https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28025583/union-chief-rebuke-gm-heats-baseball-cold-war-free-agency

 

Atlanta's GM says outloud what he shouldn't have said and the union didn't like it. My guess is we're going to get a pretty long fight after this CBA expires.

That is why they are already talking, but there is a lot of gap to cover.  Hope they can work it out.

Read the article and all I can say is the president of the Player's Union is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

I definitely think there will be a fight, and I the players union has some ground to stand on, but I didn't see anything Anthopoulos said as out of step. If the union is convinced the issue is with clubs colluding rather than the current agreement being set up in way as to allow teams to take advantage of FA and control young talent than go after the owners I guess, but IMO the real issue is the latter, not the former. 

 

Article XX(E)(1) of the collective bargaining agreement, which ends: "Players shall not act in concert with other Players and Clubs shall not act in concert with other Clubs."

 

Also good luck enforcing the above. We aren't seeing NBA levels of tampering here, but there's no realistic way to ensure strict adherence on either side. 

There's going to be a fight, no doubt. I concur with KirbyDome that the MLBPA is complaining about the wrong thing. They should be arguing about the current system in place, not teams colluding against free agents.

 

It's crystal clear that teams are no longer rewarding players for their past performance when they were making peanuts. They need to blow up the whole thing and negotiate new terms for pre-arb and arbitration players.

 

The game has changed so much over the years, yet they're still using the same arbitration model developed in the 1970s... It's so easy to calculate that sources like MLB Trade Rumors gets the projected figures correct within $100k every year. They need to find a way to get the money to players earlier in their careers. Because this movement to younger players isn't going away anytime soon.

Meh, I don't trust the owners, but this isn't collusion.

This turned into an owners vs. players thing quickly when in reality most of the people that were involved in the conversations that Alex referenced have multiple reports between them and the owner. Whether that's lazy reporting or Tony Clark trying to create a story, I'm not sure, but either way it flopped.

 

Meh, I don't trust the owners, but this isn't collusion.

 

Agreed. 

 

Do I think there is collusion? Almost certainly, but this is just words taken out of context. 

 

Not that I blame the MLBPA too much, they're going to need all the help they can get to get back even an inch from the owners. I'm just not a fan of augmenting villainy. There are enough bad deeds to pin on the owners, we don't need to try to create new ones.

Tony Clark knows full well that the GM's talk with other GM's. Tony Clark is not shocked by anything said by Alex Anthopoulos. 

 

Tony Clark has been head of the MLBPA for 6 years, he is not an idiot.

 

A person in that position isn't going to make off the cuff comments. Anything released to the public from the head of the MLBPA is going to be crafted to say exactly what they want to say. 

 

So, we got a Kris Bryant grievance filed and now an issued statement hinting at collusion. 

 

Meanwhile behind the scenes, Bruce Meyer was hired in August of 2018 for a newly crated role of "Senior Director of Collective Bargaining". Taking over the lead role in the negotiations and Rick Shapiro who was a key lawyer in the past two CBA's was fired in July. 

 

The MLBPA is not only changing actors but also attempting to change the script by getting the words collusion and manipulation out there. 

 

Oh Yeah... It's going to be a battle. This is just part of it. 

I’d be curious to know what people think.

 

If there’s a work stoppage, does the game rebound when it starts up again, like last time?

 

I’d be curious to know what people think.

If there’s a work stoppage, does the game rebound when it starts up again, like last time?

I know people who never came back after that one. And I think baseball is in a more precarious position this time around. As someone who has been through a work stoppage after failing to come to an agreement ... no one wins, ever. And what you lose does long-term damage. In my situation, those who were in charge are about to lose their jobs.

 

I’d be curious to know what people think.

If there’s a work stoppage, does the game rebound when it starts up again, like last time?

 

 

The numbers that baseball needs are already not watching the game. They won't care if there is a work stoppage. 

 

The work stoppage will make this problem more acute because the declining core will decline faster. 

 

A work stoppage may make the numbers bad enough to force the game into immediate change so oddly enough... It might be a good thing for the overall health of the game. Might is the key word.

 

Along the lines of hitting rock bottom is necessary for realizing that rehab is the only sensible course of action. Along the lines of, it is darkest before the dawn. 

I don't think it'll overly hurt the game too much. The game is insanely popular and has huge revenues. The owners need to share it with the players. 

 

Baseball's biggest problem is that it's becoming regionalized. Fans don't care as much about other teams/rivalries as they used to. That's a bigger problem. 

 

I’d be curious to know what people think.

If there’s a work stoppage, does the game rebound when it starts up again, like last time?

It didn not rebound for me.  I was primarily a hockey fan for about five years and then I finally caved

 

THe players better be careful.  If they kick up a fuss and there is a work stoppage the are going to screw themselves in the process.  I will wait for a new generation of players and kiss off baseball for a number of years if they do it

 

I know people who never came back after that one. And I think baseball is in a more precarious position this time around. As someone who has been through a work stoppage after failing to come to an agreement ... no one wins, ever. And what you lose does long-term damage. In my situation, those who were in charge are about to lose their jobs.

The players would be  terminally stupid if they think they could weather another work stoppage.