astros4545 said:

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I have a source that says Carlos Correa took a private jet from Cali to Houston today to meet with the Astros

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He was definitely in Houston. I heard from someone I trust in the org that they were told they are not starting spring training on time. This was before the Passan tweet. I didn't know about the meeting with the Astros staff but the same person that told me about the delay said Carlos was working out off-site with some of the other Astros players

EastCoastAgNc said:

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There is no deal. There was nev — aw, hell, you know the drill by now.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 1, 2022

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So I started a thread on the CBA and the start of baseball season and these were my 3 options:

A. An agreement is reached and all baseball activities start on time
B. An agreement is reached, but baseball activities are delayed and we have a shortened 2022 season
C. No agreement is reached and we have no 2022 season

Given this update from Passan, which do you think is most likely?

B

Time to freshen up your phone screen 🚀#WallpaperWednesday pic.twitter.com/ND9caSn0PE

— Sugar Land Space Cowboys (@SLSpaceCowboys) February 2, 2022

B. My guess is a 140 game season. Give or take.

This shortened season news is really going to be a bummer. I'm already suffering from major Astros withdrawal. The NFL and NBA are boring me. Aggie basketball is trending down. All I have to look forward to is Aggie Baseball and the Astros after today's recruiting excitement.

What y'all wanna bet MLB comes out of this with a permanent reduction in games/season?

Lonestar_Ag09 said:

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Not gunna lie...probably wouldnt be that bad of an idea

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Yup. I honestly wouldn't be too disappointed with a shorter season. Keeps some teams in it a little longer.

Players would be a fan of more off days im sure, my wife would as well since I watch about 90% of games or more.

Dropping games is going to upset a lot of tradition purists, it's apparently been that way for 60 years

And you could probably go ahead and lock in all the counting stat records

IMO a 151 game season wouldn't be too bad. Gives more days off if you keep it opening and closing the same weekends. Top of April and end of September.

That would allow teams to not play 10+ games in a row without a day off (like we did multiple times)

MLB leaders and the union are expected to restart talks on core economic at the end of the week or early next week but other important yet less contentious issues are on the agenda today and tomorrow. Those include the drug policies, international play and many more items.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 2, 2022

“Talks haven’t yet begun,” is the way one players side person put it. From here, players did offer a 12-team playoff format and MLB did propose a universal DH and drop free agent compensation. But on the biggest issues it’s been mostly baby steps on both sides.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 2, 2022

Barring something totally unexpected, it can be assumed at this point that the universal DH will be in place in 2022. Both sides are in favor (though true to these talks, they don’t seem to totally agree on who benefits most from a DH on all 30 teams)

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 2, 2022

Player leaders Max Scherzer and Andrew Miller on a recent call with MLB spoke pointedly about their unhappiness with MLB offers, hitting on competitive integrity, service time manipulation, franchise values and more. Might their unvarnished honesty trigger action?

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 2, 2022

12 team playoff wouldn't be too bad.

tjack16 said:

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12 team playoff wouldn't be too bad.

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3 division winners
3 wild card

division winners choose their opponent, that would be fun

astros4545 said:

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tjack16 said:

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12 team playoff wouldn't be too bad.

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3 division winners
3 wild card

division winners choose their opponent, that would be fun

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That can't work. Then you have 3 winners. Someone doesn't have an opponent. Somehow they have to cut it to 4 or start with 8.

Mathguy64 said:

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astros4545 said:

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tjack16 said:

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12 team playoff wouldn't be too bad.

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3 division winners
3 wild card

division winners choose their opponent, that would be fun

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That can't work. Then you have 3 winners. Someone doesn't have an opponent. Somehow they have to cut it to 4 or start with 8.

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Username checks out

Mathguy64 said:

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astros4545 said:

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tjack16 said:

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12 team playoff wouldn't be too bad.

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3 division winners
3 wild card

division winners choose their opponent, that would be fun

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That can't work. Then you have 3 winners. Someone doesn't have an opponent. Somehow they have to cut it to 4 or start with 8.

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Could do it NFL style how it used to be. Top 2 teams get a bye.
3-6 face off in a best of 3 series wild card series

So 2021 the AL would have looked like this.

1. Tampa
2. Houston
3. Chicago
4. Boston
5. New York
6. Toronto

Round 1: best of 3 wild card
Chicago vs Toronto
Boston vs NY

ALDS: best of 5
TB vs BOS/NY
HOU vs CHI/TOR

We probably would have gotten the same exact results as we did in reality but in the future it leads to more October baseball without diluting the regular season as much as 16 teams does so I'm okay with it

If they expand playoffs, drop the regular season back to 154.

Major League Baseball today requested immediate assistance of a federal mediator to help resolve the sport’s lockout, sources told ESPN. Under their request, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service would help assist with the proceedings.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 3, 2022

Sources confirm: MLB has asked for federal mediation in bargaining talks. Would have to be agreed to by Players Association. It is a voluntary process. First reported @JeffPassan

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 3, 2022

Wonder if the players union will agree

Id put money that if they do not then we wont have Major League baseball this year. Just college and the Minors

EastCoastAgNc said:

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Sources confirm: MLB has asked for federal mediation in bargaining talks. Would have to be agreed to by Players Association. It is a voluntary process. First reported @JeffPassan

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 3, 2022

Wonder if the players union will agree

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I mean this is something purely from a marketing and public point of view they have to agree to right.
Then it's, owners willing to meet in middle but players were not

MLB locked the players out on December 2 and didn't make a proposal until January 13, but now it's so urgent that they're calling in the federal government. Sounds like tremendously good faith to me. https://t.co/ptRE10G2Dj

— Eephus Tosser (@EephusTosser) February 3, 2022

Sources: MLB has told the MLBPA it will not make a counter offer after MLB two days ago saying it would.

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) February 3, 2022

The union seems unlikely to accept MLB’s offer today to have federal mediator try to bridge the large gap. The union offered “no comment” but they recall the mediator didn’t solve things in 1994. MLB is frustrated by 2 years of no’s but the union sees this as PR. @JeffPassan 1st

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 3, 2022

It's amazing how much mlb tries to kill itself. Stupid rule changes, screwing with balls and denying it, a horrible commish, lockouts, and much more.

You get new fans and then just crap in them.

Looks like I will have to retreat deep into The Show for another year. 2020 was awful, but The Show made it somewhat bearable.

The thing about mediation is the goal is to get people to compromise. It's a neutral person to get each side to give up something to get something. If you don't want to do that because you never planned to give in there isn't a point in having a mediator.

BMX Bandit said:

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If the players are planning to never give in, then they better start getting those insurance salesman licenses signed up for

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Regular players start missing paychecks and they will start turning the screws on the players union. Owners know this. Regular meaning those on the 40 man not making the crazy salaries.