2021-22 CBA Negotiation/Lockout Thread (DEAL IS AGREED TO)

[Erstad Grit]

I'm attempting to cancel my mini plan and suite if after Monday the decision is made to shorten the season. 

[Docwaukee]

I truly believe that the owners never had any intention of resolving this before it started to impact the season unless the players were to essentially fully concede all the issues.  

Right now I would imagine that the players think they're negotiating on behalf of future generations as much as they are for themselves.  But I think that motivation starts to change pretty quickly when guys aren't getting paychecks and as importantly, service time.   

About 1500 players end up getting a major league paycheck and accumulating service time during the season.  Only about 10% of them do so via deal that are 2 years or more.  The rest are pre arb or arb, split contracts, and 1yr deals.  Most of that crew haven't exactly been making much over an extended period.  

So now the owners have additional leverage on whether to prorate the lost wages and service time.  Guys like Max Scherzer and Francisco Lindor (whose names I've seen as being present) probably couldn't give two squats about that but I would guarantee you 1000 or more other players who are fighting their way up and fighting for service time and have limited opportunity and window to make some money do care about the potential of losing those things that they'll never get back.  

The owners likely have zero sense of urgency and in fact, the longer it goes, the more likely it is that the various class systems within mlbpa begin to fight among themselves.  

[fan_since79]

The owners are billionaires and will remain billionaires regardless of whether there's a season or not. I don't think they give a damn about the fans or about the great national pastime of baseball. 

The players (read: the union) aren't much better.

Greed in plentiful supply these days, and now mutual bad will.

[Stradling]

This might be my optimistic personality, but I think in the next few days the two sides will come to an agreement.  I think in the agreement we will see a couple things happen to appease the fans.  We will see the end of the black out restrictions.  And shortly after the deal has been ratified we will see Manfred fired.  Baseball has an image problem and most fans blame him.  

[AngelsLakersFan]

2 hours ago, Dochalo said:

I truly believe that the owners never had any intention of resolving this before it started to impact the season unless the players were to essentially fully concede all the issues.  

Right now I would imagine that the players think they're negotiating on behalf of future generations as much as they are for themselves.  But I think that motivation starts to change pretty quickly when guys aren't getting paychecks and as importantly, service time.   

About 1500 players end up getting a major league paycheck and accumulating service time during the season.  Only about 10% of them do so via deal that are 2 years or more.  The rest are pre arb or arb, split contracts, and 1yr deals.  Most of that crew haven't exactly been making much over an extended period.  

So now the owners have additional leverage on whether to prorate the lost wages and service time.  Guys like Max Scherzer and Francisco Lindor (whose names I've seen as being present) probably couldn't give two squats about that but I would guarantee you 1000 or more other players who are fighting their way up and fighting for service time and have limited opportunity and window to make some money do care about the potential of losing those things that they'll never get back.  

The owners likely have zero sense of urgency and in fact, the longer it goes, the more likely it is that the various class systems within mlbpa begin to fight among themselves.  

I don't think the owners have much motivation to give in once the season doesn't start on time. As we saw with the 2020 season they don't make a significant amount of money off the gate, the big money is in their local and national tv deals, plus the post season. All they need to lock in those deals is a roughly 60 game season.

If I am the players I would make it clear that expanded playoffs are off the table if the season doesn't start on time. I would only move off that position in exchange for guaranteed service time and back pay for everyone that covers the games that weren't played.

[AngelsLakersFan]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

This might be my optimistic personality, but I think in the next few days the two sides will come to an agreement.  I think in the agreement we will see a couple things happen to appease the fans.  We will see the end of the black out restrictions.  And shortly after the deal has been ratified we will see Manfred fired.  Baseball has an image problem and most fans blame him.  

I can definitely see them coming to an agreement in the next couple of days but I would be shocked if anything else you mentioned happens. I don't have any reason to believe MLB owners care about the black outs or their image problem. If they end up missing a month or more of the season I could see Manfred offered up to the fans as a scapegoat to try and win people back, but I'd sooner expect them to continue to trash the MLBPA in the media instead.

[Lazorko Saves]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

We will see the end of the black out restrictions.  And shortly after the deal has been ratified we will see Manfred fired.

Wow, Strad is ultra-whitepilled here.

[HanfordGuy]

On 2/25/2022 at 6:47 PM, Dochalo said:

some think the owners are printing money and others (I think) would content that buying a sports franchise is a mediocre invest at best.  

But if the team comes with a stadium, then it becomes a real estate investment.

[Lazorko Saves]

Morpheus' reaction on hearing Stradling thinks Manfred will get the boot:

[Angel Oracle]

Is it just me, or do the owners seem to want the players to make most, if not all, of the concessions in the previous CBA and now?

Players gave up enough in the previous CBA.

[Docwaukee]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

This might be my optimistic personality, but I think in the next few days the two sides will come to an agreement.  I think in the agreement we will see a couple things happen to appease the fans.  We will see the end of the black out restrictions.  And shortly after the deal has been ratified we will see Manfred fired.  Baseball has an image problem and most fans blame him.  

Interesting.  I'm getting the opposite vibe.  I think it's gonna take at least a month and I think the owner like their puppet 

[Stradling]

16 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

Interesting.  I'm getting the opposite vibe.  I think it's gonna take at least a month and I think the owner like their puppet 

I could be totally wrong but just something I could see happening. The Manfred part is really just a scapegoat and they’ll put another puppet in place. 

[Taylor]

Blackouts aren't going away. Powerful rich people have a vested interest in them. 

[Docwaukee]

4 hours ago, Taylor said:

Blackouts aren't going away. Evil rich people use them to exploit people. 

fixed it for ya

[T.G.]

What blackouts are you guys talking about? MLB network? Ballys has the rights to the broadcasts. Of course MLB can't broadcast locally.

[Lazorko Saves]

16 minutes ago, True Grich said:

What blackouts are you guys talking about?

https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/help-center/blackout-policy

One example: I live in Oregon.  I can't* watch the Angel broadcasts via my mlb.tv subscription when they are playing the Mariners, both home and away.  If I lived further south in Oregon, I'd be blacked out when they played the Mariners, the Giants, or the A's.

* - VPN gets around this, but it's a technical hassle, and mlb.tv is always cat-and-mouse blocking us VPNers.

[Lazorko Saves]

Looking at that map, I just realized that people living in Las Vegas are in a 5 team blackout area.  LAD, LAA, ARZ, OAK, SF.

It's stupid.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Lazorko Saves

[T.G.]

You can’t stream Angels games in Seattle because Seattle sold those rights to a local network. 

[Angel Oracle]

Deadline day to keep 162 game schedule.

So much for a full season in 2022.

[Dtwncbad]

19 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

Is it just me, or do the owners seem to want the players to make most, if not all, of the concessions in the previous CBA and now?

Players gave up enough in the previous CBA.

Maybe I didn’t follow it closely enough but what huge concessions did the players give up in the last CBA negotiation?

Are you looking at what they agreed to versus what they asked for or what they agreed to versus what they actually had prior?

It has been my perception that the players have improved their overall position in just about every labor dispute.

Tell me what I am missing.  

[fan_since79]

42 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Deadline day to keep 162 game schedule.

So much for a full season in 2022.

The pessimist in me says season gone.

The optimist says 140 games, more or less.

Bunch of children fighting over their slices of the gazillion dollar pie.

[AngelStew43]

The pessimist in me says season gone.

The optimist says 140 games, more or less.

Bunch of children fighting over their slices of the gazillion dollar pie.

 

This is exactly why I think there is a good chance for a last minute settlement.   

Too much money for both sides to lose. 

[Make Angels Great Again]

11 hours ago, True Grich said:

You can’t stream Angels games in Seattle because Seattle sold those rights to a local network. 

 

Check this out, it's an interesting idea that I hope at least has some legs:

MLB in talks to launch nationwide streaming service for home games (nypost.com)

[Lou]

27 minutes ago, Make Angels Great Again said:

 

Check this out, it's an interesting idea that I hope at least has some legs:

MLB in talks to launch nationwide streaming service for home games (nypost.com)

This is exactly why MLB never caves on blackout restrictions.

[Blarg]

2 hours ago, Dtwncbad said:

Maybe I didn’t follow it closely enough but what huge concessions did the players give up in the last CBA negotiation?

Are you looking at what they agreed to versus what they asked for or what they agreed to versus what they actually had prior?

It has been my perception that the players have improved their overall position in just about every labor dispute.

Tell me what I am missing.  

They improved their catering last time.

Idiots.