While there has not been much activity surrounding the Dodgers in recent days, an interesting development occurred this week with regards to MLB’s 2020 amateur draft—the powers that be are considering cancelling the event altogether.
Ronald Blum of the Associated Press was among the first to report the news on Wednesday.
Specifically, Blum stated that “Major League Baseball is considering skipping its amateur draft this year and putting off the next international signing period as a way to preserve cash while games are affected by the new coronavirus.”
Indeed, teams are in jeopardy of losing TONS of money regardless of how long the regular season turns out to be. While some clubs might have the financial means of signing an unspecified number of draft choices, other smaller market teams might not have those same resources.
As it stands, pundits are not offering any type of guesstimate as to when a regular season could even begin.
As far as the players themselves go, both high school and collegiate seasons around the country have been cancelled across the board weeks ago. Some college teams in the cooler regions of the country only played a handful of games. There are some high school clubs that did not compete at all.
Without a draft, many graduates at both levels might conceivably find themselves out of baseball for an undisclosed period time unless some type of free agency window is created. Even in this case, the number of signings could be limited.
In a recent Baseball America column, a prominent agent said he heard ideas of a combine taking place, similar to what occurs in the National Football League.
“I have heard of an NFL-type draft combine for the top 300 or however many players in June,” the agent said. “Just to get some type of look on guys… Do they push the draft back to August and turn the Cape into basically a month long or a six-week long kind of pre-draft tryout similar to the PDP League (for high schoolers)? Who knows? Everything is on the table.”
Blum wrote that talks between management and the players’ association are ongoing and include the issue of major league service time, which determines eligibility for free agency and salary arbitration in upcoming seasons. MLB has proposed crediting full service for 130 games or more and proportional service for a shorter season.
Blum also mentioned that “the union has taken the position that a full season of service might be credited even if no games are played.”
Just imagine how much the Mookie Betts deal could affect the Dodgers if the 2020 season turns out to be a wash.
The draft is tentatively scheduled to be held June 10-12 in Omaha.
Stay tuned for more details as they develop.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I would say that the elimination of the draft is very likely.
I would say that the elimination of the entire season is quite possible.
So many issues to straighten out between MLB and the players association. Then the need to start ST all over again, not so much for the position players but for the pitchers and at this point it seems as though we’re a long way from getting anyone back on the field, even for spring training.
If we thought we were excited for the season to start this year, think of how we’ll feel after no baseball for almost a year and a half come the end of March 2021.
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In that case, Friedman better be on the phone to Betts’ agent discussing an extension right now. 🙂 Imagine if Betts never even plays a single, regular season game for the Dodgers.
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I think there will be some sort of season. The financial hit of a total loss of games is something not many teams can handle. As for training, most players are in pretty good shape, and no doubt have ways of keeping sharp. They would need maybe 2 weeks to ramp up at most. Just hope for the best. And I also think that there should be some sort of negotiation going on with the MLBPA because Betts only needs 102 days service time to quality for free agency, and the Dodgers should get some sort of compensation if Betts does not get to play in a game. After all, none of this is their or the leagues fault.
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i hope they get some sort of season in, even if it’s very short. The country will need some good things to happen after this is over, and baseball has the kind of magic to make us feel like things are normall again, I’m sure we’re going to need some normalcy, coming out of this tragedy.
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I agree Keith. We need some sort of reason to just have fun again. All I have seen the last couple of weeks is doom and gloom, and frankly, it is sickening. So, watch a good comedy. I watch an episode of Laugh-In every day. Sock it to me! Hard to cry when you are laughing. Also since MLB.TV is allowing us to watch their archived games from 18 and 19, I went back and watched some of my favorite moments from last year. The 8 homer outburst on opening day. Smith’s first walk off against the Phils, a game I was at by the way. And the 3 consecutive walk of wins against the Rockies. All on homers by the kids, Verdugo, Beaty, and Smith.
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Frankly I don’t expect to see any baseball played. At the rate this thing is going it will still be expanding in June. Even when it ebbs, there will be aftershock outbreaks for quite some time. I suppose it’s possible some games could be scheduled and televised, that might create enough revenue to justify it. But they won’t be filling up stadiums for many months.
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I am a little more optimistic. I want to believe the US has a better handle on this than most. But all we can do is wait and see.
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I tend to agree Scoop. I’m not expecting a 2020 season.
Let’s hope we’re both wrong.
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“I want to believe the US has a better handle on this than most”.
I WANT to believe that too, but the numbers say the exact opposite Bear. Maybe it gets better any day, but we’ve lagged way behind so far.
I recently read an article in the Atlantic that offered a few things I found sound. First was a rule of thumb: judge politicians by how much and how clearly they defer to people who give the sum of two and two as four. What you want is accurate information, not politicized information. What have we been getting? Secondly, our systems , both political and public health, just cannot be trusted. We could argue the reasons why (for profit, not for the welfare of the people) but the facts don’t change. Thirdly, you’re likely to get the coronavirus. I would refer you to the article for support of the reasons why, they are long and quite scholarly but for brevity sake I’ll just say here most experts around the world say this COVID-19 “will ultimately not be containable.” Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch predicts 40-70% of people around the world will be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Obviously most will survive.
All I’ve ever asked for was the truth. But we’ve been lied to so often of late it sometimes feels like we wouldn’t recognize truth if it sat down naked in our own living rooms and introduced itself to us. Two and two is four? It used to be. I’m not sure anymore.
So…. we wait. It’s going to be a long summer. And the truth will eventually reveal itself. Hope I’m around when it does.
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Personally, I do not think it is any worse than the last flu outbreak that was so devastating. 15,000 deaths world wide in this amount of time is minuscule compared to some flu outbreaks. Barely 100 dead here. The self isolation is working. We have had 1 death here in Colorado from the virus. And as the weather warms this thing will get knocked down. It does not do well in heat. Most of the cases are confined to 3 states. Cali, NY and Washington.
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Which flu outbreak are you referring to Bear? The Spanish flu in 1918 or a regular flu outbreak that happened recently? If we don’t have a perfected vaccine or cure by fall it will probably start up all over again. Just like a rookie who starts out hitting .400 in his first month, you can’t judge a season until it’s over. I think the same holds true for this pandemic. We won’t know how bad it was until it’s gone.
There now seems to be a war brewing inside of Trump’s White House. His economic advisors think the lockdown is much too severe and will kill the economy. His medical advisors think that if we let people go back to work soon, this will cause huge problems. Given a choice between science and commerce which way do you think Trump will go? No need to answer, that was a rhetorical question.
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Take your choice. 1957, Asian flu killed 1.1 million people world wide. Over 116,000 in the US. 1968, Hong Kong flu, killed 1 million people world wide, and 100,000 in the US. and lasted almost 2 years. And finally the Swine Flu in 2009. Well over 150,000 people died, most of them young. People over 60 had a natural immunity for the most part which is unusual for flu. Covid-19 is different in that it has flu like symptoms. But, considering how relatively few have died compared to how many have been affected, and the fact that this particular virus is does not do well in heat, the warm weather is going to kill a lot of the virus.
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I am pretty sure the medical people are working 24/7 to get a vaccine out there.
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Looks like I had a post disappear when I attempted to edit it. Just as well. If you can’t say something nice, just hit delete.
I’m finding the United States’ woefully ignorant response to this outbreak disheartening. Trump should just be yanked from the stage and closeted somewhere. People need to go home and stay home for at least 4 weeks then watch what happens to the numbers. As of last night only 39% of the population are under a a stay at home order. That’s just not good enough.
Good luck everyone.
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I am self quarantined, and not doing bad. Some morons just do not listen. I think the entire government, not just Trump, should shut the hell up and just do their damn jobs. Which they have not been doing at all.
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I think at times like this is exactly when you should be hearing from the government. The problem is that you should be hearing the same thing coming from everyone who opens his mouth and that isn’t happening. Whether you’re a big government or hardly any government guy, this is when government is necessary. Problem is our government is acting like a three-ring circus.
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Cuomo is the only guy making any sense.
You are right Jefe. Part of our problem is the government is the only organization with the capacity to get done what needs to get done and the leaders in place are a collection of the most incompetent and disorganized individuals I’ve ever seen at work there.
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Bear While you are right about the severity of this flue compared to recent out breaks you are unfortunately wrong about this virus not doing well in the heat or even warm weather. Iran for example has the 5th most cases and 4th most deaths. Check out other middle east countries. Also see California. In fact you may be better in colder weather climates. This is the most scary part of this virus if it doesnt die out as the spring approaches. Be safe everyone . And careful. I suspect we should listen to the health profes§signals and not the politicians
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According to the reports I have read, it does not do well above 80 degrees. not sure what the temps are in Iran right now, but Cali has not come close to having 80 degree weather.
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