Five Things to know as MLB ‘Summer Camp’ Begins

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Five Things to know as MLB ‘Summer Camp’ Begins

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Mike Trout and the Angels are hoping that a shortened season means they will make the playoffs this season

In 60 games, anything can happen.

Due to the Pandemic MLB had to shorten its season from 162 games to 60. This is a big change for baseball — it is usually known its marathon-like style. Typically the first 60 games of the season are considered the warm-up for the next 102. But this year teams with high expectations like the Dodgers Yankees and Astros will have to start strong in order to comfortably get a spot in the playoffs. In a shortened season a 7 game losing streak is equal to a 19 game losing streak — wrap your head around that.

On the flip side, in a typical, season any team — even the not-so-great ones — can have an excellent 60 game start and then fade out in the dog days of August and September. But not this year — this year, a good start can mean the playoffs for a team at almost any talent level. Take the LA Angels as an example — in a 162 game season, they were projected by Fangraphs to have a 15.6% chance at making the playoffs, but in a 60 game season, that percentage shoots up to 32.2%, or double what it was. You can never predict baseball, but this year’s small sample size will make it exponentially harder.

 

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In a shortened season, anything can happen.

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Who’s playing who and does that matter?

This season, each team will play 60 games, 40 against the four teams in their division and, to limit travel, 20 games against the teams in the region (either East, Central, or West) in the other league. Here is a breakdown example:

  • The Yankees will play the Rays, Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles 10 times each for a total of 40 games.
  • The Yankees will then play the Mets, Phillies, Nationals, Braves, and Marlins for a total of 20 games. The schedule has not yet been released so it is unknown if the Yankees will play each NL East team four times or if the breakdown will be different. If I had to guess, the Yankees will play the Mets six times and then play either a two or three-game series against the remaining four teams in the NL East.

Yes, the schedule matters a lot. To continue with the Yankees — they will not have to face the reigning AL Champion Astros, but they will have to play the World Series Champion Nationals.

The Central Region is projected to be much worse compared to the East and West, so the Twins, who won 101 games last season, will have a lot of games against teams with losing records last season — the Royals, Reds, Pirates, and Tigers to name a few.

What is a player pool?

Yes, it’s funny that they are calling it Summer Camp and then there are player pools — thanks Cespedes Family BBQ for this tweet:

The player pool is a group of 60 players on the team’s roster. This includes all the players each team will have available to them during the season. From the 60, the season will begin with 30 players being active and a three-player “taxi squad’” will consist of three inactive players to be there to fill in if needed. The rest of the pool will be at an alternate training site awaiting the call if they need to fill in for injuries or possible Covid-19 diagnoses. As the season goes on, the active roster will progressively shrink to 26.

So far, all the teams have released their pools. A theme running through them all is that they have a lot of catchers. Also, most teams have less than 60 players on their rosters. This allows for teams to continue to add as more players become available because of opt-outs or releases.

With a few exceptions, if a player is removed from the 60-man pool, he will not be allowed to be put back on. If you have any more questions about how this works, take a look at the MLB.com primer on the 2020 season.

No spitting? Let’s wait and see.

In a 113 page long primer, MLB and the MLB Players Association outlined the health and safety protocols for the 2020 season. So what will be different?

  • There will be no fans in the stands. If you are looking for an autograph this season, you will likely be disappointed. Players will even be entering hotels from a private entrance to avoid interacting with people.
  • Only players who will be playing or active in that day’s game will be allowed in the dugout, the rest of the team’s personnel will be seated with distancing in the stadium seats.
  • To avoid the spread of the virus through surfaces, each player will be required to keep his own pine tar and batting donut and bring it to the on-deck circle with him each time.
  • Every pitcher will have his own rosin bag. In order to ensure that pitchers don’t lick their fingers, they will be allowed to have a wet rag in their back pocket for personal use.
  • If a manager wants to argue with an umpire, he must stay six feet away.

A huge part of this is that players will have to police themselves in order to avoid the spread of the virus that threatens the season.

Read this NYT article for more information on the changes you will see on the field and off the field.

There is still a pandemic going on…

With cases rising in the baseball cities of Florida, California, Arizona, and Texas the baseball world is holding its breath. Just remember that anything can change at a moment’s notice in reaction to the spread of the virus. MLB has still not released its schedule so even they do not know what exactly the season will look like.

Will players get sick? Yes. Will teams have bigger breakouts? We will have to wait and see. Even superstar Mike Trout is uncomfortable with participating as he awaits the birth of his first child. Don’t be surprised if we hear of more players opting out of the season.

I am very excited for baseball to start, but I also feel weird about it happening during these crazy times. We can wait and see what happens together.

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