Jack Parkman

If we're talking about former Sox farmhands that pitch for the A's that the Sox should acquire, why not Frankie Montas?

We know from the '94 reporting that he's a hardliner in these negotiations. What makes you think it's any different this time?

I have yet to see anything since negotiations got serious from the MLBPA that hasn't been completely reasonable.

Good to know that Jerry is willing to derail his own team's championship window for the second time in his ownership tenure so they can break the MLBPA. Priorities.

Ownership isn't negotiating in good faith, if it's not fairly obvious by now.

It was Jerry's BFF Bob, right?

Woooooow. Fuck ownership. They have barely moved at all and it's the players that have gone backwards? The amount of hubris is astounding.

The return of this thread got my optimism up a bit. Disappointing.

you're waaay too optimistic imo. As I've said all along, the owners are content to wait out the players until they cave.

A salary floor needs to happen. The players need to realize that the CBT is a salary cap and go to a cap/floor model and negotiate a split of baseball related revenue. This is not a fight for this particular CBA, but the next one.

Surprisingly good and accurate article from ESPN: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33397392/mlb-lockout-only-reinforces-certain-ugliness-game

That's good because I don't like the idea of 83 win teams making the playoffs on a regular basis. It gives cheap owners ideas.

So with the new playoff format, basically all teams that win 82 games or more will get in most years, right?

Yep. Grandal made too much sense at the time, and Conforto makes an equal amount of sense.

It's really not that different. Employees are getting screwed. I'm against labor injustice wherever it is. This is a baseball forum, and that's what we're discussing. What is happening in baseball is the same thing that is happening in all other aspects of American life. Middle class jobs are being replaced by low wage jobs, and the top 10% will get theirs regardless. Tex, I think most of us understand that the plight of the average worker trying to get by is infinitely more important than pro athletes getting theirs. This is a baseball forum and the buster was closed for a reason. However, they're not getting a fair share of the pie either, and they deserve to fight for theirs. To me, it's sad that the most powerful unions in America represent pro athletes rather than average workers.

He works for ESPN.

You guys think this gets Finland and Sweden to join NATO? I'd be very nervous if I was a Finn right now.

I mean they're billionaires. That should answer your question.

Projection is a hell of a drug.

Is there a way, under labor law, that the players could file a motion that MLB is not negotiating in good faith? This is what is happening here.

Joe gets it.

This is starting to feel like 60 games or nothing like 2020. It's also starting to feel like the owners endgame is 60 game seasons with 16 playoff teams.

They never developed him properly. They sacrificed his ability to start to help save the bullpen in 2020. They needed to be playing the long game. The other thing is that for some reason the Sox still believe in his changeup. Idk why. His changeup is like 2-3 mph away from his slowest fastballs of 2020.