then coronavirus happened, 2020 baseball

who could have predicted that a national government would prioritize the health of its citizens over the requirements of major league baseball

is there any treaty with canada we can break? america needs a W

several border disputes we could go to war over

ok toronto: get courageous and let our infected baseball men run around your stadium, or you're all gonna fuckin die

Give us the panhandle back and we’ll think about it.

*immediately cedes Florida panhandle to canada*

btw is contact tracing allowed in Canada? that whole fucking panhandle could use some. it's banned here and highly frowned on

OTHER PANHANDLE! OTHER PANHANDLE!

Ontario isn't doing tracing because reasons; but i think some of the smaller provinces with lower numbers are.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EdZUmMAXsAMLT_U?format=png&name=small

Thermo thinking of Pittsburg CA

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, July 20, 2020 9:26 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

rip the jacka

nats w/ the sick burn

lol

New MLB sign-stealing, video rules not yet finalized with season near https://t.co/6TwoASC3Yb

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) July 21, 2020

aw man, no around the horn? :(

"The spitting is going to be tough."

As the Giants approach opening day, they're rushing to break lifelong habits. No spitting, no seeds, showers are discouraged, there's no throwing it around the horn. A story on baseball in 2020: https://t.co/nmd0YmXWdu

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) July 21, 2020

wait is the MLB the first American sports league (besides the WNBA maybe?) to explicitly *endorse* kneeling? pretty cool

Members of the @SFGiants kneel during the National Anthem. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/QbvAvCZiEs

— MLB (@MLB) July 21, 2020

watched one inning of cubs-sox last night and did notice a catcher start/stop throwing down to third after a K -- figured it was just some scrub playing out of position at 3B and not paying attention

vary proud of my Giants for how they handled kneeling and Farhan Zaidi put the whole thing best:

"We support those who knelt peacefully to protest racial injustice and those who stood to express love of country. We do not see these as mutually exclusive sentiments and believe the freedom to express both is what our country is about," the statement said. "As an organization, we reaffirm our denouncement of acts of discrimination and violence against members of the Black community and our pledge to work together with those who seek to end racial justice in America."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/san-francisco-giants-manager-several-team-members-take-knee-during-n1234447

not only that, they also made MLB history with a women coach at first base:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/21/us/woman-coach-san-francisco-giants-spt-trnd/index.html

"A woman made Major League Baseball history Monday by coaching first base for the San Francisco Giants during an exhibition game Monday.

Alyssa Nakken, the first female coach on a Major League Baseball staff in league history, became the first woman to coach on the field during a major league game on Monday."

The Dodgers are going to be good, but if Seager goes back to his pre-TJ surgery self... oh dear.

assuming the quote there was “ending racial injustice” c’mon editors

Should we just use this thread to throw down some predictions? I feel like short season predictions will be fun.

the Astros trash can scheme is gonna be real fuckin' obvious this year

Since they hit off BAL, TOR, and BOS for half their games, I suspect NYY will win at least 40.

Hey no talkin' bad 'bout.... Dylan Covey, proud owner of a 6.54 ERA in the bigs

OK, talk away

wait, isn't that the guy the Brewers drafted a decade ago, only to drop out because he discovered he had diabetes? good for him

this is not a very hot take but i expect a strong white sox performance, especially bc they play the royals and tigers a lot. gonna predict a wild card spot for them.

i could see them finishing above the Twins for sure.

dodgers 'closing in on extension' with mookie

Hunter Dozier is confirmed covid. He is symptomatic and was playing against the Astros on Monday.

I prefer the now-with-Donaldson Twins, but I can see the White Sox finish above the Cleveland Naps. I think the Rays have one WC spot taken.

A lot of their players last year had outlier-ish good seasons. And Even if their starting staff wasn’t a fluke, three of them are gone - tho the guys replacing them are ok, there’s no way their starting staff is as good this year.

The outlier-good season applies to a lot of the hitters too.

pending approval of the stae of PA, hohoho

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29515522/sources-blue-jays-expected-play-home-games-pnc-park-pittsburgh

HARRISBURG, Pa. (@AP) _ Pennsylvania Department of Health won't allow Toronto Blue Jays to play at PNC Park in Pittsburgh amid pandemic.

— Marc Levy (@timelywriter) July 22, 2020

well that i did not expect

i'm sure having the pirates and phillies play at home is much safer

rip PJays

I get why the Canadian government didn’t want a bunch of dudes from a country with out of control covid rates flying in on a weekly basis.
I don’t understand what Pennsylvania thinks would be happening with the Jays that already isn’t happening there.

infection rates are not evenly spread throughout the country and having more people moving in and out of the area from elsewhere is indeed not ideal

my question is, where is the line? preventing the pirates and phillies from playing would further protect pennsylvanians, after all. my guess is that the jays (and mlb) simply didn't have the political influence that the local teams do

supposedly andrew cuomo is willing to do 'anything' to have the jays play in buffalo, though, so that's nice

having this issue unresolved the day before the season starts is pretty half-assed all around!

Nats have asked Fauci to throw out the first pitch

New favorite team

I KNEW IT xxxxp

supposedly andrew cuomo is willing to do 'anything' to have the jays play in buffalo

Blue Jay Cuomo

http://theplayersalliance.com

dodgers 'closing in on extension' with mookie

And not a bad one it is.

https://www.mlb.com/news/mookie-betts-extension-with-dodgers

In game interviews with one camera on the interviewee in his office miles away and the other camera on the broadcast booth that doesn't even have a line of sight on the field while an at-bat is going on is just not how you sell the game.

i don't think the average viewer has such demanding aesthetic standards

hate all in-game interviews

this is apparently how you sell... stuff

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/07/mlb-rumors-expanded-playoffs-2020-last-minute.html

I feel like the A’s winning the World Series this year would be very A’sesque.

MLB trying to expand the playoffs to 16 teams, when what they'd prefer is, let's expand the playoffs to however many teams it takes to get Mike Trout in.

— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 23, 2020

lol imagine seeing this graphic on a broadcast a year ago and trying to parse it pic.twitter.com/PvoU9mv7KZ

— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) July 23, 2020

lol it is absolutely insane to drastically change the fundamental question of a season ('what does it take to make the playoffs?') on its opening day

iirc a while back the NBA announced, in late march, that the first round of its playoffs would suddenly become best-of-7 rather than best-of-5. that was more defensible