then coronavirus happened, 2020 baseball

there are routes you can take to stop tanking that don't involve cheapening the entire season and turning the playoffs into even more of a crap shoot

with 16 teams the playoffs become an exhibition connected to the regular season by a thread. gonna get a world series between two 78-win teams with zero great players between them

i'm much cooler with the superteam/tanking team era than the future where regular season games matter half as much for everyone

i think that would be a fitting ending to this season, all the same. this whole season is already inescapably weird. it doesn't matter if some shitty team wins. who cares? whichever team gets the least covid19 wins! store up on fuel, because next season takes place in mad max

i don't think most of us have a problem with this season, it's about all the ones after it

the key is going to be the "it was all a dream" sequence after the end of coronavirus (an age that was foretold by john the baptist), when some will want to continue the new ways of the coronavirus format, and others will speak of returning to the olden times

many will fall. another catcher's testicle will explode on live tv

Ok, what's with the Bronx Stankers' rain-shortened win last night? I thought all delayed games were going to be played to a full 9 on another day if necessary. Apparently it's just previously suspended games, eh?

mmhmm

#Braves are without BOTH of their catchers, Tyler Flowers and Travis d'Arnaud. Both tested negative for COVID-19 but both have symptoms and are back in Atlanta. Again, both tested negative. But they're without the for at least today. Alex Jackson will catch.

— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 24, 2020

also the blue jays are supposedly gonna play in buffalo 100%

will this season reach 30 games before being called off? it seems like we're just on a glide path to some player getting so sick they have to retire (or worse)

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2020/07/24/16280/friday-roundup-the-baseball-gods-are-very-very-angry/

So wait, we have two 2020 season threads?

Cubs Install Cardboard Cutouts Of Fans Pissing All Over Streets Outside Wrigley Field https://t.co/jqOTzB6U1x pic.twitter.com/W2Gv7aZlvm

— The Onion (@TheOnion) July 24, 2020

looool

Despite no minor league season this year, there will be professional baseball in upstate New York. The Blue Jays announced they will play the "majority" of their 2020 home games in Buffalo (former home of the Triple-A Mets).

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) July 24, 2020

i thought this was the general news thread, the other one is 'rolling game action' or somesuch

gonna get a world series between two 78-win teams with zero great players between them

― ℺ ☽ ⋠ ⏎ (✖), Friday, 24 July 2020 08:02 (thirteen hours ago)

In all fairness though, 78 wins this season will be rather impressive.

lol matt adams is back with the braves

he just keeps cycling between the same 3-4 teams

i saw max muncy last night and thought he was matt adams for a second

Yoenis Céspedes has a 3-game home run streak.

And those three dates:

May 13, 2018
July 20, 2018
July 24, 2020#Mets

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) July 24, 2020

orlando arcia just hit a single, and once he was at first base, anthony rizzo pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer and offered him some

Moustakas "woke up sick" and is now on the 10-day IL, and while there's nothing official stating COVID, yahoo! fantasy awarded him the red badge of COVID... are fantasy site updaters more in the know?

It's related to Matt Davidson's positive test, I think

Sources: Marlins new positives include Cooper and Ramirez in addition to Urena, plus Alfaro had been positive. So they’ve now lost their starting RF, DH/1B and C in addition to one of their better pitchers. @ByRobertMurray 1st on some names

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 26, 2020

If I was an opposing team, I’d be worried just sharing a field with them. MLB should step in and make these guys wear facemasks whenever they’re around other players.

amazing scene in st louis - first on-field argument i've seen. dyson got tossed (i think?), and the pirates manager (shelton) came out to argue with the home plate umpire. the camera showed both men pausing to put their masks on. halfway through the argument, shelton takes his mask back off, then put it back on a few seconds later.

sorry, not "amazing", exactly. just very weird, sign of the times, etc

If MLB has a number of simultaneous positive tests on a team that would shut things down, they haven’t made it public. But an epidemiologist @jaysonst talked to before the season started thought that number should be three or four. https://t.co/5Jv4ohyaqT https://t.co/TFkN4jA9vg

— Emma Span (@emmaspan) July 26, 2020

there was some question of whether (pirates manager) shelton would be ejected from a game before winning a game, and how often (if ever) that had happened

this seems bad

Four Miami Marlins players have tested positive for the coronavirus, including Sunday's starter, Jose Urena, according to sources familiar with the situation, leading the team to delay its postgame trip home amid concerns about a possible outbreak.

The Marlins will be without the services of Urena, catcher Jorge Alfaro, who was placed on the injured list before their season opener on Friday, infielder Garrett Cooper and outfielder Harold Ramirez. The news of the positive tests was first reported by baseball writer Robert Murray.

It's possible that the infections occurred Wednesday on the team's trip to and from Atlanta, where the Marlins played the Braves in an exhibition game. Since leaving Atlanta -- after a flight delay -- the Marlins have been in Philadelphia all weekend for the team's opening series.

i didn't watch a whole lot this weekend, but i still saw spitting, unmasked people hanging out closely in the dugouts, etc. not throwing the ball around the horn doesn't seem likely to cut it

in bosox news, E-Rod with myocarditis, a heart inflammation caused by covid. Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor also both recovering from cv-19

Marlins next series is cancelled.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29546814/sources-marlins-cancel-game-virus-spreads

b-b-but what about the tax squad?

taxI

Sources: The Phillies are quarantining their entire visiting clubhouse staff after exposure to the Marlins this weekend. Some were tested yesterday and waiting for results. Yankees brought their own clubhouse staff to Philly last night.

— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) July 27, 2020

waiting for the other shoe to drop, 2020 baseball

yankees-phillies also postponed tonight

also, am i crazy or is the fucking NHL about to re-start games? how is that even possible

GREAT SEASON SO FAR

NHL is putting everyone in two bubbles fwiw

Ya. The thing they said mlb should do but the players, in their infinite wisdom, decided was not for them.

something tells me that's not going to work

this was pretty inevitable but less than a week in wow

move both Florida teams to ...?

buffalo obv

I find talk about fixing the MLB process strangely dystopian

The problem is not MLB's failure to hermetically seal in a baseball Arcology. The problem is there's an essentially uncontrolled pandemic raging through the country. Maybe we should fix society, then worry about sports

— Dan Brooks (@brooksbaseball) July 27, 2020

also, am i crazy or is the fucking NHL about to re-start games? how is that even possible

― The GOAT Harold Land (Karl Malone), Monday, July 27, 2020 9:46 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

nhl just put out a statement that claimed there were 2 positive results out of 6000+ total tests. plus, they're doing a bubble, and they're in canada, not coronamerica

Marlins’ group text message decided game vs. Phillies would be played Sunday after COVID-19 outbreak https://t.co/ixGIxNu23F

— Philadelphia Inquirer Sports (@phillysport) July 27, 2020

xp

that's good! 43 NHL players tested positive during "Phase 2" of re-opening process, though, from June 8 to July 12. are the players allowed to see their family or any other "non-bubble" people during the season? if they truly are isolated, maybe they'll be able to pull it off.

xp i can't wait until official team physician yadier molina is asked to make the call about whether or not cardinals games should be played when members of the team starting going down. something tells me he's going to say they can play