Commissioner Rob Manfred has a conference call planned with MLB owners on Monday to discuss the coronavirus, but all indications point to the season opening as planned, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich. MLB has been in contact with the CDC, and each team has a specified point person in charge of their specific situations. Locker room protocol across the North American sports landscape has been adjusted to help protect players from COVID-19, and fan access to players has also been limited as a precaution (though some players have prepared pre-signed autographs for fans at spring games). In Italy, all sporting events are planned to move forward without fans present, and the NBA has begun preparations for such a circumstance as well. As of right now, MLB plans to have fans present as the regular season kicks off at the end of March, but a lot can obviously change over the next three weeks.
- In non-virus news, catchers around the league are giving umpires a better view to call balls and strikes by receiving from a knee instead of the traditional crouch, per Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. Christian Vazquez employed the stance for the Red Sox some last year, and the returns were good. He finished fifth in statcast’s Runs from Extra Strikes metric, trailing only Roberto Perez, Yasmani Grandal, Tyler Flowers and Austin Hedges, the latter of whom led the field by a substantial margin. Red Sox interim manager Ron Roenicke notes that receiving from a knee makes it tougher to block pitches, but the premium placed on stealing strikes makes the tradeoff worth it on the whole.
- In contract news, the Rays and Austin Meadows have begun preliminary discussions about a potential extension, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Both sides are open to the possibility, though talks have not yet reached the exchange-of-numbers stage. After a monster 2019, Meadows won co-MVP honors for the team and proved himself a key offensive cog moving forward. Meadows slashed .291/.364/.558 with 33 home runs and 89 RBIs (142 wRC+) in 2019. Locking up the soon-to-be 25-year-old would certainly be a boon for an organization ever-mindful of its financial limitations.
The receiving from a knee bit is interesting. I saw a game between the Indians and Twins last year that basically turned on the Twins catcher doing that and allowing a passed ball (which set up the go ahead run to score on a non-hit). Meanwhile Roberto Perez was able to block several very tough pitches in the dirt because of his setup.
I don’t doubt it helps framing, but the blocking trade off is *big* depending on the situation.
Also, would receiving from a knee even matter once MLB finally implements an automated strike zone.
No, any means to frame pitches will be moot once the automated strike zone goes live. Catchers won’t be able to make pitches out of the zone look like a strike any more.
That sounds like bad umpiring to me.
I envision an unintended consequence of an automated strike zone is the inherent laziness that’ll occur as the result of no longer needing to receive the ball in a specific way and will ultimately lead to the deterioration of the quality of play at the position.
Interesting, I assume the opposite. Catchers won’t have to worry about framing and holding pitches which should free up focus on game calling(for those that call the game), blocking, and positioning to make throws.
But what of the poor lines of code who will lose their meaning to exist after their runs from extra strikes metric is nullified when robot umps take over?
As a side note, is receiving from the knee less stressful on the joints, with the possibility of career longevity being improved?
The real measurement of success is how it helped Angel Hernandez, Laz Diaz, CB Bucknor and Joe West.
Half of me wants to see a World Series with those 4 guys.
Will they ever give the results of the inquiry about the RS situation?
Yes.
Sometime in 2021
Austin should leverage TB to trade Franco for brother Parker!
Maybe MLB figures if they do not announce the results everyone will forget about it just like Pilosi and her papers. LOL
You don’t get to post lols for yourself.
Many many people are laughing about this and if you do not think so crawl out from under your rock
To come see what your rock looks like? I think I’ve got a pretty good idea from fox news.
It doesn’t do any good to “look” at a rock. The whole point of the phrase is to look “under” the rock for a deeper meaning..Your reply is superficial and bland. Stop watching MSM.
Have you never texted? Most people I know, myself included, end texts with “lols” or “haha” all the time. It is syntax basically.
or ortiz and manny’s failed drug test, right? lol
papi is gonna tell us any day now what he failed over
Not the place for politics.
Another poster I responded to started it with a derogatory comment about Fox News. Too bad if you don’t like it. Suck it up buttercup.
That Archer trade set the Pirates organization back years. Absolutely foolish deal.
Atta boy!!! Hang on to that one!!!
Amazing deal for Pirates. Those players were half the player for Pirates and would of never turned into what they are in Tampa. That trade got them a new GM that might know what he is doing and can still trade Archer for some prospects.
@lovinmlb.. Terrible take my man. The pirates lost that trade in every sense of the word. Meadows was a monster last year and Glasnow looked like an ace. Plus Baz is still a wild card and could bury the pirates even further if he develops into a decent pitcher.
Hey, if you’re a bucs fan you gotta look at the positives.
I said are the time it was a horrible trade. Just because it was for Archer a non difference maker for them. But they already gave up on Glasnow as a starter and Meadows never shown to have more than 15 to 20 HR power. They can’t develop pitching unless they draft the 1st pitcher taken in the draft. So Baz wouldn’t amount to anything. Least now Huntington is gone. He was a good gm until his last 3 or 4 years. I don’t care what those guys do in Tampa because In Pittsburgh they weren’t going to happen. Even if Meadows hit 40 hrs a year in Pittsburgh Glasnow was already made a reliever and he would of been a good one for them but starting pitching wins games.
Jury is still out ont the trade, actually. How will Meadows hit when the ball is not juiced this year? He never hit for any power or much of an average till last season. He had a huge 1st 3rd of his season. Fell off the 2:nd 3rd and had a decent last 3rd, A lot of hitters who benefited last year could very well tail off this year. Glasgow sat out much of last year and no one knows if the rest healed his arm or if he will break down again this year. Baz is still an unknown with his control.
On the Pirates side, will Archer still suck or will he be healthy and have at least a decent or better season this year? We will all find out over the next few months.
There are 2 subsets of Pirates fans. Those who live in the real world, and those who have had so much Kool-Aid they can’t even remember past 2019.
“Meadows never hit for much power or average”. – Yeah, ok. Every step of the way he was expected to be an all-star. He hit .294/.357/.470 across 6 minor league seasons. Then he hit .292./.327/.468 and 5 homers in 49 games with the Pirates. The front office said he wasn’t quite ready yet, but due to injury, there he was…. with Pirates fans clamoring for him to stay in the majors. Yet somehow after one of the most lopsided trades in decades, Pirates fans seem to recall him being a bum? His 2019 will be better than anything Archer does in his Pirate career.
If Archer SOMEWHAT bounces back, the Pirates will be lucky to get a AA player in return. Meanwhile, they gave up three legit prospects for him. PS want to talk about falling off, how about Josh Bell in the second half? if you think .206 for Meadows in JUNE was bad, Josh Bell hit .232 with 10 homers after the all-star break. Meadows had 9 homers in September alone.
And there are yinzers who just see the negative in everything.
No one said that Meadows is a bum.
He had good minor league credentials.He has to prove them in MLB.
Everyone was comparing him with Mark Kotsay,not Babe Ruth.Hindsight is always 20-20.
What does Bell have anything to do with this conversation?
The trade was made right after a 13 game win streak and for once the Pirates were actually going to try to go for something in making the trade.NH had been constantly criticized for holding onto his young players.
Chances are good now that this will turn out to be a bad trade for the Pirates,but it takes several years to show.
Those of us who actually follow the Pirates closely remember the situation at the time and why the trade was made.I personally was skeptical but trusted NH as his trades over the last six years have almost always been very good ones.
Anyone can be a Monday morning quarterback.
Absolutely no one with a brain thinks the “jury is still out” we’re you on the OJ Simpson jury?
Absolutely no one with a brain makes such absolute statements.
We will see what happens but with the continual incline of major injuries especially to pitchers one still has to wait years for the final outcome of a major trade.
Anyone with a brain knows that.
I very much doubt that you could serve on any jury.
Even if all 3 guys get the corona virus it was still a bad trade.ARCHER SUCKS and is getting paid more then all 3 of them combined. His trade value is zero and not only would you not get a good prospect back you would have to package a good prospect with him for someone to take him!
MR suntan- You are another extremist.
This site is ripe with them.
You add nothing intelligent or knowledgeable to the conversation.
If Archer sucked he would not be a MLB pitcher.
You are also another Monday morning quarterback.
Let us judge this trade at the end of this year.
Meadows should not let the rays owners get a deal and make them pay
Maybe the players should have some sort of person/company to represent them to ensure that they receive fair market value for their services?
We wouldn’t want that cheap front office and their rare, yet crappy, fans to get over on Mr. Meadows!
Rays owners are cheap and should be forced to sell and relocate to Montreal.
Tons of cheap extension coming in for good players that should have never happened
You’re chock full of novel ideas, aren’t ya?
Stupid idea Lowtalker. Taking one franchise and moving them to a city that cared LESS than any place in recent history is not bright.
Here’s a better idea; relocate to Boston, give Boston a second MLB franchise to play in the NL.
As much as I despise all Boston teams, this is a way better idea than the ridiculous montweeall suggestions.
But, the only place that the team should move to is the city of Tampa.
StPete – I agree. I’m a Jays fan and I’ve been to about 10 or so Rays games in St Petes. They have a fanbase. The Trop is hard to get to during the week. The team needs to somehow get out of that lease and build a new stadium in Tampa, pronto. It would work.
People that have actually been there get it. The rest are the uninformed and haven’t a clue, and they like to parrot the Montreal move.
Yep. Meanwhile, Montreal’s stadium is a mess, funding for a new stadium would be a mess, deciding on a location for a new stadium will be a mess, current stadium location is not great, the Province and it’s fiscal irresponsibility has created a mess. Montreal is a disaster.
Montreal doesn’t even make the Top 5 landing spots for an expansion team. Hell, there might be better places for an MLB team in Canada that isn’t Montreal.
Meadows should happily take whatever he can get with his injury history.
Gozurman is right.Let’s not put Meadows in the HOF just yet.NH was going for it in 2018 and he overestimated Archer.He got hoodwinked in giving up Baz though.
That makes them look even dumber… Even if Archer was great (hasn’t been since 2015), they were *maybe* the third best team in the division, probably still fourth. That’s a tremendous waste of resources.
If Archer was a strong number two like NH thought then it was worth it as both MEadows and Glasgow had had frustrating careers to that point.
NH saw a chance and took it.
He was usually very conservative but in this case he was not and it backfired.
Wouldn’t receiving from the knee cause problems throwing teams out as well. Those runners will have a field day if the catchers can’t jump up and get a good, strong throw off.
Its only done with the bases empty.
Unless you’re Benito Santiago and can throw runners out while sitting on his butt…
Back in the day, Manny Sanguillen was the same way. Was really fun to watch him play. Always had a huge smile on his face. Even after he retired, he was at a lot of Pirate home games and if you ran into him, still had that huge,smile.
I saw him in Cooperstown maybe 25 years ago and he still had that smile.He was a very muscular and strong man.
Yes, both Manny Sanguillen and Tony Peña could throw with authority from one knee. Fun to watch as a kid who had not yet seen anyone else catch that way.
Benito Santiago, in his Padres and Marlins days would at times set up behind the plate with one knee crouched and the other leg completely stretched out. In that time he twice led the league in passed balls and once in CS%. Theoretically it probably has more to do with the individual player as Santiago had a cannon arm and three out 40+% would be base stealers several times.
In such a crouch Pitchers are not going to be able to bounce pitches in the dirt as the Catcher is not going to be able to block them.
Don’t forget Benito played for the
S F GIANTS !!
Fun to watch and root for, loved his tenacity.
He actually used to sit on his butt when he did that! I loved watching him behind the plate.
Posted above, Manny Sanguillen was the same player. Was really fun to watch.
Locking up Austin Meadowsis probably one of the best moves Rays could make. His ceiling is an MVP type player if he were to stay healthy all season.
If you are catching pitchers that have command you can sit on a milking stool and score well. 90% of guys that frame well are catching pitching staffs that have command. Look at Castro’s numbers when he left Houston for Minnesota. Did he become one of the best in the game to being in the bottom tear because he forgot how to catch when he moved North to Minnesota?
Exactly. The fans of pitch framing stats don’t like to hear it, but a much more logical explanation of the reality of calling balls and strikes is that umpires are fooled the same way batters are fooled, by movement, break, speed changes, location, and arm angle, not by how the catcher receives the pitch.
The article says that Austin Hedges leads the field in pitch framing by a pretty large margin. I guess that means that the Padres have the pitchers with the best command in mlb? It must have been all those rookies and starters returning from TJ surgery that did it for him. You know, the kinds of guys who are known for having exceptional command. I guess that means that Mejia, their other catcher, must have been catching an entirely different set of pitchers? Because he was one of the worst at pitch framing.
If this comment was directed to me, my point wasn’t entirely about command. Are the pitch framing stats controlled for the other variables I mentioned? If so, I’ve never found any evidence for it. As far as I can see the pitch framing stat is based entirely on the theory that catchers can fool umpires in ways that apparently can’t be explained, let alone learned, and not at all on the ways we know pitchers deceive hitters. So that theory seems to be flawed at least, if not downright implausible, if we simply factor in our knowledge of how the game of baseball is played.
Receiving from a knee makes it tougher to block pitches, but the premium placed on stealing strikes makes the tradeoff worth it on the whole.
Stealing strikes sounds like cheating. Yes it does.
What we will never know is whether the call would change of a different catcher received it. I still believe it is the umpire rather than the catcher that effects the strike call. Blocking pitches is much more valueable.
Tony Pena used to catch basically sitting down with one leg extended.
Tony Pena was the best Catcher the Red Sox had between the Carlton Fisk and Jason Varitek era’s.
Durable and strong defensively, fun to watch.
I’m surprised nobody has commented on the possibility that baseball games could be played in empty stadiums at some point this year. Then notice that this story says nothing about protocols to protect fans from contagion, only the players. Seem fans are on their own. MLB cares about us, they really do.
Would you like them to provide you a quarantine suit when you go through security?
Want to guarantee you’re protected? Don’t go to the game. You can make that decision yourself.
Sure, my point called for a totally idiotic response. We’re in the midst of a major public health emergency, and all you can think to say about it is screw you?
No. All I can think to say is that you should be able to make your own decisions instead of having someone make them for you. You’re taking a risk every time you go out in public. It’s on you to decide if it’s worth it or not. Be a big boy or girl.
We take our lives in our hands every single time we step outside our houses, truncated public health scare or not.
This thing has been around for a while. It didn’t just happen yesterday and it was being reported back in december. To get as far as it has Theoretically cases probably started in october or November.
Chances are most of us have probably already come into contact with it or even had it and didnt even know it since in normal healthy people the symptoms are essentially the flu.
It’s not the black plague like the media would like us to believe.
People are still showing up at NBA games, all of which are played indoors.
All you can think to do is try to explain your garbage opinion with more garbage, Funny how that never works. Efforts to minimize contagion are being taken all around the world, in case you hadn’t noticed. In Japan they just announced a delay in the start of the season by two weeks. MLB will be faced with a similar decision almost without a doubt. If they don’t take that drastic step they will have to make an effort to at least show they’ve working to reduce the spread of the virus in their venues. They can do this quite easily by sanitizing the seating areas between games and by developing protocols for food service, We can be sure they aren’t going to be taking your advice of sticking their fingers in their ears and singing. That would not only be ignorant, it would be bad business.
When this started is immaterial. What matters is it’s a worldwide pandemic now and is just starting to be understood in terms of its transmissibility and mortality rate. The impacts don’t need to be exaggerated to know that they can be serious for high-risk groups (which the government is now saying includes anyone over the age of sixty), and the point of knowing is so the rate of illness doesn’t overwhelm the healthcare system’s ability to treat the people who need treatment. Cavalier statements about how we take a risk every time we leave home won’t cut it, especially when we’re talking about tens of thousands of people crowded into a public space, and not foolishly comparing the risk to being hit by a meteor. Any reasonable measures that can be taken should be taken. Being any less proactive would be completely irresponsible and I’m reasonably sure MLB doesn’t want to be seen as being completely irresponsible. I mean, not again, so soon.
“We can be sure they aren’t going to be taking your advice of sticking their fingers in their ears and singing. That would not only be ignorant, it would be bad business.”
Where did I say they should completely ignore it? Quite frankly, I didn’t say anything about what the MLB should or shouldn’t do. All I said is that YOU should be an adult and shouldn’t rely on other people to make decisions for you. If you don’t think it’s worth the risk, don’t go. It really is that simple.
You clearly said it’s entirely up to us to decide if we want to risk going to games, which means you are missing the point. This isn’t entirely or even mostly about the risk of an individual attending a game catching the virus, it’s about creating another vector of spread that creates risk for many more people who didn’t make a choice to attend a game. This is what concerns public health officials and is why so many large public events have been canceled around the world and the starts of the seasons in Japan and now Korea are being delayed.
I suggested a couple of measures MLB might consider short of delaying the season or playing games in front of empty houses. How did you respond to those? Not at all. So pardon me if it seems like you are being not very sincere.
Nice to see MLB keeping fans away from players, but not caring about them all being clustered among each other, paying food and beer vendors with cash, having ticket takers touch the tickets of thousands of people, etc. Many friends have cancelled their ST plan over this policy, and I cancelled my flight today. Bottom line, if it’s not safe to sign an autograph, then it’s not safe to attend a baseball game, period. You can’t have it both ways.
Yup, exactly. Our first game of the season is opening week. At the very least I think I will be bringing my own food to the stadium.
Surprised MLBtraderumors no info on the roster cut