NEWSLETTER
Currently listening to a fascinating podcast on the feud between rappers Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur in the mid-90s (‘Slow Burn,’ Season 3), and all the cultural elements surrounding and informing what happened. I remember that time, but I was a young teenager, so my context was pretty different from what it is today. It’s been eye-popping how much relevance there is to this moment in time, even for these events that happened 25 years ago. Highly recommend if it at all sounds interesting to you.
• This weekend was supposed to be the London Series, with the Cubs facing the Cardinals in a fun, unique, world-expanding way. Not to be. At this moment in time, it feels like one of the few things we can be wistful about in relation to the pandemic causing havoc, as opposed to something to be angry about because MLB is more concerned with incremental dollars and future bargaining positions than doing something good.
A look at the logo and official baseball #Cardinals #Cubs would have used this weekend for the London Series 2020. pic.twitter.com/cCe2IytnDh
— Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) June 12, 2020
• If you care enough to follow the back and forth on returning to play (and I have only affection for those who’ve been able to just tune it all out), then you already know how every single offer goes. I really don’t feel like digging back in this morning, and I don’t know that you, as a reader, are benefited by it. You can read about yesterday’s new offer from the owners here, and it’s pretty clear the ways that it moves the ball forward ever so slightly, but fails to just step up to a range where this can be finished. Still, I have to update/comment on a few things.
• The offer was reportedly accompanied by more angry letter-writing – that’s literally the way the sides are communicating, which would have been an insane process 30 years ago – and you can read about that here and here if you really want. But again, I’m really not sure how much it will benefit you or your psyche to see the exact same pissing that we’ve seen for a month, coming from lawyers who are doing their typical hostile lawyer thing, rather than engaging in any real efforts to find a solution. They’re just setting themselves up with purported documentation for the inevitable grievance that is coming later. The only things you actually need to know? The players have said all along that they do not *have* to negotiate a lower pay. The owners have said all along that they do not *have* to start the season. The end.
• One other thing, with some hypothetical math and compromising on the length of the season to achieve a nice number:
Morning math: owners have offered 83% pay on 72-game season, plus playoff comp, totaling ~ $1.5 billion.
Full prorated pay on 69 games would be $1.7B. That difference of $200 million amounts to $6.67 million per MLB team.
If it were just about the money, this would be done.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) June 13, 2020
• I probably don’t do a good enough job acknowledging that 30 different owners have 30 different agendas here, but if the majority of them just wanted to get a deal done to set up a brighter future, then it would be done by now. So, sorry, I can’t give them all the benefit of the doubt. By all outward appearances, as a group, it appears that the owners care more about beating the players into the ground in a negotiation, again, than they do about “losing” a little right now in order to win for the whole sport in the longer term.
THREAD: There are some very interesting ways to look at the current state of MLB/MLBPA negotiations. One is comparing MLB offers with one another, and the other is comparing them with what could be. Here is how the league’s three actual offers have stacked up: (1/7)
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 12, 2020
The upshot: The guarantee offered Friday is a slight step forward, and the potential of equaling 62 prorated with the postseason is not insignificant. But it still isn’t full prorated, and until it is, the players are, as @TheCUTCH22 said, going to respond with an lol. (3/7)
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 12, 2020
It’s true: Players would be playing 22 to 24 more games in the former scenario. But they are at the point now where the guaranteed money they’ve been offered exceeds the money they would receive if the league imposes a season. Are they willing to make less money? (5/7)
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 12, 2020
In the meantime, the union will counter with a lower number of games than 89 at full pro rata, and the dance will continue, and the calendar will shrink, and baseball will remain a figment of all of our imaginations, and the real loser won’t be the MLBPA or MLB but the fans (7/7)
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 12, 2020
• Multiple reports, from Jeff Passan and Jon Heyman, by the way, suggest there are groups of players now preparing for the mandated shortened season, and happy about it: they want to be able to file the best grievance possible, and in so doing, get a chance to finally look at the owners’ books. Seems like something the owners would really want to avoid a year before a new CBA, but hey, I’m just a dope with a keyboard.
• Michael has fun:
Select all boxes with a World Series Champion. pic.twitter.com/OIlCkWe0Sn
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) June 13, 2020
• Was talking with some friends last night, reminiscing about times we could actually hang out and play Mexican Train Dominoes. Sometime soon we can do that again. That got me looking at dominoes sets on Amazon, so I’m sharing them now. #ad
• Heck yeah, D-Lee:
Favorite player growing up? Derrek Lee!
Catch the exclusive Ed Howard interview tonight on Cubs 360 Daily. pic.twitter.com/LxqxTyFRQk
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) June 11, 2020
• This was a MOMENT. I miss those:
Four pitches after Anthony Rizzo had been hit for the second time in the game, @javy23baez hit this no doubter and gave an epic stare down #OTD last year.
Kris Bryant had been hit twice the day before. @WatchMarquee pic.twitter.com/yMXYRrqCdS
— Andy Martínez (@amartinez_11) June 12, 2020
