MLB OFFSEASON - Season Resumes 2/17/21

[Craig H]

On 12/4/2020 at 12:09 AM, odessasteps said:

I presume this will end with Craig complaining about the Ricketts Family.

I already did, just not on here. It's no secret that all of the Marquee/Sinclair stuff has turned the Cubs broadcasts into a sideshow. Len is also a pretty liberal guy so I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't want to have anything more to do with being part of a sideshow right-wing bullshit broadcast that employs dumb fucks like Mark Grace. Taking the White Sox radio gig basically lets him do the thing he wants to do the most, which is just call baseball games, and from what Len said, it gives him the potential to eventually call a World Series.

[Hamhock]

All of the MLB teams’ minor league affiliation “invitation” announcements are finally being released now.

Full lists:  https://www.mlb.com/news/new-minor-league-affiliates-for-2021

Edited December 9, 2020 by Hamhock

[RIPPA]

Phillies are finally saying Fuck It and hiring a GM - Dave Dombrowski

[RIPPA]

 

[Dolfan in NYC]

Jared Porter will be hired as the Mets GM. 

[Tabe]

11 hours ago, RIPPA said:

 

McCann sure picked a good time to have a hot 31-game streak. 

[Ryan]

Rumors going around that Cleveland is going to announce they're done with the old name this coming week.

[Mister TV]

2 minutes ago, Ryan said:

Rumors going around that Cleveland is going to announce they're done with the old name this coming week.

The New York Times is reporting it too, will they go with something cool like Spiders or something lame like Rockers?
 

https://twitter.com/nytmike/status/1338291508659761153?s=20

 

[Ryan]

ESPN basically confirming it. They should be the Cleveland Lakers. No one is using that one, right?

[Kuetsar]

Should be the Spiders. Naps would also be acceptable.

[Pete]

They're dropping the historically controversial part and will now be the Ohio Indians.

[RIPPA]

The organization has confirmed and the new name will not have any ties to Native American culture or people (since there is a push to change to Tribe)

HOWEVER - unlike Washington in football, they will not have a placeholder name and will use Indians until they come up with the new name. New name should be in place for 2022 season

[PetrolCB]

Somebody had a pretty funny comment on the Reddit post for this; saying they should become the Cleveland Oranges and use a picture of a brown baseball helmet as the logo.

[RIPPA]

This is a Bob Nightengale report so who knows but at this point it makes sense

MLB and the MLBPA are making sure to remind everyone that they are just as big as idiots as the NFL and NCAA as the are feuding again over the start of the season.

Owners want to delay the season until sometime in May (more likely the end of May) under the guise of they want all players and personnel to get vaccinated first (the quiet part they don't want to say is they don't want to play in empty stadiums again). I should note there isn't a mention... yet... of the league trying to buy its own supply of vaccines like the NHL (and possibly the NBA) are doing.

MLBPA is all WE HAVE PROVEN WE CAN PLAY NO MATTER WHAT! FULL SEASON!!!! (the quiet part here is that the players want their full season checks)

Mind you that is one of just a billion things that haven't agreed on yet so... here we go again

[Dolfan in NYC]

And here's some massive news: 

 

 

[hammerva]

EDIT:  Or what he just said 

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by hammerva

[Hamhock]

Important part of the press release:

Quote

MLB and the Elias Sports Bureau have begun a review process to determine the full scope of this designation’s ramifications on statistics and records.  MLB and Elias will work with historians and other experts in the field to evaluate the relevant issues and reach conclusions upon the completion of that process.

That’s...that’s Josh Gibson’s entrance music!

[odessasteps]

That was my first question. 

[sabremike]

Now right another wrong and put Buck O'Neill in the HOF where he belongs.

[Travis Sheldon]

Well there goes some fans "encyclopedic knowledge" of MLB. 

Going to be impossible to put a number on Josh Gibson's actual HR total. 

I have always been in favor of putting as many players from the league in the HOF as was deserving, but statistically the stats from the Negro League are suspect at best. 

 

[elizium]

I don't know, does this whole thing smack of gentrification in a way? Like MLB is telling people like the Negro Leagues Museum, who have been documenting and preserving the memory of the Negro Leagues, "don't worry, we got it from here."

How is is Rob Manfred and MLB's place to decide what is and isn't a "major league", whatever that actually means,and who didn't already consider the Negro Leagues to be one?

If this shines more of a light on the Negro Leagues and leads to more people being interested in finding primary source records and documents, great. But I have trouble with MLB basically saying "actually it is ours now."

[elizium]

If MLB is going to start incorporating statistics or whatever in their own records are they going to start paying pensions to the families of Negro Leagues players? Or do they just want to claim the history without dealing with any of the ramifications of what "owning" (use of word verrrrry deliberate) that history means?

[RIPPA]

I am stealing this from Trade Rumors because it sums it up nicely

Quote

The league’s decision is a welcome one, and as the press release itself stated, it corrects “a longtime oversight” within the sport’s official history.  Other leagues that weren’t part of what we recognize as Major League Baseball (such as 19th century leagues like the American Association or the Players’ League) have long been included within MLB’s official statistical record, and players in those leagues have been considered Major Leaguers. 

Now, that same distinction can be used to cover the thousands of players who took the field for the seven leagues in question — the Eastern Colored League, the American Negro League, the East-West League, the Negro Southern League, the Negro American League, and the two separate incarnations of the Negro National League.

So the only reason they weren't "major league" from the start was because of racism.

So regarding your second point - they would start handling any monies the same way they handle the other leagues (which is probably not at all)

It is definitely a move driven by the current climate and easily reeks of a PR Move - but it is also something that baseball folks way older and smarter than me have been pushing for way longer than I have been alive and it most certainly a good thing

[RIPPA]

Also - regarding stats

Elias has to very all the statistics via the same metrics they used for all those other leagues.

The big thing with the Negro Leagues is determining what is an actual league and what were all the exhibition games they played.

Look at it also this way

If the NFL was to ever go back and retroactively add sack totals, they would do their own count instead to confirm the counts that people have done already.

[EdA]

Yeah.  MLB clearly went into this with rose-colored glasses.  You can argue the merits and rightly call adding the Negro League stats as gentrifications and pure PR shucksterism.  You won't be wrong.  This is MLB patting itself on the back.  But there's a lot of bad to this that MLB sort of ignored - willingly or not.

But focusing on the good - 

There is a lot to be said about the Lord's work the researchers have done in going through game recaps and box scores to get stats.  The researchers really need to be commended for the work they did.

And one can hope this will also open the door to MLB accepting Pacific Coast League stats AND...the ultimate...accepting Japanese League stats as valid too.