When the MLBPA rejected the latest economic proposal from Major League Baseball, they asked the league to inform them of how many games commissioner Rob Manfred plans to enact and when they should report to a second spring training. Additionally, they want that information by the end of business on Monday.
It will be interesting to see what the league’s response will be but make no mistake that this is a galvanized players union currently that is potentially turning down more money on the principle that they should not take another pay cut. While most of the angst deservedly has fallen on the league and ownership, some of the union’s tactics are worth examining. That was the position that The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal took on Sunday.
If the union intends to sacrifice short-term financial gain for long-term benefit, what will that benefit look like, particularly if its expected grievance proves futile? And if the union intends to build strength for the 2021 collective-bargaining negotiations, how will its hard-line strategy help secure a favorable outcome?
Rosenthal asks some good questions and sets the backdrop for what will be a messy situation when the current CBA expires in December, 2021.
Atlanta Braves News
Gabe Burns reviewed the Braves’ 2020 Draft Class for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and called it solid but unexciting which I think is a good way to put it.
MLB.com takes a look at the best season in every club’s history. For the Braves, it is the 1998 team that went a 106-56 but lost in the NLCS to the San Diego Padres.
There arguably wasn’t a more consistent club in the Modern Era for as extended of a period as the Braves during their 14-year run of winning consecutive division titles from 1991-2005. In that stretch, Atlanta won 100 games or more six times, but none more than their 106 in 1998. However, as was the case with most of those Braves teams, they fell short in October, losing to the Padres in a crushing NL Championship Series defeat.
Also at MLB.com, Will Leitch continues his “Better than you remember” series with a look at the career of former Braves first baseman Julio Franco.