MLB and the MLBPA now are having "regular conversations to try to decide how to regulate in-game tech use," and they are "expected to reach an agreement before Opening Day that will -- among other items -- determine if hitters and pitchers can watch their at-bats and pitches from earlier in the game, as has been allowed until now," according to Joel Sherman of the N.Y. POST. The two sides are at the "most adversarial" since the '94-95 labor strife led to the cancellation of a World Series. But the "mere fact sides have had a good dialogue over the past year about in-game/on-field matters is encouraging." MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark said, "The lines of communication being open is indeed a positive." Sherman noted MLB and the union "appear more quickly unified on trying to stem the potential for cheating that tech, in particular, has created." The fact that communication has been "particularly productive in the aftermath" of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's punishment of the Astros "offers some hope of cooling the overheated rhetoric and rancor within the labor issues" (N.Y. POST, 3/8).
JUST PLAY BALL: Angels manager Joe Maddon on Saturday said that he "plans to meet with his pitchers and urge them to avoid vigilante justice in a 2020 season where seven of their first 10 games are against the Astros." Maddon: "I'm going to have to talk with the boys about not doing anything. I think it's more appropriate to play the game. This has been bandied about enough ... Let's be civil about this and move on" (USA TODAY, 3/8).
