MLB Labor Negotiations

[Goober]

The union is pressing for a change in the free-agent compensation system for Type A free agents, one that would no longer require teams to give up first-round draft picks if they sign premier free agents. The union also wants that change to take effect starting with the current offseason.

The owners, according to one source, now have taken the position that they are willing to make that concession only if they get a hard slotting system for draft picks in return. So with neither side moving and the negotiating clock ticking, a labor deal that once seemed imminent remains in limbo.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7189584/baseball-owners-players-anticipate-new-luxury-tax-system

Worst ideas ever.

[EmpireWF]

Screw that. The Mets have a Type A FA for the first time in awhile, and they want to take away our probable first round picks?

[Villain]

MLB/MLBPA Approve 5-year CBA

The current CBA expires on Dec. 11. Negotiations haven't been very contentious, but here are some key points:

#Add thresholds for spending by a team each year on selections in the June amateur draft, as well make changes to the luxury tax and revenue sharing.

#Progressive penalties for teams whose total spending on draft picks exceed the threshold, similar to the luxury-tax concept on high payrolls that has been part of baseball’s labor contracts since the 2003 season. (Goes along with slot assignments)

#Right now the top 20% of players get Type A, the new CBA will decrease the percentage.

#Still in discussion are talks about parity (Yankees versus Royals) and big market teams' ability to monopolize talent.

#Division realignment and 15/15 split (AKA Astros to the AL West)

#More interleague games dispersed throughout season.

#Blood Testing for HGH

#Extra Wild Card Team in each league

#Eliminated rule where teams in the same division can't face each other in the LDS

[StealthShot]

Hmm I was hoping for schedule realignment and the Astros in the AL.

[Villain]

Hmm I was hoping for schedule realignment and the Astros in the AL.

Sorry, that's in there too. Updated.

[FedEx227]

Astros will be in AL by 2013.

[FirstTimer]

I don't mind realignment but interleague year round?

Ick.

Pass.

[Villain]

Slight correction: realignment (of the Astros) is not in the CBA, it's one the terms of sale. AL West starting 2013.

[Villain]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/sports/baseball/baseball-is-to-begin-blood-testing-for-hgh.html?_r=2

Major League Baseball’s owners and players are close to completing a new collective bargaining agreement that for the first time will include blood testing for human growth hormone, according to two people in baseball briefed on the matter. The testing will be a significant step for baseball, allowing it to move ahead of other professional sports leagues, including the N.F.L., in confronting the troublesome issue of a drug that has long evaded detection.

The bargaining agreement, which could be announced early next week, calls for blood testing to begin in February, when players report to spring training. Players who test positive will face a 50-game suspension, which will be the same as the first-time penalty for a positive steroid test, according to the two people.

Baseball will be the first of the major North American professional sports to do any type of blood testing for drugs among their unionized players. In 2010, baseball introduced blood testing for H.G.H. on minor league players because the step could be taken without the consent of the union.

Commissioner Bud Selig, who is sensitive about his legacy and the longstanding criticism that he was too slow to react to the use of performance-enhancing drugs in his sport, will now be able to cite the H.G.H. testing as proof of how seriously baseball now treats the issue of drug use. And without mentioning the N.F.L. by name, he will be able to take satisfaction in accomplishing what his biggest rival has been unable to do.

Last summer, the N.F.L. and its union reached agreement on a new labor contract that included blood testing for human growth hormone, leaving the details of the testing to be worked out after the deal was signed. But the players have since refused to sign off on the testing, citing various reservations.

Members of Congress have become involved in the stalemate, but the N.F.L. players union continues to raise questions about the testing, in particular expressing concerns that the natural level of H.G.H. in football players might be higher than that of the general population, and that too many players would unfairly test positive as a result.

Although there is no urine test for H.G.H., Olympic athletes have been blood-tested for the substance for nearly a decade. Baseball officials and players had long expressed skepticism about the test, however, pointing to the fact that it was not producing any positives. Meanwhile, evidence mounted that the substance was being used in the sport.

In 2007, an investigation into a ring of pharmacies and doctors in Florida led to disclosures that tied numerous players to H.G.H. And at the end of 2007, George J. Mitchell, at the behest of Selig, produced a report on drug use in baseball that tied a number of players — including Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens — to the substance.

“Players who use human growth hormone apparently believe that it assists their ability to recover from injuries and fatigue during the long baseball season,” Mitchell said in his report. “This also is a major reason why players used steroids.”

Sentiment in baseball began to change in 2010, when a professional rugby player in England was suspended for testing positive for H.G.H. The blood test had seemingly worked.

Selig embraced the development and several months later implemented blood testing at the minor league level. This year, first baseman Mike Jacobs, who had played in the major leagues for a number of seasons, became the first minor league player to test positive for the substance.

Agreement on H.G.H. testing was not the only issue that the two sides in baseball had to wrestle with as they moved toward completion of a labor deal that would last for five seasons and will guarantee two decades of a peace in a sport that suffered numerous work stoppages before that.

In particular, the owners wanted a tougher financial slotting system for draft picks so that some teams with huge financial resources would not spend far more on players coming out of high school and college. In the end, the sides agreed on a luxury tax of sorts that would penalize teams that go over a threshold for spending on draft choices.

The agreement also makes official a new playoff system, in which an extra wild-card team will qualify in each league.

But most significant for Selig and everyone else in the sport is that an agreement was reached without public rancor in a year in which the N.F.L. went through a protracted lockout and the N.B.A. is in a labor standoff that could cost it the entire 2011-12 season. And that the agreement will have a drug-testing clause that will put baseball ahead of other sports.

[Goober]

So far the only rules I've liked are balanced leagues, two wildcards, earlier signing deadline and expanded instant replay. The salary ceiling on the draft is down right absurd.

[nflman2033]

#Blood Testing for HGH

#Extra Wild Card Team in each league

#Eliminated rulewhereteamsin thesamedivision can't face each other in the LDS

These i like

[FedEx227]

@SI_JonHeyman: Drafted players may only sign minor-league deals now. #MLB, #cba

WOW. Changes the game completely.

[Leftwich]

@SI_JonHeyman: Drafted players may only sign minor-league deals now. #MLB, #cba

WOW. Changes the game completely.

I like it.

[Goober]

I like it.

Yeah lets keep all the top amateur players out of MLB. Send them to college to play football and basketball instead. Terrible.

[FedEx227]

I like it.

:nono:

Unless you're a college baseball fan there's really nothing to like about it.

As an Orioles fan, even more so you should hate it. Any advantage small market teams had over the big guys is completely gone.