Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Play Ball???

Episode Date: May 12, 2020

Last week, MLB set forth a proposal to get a truncated Major League season rolling near the beginning of July. The team owners approved of this play yesterday, and it now goes to the players' union for a vote. What's in the proposal? How different will the season look? Or will there even be a season if the MLBPA rejects this proposal? On location once again in Idaho, D.C. Lundberg does his best to sort through the reports and offers his opinions of some of the details of the proposal, and on the MLBPA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Hey, gang, welcome to Locked-on Mariners, brought to you by Bilt Bar. We, of course, are part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, or T-Lop-N-O-P-N-N-Lop-N-N-P-N. I am D.C. Lunberg, the Lockdown Network's king of the road, as it were. And no, I am not going to sing today, because it didn't exactly work out too well on last Friday's show. Although I swear I can sing. That was just me being off key, and I'm kind of out of practice.

In any case, Locked-on Mariners is continuing our party in the Panhandle. Today, coming to you on location from Spirit Lake Idaho. Yes, Spirit Lake Idaho, ladies and gentlemen, please remember to download rate and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked on Mariner's podcast, or any of the other programs here on Tlopin. Also remember to follow the show on Twitter at L-O-U-U-N-Sor-Mariners

and follow me on Twitter as well at D.C. underscore Lundberg, L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G, if you're scoring at home. At the end of last Friday show, ladies and gentlemen, I noted that I did not remember what the theme across the Locked-on family of podcasts was supposed to be this week, and I'm glad that I had forgotten because it changed. We will be continuing to examine some what if scenarios later on in the week, but today we are going to take a break from thematic shows

and get to some actual legit baseball news that's been brewing for about a week or so now. It was reported by multiple sources in the middle of last week, including ESPN, the Atlantic, the New York Post, and of course the Regina Leader Post, that Commissioner of Baseball and Professional Table Dancer, Rob Manfred, made a proposal to owners that would have spring training resume in mid-June, the regular season beginning in July, possibly Independence Day weekend. This proposal was agreed upon by the owners yesterday on Monday, May 10th, and will be up for consideration by the Players Union today,

with an announcement expected sometime later this week or early next week. I am recording this program Monday evening, so by the time you're listening to this, the proposal may have already been accepted or rejected, most likely rejected. According to a New York Post article written by Joel Sherman, yes, that Joel Sherman, on May 6th, the main sticking points for the players will be health and safety and money. Those are the pieces that are going to be argued and negotiated between MLB and the MLBPA most fiercely. Other stipulations in the proposal include an 82 game schedule,

the use of home stadiums in areas that have approval by local and state government, geographic schedules where teams would only play other teams in their similar geographic region, expansion to 14 playoff teams, which is almost half the league, a 30-man roster with a taxi squad, quote unquote, of up to 50 players, so basically a reserve roster, and of course my favorite, yes, universal designated hitters. In addition, there's a chance that the All-Star game will not happen, and unfortunately that's a pretty good chance. As a side note as well, it was announced yesterday

that the next installment of the World Baseball Classic scheduled for next year will be postponed, most likely, until 2023. I will talk about the structuring of the league first before getting into the health and monetary issues in the second half of today's show. Obviously, an 82 game season or even shorter makes sense. You cannot cram 162 games into a few months. months without scheduled double-headers on most days. So, yes, the season is going to be shorter.

That is no shock. As for the 30-man roster with a 50-man reserve roster, I'm fine with that. The entire minor league season is in doubt, which really does a disservice to developing players, which may affect the rebuilding Mariners more than most teams who already have contention-worthy teams in the majors and may not have the developing pieces that they need for the future in the minors like Seattle does. The 50-man reserve roster 30-a-month, I don't really, I don't mind that so much. And only playing teams in your same geographic region makes sense as well, especially at the beginning of the season.

This means the Mariners would only be playing teams in the American League West and National League West, which brings me to the proposal of the Universal D.H., which I am vehemently against. I hope the players' union says no to this, but I don't think they will. If MLB goes to three divisions, which has been the proposal, lumping together the AL and NL West into one, the AL and NL Central together, and then the AL and NL East, you'd still have an equal number of AL and NL teams in each division, since each of the six divisions ordinarily have five teams apiece. What's wrong with keeping the National League rules in National League parks and American League rules in American League parks? That's the way it's been in interleague play anyway, and I don't see what the difference is quite honestly. Mariners trivia question today?

Since we are doing the show from Idaho these days, how many Seattle Mariners have been born in the gem state? Answer, following a word from Bilt Bar. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're looking for some sort of protein supplement, give Bilt Bar a try. There is tasty as any protein bar that I've tried, and I have tried a few. No gritty or chalky complexion, no weird aftertaste, just 15 plus grams of protein per bar, with very little sugar or calories. All the flavors in the sample pack we were sent were good. Chocolate raspberry, chocolate orange, and chocolate peanut butter were my personal favorites.

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In addition, use the promo code Locked On upon checkout to receive $10 off your first order. Remember, builtbar.com and use the promo code Locked On, L-O-C-E-D-O-N. Answer to the trivia question, how many Seattle Mariners have been Idaho born? None. Not one Seattle Mariner hails from the Gem State. More locked on mariners from Spirit Lake Idaho in a bit. This podcast is sponsored by the audiobook edition of 24, life stories and lessons from the Say Hey Kid. In this reflective and inspirational memoir, the legendary Willie Mays shares the

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24 is the inspiring story of one of sports fans' favorite living legends. By the audiobook edition of 24 now, wherever audiobooks are sold. Now time for the second half of Locked-on Mariners. Once again, your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, J.M. Lockdown Mariner's Party in the Panhandle has returned. Recording today on location in Spirit Lake Idaho. Putting the what-if theme aside for one day and talking about the proposal Major League Baseball put forward to get the regular season rolling in early July, approved by the owners yesterday and up for a vote by the MLBPA sometime this week with an announcement expected later on in the week or early next week.

And again, I'm recording this Monday evening. So there's a chance that the proposal has already been rejected by the players' union as you're listening to this, because it most likely will be rejected. In the first half of the show today, I gave my opinions on some of the proposed ideas in the proposal. Some necessary. Some unnecessary. Some not great. And some I just disagree with completely. The universal DH.

The two main points of contention and the two items that will most fiercely be debated between the league and the union are the matters of player health and safety and salary. As much as I bitch about the players' union, its greediness, and how it's completely. ruined the economics of baseball, they should stand their ground on the health issue. They've got to make sure that there are enough COVID tests not only available, but that sufficient players and staff are tested to ensure their health and the health of everyone involved with a team that nobody's health is put in jeopardy. That is a very clunkily written sentence. I apologize.

I would hope that Major League Baseball would ensure this health issue anyway. even with teams only playing within a specified geographic area that still necessitates a huge amount of travel. Plus, there are still areas in a country where COVID is a big problem. New York is one of them, which affects the Yankees and Mets. Similar story with pretty much most of California, which affects a half dozen teams. New England is not doing so hot from what I hear either,

which affects the Red Sox. Seattle's still a hotbed from what I understand, which of course affects the Mariners. However, Spokane is doing pretty. well. So if Governor Inslee ever decides to open up our side of the state, A Vista Stadium would be a great second home for the Mariners, but I sincerely doubt the Players Union would go for that. And the Toronto Blue Jays are a very interesting case since they're in another country. According to an article on foxnews.com, they may play their

home games at their spring training facility in Dunedin, Florida. It's possible for teams that cannot play at home for them to play at either neutral sites or spring training facilities. Health is the number one issue. But another issue the Players Union has, which I noted earlier, was pay. The Players Union is almost certainly going to reject this part of the plan, as they contend that it was understood in March that the players would receive a pro-rated percent of their salary depending on how many games are played. And since we're looking at a half-season at best, that means,

half salary at best. MLB's proposal takes into account that since most likely no fans would be in attendance, at least for the first, you know, huge chunk of the season, that simply pro-rating salaries is not going to make sense. And salaries will most likely have to be even lower than that because of the lack of revenue generated by ticket sales, parking, souvenir sales, luxury suites, etc. According to an ESPN article released yesterday written by Jeff Passan, quote, money is at the heart of the return sources,

said. Owners, fearful of deep financial losses with fan-free stadiums, agreed in a conference call on Monday afternoon to a plan that includes a 50-50 revenue split with the players, sources told ESPN, end quote. The health safety issues seem like they could be worked out much easier than the financial aspect since the union and the players are monumentally greedy. There are no two ways about that. I rewrote this part of the show. It least a half dozen times with varying degrees of venom. But I will say that the players get no sympathy from me when it comes to money. None. Just about everyone else is having to take a huge hit because of this and are having a very rough time. Lord only knows how many people are worried about how they're going

to feed themselves or their families and keep a roof over their head. So again, I'm not worried about these athletes who are monumentally overpaid to begin with. Major League minimum salary gang is $563,500. Even if a player makes a quarter of that this season, that's still $140,875 to play a game, lest you forget. If money is the sole reason that this season never happens, it's going to be 1994 all over again, and Major League Baseball is going to lose a lot of fans simply because of these players insatiable greed. I hope the league and union can come to an agreement, but I'm not entirely optimistic.

Well, on that high note, we're going to get out of here. We're going to get back to frivolities tomorrow and resume discussing some more Mariners, what ifs on tomorrow's show. In the meantime, please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to Lockdown Mariners on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you can think of. Follow me on Twitter at DC underscore Lundberg and follow the show on Twitter as well at L.O. underscore Mariners. Remember tomorrow, hopefully getting back to some fun with some Mariners what-if situations. In the meantime, have a great day. Happy birthday, Jenna. This is Joey Martin, speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.

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