Arthur: MLB’s new reopening plan has a lot of problems
From SABR member Rob Arthur at Baseball Prospectus on May 15, 2020:
The wheels are turning and gears meshing for a return to baseball. Major League Baseball owners have proposed a new scheme to play an abbreviated season, spread out across the nation and minimizing travel. As states dip their toes into the reopening waters, baseball’s return seems logical, but the new plan has issues exponentially greater than the old one.
The original plan, floated months ago, was to centralize the entire league in a quarantined bubble in Arizona. By housing the players and personnel in a central location and minimizing viral routes into the bubble, MLB hoped to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.
The league’s new idea does away with any notion of controlling where players live or who they interact with. Teams will play from their regular parks, while staff and employees presumably live their regular lives. Only travel may be limited, necessitating some scheduling challenges but an otherwise normal-ish season (just one without fans in the stand and a lot fewer games).
Read the full article here: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/58920/moonshot-mlbs-new-reopening-plan-has-a-lot-of-problems
Originally published: May 15, 2020. Last Updated: May 15, 2020.