oldtimer

All that was needed is a bat on the ball to the right side. Time to consider a change.

Umpires differ quite a lot. Some give strikes with pitches clearly outside the zone while others call balls that are clearly in the zone. I believe technology assisted umpiring would help the game and would not be noticed by the fans.

Take the bottom most performer out and replace him with our best prospect? Is it Bello? Just a thought and perhaps too early to consider at this point.

We do of course see how JBJ is doing.

Houck has great stuff with much greater than average movement on his pitches. Because of that, he has trouble consistently throwing strikes. last night he was done in 3.1 innings. That doesn't make for quality starts from him. Unfortunately, closers also need to be able to throw strikes. The real issue is that Houck needs to master his command to be either and effective starter or closer.

Thanks for the support. With the war and the loss of a close friend, I was quite sad. That said, Trevor Story was brought in after I took a hiatus. I am supportive of that move, but must admit to being skeptical of JBJ being our right fielder and at the money he will get. I am also disappointed that we didn't make a stronger play for pitching. I guess we shall see if Bloom's moves stand the test of time.

I've been away for personal reasons but have read the postings from time to time. I am against granting very long contracts, especially for pitchers and players in their prime. Mookie's contract being an example of that kind. In Raffie's case, at such a young age, one can wonder what very long term means. I might go to 8 years with an earlier opt out although, given his body type, he may well wind up as primarily a DH over the contract period.

With Putin showing himself to be a complete psychopath, MLBB seems of little importance. My prayers to the unfortunate masses who will be killed and deprived of their liberty.

There have been slight adjustments in the positions of both sides, which shows that some negotiations are still going on with further adjustments possible. If it comes down to a strike and longish delay on settlement, I believe the owners are in the stronger position.

Why should that be the case?

I think the point is more to do with how much money one needs and how one players greed will impact what the team can do for others.

I paid $50 a ticket to see the Sox vs the Braves and the stadium was full at Northport, Fla. They certainly make money on these games.

I'm guessing around June 1. I see no current signs of a willingness to compromise on the key financial issues. It will take some financial pain to bring about that willingness. The owners can look at the full length of the CBA while the players typically have fewer years and may feel year by year pressure to settle. Since there will be a 30 day period of preseason conditioning I believe opening day will be delayed.

MLB could do without Soto but where could Soto get such a lucrative offer outside of MLB?

If the deal takes a long time to complete, a lot of veterans will find themselves out of baseball, being superseded by younger players because they will not have time to show they can still compete at the ML level. The new CBA negotiations may shorten the careers of these veteran players.

I am guessing June

In any negotiation, no side goes in with their best proposal. An offer is made and then a counter offer is proposed. I don't see where the Players Association is making any counter offers. They are coming in with it's either my way or the highway. The way things are going, there will be a significant delay to the start of the season. From what I read of the recent posts, the flavor is the owners are a bunch of greedy crass people and its their approach that is causing all the issues. I don't share that view and think there is blame to be levied on both sides. The result will probably be a delay of months and that will turn off the fan base, cost players, owners, workers and municipalities lots of income. Good faith bargaining is needed but isn't happening.

Not much progress today. An offer made by MLBB but other than saying it was unacceptable the Player union hasn't yet countered or negotiated. Not a good sign for early resolution.

The results from the meeting today will be a litmus test for how the season will go forward. No real progress today will mean games will be missed.

From what I read, Betts numbers are already falling off, perhaps due to his hip injury. I doubt he proves worth the kind of investment the Dodgers made ( $365 mil) let alone the trade value they gave up plus eating half of Price's contract. At $30 mil per year for 10 years, our offer was already more than generous.

I don't see it as collusion at all. This is just an industry group developing a plan they think they can live with it an offering it to a players union who is also asked for their opinions. I have no faith there will be good faith negotiations on either side. That would mean making concessions on both sides. This appears to be a case where neither side is willing to make meaningful concessions. This situation could lead to a long outage until the financial pain brings more cooperation for the long term good of baseball.

My take is that the owners are a group of relative equals who get together and discuss the various points of contention for them in reaching an agreement with the players union. They have a template to start with which is the previous CBA. I would wonder if they have a majority vote on issues or whether you they tend to support the most conservative among them when developing a offer plan. On the other hand, there are a lot more players involved and with probably a lot more disparate issues. What's good for a first year player, a star or a player getting into their last playing years has to be quite different. Do they have a democratic majority vote on offerings? The players get advice by their representatives, but self interest might trump providing a united front. The mediator process described by MVP sounds correct and one would assume the series of meetings outlined would take a while to accomplish. Any plan facilitated by the media would have to be passed back to both the owners group and the players union. There is also the case where the plan the mediator develops after his meetings will be rejected by one party or another. With the clock ticking, I don't personally expect that the season will start without some delays.

With the owners requesting a federal mediator, some settlement will be proposed to the Players union. They may choose not to accept it, but then would appear to be the party holding up the agreement such that the sentiment would turn in favor of the owners. I wonder how long it will take to mediator to recommend a plan. We are already close to the CBA impacting the season so it would be good to see real progress, but I doubt that will happen.

We had high expectations of Hanley Rameriz when he came to the Sox to play left field and paid him accordingly. He may have been the worst defe3ensive outfielder the Red Sox ever had and was erratic at the plate. We paid a lot and certainly didn't get a lot in return.

I would expect the back and forth proposal and counterproposal with each leading to some progress. If both sides remain seriously interested in a resolution, perhaps it can get done by mid February.