Some items from around the game…
- Cardinals reliever Andrew Miller spoke to Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about several topics, including the recent agreement between the league and players’ union about the 2020 season, how Miller is handling the shutdown, and the rather mysterious arm problem that sidelined Miller earlier this month. “There are some explanations for some of what I’m going through and I have a lot of appreciation for the amount of time [Cardinals head athletic trainer] Adam Olsen and Dr. [Brian] Mahaffey have put in helping me to look for some answers,” Miller said. Though there still isn’t an actual diagnosis of Miller’s issue, “I think I have answers that make a lot of sense and they’re not the type of thing that brings any sort of concern to my health and my livelihood.” The southpaw is currently throwing, albeit under “not…ideal” circumstances working out at his home rather than in a normal training environment.
- Michael Wacha turned to some offseason video analysis with his father to help solve mechanical problems from the 2019 season, which put him in a good place heading into his first Spring Training with the Mets, Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News writes. By the time Wacha met with pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and assistant pitching coach Jeremy Accardo in camp, “they said my mechanical changes that I made over the offseason were exactly what they were going to be telling me,” Wacha said. “Exactly the same type of information or helpful tips that they were trying to get me into, I already made them on my own.” The early returns in Grapefruit League action were somewhat promising, as Wacha posted a 1.17 ERA over 7 2/3 innings, albeit with four walks against only five strikeouts. However, Wacha also didn’t allow any home runs, which was a positive sign after an ugly 1.8 HR/9 helped push his ERA to 4.76 over 126 2/3 innings with the Cardinals last season. Wacha signed a one-year, $3MM with the Mets in the offseason and now looks to be a member of their starting five, in the wake of Noah Syndergaard’s season-ending Tommy John surgery.
- With league revenues bound to take a massive hit due to the shutdown, could expansion be an ideal way to inject some new money into the sport? Fangraphs’ Craig Edwards explores the question, noting that adding two new teams worth $750MM each (which is perhaps a conservative estimate for the price tag of a new club) in franchise fees would give each current team an extra $50MM in revenue. Commissioner Rob Manfred has often said that the league would only consider increasing its membership after all of the current 30 teams (namely the A’s and Rays) had some type of plans in place for a new ballpark, and Edwards observes that the league hasn’t had any real financial incentive to expand in recent years. Of course, the pandemic could now change that stance entirely, though Edwards also points out that the worldwide financial uncertainty caused by the ongoing crisis could lead to fewer potential owners willing meet the price for an expansion team, and cash-strapped cities will now have even less of a reason to spend resources on building a new stadium for a new team.
i dont see why adding new teams makes the other ones worth more, but okay.
New expansion teams pay a franchise fee to even get in the league. That money is split between all the existing teams.
Then you didn’t pay attention to what was IN the article.
Just what Major League Baseball needs more teams fielding players that belong in AAA. This greed in MLB is getting ridiculous. If anything they need to get rid of a couple teams with little to no fan base. Make it more competitive. I know I don’t like watching a team with a $200 million payroll of stars beat up on a $70 million payroll team of guys that 80% of should be in AAA.
….. then don’t watch genius.
Florida Man,
You might want to check your grammar prior to questioning someone’s intelligence, genius. Showing of that fine Florida public education…
Dude no one cares that you graduated the 8th grade. People that correct people’s grammar on a forum really need to get of their high horse and stfu.
Florida Man!
Then stop watching.
His point is he doesnt want to watch HIS own team play that slop and I agree-
They need to think about contraction before expansion
Tampa continually has smaller payrolls and remain competitive. Other teams have had very large payrolls and have stunk. Yeah, money would go a long way in helping those small market clubs, but they already get revenue sharing and additional competitive picks in the draft.
I would very much like for the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise to be sold to a new owner in a new city —> Then, for Pittsburgh to get a new expansion team.
With a new owner, like a Mark Cuban or like the group Mario Lemieux had together at one time (who was reported years ago to have made an offer to buy the Pirates but was turned down by Bob Nutting).
Then the long time Pittsburgh fans could finally one day dream of cheering on a respectable contending team of major leaguers.
But, I know it’s just a dream.
.
Long time Pittsburgh fans would never want the Bucs to move. Sold yes, but never move. That’s ridiculous
What’s wrong with just getting new ownership?
Same question I had.
Yeah, then up with an owner like Jeter who’s ten times worse!
Pirates had good teams until 2 years ago. It’s a shame that the owners wouldn’t renew contracts and get the few extra players needed to win a championship,
The shame is the team was winning and the fans still didn’t come out.
Probably because the fans remained skeptical of ownership and knew this was only a plan to draw them back into 20 more years of futility.
The season the Pirates made the playoffs for the third straight year, they finished 15th in the league in attendance.
Fans didn’t come out when there was a winner.
This is not true
The other owners would vote down Cuban. He’s interested in pushing envelopes, instead of waiting back and cashing checks.
Asking cities to build new stadiums in these days is a slap to the face. As is, stadiums need to be converted to hospitals. Left unchecked this virus will kill 10 million Americans. It could kill 100 million world wide.
It’s a slap in the face at the best of times.
If left unchecked it won’t kill 10 million Americans.
500,000 at best but 10 million is a stretch.
Wouldnt even kill 100 mill worldwide.
An institute in Rome combed through 18% of Italy deaths (who’s been hit hardest). So far 99% of that 18% had a pre existing condition such as high blood pressure or diabetes. Most were elderly 50+.
Kids, elderly, health conditions are most at risk per world health organization.
All American Saturated Fat Sticks said it won’t kill that many! We should all listen as he slowly kills himself with Sausages and Milwaukee’s Best! A true expert on the subject!
One third of the deaths are people under 40. Many with no pre-existing conditions.
Bruce – “One third of the deaths are people under 40. Many with no pre-existing conditions.”
Where did you get that stat? And define “many”.
Bruce? Source?
This is the problem – people spreading false narratives and causing undue panic. Learn the facts.
The US has about 34MM diabetics and their risk rate is high, especially if they are also 60 or older, which many are. A large number of them could get the virus if they are not practicing social distancing, and in that case a large number (7% death rate; closer to 10% or more if 60 or older) could die.
While I agree the death rate could get close to a million, the 10% death rate is highly inaccurate. At least 10X Americans have the Corona virus than what is being reported, a lot of whom show no symptoms. Just look at Sean Payton. Got tested as part of team testing with nothing but a slight cough. My wife and I most likely have it too (persistent cough for two weeks) but we can’t even get tested because we don’t have a fever or shortness of breath. We are being responsible and self quarantining, but many many more people have contracted this virus than what is being reported.
Dorothy Mantooth
According to the largest study, the 10% death rate for old diabetics is accurate.
the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/219144/dia…
This shows a 7.3% death rate for diabetics. People older than 60% have a death rate that starts at 2% and climbs up to well over three by 70 and up and up from there.
Combine diabetic and old age and you quickly reach 10%.
Not highly inaccurate at all.
As for your other points, we have tested almost no one and lots more cases exist than we have accounted for. Tons. We climbed 25,000 cases just yesterday. An increase from 105K in 131K in one day. Deaths increased by 35% overnight. Now the death goes up and down from 6% to 35% depending on the day.
You guys do realize that if you take the total number of cases in the US and divide that number by how many people have died, you get 1%. Word-wide it’s 4%. But that’s only because we have conducted far more testing. So…take it easy folks. To date we have LESS THAN 200,000 cases. 1% resulting in death. This is on par with the flu. So why don’t we always practice “social distancing” and all these other safety measures? Because the media has scared the crap out of you
The climate activists would be thrilled!
Why is that?
“and cash-strapped cities will now have even less of a reason to spend resources on building a new stadium” …. cities should never have been paying for the stadiums to begin with
A team could do a lot worse than Wacha as their #5.
I agree, but I wouldn’t base that off of 7 2/3 spring training innings where minor leaguers only get to see him once.
Yeah I’d base it off the fact that he has a 3.91 era in a sample size of 6 years
More effective than Noah the last five years.
Wacha could be a very good #5 for them.
I don’t get why there’s such an emphasis on strikeouts. If people are getting out who cares if it’s a pop up ground out or strike out. Only 5 strikeouts in 7 innings who cares he was getting guys out that’s what matters
Totally agree. Grounding into double plays is much worse, and weak contact isn’t much better. The chances of major league defenders making errors is very minimal. It would be interesting to see if swinging harder and thus more strikeouts but less contact scores more runs or less. It would be hard to isolate that factor, but worthwhile.
A couple years back, when the Brewers led the league in strikeouts, I looked through the game logs. Over 85% of the strikeouts came with two outs and/or nobody on base, when it doesn’t really matter how an out was made.
Saying a strikeout is worse than making an out another way is like saying a single to left is worse than a single to right. Occasionally yes. But the vast majority of the time it doesn’t matter.
Wacha and Porcello are pitch to contact types who rely on great defense behind them. Cards and Red Sox provided that and they still struggled. Going to the worst efficient defense in the bigs isn’t going to do them any favors. Citi Field may help their home run problems, but like Matz road games will probably eat them up. Even Stroman at his best a few years ago, had a great defense helping his pitch to contact tendencies. Teams with poor defenses rarely ever make the playoffs. Coincidence? Not likely.
With 2020 a likely no-go, the Mets rotation may look entirely different next year. Wacha, Porcello and potentially more could all be gone anyway.
We need a team in Tijuana, Mexico
I think the only Mexican city that could have any chance at an expansion team is Monterrey. Mexico City looks like a better option at first glance (just because of its sheer size), but the elevation is so high (2000+ ft. higher than Denver) that it would completely skew the physics of the ball and hitters’/pitchers’ stats. In addition, Monterrey is way closer to other MLB markets (ie. Houston, Dallas) than Mexico City. I don’t think Tijuana could work simply because of its proximity to the three SoCal teams, especially San Diego.
I’m certain you have just been bamboozled. That was not a serious ask!
If the franchise fee is 750M and there are 30 teams wouldn’t that be 25M for each team.
The example was 750M each expansion team, not 750 total.
Not expansion, but make all 30 teams play “home” games in an out-of-state non-MLB city would be a great idea.
Yeah where are they gonna play them? The local high school baseball field?
This would be fun, and I enjoyed when hockey did it, but I don’t think it’s practical. Owners would lose game day revenue. Few non-MLB cities have stadium that are major league level, both in facilities and in seating capacity. You would seriously harm the game day employees who depend on earnings, and are already seriously harmed this year.
It would be cool to see an expansion team in Montreal and Las Vegas, although there are definitely other places that might work well.
I would like Montreal and Monterrey, Mexico.
An American League team in New Orleans and a National League team in Foxboro, Massachusetts, right next to Gillette Stadium. New England can support two teams and the Red Sox could use a little competition for the fan dollar.
No way that ever happens. First, the Red Sox have rights to the area. Second, there isn’t enough money or fan base to sustain a second team without harming the Red Sox. Third, Foxborough is the middle of nowhere. It works for a destination sport like football, but for baseball it would be so inconvenient for everyone at Rush Hour that no one would want to go.
Move the Rays to Orlando
Or Montreal.
Explain why Montreal deserves a franchise.
Like to see a team in Vegas, Montreal or North/South Carolina.
Montreal Expos baseball fans were robbed by the worst owner in sports franchise history. Loria is a disgrace who should be banned for life. Montreal has a huge fan base that can sustain MLB baseball with the right ownership.
Except they didn’t when they had a million chances, which you blame entirely on one man. Loria did not physically prevent people from going to games.
If Montreal really did like baseball (and they dont, theyre French) they would have had more than 3000 a game and had good ratings no matter the results on the field.
They need to first prove they can sustain, which is why my idea above works best here, let them sell out 3-6 games a year to prove it, then we can talk about moving a team back there.
If you speak french you can’t like baseball? Noted. The Jays play a game or two in Montreal at the end of every spring training. They pack the place. 40 thousand plus for a mere exhibition game. They have passionate fans that did and will support a team.
Ownership ( Jeff Loria) did kill the Expos. They had a great team until the ‘94 strike. Then Loria just let everybody go for nothing when they came due. Walker, Pedro, Vladdy, many more. They had entire payrolls in the 15 million range. They fielded triple A rosters. The fans were simply not going to use their entertainment dollar to watch that nonsense. As would happen in any city.
They pack Montreal with travelers from Toronto. Nobody wants to go to a crappy, broken stadium outside of town. Montreal cannot support a major league baseball team the way things currently stand. Not a chance. The little number of fans they have do have passion. Going to Montreal over many better cities in the US with the ailing Canadian dollar would be insane.
History lesson time is needed it appears. When the Expos played in Jarry Park, it was sold out EVERY game. Then they build Olympic Park and the stadium was sold out every home game until 1994 when the Expos were running away with the NL east with a boatload of superstars. What happened, MLB cancelled the season and destroyed Montreal’s chance for a world series, since they were the top team in the majors that year. After the league cost them a championship, the fans were angry, which was justified and attendance suffered. Local businessmen have offered to build a brand new domed stadium in Montreal, no public or government funds and put a team back in Montreal that would be a top attendance team every year again. When people complain about attendance, research the reason for it, and reality and fiction are totally different. If Boston, LA, Yankees were flying and had a world series within sight and then the League pulled the plug on their season, I can almost guarantee they wouldn’t be packing out the stadiums either through anger at the league. That happened to Montreal and they weren’t happy.
Ashley – Stop lying. The Expos were NOT selling out home games up until 1994. From 1983 onward they were below the average MLB attendance and continued to do so until 2004. For them to sell out Olympic Stadium they would have had over 4-million people since the capacity was 56,000 until 1992.
Montreal never drew 2.5-million. Stop BS’ing people on this site with false arguments.
Definitely not every home game until 1994. I went to a game with family there back in 1990 – my dad grabbed a foul ball that was hit by Gary Carter while he was with the Giants – and Olympic Stadium was practically empty. A cousin told me if the Canadiens played there, it would’ve been sold out every night.
phenom – your cousin would have been correct. At the time you visited Montreal their hockey team were contenders and won the Cup in 1993. They could’ve sold that place out.
It’s as if the fans stopped going after 1982 when they couldn’t make it back to the playoffs after 1981. Not even Pete Rose could get the fans back in their seats. In 1994 they were 19th in attendance (in average), with 24,000 and change – barely more than half full. The only people who cared were Expos fans outside of Montreal who watched them on TV.
That example of people packing the stadium for 1 or 2 games means nothing. Thats like saying how they packed the stadium for the last game the expos ever played in Montreal. If they cared so damn much, why didn’t they show up WHEN THEY HAD A TEAM. If even half of the # of people that went to the exhibition games showed up back then, there would still be a team there.
Where do you get the #’s to argue that they sold out every game at Jarry Park. That’s a flat out lie. The actual attendance #’s are available and they came nowhere close to selling out games.
exposnation.com/en/montreal-expos-attendance-per-y…
FYI seating capacity in 1969 was 28k and they averaged less than 15k. Nowhere near “selling out every game” I guess it’s easier to make up lies to fit your narrative than to take 5 minutes to support it.
Wow disgusting and racist to suggest that French people don’t like baseball. A SJW like yourself really needs to do better!
Wacha? It doesn’t matta. Though with the Mets losing Syndergaard, anything that randomizes outcomes–like the shorter season we’re headed for–helps the team.
There’s very little chance to contend in a 162 game season w/o thor. The Mets not only needed him healthy, but performing near the upper bound of his projection. What’s the Vegas over under on total games per team–120?
The Mets now have one great, one good, and three below average starting pitchers–and behind them absolutely nothing. Even if they’re lucky enough to get something like 140 starts from their current front 5, they’ll need 2/3 of a season from guys like Walker Lockett, guys with ERAs around 6, 7, and 8. This is going to be ugly for the Mets.
Below average? All 3 of those guys would be in every single rotation in the league. What number 5 is better than wacha? A 3.91 era in 6 years if that’s below average than someone like Tanaka or Robby Ray is also below average
The Mets could still compete. They have a top 10 lineup and still have decent pitching. You’re being ridiculous. I’m not saying they will make the playoffs. But to say they have very little chance is ridiculous.
If Montreal wants a team, that team had damn well better finance its own stadium without ripping off taxpayers.
Every team needs to follow the Giants model of self-financing. Anything else is just more theft by the corporate state.
Amen!
I always though New Orleans would be a nice location for a MLB team. Charlotte, North Carolina would also seem like a good place but worry about being smacked in the middle of all the teams north of Charlotte and south of Charlotte like the Braves. I thought New Orleans would be a good fit because there is a separation to the East and West of New Orleans. Baseball is played all year around in that area. Just like Las Vegas, I think New Orleans would be a hidden treasure. Who wouldn’t want to spend their summer night listening to some good music and having great food, while walking to the ballpark?
New Orleans just lost their AAA team to Wichita, KS. I doubt that they would support a team.
Les
Les Expos are a “must” and Nashville from an economics standpoint make the most sense.
Support is there for both!
I live in Nashville and not sure another pro sports team would have enough support.
I don’t know It is the fastest growing metro in the US. With the one of the most passionate canvases in hockey with the Predators as a non-traditional market, you’d think they’d be able to support a baseball team. Plus they average just under 9000 a game for AAA baseball. I’m not sure what that would lead to in MLB attendance but I’d guess it would at least triple, if not more.
That should be fanbases
Montreal is ready to go just based on havibg a facility in place now until something else can be constructed. also Vancouver with BC Place can follow the same path as could San Antonio with the Alomodone but both cities will be challenged based on proximity to other clubs territories.
Hell, even Omaha with their growing economy based on several Fortune 500 companies based there, passion for the game, & MLB ready stadium with TD Ameritrade just opening not long ago plus being expandable to nearly 40k seats not to mention there needs to be at least another team in the Interior West/Great Plains from my perspective.
There’s more than enough talent, plus there’s cities with stadiums ready to go, & small market teams work given the right ownership & there’s plenty of examples in the NHL, NBA, & MLS to quantify this.
I don’t like the Omaha area but they have the population to fill a stadium for sure. There’s already tons of Royals fans in Nebraska that make the occasional drive to KC for a game. Of course the bandwagon fans were coming out in droves the couple years the went to the World Series. Never seen people wearing so many Royals hats around here…
Montreal can have a minor league team; The fans might be able to fill up that park. Maybe.
Montreal should be on the permanently banned list until a few things happen:
– New stadium downtown with public transit access
– New stadium funded by the private sector
– Better local and provincial leadership (ie. a fiscally responsible leader)
Enough with the Montreal needs a team narrative. The stadium is falling apart, the economy is bad in the province and they did not care that much for the baseball team in their last 20 years of existence. That city knows how to turn their back on a professional franchise, and they did absolutely nothing once threatened with contraction. Good party city, bad baseball town.
We need an MLB team, preferably AL, in San Antonio.
No way should the AL get another Texas team. NL fans in Texas deserve a chance to watch real baseball played.
Those darn boys in Texas deserve to watch their pitcher strike out and fail to execute bunts every other AB because HiFlew says so!
Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
Ok, so I’m selfish. I’m in an AL only league.
The NL is gonna have a DH in probably less than three years. It’s just the way the reports have been looking.
A second team in Boston
San Antonio
Charlotte
Las Vegas
Nashville
Omaha
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Oklahoma City
Louisville
All should be ahead of Montreal for another expansion baseball franchise.
Louisville and Omaha aren’t quite big enough to handle a MLB team. Oklahoma City barely supports their NBA team. Boston isn’t big enough to handle another sports team. Chicago barely holds 2 teams and they are in similar market with Boston and roughly mirror in size and population. Jacksonville should be a no as well because Marlins and Rays come to mind as teams in Florida barely having fans. Nashville and San Antonio are interesting options. Nashville is pretty tricky market to sell a product. NHLs Nashville Predators took several years to get fans into the seats. It can be done in Nashville if MLB is put on salary cap.
Only one I feel comfortable with and would be legit is Las Vegas. It’s a small town, but lots of revenue. It’s just a bit of a travel for fans who don’t live in Las Vegas (since it’s in the middle of nowhere). Watching Raiders moving to LV is quite interesting and think they can be successful with NFL being a salary cap league. There will be fans, but enough to sell out a stadium? That is the biggest question
Are you sure Las Vegas is in the middle? Nowhere is a pretty big place….. 🙂
Nowhere is so big that anywhere in it is in the middle. 😉
Boston nation would support a 2nd team. No question. Nonetheless, the point was for baseball fans to take a good look at what not to do; put another franchise in Montreal.
Anyone who thinks John Henry/Tom Werner (two of the real de facto MLB commissioners) would allow another team in New England is really dreaming. Sure it would work; no doubt. So would a third NY team. But neither is happenin’.
The virus is going to kill the small/mid market teams, especially if the whole season gets scrubbed (likely, IMHO). They’ll still have SOME costs which won’t be offset by any Revenue Sharing (since there won’t be any revenue to share). Teams that have been operating close to their payroll capabilities (Cleveland, Milwaukee) are really going to hurt. Others (Pittsburgh, Tampa) that have been pocketing their welfare money can take the hit.
Cleveland and Milwaukee’s 85 million dollar should be A-okay Bobberino!
Bob – The point was they should explore THAT idea before ever considering Montreal.
I really want an expansion. There are plenty of cities that could use a baseball team.
Charlotte
New Orleans
Montreal
Vancouver
Portland
Albuquerque
Salt Lake City
Buffalo
Las Vegas
Nashville
Memphis
San Antonio
Tucson
Sacramento
Fresno
Indianapolis
Oklahoma City
Columbus
So many opportunities
Buffalo barely supports its AAA team. Bad choice
Keep in mind minor league baseball isn’t as enjoyable to watch for some people.
I like minor league ball but it simply does not have a fraction of the draw of a ML team.
Buffalo was 5th in IL attendance in average fans. They were just under 8,000. In 2018 they averaged 8.250. Last two years they’ve had really bad April weather.
Not sure where you get your info Shannon but being in the upper third in attendance in the International League says Buffalo is supporting AAA baseball just fine.
I frequently go to the Bisons games. Most of their attendance comes from schools or organizations. Take them out of the equation, they don’t have the necessary sport to carry a MLB team. Toronto isn’t too far away either and doesn’t help Buffalo. It’s really not that great of a place to establish MLB team.
Manfred wants all 30 teams to have their stadium problems fixed before expansion, but I’m sure he expects that money to come from the taxpayer. Hard to see that happening with the backdrop of the Coronavirus. State and city budgets are going to be under enormous stress.
Just watched this meeting of healthcare experts on the topic of covid-19 healthcare from 3/27/2002. It’s a meetings of top officials from the local state university healthcare system (hospitals), which provides 65% of the care in the state, so it is very representative. I have access to this meeting because my wife is a medical researcher there. As I’ve said repeatedly, I go to experts.
This meeting demonstrates what hospital administrators are going through to deal with and plan for COVID-19 healthcare, with particular emphasis on masks, beds (acute care and ICUs), and doctors/staff. If you watch it, you will hear the level of seriousness and attention being given to covid care. You will see the chart that shows projections that we are in the foothills of a Matterhorn sized surge of cases/deaths ahead of us leading to a projected peak on May 12. The next week is considered a bellweather as to whether we will be forced to make that climb in cases/deaths or whether measures taken will help to reach an earlier plateau. You will see what the hospital system is planning to prepare for this onslaught, how they are converting specialized ICUs and Operating Rooms to Covid-19 Acute and ICU care, and including the realization that they may well be overwhelmed and have to make very difficult choices in care.
If you watch the meeting, you will also see that there is a projected return to normalcy around June 15, assuming social distancing is effectively undertaken by the vast majority of the populace (I would say more than it is today; that should come as we experience the surge, assuming we experience that surge, which should open everyone’s eyes). For those who are projecting a MLB season for 2020, this would be the ray of hope.
If you want to be an informed participant in this conversation, unlike some of the denier dopes we have around here, I highly recommend you take your place as a fly on the wall of this meeting. It will be well worth your time. Click on the link for the 3/27/2020 meeting.
riverbendmedia.com/uofu/COVID-19.html
As I have been saying, I get my information from the experts, not armchair internet wannabes practicing medicine without a license like thetruth.
Thanks for the info, Mo
You’re welcome. Hope it improves the discussion around here.
I would just like to point out that more die every year from gun violence or drunk drivers than will die from Covid.
You aren’t listening to the experts then. They are projecting the very real possibility of a much higher number than gun deaths, which was 40K in 2019. At the current rate of deaths we should pass that number by April 5 or so. Then the swine flu total of 18K and flu season total of 20K a few days thereafter. And, according to the expert projections of actual epidemiologists (such as those of Penn, the Ivy League school), we are at the early part of an enormous surge…
Thanks for making my point. We need more people listening to experts and not drawing wild conclusions off the cuff.
Sorry there’s a mistake there. The number we will pass by April 5 or so is 15K, the number of gun deaths minus suicides. Again, at the current rate of viral deaths, we should pass the 40K total gun death total, including suicides, by the middle of April. By that point many hospitals will be maxed out, but the caseload will be increasing dramatically. Experts are projecting that the caseload/death rate will increase radically as we climb a steep curve to a peak on May 12, then decline steeply to a place of relative normalcy by June 15. That’s the current projection of experts.
As for drunk driver deaths, approximately 56,000, Covid is currently on track to pass that number in the middle of April as well, a few days after it passes the gun death total of 40K.
As of 4pm on 3/29, there have been 2112 deaths from Covid. That’s from the CDC. To match those projections, over 50,000 will die in the next two weeks.
Maybe you should look at something other than the absolute worst case scenario.
Maybe you should tell the expert epidemiologists what to think. I can’t believe you with no training or experience in the area are questioning the experts. As of now there are 2,616 deaths, It’s a volatile situation the rate of increase varies from day to day. Between 6% and 35% increases from day to day over the past week.
Watch the video I posted. Those are the sober top officials of thte hospital system talking. Look at their chart. Depending on what happens this next we could hit a virtual wall of rapdily increasing deaths.. The experts. Not me. Not you.
We COULD. COULD. COULD. Not “going to”. COULD.
Again, worst case scenario.
So literally hundreds of thousands died of opiate overdoses during the Obama years, and nobody even reported it. Your explanation of WHY it was ignored probably rests on your political leanings.
LIKE HIV, the virus spreads through behavior. UNLIKE HIV, it’s not difficult to contract; you really had to go out of your way to contract AIDS; you can contract COVID by walking down the street; you can pass it onto somebody by simply visiting them, not sleeping with them.
There are a lot worse days ahead. ACT LIKE YOU HAVE IT.
Actually much less than 100,000 total. It didn’t really spike until 2016. It REALLY spiked in 2017, which is why the current administration was slammed with an imperative to deal with it. To his credit, I think he did respond. To your other point, Obama did not respond, although, again, it was not quite at the crisis levels it became under the current President (no fault of his, of course).
washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/fentanyl…
As for your point re: COVID, I agree.
Bob and Mo, please confine your political opinions to other sites. Thank you.
As a Pirates fan, I’m against anything that brings Bob Nutting additional revenue until he’s forced to use it on major league payroll, not some training facility in Zimbabwe.
Up yours, guys who comment on COVID. Go somewhere else and be genius-level experts there.
I posted information from actual healthcare experts. I wasn’t pretending to be an expert myself. See the difference? I was elevating the discourse to refute misinformation being spread around here. Get it straight. If you had actually read the comment you would know all that. While you’re at it, up yours.
Montreal and Vegas? Mabe Portland or San Antonio? Where would they go????
Nashville needs a team.
RE: Expansion …
I suspect we are at least half a decade from expansion, and more likely upwards of a decade. I can’t see expansion happening until the economy levels out after the ongoing crisis subsides.
Beyond that, MLB has very strict rules on territoriality, and it’s likely to be more involved after the Orioles/Nationals TV debacle. Anything close to another team is not happening – Chicago, New England, New York, Orlando, figure there is no shot. I suspect absent heavy payoff that anywhere in Texas is out.
Also, they aren’t moving into a small market. Tampa is too much of an issue already, and they are in the 12th largest TV market.
Oh, and New Orleans and Buffalo are smaller markets than Grand Rapids or Harrisburg. So … no.
Screw covid 19
And screw the purge
Wacha seemed like he was going to be a really special pitcher in 2013. Then injuries turned him into an ok pitcher. No hit the priates in the NLDS into the 8th and outpitched Clayton Kershaw to win NLCS MVP. Definitely a good asset when he’s right.