Rumors spread on Tuesday of another projected start time for the MLB 2020 season. The proposal states that the season would start between late June and early July with a 100 game season and an expanded playoff format. The idea consists of the thirty clubs playing in their home ballparks fan without fans, at least at the beginning. If social restrictions ease up, then there’s a chance that fans could attend games. The league would split into three separate divisions of ten teams each. These divisions combine the east, central, and west divisions (only the Pirates and Braves switch places).
The proposal would include games only within the division, meaning the Rangers would play only teams out of the west division. For spring training, it would consist of about three weeks, and teams would play their Spring Training games in their regular Spring facilities. The neutral site games at Florida, Texas, and Arizona aren’t tossed out of the window yet, but the hope is for the schedule to work out like a traditional MLB schedule, with zero neutral site games. From a Rangers’ perspective, I like some of the points. However, also, there are some ideas I don’t care about.
The Good
There’s one obvious good; baseball would be back. At this point, most fans want some baseball to watch on TV so any live baseball would work. Based on prior ideas, this proposal looks like the most usual type of baseball fans would see. There’s no shortened games, no rule changes (made because of the pandemic), and games played at the traditional ballpark (despite no fans). Another point I like is that the crosstown rivals do play each other this season. I’m not sure exactly how the games get split up if it’sits nearly distributed among the nine oppositions but teams in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York still get their taste of crosstown rivalries, which is cool.
The Bad
It’s hard to predict where, as a society, we’ll be in early June (when the projected Spring Training begins). It’s unsure if all thirty Major League parks will be safe in a month, but again this proposal is not finalized by any means. For the Rangers, 2020’s idea means a lot of traveling. Nearly fifty percent of Rangers’ games would go on the west coast (unless a home park change occurs). The division itself becomes extremely difficult. The placed the Rangers into a division with the Dodgers, Astros, Diamondbacks, Angels, Athletics, and Padres (along with the Rockies and Mariners). Unfortunately, I could see Texas finishing in the bottom half of the division just because of the difficulty.
When you crush the haircut from home pic.twitter.com/x0mgNvlUt5
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) April 28, 2020
One thing to keep in mind is that the league is still in the planning process. The original ideas haven’t disappeared, but with each day, MLB attempts to create a little more normalcy in creating any sort of a 2020 season. The critical thing to understand is safety is essential. Therefore, if fans have to wait ten more months for live baseball, then that’s what will have to happen.
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