Los Angeles Bound: World Series

To get what they deserved has got to be truly special. The last time the Los Angeles Dodgers won a World Series was back in 1988. Two opportunities were lost in 2017 and 18 in controversial Series from alleged cheaters (though a lot will say Houston and Boston cheated). To get it all in 2020, it has to be a sigh of relief and hope to keep continuing hopefully a big dynasty.

A lot of what makes the Dodgers dangerous is through their bats. You can think Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, Corey Seager. It was able to survive the Tampa Bay Rays' unorthodox approach to pitching. Teams do rely a lot on their bullpens, but they were able to beat them up after guys like Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow were done for the night. Their own bullpen held their own and starters like Walker Buehler gave what the team needed. It creates a long lasting legacy for Clayton Kershaw.

Tampa is not a team in theory you think can go all the way. They do have some bats and their pitching is decent. You look at this year and their reliance on the bullpen to bail them out was going to bite them. The pulling of Snell in Game 6 this past Tuesday is going to be looked at as one of the biggest blunders in MLB postseason history. Up there with Russ Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, and Zack Greinke. It proved costly and is one of the examples of why analytics are hurting the sport. When you anger someone like Tim Kurkjian, you know your ripping is coming swiftly. We don't see pitcher duels anymore, regular and postseason. It's become such a rarity. Overall, I feel Tampa has damaged baseball in many ways and you have to blame both Joe Maddon and Kevin Cash.

On a more serious note, the way Justin Turner handled himself in that game is very careless. There was question on whether he tested positive for the virus and it turned out he did. The Dodgers were told to remove him and they didn't. He celebrated the series clinching win with them and people are outraged. Yes, it's something to celebrate winning a championship, but you endanger 10 thousand plus people in Texas. This isn't me defending the Dodgers, but I can see them giving a big fuck you to Rob Manfred and MLB. Basically, revenge for the way the season was and their handling of the Houston Astros cheating scandal.

Where 2021 brings us, I'm not sure. But I would hope MLB formulates a better plan or possibly a better commissioner. I don't think Manfred is suitable anymore to be run a league.

Tick Tock, Manfred!

If you look at these last ten months, baseball's image hasn't been good. I don't know what kind of job security Rob Manfred has, but I'd be a little nervous. With a few teams having games postponed because of positive tests, the MLB commissioner might look to shut down the league very soon if things don't get under control. This will be the continued downfall of a man who receives tons of criticism and rightfully so.

It goes back to last October with the Houston Astros. With the suspension of LA Dodger Joe Kelley recently, it opened up old wounds of the cheating scandal and a number of players in support of him. Many won't say it, but they probably are still angered that none of the players in Houston got in trouble. Immunity, essentially. There was no justice. It resulted in two managers getting fired, a GM fired (though his attitude will make any future baseball job impossible), a player's Hall of Fame credentials being questioned. Blame the damn players union.

The way Manfred has handled the coronavirus pandemic is also less than stellar. Not all of it is on him, though. You do have players who don't want to follow the rules, not protect themselves, and not think of the season or anything but themselves. But, it doesn't excuse the commissioner completely. The constant fighting with the players union, proposals. It will make both sides look bad, but when you combine all the issues going back to October, there should be concern.

I don't see the league giving up completely. They will try to get the 60 games in. Fingers crossed there's no other major positive tests like the Marlins situation. I know Florida has nice stuff, but with huge upticks there, you'd think Don Mattingly and Derek Jeter would get on the players for their actions. I don't think we've seen the last incident to occur. How many more we see will seal the fate of Manfred.

Doubling Down with Tattoos

It's a story that hasn't disappeared yet. And I don't think MLB anticipated that huge of a visceral reaction regarding the Houston Astros. With the cheating, there is no doubt the players and owner Jim Crane have no idea how to handle this. Public relations have it rough, but with this, I don't know how it can get very ugly.

When you get even players like Mike Trout to criticize the organization, that's very telling. A lot are frustrated at the lack of player punishment. The question of Jose Altuve having a buzzer is still being asked. And he makes excuses for why he didn't want his jersey ripped off. Now, it's because of a bad tattoo. That is high school level excuse. Carlos Correa showed frustration in a rude press conference when asked about Cody Bellinger, who ripped the Astros apart.

If these guys want to double down on saying they didn't cheat, then they can dig their own grave. Because the entire league and lots of fans are showing displeasure. If Rob Manfred won't punish and suspend players, then take the World Series away from them. There's all this legality that I don't know if he could or not. But he has to use his power to show that he means serious business.Both him and Tony Clark need to understand that. But the pressure is mounting on the MLB. It better act before next month because it's going to be war with the entire league against Houston. Expect some Astro players to get hurt if fans don't attempt to murder them or players get aiming at their heads or elbows or knees. The time for precedent is now and needs to shape the future of baseball.

We're Sorry (But We're Not Trying To)

The more things open up in detail, the more things get uglier for the Houston Astros. Even before the scandals were revealed, they were not a team that was well regarded despite the success since 2014. Ways in handling the media and the sport, it's become more frustrating for MLB. Why I think the idea of the new playoff format idea came was possibly to stop people from hearing more about this. I don't think anyone expected this to keep being the story everyone is glued to heading into Spring Training.

There haven't been any legit apologies from the organization. Whatever ones did happen felt half-assed in an attempt to get it off their backs. But as we hear more and hearing about Operation Codebreaker (Jeff Luhnow being involved) and Carlos Beltran having a lot of power with the sign stealing, you wonder how much more they could have cheated and got away with it. And with the stories that keep coming, I don't believe we've seen the last of any other incidents within the last three seasons. What I fear is the potential war between Rob Manfred and the Astros, and the other teams and players against Manfred, Tony Clark, and a few others.

No doubt, teams are going to try and hurt or kill Astro batters. Someone will be aiming for Jose Altuve or Alex Bregman's face. A broken leg could happen to Carlos Correa. Anybody, really. An NL ballpark, who knows if someone will go after guys like Verlander. Because no player got punished and unfortunately, those players are protected by the players union. The more time goes on this, the more I believe players should be in trouble. If nothing is done, there will a damn bloodbath because the Astros altered lots of teams careers. Add in a lawsuit from a former player, and it keeps becoming this huge carnival of disasters that doesn't stop. You think it would, but it doesn't.

Jim Crane still lives in his own delusional world that nothing occurred. Is Manfred afraid of going after the players? Because he could be gone soon. Same for Tony Clark as this happened under his watch and a number of careers for pitchers got derailed because of the Astros and he did nothing. Some never played in MLB again. I know it's Spring Training, but until a punishment is made, it will be the story of the year for the sport of baseball. Houston will have it very rough and rightfully so.

Minor League Downsize

I personally think Bud Selig ruined baseball, but what Rob Manfred plans to do will be even worse.

The last month and a half has seen a lot of displeasure towards Manfred. His ideas are to after the 2020 season, get rid of 42 minor league baseball teams from all over the country. It includes a ballpark in Florida named after the great Jackie Robinson. Both sides, him and Minor League Baseball, are at war. Manfred has criticized the complaints and may look to get rid of all of the minors. I don't think he would do that, but not the best choice of words.

Minor league players don't make a lot and from reading articles, pay raises are a concern. But is eliminating teams the option? No. Because you not only kill those teams, you kill a lot of futures. Some of the potential superstars may not have any other chance to make a name in the majors. A guy like Peter Alonso may not have gotten his opportunity if it wasn't for the minors the last couple of years prior to this year. Not only that, but you get rid of employees who work there and the numbers combined go into the thousands with the cut teams.

Towns can be affected. It is a source of revenue and losing a team could affect a bottom line and budget for said town. Major league teams suffer since not everyone has a huge payroll. Farm systems exist so some of the smaller teams can develop their guys and have them ready in a couple years. A team like the Marlins would not survive. But what also hurts are families. Not everyone is going to spend more than 500 dollars to go to a MLB game. A minor league game will set you back close to or around 100 for a family of four in terms of tickets, parking, and food, and that's not including a gift shop. Or locals that watch the games every day. You never know.

The MLB relies too much on crotchety old men to run the league. There has to be better options than cutting minor league teams. Manfred knows that, but doesn't want to admit it. If they want to fix their attendance issues, get teams to not price ridiculous ticket prices. The average person does not have funds to go to one of the big name teams' game. Advertise to kids and teenagers. Stop relying on 60 year olds who want their Viagra or Budweiser commercials. The NBA and NFL don't have issues catering to almost every demographic. Maybe MLB can learn a thing or two from them in terms of the game and social media.

Time to Pitch: MLB's Potential Rule

Next month, Spring Training will begin for another season of Major League Baseball. Some new faces will appear on certain teams and the farm systems will see who has potential. In the midst of this is something that has caused a rift between both the players and the league. Commissioner Rob Manfred is looking to implement a pitch clock in order to combat length of games.

It's not a surprise that baseball games take forever. Some of last year's World Series took almost or over four hours. One game took over five in a shootout with extra innings. Essentially, here's how it goes. What Manfred is looking at is a 20 second clock to where the pitcher has to throw a pitch. Some sites are also saying one of things is for a batter to be in the box within five seconds left. Warnings are given at first for a violation and future ones will result in either a ball or strike. In an attempt also to cut mound visits, there would be one per inning for each team. A second one would force a team to change pitchers. Whatever proposals there were have been rejected by the players.

Regardless of what happens, Manfred seems poised to implement new change of pace rules this year. I see this as overusing his authority. Really, I don't think the problem is pitchers taking forever. It's not like it takes 10 minutes to throw a pitch. I can't see the mound visit thing working at all. Honestly, I see that part making games longer if you're forcing them to bring in another pitcher. Manfred is going to see a lot of criticism if his plans are to be put in place. Now, the clock has been in use in minor league areas the last few years, but whether that works here is a different story.

An ESPN article from a few days ago discussed players talking more about other aspects such as time between innings and instant replay. I can buy into the replay aspect because it seems like every sport now is taking forever on calls that should be instantly recognized within 30 seconds to a minute, adding into the total time of a game being played. Five minutes may not seem much, but it would certainly make it seem more bloated. Realistically, I don't see MLB cutting down time between innings. If that were the case, it would force teams to cut down on 7th inning stretch activities, especially if it's a team like the Yankees that like to play that overplayed God Bless America song every time on TV in their home stadium. Every league is looking to make more money. Baseball is not going to cut commercial time to get revenue from the same Viagra and beer commercials.

Anyway, I see this pitch clock rule being a failure if implemented. It will just make things worse for teams and cause some teams to lose heartbreakers because they had to change pitchers in the second inning. MLB is lucky to have had a resurgence a little bit due to these last two World Series. They still have a long way to go to win back a lot of old fans and get new ones, and Manfred's ideas right now to make games quicker are going to hurt them.