Manfred has spent plenty of time recently trying to diffuse complaints about the sport raised by the MLBPA GETTY IMAGES
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark during the All-Star break engaged in some "saber-rattling" with regard to CBA issues, and as expected, they "failed to see eye-to-eye on just about everything, but their respective viewpoints did provide some insight into where baseball is headed in the coming years," according to David Lennon of NEWSDAY. It is hard to "envision a work stoppage" when the current CBA expires after the '21 season, as both sides are "too far removed from those militant days and there's too much money to be had." Neither side has the "stomach for such things anymore" (NEWSDAY, 7/14). In Cleveland, Paul Hoynes wrote Clark "sounds frustrated," while Manfred "sounds exasperated." This "cannot be good for a game that has not had a work stoppage" since the '94-95 season. The MLBPA for years "ruled the bargaining table," but things have "swung the other way the last couple of negotiations" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 7/14).
GIVE ME THE JUICE: In Philadelphia, Bob Ford wrote as discussion around MLB's increase in home runs continues, the problem with playing with a "hot ball" is that it "only exacerbates the game's infatuation with the analytics-driven trend toward turning every swing into an uppercut and devising a sport in which striking out while trying for a home run is considered preferable to choking up and hitting an opposite-field single." What MLB's leaders are telling their customers is that they "don't believe enough in the product to trust it can hold the interest of the marketplace." MLB has to be "tarted up to the point where it is a pinball game in which each play is either the flashing-light bonus or 'tilt'" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/12). In Seattle, Larry Stone wrote the "last time we had such aberrational results" in MLB was "during the steroids era" that began in the '80s. Stone: "I'm not naive enough to say categorically that no players are juicing, but with stringent testing now in place, I don't think that's the core of the problem." Right now, there are "way too many balls flying out of play." Seeing a home run "used to be the biggest thrill in a baseball game," but now it has "become the biggest yawn" (SEATTLE TIMES, 7/14). In Colorado Springs, Paul Klee writes as the NBA "embraced the 3-pointer, the NFL the let-it-fly passing game, MLB has turned to runs, runs and more runs" (Colorado Springs GAZETTE, 7/15).
IN THE EARLY STAGES: The independent Atlantic League during its All-Star Game debuted the TrackMan automated ball-strike system, and in Boston, Peter Abraham wrote if the system does get to MLB, it "probably won't be for a few years and it's a good bet the umpires union will oppose it." But it will "happen eventually in some form" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/14). In Philadelphia, Bob Brookover wrote the technology "cannot be shaken off as some mad science experiment." But not surprisingly, MLB umpire Joe West is "opposed to the idea." West said, "If they're trying to replace us, the problem is that the way they judge the pitches are done with algorithms and not actual perfected positions of the ball and home plate." He added, "One of the things they've struggled with is it doesn't call all the pitches and you can't have a do-over because the machine missed it, especially when it's a 3-2 count and the runners are on the move." West: "We have the best officials in all of sport doing this. ... The ones that are being missed are borderline, a little too high or a half inch off the plate. I mean, come on. Can you get any better than that? To say we’re going to discard all the umpires, that's a big mistake and baseball knows that" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/13).
