Nationals Baseball: Nats lose, MLB also loses

Monday, July 27, 2020

Nats lose, MLB also loses

The Marlins have changed the game.

Well, not really. Really they have upped the time table. In a "no bubble" scenario it was always likely that some players would get COVID. And in a lenient rule situation, eventually one of these would pass it on to a number of teammates. You get enough teammates and you get a postponed game situation. The hope was people would take it seriously enough at the start to make this a mid-season situation, but here we are.

What's the end result? I don't know and I'm pretty sure baseball, which doesn't seem to be able to plan out a rain delay doesn't know either.  The easy answer is... well there are no easy answers... but the simplest answer is a bubble. Players can't go home, can't see family, and either are stuck in hotels from city to city or stuck in hotels in one specific city.  It seemed to work for the NWSL, and the NBA and NHL have had training starts that were more promising than MLB's "police yourself" summer camp.

But what it comes down to is what players want to do, and few want to be trapped in a hotel for months even for millions.  So I don't know what's to come. Twist my arm and I think baseball keeps the Marlins out for a while, suspends the Phillies/Yanks for like another game and hopes everything works out.  I don't think it will work.

In actual baseball news the Nats lose but as I type this there is only one team even 3-1 in the NL so it's barely a blip on their chances to make whatever post-season there may be.  Onward we go

4 comments:

Cautiously Pessimistic said...

This was absolutely inevitable, and it was stupid to think otherwise. A bubble truly was the only way to go if you wanted to get a full season in. But it would have been logistically challenging, likely would have cost the owners more money, and players like Trout (whose wife is due next week) would have opted out.

The question at hand was whether a reduced quality of product was better than no product at all, and the owners decided to roll the dice and hope they could have their cake and eat it too for a couple months and hope they get lucky. Instead it happened opening weekend because DeSantis is an idiot. I'd love to see them decide to roll it back and get everyone to Scottsdale for a bubble, but we all know that's not going to happen.

Harper said...

Scottsdale? Are you trying to kill them?!

How about... Augusta, ME for now?

In all seriousness if properly followed it's possible the protocols in place would work. You can't stop players from getting COVID but you can limit the spread. 2-3 guys get it - you can work around that 10-15 you can't. BUT just from the first two days you can see these guys aren't following protocols.

You have two choices - bubble OR no bubble, serious strict ballpark protocols. The latter probably won't work but I'm willing to give it a shot. Listening to the players though there's a lot of "push so at the park we are as normal as possible" that's going to fight against any strict protocols. So you almost have to default to a bubble.

Jon Quimby said...

So much for baseball being a welcome distraction from the sorry situation we're all living in.

Anonymous said...

Turns out the Marlins went to a strip club in Atlanta. Infuriating.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/baseball_mlb/bob-nightengale-marlins-players-went-out-on-the-town-in-atlanta/ar-BB17irr3?ocid=sf&fbclid=IwAR0AbiLbwtPXeK9KyRr8Ii1-JUCau4DnR1muhG_2ZR1wbVsWIVGkaD7h_z4