and shall be counted as 11 runs upon crossing home plate. Should a team secure two “super pony” runs, the home crowd will all partake in a parade on the following weekend day, during which only assless chaps are allowed as attire.

I read somewhere that the latest proposal might have a 30 man roster, but it will definitely be >25

I don’t see why that can’t compete with anybody

I'd go as far to say that in the exact circumstances of a ~60 game season, 16 playoff teams, and all games being played against a team's own division + the corresponding division of the other league, the White Sox have a >50% chance at making the playoffs. FWIW I had them as an 83-86 win team this year in a normal season (with plenty of potential for variance)

These guys are billionaires for a reason. If someone was willing to pay me $10 million a year to look like an asshole to the country, so my bosses didn't have to, I would happily do it. I get punched in the face at work for less than 1% of what Manfred is making.

Let's also not forget teams tank because of the limited number of playoff odds. If they were expanded to 6 or 7 teams, more middling teams would actually try to win. Teams go into tank mode in July if they are not a top tier team. Thus, the teams we are speaking about probably would have won more games if they tried. Hell, the Sox could have won more games last year if they wanted to.

Some of your guys arguments are enticing. @Jack Parkman I checked the link and also searched some other material, namely: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1701.05976.pdf It seems that even though the MLB season is the longest, the actual gameplay of it leads to a lot of luck (flukes). I might be wrong about my approach before, but still would like to dig more into it later on. I'm still 100% NOT okay with 16 teams making the playoffs. As we took last year as an example, a team under .500 (Texas) would have made the playoffs. Every year in the NBA you have garbage teams making the playoffs. The NBA is so star heavy that those teams stand no chance, so they get taking care of. With the MLB (apparently) being such a luck sport, a 16 team playoff would give them all a chance. I don't like that at all after going through a grueling 162 game season. A team that worked their ass off to win their top spot would be put in a tough position (unlike the NBA where a star can single handedly own the 8th seed). With 16 teams making the playoffs, you'd put very small importance on the regular season. As Parkman said, what use would the 162 games be? Winning a division would be a shrug, ok thats cool type of thing. Since this conversation is not what this topic is about, I'll sign off for now and read from a far! Cheerio

More and more, it seems a consensus is building around the idea that for any given region once it has bent the curve down and gotten well below health care capacity limits, we would really just need: Masks in public spaces - indoors always, outdoors if unable to maintain distance Special treatment of and precautions in crammed in facilities, long-term care, and for specifically vulnerable populations Avoiding super-large crowd events especially if they involve a lot of vocalization or heavy breathing (concerts, pro sports, etc.) Washing your hands We could literally open up nearly everything else, if only we had a population that was willing to do the masking thing reliably (like 90% or better I guess). But no... there's that quarter or so of the population that have been conned into thinking wearing masks is some kind of conspiracy or made up thing. Other countries don't have that garbage (or at least have a lot less of it). So we in the US are stuck with these uneven and inconsistent lockdowns instead, damaging the economy even further and killing more people. Again... if you are in that quarter, GFY.

And once again, I don’t care what other sports do. It shouldn’t have to be explained why allowing under .500 teams in baseball in the playoffs is terrible.

It would be incentivizing winning instead of losing.

Enough of the drama queen act. It's not a con, it's negotiations. In the end, the owners caved. Good for the players since it appears they're giving up little to nothing. Would it of been nice if this was done a month ago? I guess. But remember, no sports have restarted yet. I'm not sure we lost anything. Maybe some sanity was lost for those fans that followed this ordeal tooth and nail, but that's about it. The pandemic wasn't ready for this to be restarted a few weeks ago. Anyway, let's hope they seal the deal and we have our Sox in a month or whatever.

So again, what’s the point of the six month grind? Where’s the reward for winning 88+ games? Expanding the playoffs would encourage teams to seek a level of mediocrity that may or may not get you in the playoffs, but cheap teams can still sell it to fans that they tried. Making the playoffs in MLB is supposed to be difficult.

MLB going to 16 teams in the playoffs would make it unwatchable for me. The regular season wouldn't matter and the playoffs would be a joke. I'm fine with discussions on adding a wild card here or there, but any expansive additions would result in losing me as a fan.

^^^^^ When it comes to the playoffs, less is more. I think the NFL has too many teams in the playoffs, and they have 6. The only league that could justify a 16 team playoff is the NHL, and even then it's iffy. The NBA should totally cut their playoffs to 8 teams. IMO 8 teams is the right amount, and you take the best 8 teams regardless of division or conference or what have you. If they're going to have such a large playoff structure, then they don't need as many games as they play in every league except the NFL.

He saw something that he could force into alignment with his good guy / bad guy narrative.

If the owners are caving - that would make them the ones putting the game ahead of their agenda. The ones we probably could thank when we have baseball back. How you turn that in to a negative is beyond me.

I can't love this post enough. Get going boys!

It became a political statement.

I pity your Jump to Conclusions mat.

Now that they extended Abreu, they don't have a spot for him. Eloy is going to be the DH eventually. I think Vaughn is going to be a .300+/25/100+ type guy with an OBP approaching .400 and 40+ doubles. I don't want to trade him either, but re-signing Abreu kinda, um, makes it hard to find a spot for him

Again, Scandinavia's deaths per millions from COVID: Sweden 499 (7th in the world) Finland 59 (39th in the world) Norway 45 (49th in the world) Cases per million people Sweden 5404 (16th) Norway 1602 (60th) Finland 1285 (66th) Repackaging the data into a different format to obscure it doesn't change the underlying data. Sweden has gotten hit WAY harder than its neighbors.

July 4, 2022

MLB game after hiring greg as a consultant and implementing his ideas:

This is powerful. I watched the whole thing. This is coming from someone who is both rich and well known. He has the benefit of a Stanford education, and has risen to the top of his profession, and he still tells the same stories about how he is treated. This is way bigger than don't break the law and the cops won't kill you. This isn't work hard and go to school and you will be treated the same. It destroys a lot of the myths that we tell people today.

ding ding ding, we have a winner. That's why the long season and limited playoffs. I'd honestly rather them go back to four than expand to 16. I can live with 8 to 12. 16 is way too many. If this ends up with teams with 85 wins or fewer winning a lot of championships, that will suck.

But isn't 2030 yet?

It's safe to say that a) everyone can imagine the worst-case COVID scenario; and b) everyone understands (and frankly assumes) you believe it will come to pass. There's really no need to rehash the position over another dozen+ posts. That's not illuminating - it's venting.