Leaderboard

I’m not sure what you think is damning about this. I know your galaxy brain sees The word profit and thinks it’s a rich white man sitting on a bed of money, but the rest of these diagnostic companies are losing lots of money and they are furloughing those employees. So they need to hire up techs specifically for this testing but the current cost per test, and hiring costs money. They need to be trained and aren’t as productive as current staff. They could get a loan to hire for something that isn’t profitable long term for them and lay off more staff from other parts of their business, or ... the government could increase the costs they pay for each test. Or maybe the government should force them into bankruptcy after this is over along with the many hospitals losing money right now so that balta can sleep comfortably knowing the technicians that worked around the clock during this crisis got laid off immediately after.

Ozzie Guillen, 29th in defensive WAR from all players in major league history.

If the league and players association decides to play baseball games in Arizona, the players will play baseball games in Arizona. As I've said, it's the only way they're getting paid. The players will play regardless of what they say in April and May.

“At $50 a test it wasn’t enough to hire a tech to run the tests full time but at $100 a test it is”. 1:07 into today’s briefing under that post. I hope you’re already asleep so you don’t hear that phrase in your sleep.

How do teams currently handle things when players/clubhouses get the flu currently?

I saw more people out shopping at Lowes today than I have ever seen there. More than half were not wearing masks. I think Trump called this shot, at least with Republicans. I think the stay at home order has effectively been lifted. We shall see how that works out.

Actually, yes.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/coronavirus-donald-trump-and-the-wizard-of-oz-presidency.html There’s a concept in economics known as diminishing marginal utility. What seems like a potential advantage (nearly unlimited and free airtime) will not look the same way to the American people six to eight weeks from now if they still have inadequate testing, no job, a return to stay at home policies...unemployment benefits not arriving or facing the spectre of them soon running out. Presidential elections are almost always decided on the economy...with the only exception being not wanting to change presidents during wartime. That said, by ceding all the responsibility and decision-making authority, he’s acting like the opposite of FDR. He wants the same fireside chats, but this time as an open platform to malign and disparage his political enemies instead of attempting to unify and comfort the country. Sooner or later...people in his base will start to wonder why he’s more concerned about ratings than doing something to improve and/or safeguard their lives. Great American presidents have never run in the opposite direction during challenging times. Lincoln never paused before Gettysburg when times looked particularly bleak for the Union and said let’s call this whole thing off, I am not at all responsible for the Civil War, let the individual states decide these issues amongst themselves. Instead of fighting for all the people, the reality is it’s turning out to be none of the people when your primary audience continues to be only 38-46% of Americans. Divided against each other we shall fall.

Let me ask a question. Let's say that they do the Arizona thing with the players quarantined. But I saw a couple articles where Mike Trout and Zack Wheeler both said they want no part of that, both mentioned that they wouldn't be away from their families for that long and both had babies on the way. Now both of those players will make over 20 million this year. I would like to have MLB tell them, "Fine, don't play, don't quarantine, stay home, but you don't get paid. I would like it to be that simple. Other people, lots of lots of people have jobs where they have to be away from home for long stretches of time, missing family event like child births, and they are not making 2 million dollars a month or so. So what I am voting for is that MLB do this league and make it work, and those players who don't want to play don't have to play, but they don't get paid. It took me a long time here, but here's my question: Let's say they have this Arizona/Quarantined league, but some of the Sox player decline to play, Would you still watch it? Would you still be excited? But it's still an MLB season with trying to get into the playoffs and the World Series. Let's say that half the Sox roster chooses not to play (just assume a random 13 players of our 26 players choose not to play). Would you still tune in to those games and be excited to watch? I would 100%. I cheer for the White Sox, not the players. I love the players we have, but I am a White Sox fan, not a fan of a bunch of individual players. I say put together a team and get them out there playing another MLB team (assuming they will be missing a bunch of their holdout players also) and I am totally there. I'm watching every game. I'm getting excited and nervous and cheering and cussing the umps. I would be totally for this. I'm not saying this is ideal or as good as what we all expected, but put a White Sox team out there, LIVE, playing for the playoffs, even if half or most of it is made up of minor league players, and I am 100% behind that White Sox team.

The most incredible thing this week to me was Trump seriously considering adding a two hour radio call in show in addition to the daily briefings on t.v. Which shows just how interested he is in actually solving problems... all along, it has simply been narcissism, the desire to constantly be the center of attention. His primary concern with adding a radio show was 1) losing to Rush in the ratings, 2) being perceived as threatening to the Excellence in Broadcasting empire, lol. Well, nothing should surprise anyone at this point. Steve Bannon all along had been planning extensively with the Mercers to launch their own Trumpian broadcasting network, as it looked increasingly likely they were going to lose in 2016. Voters, so far, say they are erring on the side of caution, as public health experts have urged. In a Pew survey released this week, roughly two-thirds of respondents said they are worried about their state easing restrictions too quickly — twice the number of those who are concerned it won’t happen fast enough. Just over two-thirds of voters said they expect it to be at least a month before Americans should start returning to work and life as normal, with just 9 percent mentioning the one- or two-week gap Trump has suggested could happen, according to a Harris poll released this week. Among Republicans, 61 percent said it should be at least a month before Americans start returning to work and life as normal. https://www.yahoo.com/news/advisers-warn-trump-economy-push-232900771.html

I also read where coastal breezes make the 6 foot separation obsolete. Crowded beaches and I crowded beaches aren’t very safe right now. Aannnd they are crowded already. Everyone should be pissed off at these people. The more they fuck up, the longer responsible people will have to stay home.

hopefully they don’t negotiate higher prices lest they make more profit on the individual coronavirus services.

How can South Korea and Germany manage the same feat for 1/10th the cost, or roughly $10 per test? Very simple solution. The Federal government (not states, since they can’t magically create money out of thin air like Treasury) subsidize the cost, or the US will suffer billions more in economic damages when no corporations can assume the liability risk of going back too early without adequate testing systems in place to protect the workers. For antibody tests, the cost is even cheaper. The cost for a technician to (non)profitably analyze one test in 15 minutes would be roughly $160/hour or $40 for 15 minutes? So they need to charge the equivalent of roughly $300-325 hour to break even? Antibody blood tests have been used for about two decades in other disease-tracking initiatives, including for HIV in rural Africa, Ho said in a video call sponsored by the group Committee of 100. The kits cost $1 to $6 each, he added, depending on the volume purchased. Some US companies are already selling antibody tests to other countries. The California biotech company Biomerica sells COVID-19 antibody tests for less than $10 in Europe and the Middle East, according to Reuters. Chembio Diagnostics, a medical-device company based in New York, is sending its antibody tests to Brazil and plans to study them in the US, Reuters reported. https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-antibody-blood-test-covid-19-2020-3

There’s another issue at play here. I have a friend (chemistry teacher) who used to work at my school in China and now back in California waiting to get his teaching credentials in order and for fall semester hiring to take place. He works temporarily in a grocery store doing stocking/inventory for something like $15/hr. Meanwhile, you have lots of people who are getting $832/week for unemployment, plus they’ll be getting an extra $600 per week on top of that. That works out to something like $6000 per month, $24,000 for four months max....$36/hr or $72,000 for a full year. How can we justify paying those actually at risk half or in many cases 1/3rd as much those essential workers (looking at you Wal Mart and Amazon)? How can we give Ruth’s Chris steakhouses a $20 million small business loan when they are sitting on something like $60 million in reserves? That’s really pushing it to define that as anything resembling a “small business.” I think it’s 500 employees or less...?

The optimist in me says yes there will be a season (all teams in Zona with TV coverage but no fans). Why? Because if there is no season at all that means we've agreed to shut down the United States of America for way too long — so long life will never be the same. Can you imagine the great joy when baseball is played? I will add one thing: If we can't put baseball players on a field and have them play without causing huge coronavirus problems (players sit in the stands six feet apart, with all players wearing masks etc) in America, then God help us cause this virus will have put an end to life as we knew it.

Because there aren't enough tests to actually do that. Best of luck man, some of us are in the same boat.

I was out of work for 4 months and on Workers Comp until the Post Office finally offered me a job doing custodial work at the beginning of the pandemic. I was a letter carrier for 30 years until I had a 2nd herniated disc in my back . I also have COPD and RA so lung and immune system problems so naturally I get hired back to be a janitor cleaning toilets and sticking my face in other peoples garbage and being among the public despite being high risk for catching it and you can also throw in being over 60 years old yet I still don't qualify according to my health plan to get tested. Fun times. Have to have symptoms which I don't luckily. Don't understand the policy of waiting til you're sick to get tested since you can have it for a week or 2 and spread it without exhibiting symptoms . Doesn't seem to be the brightest way to stop the spread. Baseball would be a welcome enjoyment.

Every year they have a minor league season in Arizona. I don't think the weather is as big of a deal as you are making it out to be.

I'm one of the more optimistic, I think. It's hard to stay optimistic when you read or watch the news, but I keep reminding myself that it's mid-April. A lot can transpire over the next 3-6 weeks. I think MLB will do just about anything to have some sort of season. If they get the green light from health officials, I think they move forward. As optimistic as I am, I think the best case scenario is teams playing at spring training sites with no fans all season.

Ozzie is one of my all time favorite players and managers both.

Just off the top of my head, mainly favorites: 1B: Big Hurt. 2B: Durham. SS-Ozzie. 3B-Robin. LF-Zisk. CF-Lemon. RF-Dye. C-Fisk. P-Buehrle, Hoyt, Peters, Horlen, Jenks. DH-Dick Allen