caulfield12

NFL is stipulating risky activity which could jeopardize paychecks. The memo also states: "Clubs/NFL can challenge designation as a football related injury if it can prove that the player contracted COVID-19 through engaging in high risk conduct below. (This issue remains open.)" Per the memo, the NFL defines high-risk conduct as attending: • an indoor nightclub with more than 15 people • an indoor bar with more than 15 people, other than to pick up food • an indoor house party with more than 15 people • an indoor music concert/entertainment event with more than 15 people • a professional sporting event, other than applicable NFL games or events, with more than 15 people • an indoor religious service attended by more than 25% of a venue's capacity (Greg reaction?)

The problem with this is you’re going to need at least four stadiums....three or four staggered games per day times 4 locations. All the cleaning between games. Right now, just one highly infected team would very quickly wipe out another 5-6-7 teams over a single weekend. It would have worked had all the teams gone into protective bubbles 6-8 weeks ago, but by July it was already too late as cases started increasing as far back as Memorial Day weekend. It was always more about mitigating owners’ losses than the health of players and their families.

West Coast would be where, exactly? Denver? Definitely not Texas, CA, Washington or Phoenix. East Coast would probably be okay, except FL teams and Atlanta. For Central, Chicago, St. Louis, Minnesota, Pittsburgh? Milwaukee? Not too many super-obvious choices there. Ohio seems to be a bit of a trouble spot, again.

So far, just those two games cancelled so far on MLB.com website. No updates on the Braves or Reds...or what it would take for the Yankees/Phils to play tmrw. Just a two game set, so you’d think they would just hold off. Then, the Phillies are scheduled to play the return leg Wed and Thursday at Yankee Stadium.

Opportunity cost. Market forces. Cost/benefit analysis.

This is kind of like nothing bad can happen if you pray and there is no God to answer your prayers. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence it can prevent transmission if you’re already ill, as opposed to getting sick in the first place. Pretty much the entire medical/scientific community around the world has come around, and 75% of the Republican Party in the last 2-3 weeks. The principal reason Dr. Fauci was hesitant in the beginning was they were telling him not to encourage a nationwide run on PPE so that there would be enough available to ER/ICU doctors and nurses.

Yeah, eventually Donaldson and Cruz will hit that wall...Nelson was in the theoretical final year of his contract. Oh, well.

One thing is for sure, this just heightened the “back to school” debate by a factor of 5X if the MLB season is already lost in the first week. Goodbye, any form of football across the entire country. Golf, tennis, figure skating, individualistic sports (X Games) might be okay, but that’s going to be the extent of it.

Not only them, but Flowers and D’Arnaud were already ill in Atlanta. The Marlins played there Tuesday and Wed. Lag time. Probably more. Reds have at least three in Davidson, Moustakas and Senzel.

It was never going to work. I just thought it would have lasted longer than four days. Yesterday, reports surfaced that four Marlins players tested positive for COVID-19,including Harold Ramirez, Garrett Cooper, and Jose Urena, all members of the active roster. Instead of postponing or forfeiting their game against the Phillies, the club rallied together and played ball, pandemic be damned. That turned out to be an exceptionally stupid idea, as Jeff Passan reported this morning that eight (EIGHT!) additional players and two coaches on the Marlins have tested positive for the coronavirus. Ken Rosenthal noted that tonight’s game between Miami and Baltimore Orioles has been cancelled, as the team remains bunkered down in Philadelphia. The Yankees are expected to play in Philadelphia tonight. I have a hard time believing it’s safe for them to do so. Craig Mish says that the clubhouses followed guidelines, and believed it to be safe. Joel Sherman adds the Yankees will staff the visiting clubhouse tonight themselves, if they play. But that says nothing of the fact that the Marlins were in close contact with the Phillies, and now any of those players could be carrying the virus. Baseball has a history of transcending crises, leading to spectacles of great human achievement, moments of light, if not glory, emerging from the cracks in a period of darkness. This is not one of those times. It never could have been. You can’t out-will a pandemic. The virus doesn’t care about the intangibles or winning it for the guys who can’t take the field today. The only concerns it has are replicating and shedding. That’s it. The Yankees shouldn’t take the field tonight. They shouldn’t even go to the ballpark. It’s irresponsible if they do. An outbreak was the worst-case scenario, and it happened in the first series of the season. This is as big of a disaster as one could imagine. This is a developing situation. Follow Pinstripe Alley for the latest updates.

Next will be the Reds and probably the Braves... At that point, you pretty much have to shut everything down for at least 3-5 days to test EVERYONE.

I’m listening to the podcast "In the Bubble" with Andy Slavitt right now, whose guests are two epidemiologists. The first question he asked them was how safe is air travel? On a scale of 1 to 10, they rated it a 5. That’s not good enough. One of the doctors frames risk in terms of how many breaths you share with someone. They both said they would refrain from air travel this year. I’m worried about the Phillies, but hopeful that having played the Marlins won’t lead to Phillies’ infections, only because they play outside and have some distance between them much of the time. I’m glad Rhys & Didi wore masks on the field, and that Kingery hopefully has immunity. JT & Segura should wear masks on the infield, too. Coaches already have to, right? And I maintain that players should have to wear masks when batting and base-running. That’s if they try to keep this going. Also, what about those in the Phillies’ organization who maintain the visitors’ clubhouse? Posted by GBrettfan on Jul 27, 2020 | 10:26 AM They’re being quarantined. The Yankees brought their own crew.

Yeah, just giving those wins to whoever was supposed to play the Marlins would be ONE solution. You certainly wouldn’t want to reward organizations for not containing outbreaks. But do they (Marlins) still have to send out taxi/scrimmage teams to keep the starting pitchers in alignment for the next series? Stopping and starting for 2-4 games at a time is terrible for teams trying to get in synch with the new reality. It’s definitely not going to help the Phillies, they inexplicably lost 2/3 games to Miami.

So do the Phillies host the Yankees for two games, or those are cancelled? Yankees already have Aroldis out. Do the Braves go ahead and play tonight in Tampa/Florida, without the entire team being tested? What about the Reds, with Moustakas, Davidson and Senzel?

But (Rear Admiral Brett) Giroir also warned that states had used only $50 million of $10.25 billion allocated to them to hire contact tracers. "There is money there for them to do it," he insisted. "We are supplying the technical assistance. The money is there. The state plans have to meet requirements." Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar claimed that states had not used $11 billion in allocated financing for next-generation diagnostics.

This is the nightmare scenario. Florida is one of the hottest COVID spots on the planet right now, and it’s clear baseball’s health, safety, and testing protocols aren’t preventing players from contracting the virus. Certain players have been wearing masks while on the field, specifically first basemen Rhys Hoskins and Jesus Aguilar, as well as shortstop Didi Gregorius, but most have not. Baseball is fortunate that they are able to conduct coronavirus testing whenever they need to and get rapid results. However, there is still a window of uncertainty between those tests and the results. In the case of this weekend’s series between the Phillies and Marlins, that gap was Sunday’s game, in which multiple others could have been exposed. At this point, it’s hard to see how baseball can continue. What about the hotel workers where the Marlins are staying? What about the New York Yankees, who will be coming to Philadelphia for a quick two-game series this week? How do they use the visitor’s clubhouse, knowing there was an outbreak of COVID there just days earlier? How does that series get played? How do the Marlins take the field at all for the next two weeks? No one wants the 2020 season to unravel just as it’s getting started, but it would be irresponsible to continue playing games now. The Toronto Blue Jays aren’t allowed to play in their own home stadium. Even a lowly team like the Marlins needs its best players on the field, and with this outbreak, there’s no way they can do that. What’s it going to take for MLB to decide too much is too much? When half the Yankees are out? When Mike Trout goes down? It would be a miracle of no Phillies tested positive for COVID-19 as a result of what happened this weekend, and the MLB season is in serious jeopardy. It was a valiant effort to try and get teams back on the field but, without placing the entire sport in a protective bubble, this was perhaps inevitable. It would be irresponsible to play any more games this season until the outbreak is contained and, given the fact the game is already just 60 games long (now 57), any stoppage would likely kill the season. Health and safety is paramount and, at this point, there is no way the league can assure its players, coaches and those surrounding the sport, that they can keep everyone healthy and safe as long as teams are conducting business as usual. https://www.thegoodphight.com/2020/7/27/21340081/the-marlins-have-a-covid-19-outbreak-and-the-2020-season-could-already-be-over-phillies-manfred

He was one of a few admin officials really out there on the talk show circuit pushing for school reopenings and back against China.

Well, poor Jack Parkman will now have at least eight months to make compelling arguments that Lucas Giolito Is Still An Ace.

The Marlins also played exhibition games in Atlanta last Tuesday and Wednesday. Contagion 2, Electric Boogaloo.

Like the scrum after the walk-off grand slam for Oakland accompanying the Olson game-winner the other night?

The next domino to fall has to be the Yankees/Phillies game. If they take that off the schedule, it’s pretty much acknowledging the writing is on the wall already.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Monday morning that at least 10 more positive cases — eight players and two coaches — surfaced after the team’s latest round of testing on Sunday. That comes after four players received positive test results during the team’s trip to Philadelphia, including three starters finding out before Sunday’s series finale. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal was first to report the Marlins’ game on Monday would be canceled. The team had already previously changed its flight back to Miami from Sunday night to Monday morning. They were waiting for results to come in from their latest round of COVID-19 testing Sunday morning. Results from the rapid tests normally take between 12 and 24 hours. That new flight, originally set to depart at 11:10 a.m., was canceled before 9 a.m. Monday According to MLB’s operations manual for the season, players and staff members are not allowed to travel or access club facilities following a positive test until after they have two negative tests at least 24 hours apart, show no fever for at least 72 hours, complete an antibody test and are cleared by a team physician as well as the MLB COVID-19 joint committee. A team spokesperson could not provide comment. Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/miami-marlins/article244509512.html#storylink=cpy

Apparently the Phillies decided to go ahead and play Sunday even after being informed by the Marlins about the team-wide outbreak. Players-only meeting, vote. The Marlins scratched their starting pitcher, their catcher was on the injured list, and their first baseman and right fielder were missing from Sunday’s lineup due to COVID-19 protocols.

Sure, but once they start playing and making so much contact in the paint, it will spread like wildfire across the league...otherwise, it would like playing two hand touch football, forbidding any contact, it’s just not possible in soccer and basketball. Football was over before it started. Will have to wait and see with NHL.

Not surprising at all, based on that state’s reaction this entire time (and considerable pushback against DeSantis from the Miami mayor)...it’s going to be shocking to see the NBA get through this unscathed somehow. Already having problems with players who refuse to stay where they’re supposed to 24 hours per day. Now what, they can’t let the Phillies (Marlins’ weekend opponents) play, either? And unless they can turn tests around quickly, they will need to bang NYY at Philly series starting tonight as well since results are taking 3-5 days, and by the time you get the results, it’s already out of date or potentially a false positive. And MLB can’t allow the Yankees to be sidelined for very long or any realistic payback from broadcasting rights is going to be severely limited without them, the Mets, Dodgers, Angels, Cubs, Red Sox, Phillies, Cardinals, Astros, Braves, etc.