OC Register: Report: Owners considering 50-game season as counter to players’ latest proposal

[AngelsWin.com]

How many games does a baseball team have to play to make the regular season “regular”?

According to a report by ESPN Monday, the answer is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 games, under terms being discussed by Major League Baseball in response to the latest offer from the MLB Players’ Association.

In the players’ proposal, issued Sunday, teams would play 114 regular season games between June 30 and Oct. 31. Playing half the season they envisioned is just one detail of many for the players to consider, if and when a formal counterproposal is received.

Chief among them is the issue of pay. The players’ association has insisted repeatedly that team owners already agreed to pro rata compensation – paying players their agreed-upon 2020 salaries in proportion to the length of the regular season – and that this point is no longer ground for collective bargaining. The owners’ latest proposal would provide pro rata compensation.

Still, other financial issues remain. The players requested a total of $100 million in advance of their second, abbreviated spring training. If the postseason were to be cancelled due to a second wave of the novel coronavirus, the players requested a total of $100 million in salary to be deferred with interest.

Players also proposed allowing anyone to opt out of playing, given the risk of contracting Covid-19. Can a major league player with an underlying medical condition opt out and still receive his pro rata salary and service time? These details have yet to be finalized.

Monday’s report offers hope that the two sides can move forward with the pro rata salary issue behind them. That had been a major sticking point among players who used their social media to comment on the league’s series of proposals.

There is no hard deadline for the two sides to reach agreement. However, if the June 30 start date is a sticking point among the players’ union, any hypothetical spring training would need to begin soon.

A 114-game season would pay players 70.4 percent of their 2020 salaries. A 50-game season would pay 30.9 percent. The smaller sample of games could produce wildly unexpected standings, batting averages, and winning percentages than fans are accustomed to. More than the sanctity of baseball statistics, the proposed reduction in player pay will determine how long of a season is acceptable.

Related Articles

• Whicker: Maddon looks forward to a stripped-down season
• Report: MLB players offer 114-game season, but no new concessions on salary
• Rockies manager Bud Black has high praise for Long Beach State alum Garrett Hampson
• Future of stadiums, arenas promises high tech, low capacity
• Will the Dodgers benefit from other teams’ coronavirus-induced misery?

View the full article

[Claude]

This is the owners way of saying that they really don’t want the season to happen. A 50 game season would be a total MLB fail and they know that. 

[DMVol]

35 minutes ago, RendZone said:

This is the owners way of saying that they really don’t want the season to happen. A 50 game season would be a total MLB fail and they know that. 

Or they offered 50 expecting to compromise at 80-90...

[Stradling]

It’s called negotiating 

[Claude]

28 minutes ago, Stradling said:

It’s called negotiating 

Yeah sure. If you offer 70-75 games that’s negotiating. But when you’re offering them only 50 games to play you’re basically telling your players to blow you. 

Edited June 2, 2020 by RendZone

[Stradling]

10 minutes ago, RendZone said:

Yeah sure. If you offer 70-75 games that’s negotiating. But when you’re offering them only 50 games to play you’re basically telling your players to blow you. 

And they’ll end up around 75-80 games.   

[DMVol]

25 minutes ago, RendZone said:

Yeah sure. If you offer 70-75 games that’s negotiating. But when you’re offering them only 50 games to play you’re basically telling your players to blow you. 

Uh no....you start out low or high, depending on which side you’re on, in order to gauge how the other side will respond....I do it every day....

[Claude]

Incite a war. Good call the National Gaurd.

Edited June 4, 2020 by RendZone

[Brandon]

dodo bird > baseball

[Angel Oracle]

82 games = 13 games against each division opponent and 6 games each against comparable division in the other league.

Saves on travel, is at least half of a season, and season can then conclude in early October (if starting July 4 weekend). 

What do ya know....82 is exactly halfway between 50 and 114.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Angel Oracle

[beatlesrule]

This sums it up

 

[Claude]

 

[Angels_Make_Me_Drink]

Why are some people talking about possibly no 2021 season? I've given up hope for a 2020 season but I've seen a couple articles saying that 2021 might be in jeopardy too? Same reason? Less revenue and no fans? Or is it a CBA thing? I'll be honest, too lazy to look it up and read more about it because only the MLB could fuck up this situation that bad. Everything else is coming back...yet here is the MLB...

[Tank]

13 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

82 games = 13 games against each division opponent and 6 games each against comparable division in the other league.

Saves on travel, is at least half of a season, and season can then conclude in early October (if starting July 4 weekend). 

What do ya know....82 is exactly halfway between 50 and 114.

Why you’re not the commissioner of baseball is as mysterious to me as Stonehenge.

[Lou]

6 minutes ago, Tank said:

Why you’re not the commissioner of baseball is as mysterious to me as Stonehenge.

It's because he likes Chipotle.

[Tank]

4 minutes ago, Lou said:

It's because he likes Chipotle.

I guess it’s true that Some lessons must be learned the hard way.

[Angel Oracle]

11 hours ago, Lou said:

It's because he likes Chipotle.

Del Taco?