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2020 MLB Season Thread -- Rays v. Dodgers -- Small Payroll v. Large Payroll

But you get likeness fees from games and cards. Healthcare. And representation at the table.

I didn't mean to imply that the union dues don't bear results. Another example is a player getting vested pension rights after some ridiculously low number of days on the active roster (I'm thinking 43 was the number I heard). My original point was that a lot of the bargaining over some issues (e.g. free agency) benefits the stars a lot more than the marginal guys and that a sliding scale for dues wouldn't be unreasonable. I guess the "all for one, one for all" union mentality rules.
 
I didn't mean to imply that the union dues don't bear results. Another example is a player getting vested pension rights after some ridiculously low number of days on the active roster (I'm thinking 43 was the number I heard). My original point was that a lot of the bargaining over some issues (e.g. free agency) benefits the stars a lot more than the marginal guys and that a sliding scale for dues wouldn't be unreasonable. I guess the "all for one, one for all" union mentality rules.

I could see two tiers: one for those getting major league salaries and a lower one for those drawing minor league pay.
 
I could see two tiers: one for those getting major league salaries and a lower one for those drawing minor league pay.

One based on years of service would work as well. First level zero up to average career length, then maybe another 3 years, then everybody else.
 
2020 MLB Season Thread -- MLB and MLBPA Remain at Odds

Manfred looks like a total clown. No season unless the MLBPA waives their contractual rights from March to pursue claims against the league? No attorney is going to let players sign that and they shouldn’t.
 
 
Players are calling Manfred's bluff and telling him to impose a season. If he didn't look like a complete clown before, he sure does now.

But hey, that's his job. Stand in front of the owners who are actually pulling the strings.
 
The players have not made a single reasonable offer. Not sure why the owners seem to be getting all the criticism now.

Obviously the owners can not make a schedule now that does not give the players what they want or makes them look bad when they could fit more games in.
 
The players have not made a single reasonable offer. Not sure why the owners seem to be getting all the criticism now.

Obviously the owners can not make a schedule now that does not give the players what they want or makes them look bad when they could fit more games in.

Again, nobody is paying ticket prices and paying for cable packages to watch the owners. Why would any fan ever, ever side with owners in a labor dispute? Just give the players what they want and play the fucking games.
 
Boswell with a pretty damning column on how the owners are crying crocodile tears about not being able to afford the longer partial season with full pro rated pay for players.

Boswell in Wash Post
 
Boswell with a pretty damning column on how the owners are crying crocodile tears about not being able to afford the longer partial season with full pro rated pay for players.

Boswell in Wash Post

I get his points (except for the one about the Nats wanting to defer salary to Rendon) but his style has really gone downhill since his prime. I kept waiting for "Now get off my lawn."
 
I don't think the owners are getting enough blame. Maybe we should try telling them taxpayers won't buy them new stadiums for a few years if they don't come to an agreement.

 
Imagine owning a business and not being guaranteed to make money even though there's a global pandemic going on - must be rough.
 
The players have not made a single reasonable offer. Not sure why the owners seem to be getting all the criticism now.

Obviously the owners can not make a schedule now that does not give the players what they want or makes them look bad when they could fit more games in.

Players simply want a pro-rata payment for the season. Simple enough to get paid for exactly the number of games that they play since they are taking all the risk of playing and getting Covid. The owners have made huge money the past few seasons and never wanted to share one single bit during their upswing in profits so why should the players take the hit now? Plus 60% of the players are still on their initial rookie contracts meaning 60% aren't making squat so they ain't giving that up to Billionaire owners who are trying to say they might lose some money one year.
 
Aware that the MLBPA is not going to budge on the pro-rata payment position, the owners are now stalling until it would essentially be impossible to play more than 60 games (or less) and still finish the season by the end of October. That way the owners will get the post-season payouts from their TV contracts, and the owners won't take as much public heat as canceling the entire season would (people have short memories).

Expect the stalemate to continue another 10 days or so, and then suddenly baseball will re-start with a short pre-season at the end of June with games starting in mid-July. Both sides have been shitty, but the owners have been more shitty.

Either side could/should have taken the moral high ground if they had said:

- MLB will play 80 regular season games or as many as they safely could have played
- Players get their pro rata share for 68 games (or some similar number which would have been about 85% for their full pro rata share)
- The remaining money that otherwise would've gone to player salaries for a full pro rata share will go to:
- Pay the stadium workers and other mlb personnel making less than $100K a year their full salary
- Pay the minor leaguers their full salary
- Fund local pandemic relief efforts, including food banks
- Fund social justice efforts


Rather than get crushed as a sport for greedy billionaires versus greedy millionaires, MLB would have been lauded for giving back at a time of need when everyone has been forced to sacrifice.
 
Players simply want a pro-rata payment for the season. Simple enough to get paid for exactly the number of games that they play since they are taking all the risk of playing and getting Covid. The owners have made huge money the past few seasons and never wanted to share one single bit during their upswing in profits so why should the players take the hit now? Plus 60% of the players are still on their initial rookie contracts meaning 60% aren't making squat so they ain't giving that up to Billionaire owners who are trying to say they might lose some money one year.

A few more union disputes in sports and TheReff may see the perspective from unions and employees POV :D

And yeah it's very reasonable that players want to hold the owners to a pro-rata agreement that they had reached terms on back in March and it makes sense that they shouldn't take a cut on this. The Cardinals' owner said that owners make limited profits on the baseball team while the company has increased from like 150 million from when he bought it to over 1 billion.

Someone on twitter pointed out that the Marlins had the worst organization in any sport, had no fans for 15 years and still had enough money to offer Stanton an insane contract with the additional bonus of selling for over one billion with five different interested buyers. Nobody anywhere is (or should - maybe Deacon is?) be sympathetic towards the owners in this situation. If you don't think you're making any money off of the team, just sell it and cash out for over a billion and walk away.
 
At a minimum, the March "pro rata agreement" did include economic feasibility language in multiple places, which MLB reps have claimed was clarified before the agreement was signed to mean that if fans were not attending games that additional adjustments to player compensation would be needed (which is logical if large segment of expected revenue would not be generated). Even so, I agree that the ownership side is more to blame, but it's not like the owners agreed to a pay a pro rata share without any conditional language. Further, the March agreement did allow the commissioner to set the length of the season if the MLB and MLBPA could not come to an agreement on that point, which is what it may come down to anyway. The bottom line is that there is or at least should have been room for both sides to make limited compromises and play the game. They both failed.
 
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I didn't see any offers of attendance bonuses for players in future years. The owners could have offered something like that to offset the cuts they were asking the players to take this year.
 
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