Three players from the taxi squad can travel with a team to a game. One of the three must be a catcher
Gardy must've pushed for that.
I hadn't even thought about the impact of no minor leagues, so the players on the "taxi squad" will just stay in the home market and train like an extended spring training for the entire season I guess?
Well, this will certainly be something.
In a hypothetical poll where the choices were "Season does not begin", "Season begins, but does not complete", and "Season Finishes as Expected", I think I'd be choosing option B at this point.
I'm somewhere between option B and "Season looks like swiss cheese but somehow completes"
I wouldn't be surprised if at least half of the teams, at some point, are going to have to quarantine because of positive tests. How they plan to deal with that... I can't imagine such a scenario would permit a true completed season. Maybe they'll just take winning percentage as the marker for the playoffs, instead of record?
Doubleheaders*
*answer to all ills
Maybe they'll just take winning percentage as the marker for the playoffs, instead of record?
weighted by Yankme-ness, no doubt.
Just saw the PGA Tour had its third player withdraw because of COVID and it seems like their relative "bubble" is potentially more controllable than a baseball team traveling around for a 60-game season. Hard to see how team sports are going to make it very far into a season, even the ones choosing to congregate in hubs.
Ask how it went for Djokavic...
This is one reason I think they should really limit the number of team pairs which play during the season, and simplify to each team playing only games within a group of, say, 5 teams. Playing 15 games against 4 teams means you are making two road trips of 3-4 games. Having to replace a 4-game series with a 4-day doubleheader series would be super painful, especially from a pitching standpoint, but it gives you more scenarios where you can make up lost games without additional travel.
Also, re: quarantine, unless teams don't have access to lots of tests (in which case of course they are screwed overall), wouldn't a team's quarantine only need to last as long as you can verify which team members are not infected and some group of non-infected replacements for the sick players? A 3-4-day break would be quite disruptive, but not nearly as bad as a 2-week (or more) disruption.
Apparently teams must designate a trash can banger - only one person allowed at the trash can per game.
Since he's tending today, my third person Curt Schilling story:
My cousin is an Ob nurse in Phoenix. Helped to deliver one of his kids. She said it was the only husband she kicked out of the delivery room for being such a jerk. His wife thanked my cousin. My cousin is still friends with his wife.
Since he's tending today
Ugh. Don't want to know...
Its best not to find out.
On the other hand, I like Marcus Stroman now.
I’d also hear out the argument for “season begins but does not go deep, and convoluted on-the-fly seeding system allows team with .360 winning percentage to win World Series.”
Okay -- so baseball has six 5-team divisions and they're going to play a 60-game schedule? Convince me that the schedule shouldn't just be playing each team within the division 15 times. I say:
- With fewer games, there is more reason to keep the scheduling consistent for teams within each division, so this would be the best way to determine divisional champions in a shortened season.
- All the other non-divisional champion invitations to the playoffs are strictly optional and we shouldn't worry so much about the fairness of the wild card berths.
- Limiting teams to travel within their division means any potential viral infections would be less poorly contained. You could even keep umpire crews specialized within a division during the season.
Of course, I would go further and blow up the divisions entirely to limit travel even more. Something like: Seattle/Oakland/SF/LAA/LAD, etc.
yeah, but shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. It's going to be a mess no matter what.
You mean a mess from a pandemic standpoint? Sure, there are a ton of things that can go wrong. But if you're going to try to have a season in the first place, you might as well design it sensibly.
I'm with this entirely. Go for a totally different format for all I care. Play a set of double elimination tournaments every 2 weeks or something.
Yep. I'm all for blowing up the divisions and AL/NL split. This season is going to be a mess anyway (assuming it even happens, of course...), so why not try something different? Mixing up the teams you play could drive extra interest, anyway. Could be like supersized intraleague or something.
I'm on board. We've all been away from baseball for longer than we have been since 1994 (or is it longer now?) and I wouldn't care that I was only going to see four other teams. Given the plethora of ways to see other games, it'll be fine.
I'm not sure MLB will see it that way, however. Some Old Baseball Man is going to say "It's important that you go out and play teams like the Yankees" and that argument is going to win.
The 2019 season ended October 30, making today 207 days since the last game that mattered in a "Championship Season". The 1994-1995 strike lasted 232 days. The first game of the season happened 23 days later on April 25 for 255 days without a game that mattered. We'll get close this year since the season doesn't start for another month.
Jury's still out on whether it matters
Big plus to teaching asynchronous, online classes: There's nothing the keeps me from cooking something that takes most of the day, even during the week.
I bought a rack of ribs and a chicken last week, with plans to smoke them on Sunday as a Father's Day gift to myself. But, the Summer classes I'm teaching started Monday, and I wasn't ready, so the cook got pushed back to today. Weekday BBQ, here I come!
Doing the snake method in the Webber grill. Ribs probably started too early, since they're resting already. But, they look delicious, and the sampling data confirms that assessment. Chicken is in, smoking away.
The weber electric smoker conversion bit the dust during a cook a couple months ago. I noticed something off about the smoker - no smoke was leaking out of the lid ... - and found that the internal temp had dropped significantly because the heating element had melted down. The power cord was smoking! Holy craps! I got everything unplugged without burning down my house, and finished the pork on the trusty weber slow n sear add on. Actually, probably one of the best I've made. Maybe we should be stalling the cook about 3 hours in leaving your expensive cuts of meat to flounder around at dangerous temperatures for a while more often..... nope.
Anyway, this is the long and short of me saying that I decided to buy a smoker because I do so often enough that I might as well just go for it, and with the money I've saved by not going out to lunch every day.. .. .. .. well this thing pays for itself in sandwiches. (Half not actual joak).
I haven't pulled the trigger just yet, but I think I'm going to buy a weber smokey mountain because I don't want to get into the world of gas cylinder exchanges and the electric smoker was mostly a novelty. This is the long way around of saying that I approve of your mid week smoking, and am totally jelly now that I'm back to working like a regular stiff again.
Well, guarded congrats on being back work. And pics on the new hardware, dammit.
Back to work is very not safe or good for any reason, but most reason is that the tourists that are here are of the maga, virus hoax, masks =\= personal freedoms variety. So...........
The ribs were almost perfect. A little too much crunch on parts of the crust, but definitely the best I've ever made. The chicken was fine; not bad for a first time smoking one. Good smokey flavor, but I think I like it better when I spatchcock and grill instead.
chicken is tricky - I've smoked it and had excellent, just the best ever kind of meals, and done nothing different and had meh results. I'm certain quality of meat is a factor that I've not been able to really nail down, but i've found that smoked chicken is best left to the shredders and then smoked stock for the soups. Soups, I'll get back to them in November. If the world exists in November.
Yes, hard to handle. I blame the fat distribution. Big fan of spatchcocking. Or just smoke thighs?
This one was spatchcocked; definitely the way to go for grilling, I figured it would work smoking, too. I won't lay all the blame elsewhere, since I think I left it in too long, but this was also not a super high quality chicken. It was cheap, though!
And truth be told, I only made the chicken out of fear that the some of the family (namely my wife and one of the kids) wouldn't touch the ribs. My wife didn't have any ribs, but both kids said they loved them, so I'm taking that as an absolute win.
Read this, the go up to the original to see the vid.
Craig Calcaterra made a giant list of changes for this season. It's a lot.
Three players from the taxi squad can travel with a team to a game. One of the three must be a catcher
Gardy must've pushed for that.
I hadn't even thought about the impact of no minor leagues, so the players on the "taxi squad" will just stay in the home market and train like an extended spring training for the entire season I guess?
Well, this will certainly be something.
In a hypothetical poll where the choices were "Season does not begin", "Season begins, but does not complete", and "Season Finishes as Expected", I think I'd be choosing option B at this point.
I'm somewhere between option B and "Season looks like swiss cheese but somehow completes"
I wouldn't be surprised if at least half of the teams, at some point, are going to have to quarantine because of positive tests. How they plan to deal with that... I can't imagine such a scenario would permit a true completed season. Maybe they'll just take winning percentage as the marker for the playoffs, instead of record?
Doubleheaders*
*answer to all ills
weighted by Yankme-ness, no doubt.
Just saw the PGA Tour had its third player withdraw because of COVID and it seems like their relative "bubble" is potentially more controllable than a baseball team traveling around for a 60-game season. Hard to see how team sports are going to make it very far into a season, even the ones choosing to congregate in hubs.
Ask how it went for Djokavic...
This is one reason I think they should really limit the number of team pairs which play during the season, and simplify to each team playing only games within a group of, say, 5 teams. Playing 15 games against 4 teams means you are making two road trips of 3-4 games. Having to replace a 4-game series with a 4-day doubleheader series would be super painful, especially from a pitching standpoint, but it gives you more scenarios where you can make up lost games without additional travel.
Also, re: quarantine, unless teams don't have access to lots of tests (in which case of course they are screwed overall), wouldn't a team's quarantine only need to last as long as you can verify which team members are not infected and some group of non-infected replacements for the sick players? A 3-4-day break would be quite disruptive, but not nearly as bad as a 2-week (or more) disruption.
Apparently teams must designate a trash can banger - only one person allowed at the trash can per game.
Since he's tending today, my third person Curt Schilling story:
My cousin is an Ob nurse in Phoenix. Helped to deliver one of his kids. She said it was the only husband she kicked out of the delivery room for being such a jerk. His wife thanked my cousin. My cousin is still friends with his wife.
Since he's tending today
Ugh. Don't want to know...
Its best not to find out.
On the other hand, I like Marcus Stroman now.
I’d also hear out the argument for “season begins but does not go deep, and convoluted on-the-fly seeding system allows team with .360 winning percentage to win World Series.”
Okay -- so baseball has six 5-team divisions and they're going to play a 60-game schedule? Convince me that the schedule shouldn't just be playing each team within the division 15 times. I say:
- With fewer games, there is more reason to keep the scheduling consistent for teams within each division, so this would be the best way to determine divisional champions in a shortened season.
- All the other non-divisional champion invitations to the playoffs are strictly optional and we shouldn't worry so much about the fairness of the wild card berths.
- Limiting teams to travel within their division means any potential viral infections would be less poorly contained. You could even keep umpire crews specialized within a division during the season.
Of course, I would go further and blow up the divisions entirely to limit travel even more. Something like: Seattle/Oakland/SF/LAA/LAD, etc.
yeah, but shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. It's going to be a mess no matter what.
You mean a mess from a pandemic standpoint? Sure, there are a ton of things that can go wrong. But if you're going to try to have a season in the first place, you might as well design it sensibly.
I'm with this entirely. Go for a totally different format for all I care. Play a set of double elimination tournaments every 2 weeks or something.
Yep. I'm all for blowing up the divisions and AL/NL split. This season is going to be a mess anyway (assuming it even happens, of course...), so why not try something different? Mixing up the teams you play could drive extra interest, anyway. Could be like supersized intraleague or something.
I'm on board. We've all been away from baseball for longer than we have been since 1994 (or is it longer now?) and I wouldn't care that I was only going to see four other teams. Given the plethora of ways to see other games, it'll be fine.
I'm not sure MLB will see it that way, however. Some Old Baseball Man is going to say "It's important that you go out and play teams like the Yankees" and that argument is going to win.
The 2019 season ended October 30, making today 207 days since the last game that mattered in a "Championship Season". The 1994-1995 strike lasted 232 days. The first game of the season happened 23 days later on April 25 for 255 days without a game that mattered. We'll get close this year since the season doesn't start for another month.
Jury's still out on whether it matters
Big plus to teaching asynchronous, online classes: There's nothing the keeps me from cooking something that takes most of the day, even during the week.
I bought a rack of ribs and a chicken last week, with plans to smoke them on Sunday as a Father's Day gift to myself. But, the Summer classes I'm teaching started Monday, and I wasn't ready, so the cook got pushed back to today. Weekday BBQ, here I come!
Doing the snake method in the Webber grill. Ribs probably started too early, since they're resting already. But, they look delicious, and the sampling data confirms that assessment. Chicken is in, smoking away.
The weber electric smoker conversion bit the dust during a cook a couple months ago. I noticed something off about the smoker - no smoke was leaking out of the lid ... - and found that the internal temp had dropped significantly because the heating element had melted down. The power cord was smoking! Holy craps! I got everything unplugged without burning down my house, and finished the pork on the trusty weber slow n sear add on. Actually, probably one of the best I've made. Maybe we should be stalling the cook about 3 hours in leaving your expensive cuts of meat to flounder around at dangerous temperatures for a while more often..... nope.
Anyway, this is the long and short of me saying that I decided to buy a smoker because I do so often enough that I might as well just go for it, and with the money I've saved by not going out to lunch every day.. .. .. .. well this thing pays for itself in sandwiches. (Half not actual joak).
I haven't pulled the trigger just yet, but I think I'm going to buy a weber smokey mountain because I don't want to get into the world of gas cylinder exchanges and the electric smoker was mostly a novelty. This is the long way around of saying that I approve of your mid week smoking, and am totally jelly now that I'm back to working like a regular stiff again.
Well, guarded congrats on being back work. And pics on the new hardware, dammit.
Back to work is very not safe or good for any reason, but most reason is that the tourists that are here are of the maga, virus hoax, masks =\= personal freedoms variety. So...........
The ribs were almost perfect. A little too much crunch on parts of the crust, but definitely the best I've ever made. The chicken was fine; not bad for a first time smoking one. Good smokey flavor, but I think I like it better when I spatchcock and grill instead.
chicken is tricky - I've smoked it and had excellent, just the best ever kind of meals, and done nothing different and had meh results. I'm certain quality of meat is a factor that I've not been able to really nail down, but i've found that smoked chicken is best left to the shredders and then smoked stock for the soups. Soups, I'll get back to them in November. If the world exists in November.
Yes, hard to handle. I blame the fat distribution. Big fan of spatchcocking. Or just smoke thighs?
This one was spatchcocked; definitely the way to go for grilling, I figured it would work smoking, too. I won't lay all the blame elsewhere, since I think I left it in too long, but this was also not a super high quality chicken. It was cheap, though!
And truth be told, I only made the chicken out of fear that the some of the family (namely my wife and one of the kids) wouldn't touch the ribs. My wife didn't have any ribs, but both kids said they loved them, so I'm taking that as an absolute win.
Read this, the go up to the original to see the vid.
That video was pretty great.