The 2020 Cleveland Indians

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Four three game series vs every team in the division...that's 48 games.

Two three game series vs every non division rival....that's 60 games.

108 games.

This proposal is similar to Albert’s Belle’s plan to play 112 games with each team playing 8 games against the other 14 teams in it’s league with no inter-league play. The problem with both proposals is with an odd number of teams in each league there would always be a team not playing for three or four consecutive days. Some inter-league play would be necessary.

I propose a 15-week schedule from Thursday, June 26 to Weds, Oct. 2. Teams would play seven games a week for a total of 105 games. There would be a 3-game series from Tues-Thurs with the Thursday game being a day game with travel that night, followed by a 4-game series from Fri-Sun with Sunday being a double-header. Monday would be a rest-travel day with a rainout game if necessary. There would be limited inter-league play.

Each team would play four 3-game series against divisional opponents (48 games) and one 4-game series against the other 10 teams in its’ league (40 games) for a total of 88 games. The remaining 17 games would be inter-league with all five teams in each division playing one series against five teams in another division. There would be three 3-game series and two 4-game series for a total of 17 games.

So it would break down to 48 games in the division, 40 out of division, and 17 inter-league. Obviously teams in the same division would play the same inter-league opponents.

Rosters would expand to a maximum of 30 players to accommodate playing seven games a week. The advantage of this format is the regular season would be done by Oct. 2 so there would be no winter baseball. The post-season would pretty much proceed on schedule but they would still get 105 games in and everybody would play the same number of games against the same opponents. If they just pick up the current schedule the teams that play tougher opponents earlier in the season would have an advantage since those games would be wiped out.

 

[Kevalier]

https://www.cleveland.com/coronavir...ge-gatherings-to-slow-coronavirus-spread.html

Not being able to attend a game at Progressive Field this summer is far too depressing of a thought to even process.

 

[NorthCoastBias]

https://www.cleveland.com/coronavir...ge-gatherings-to-slow-coronavirus-spread.html

Not being able to attend a game at Progressive Field this summer is far too depressing of a thought to even process.

It may be depressing, but it’s the right call. I said it in the NBA thread, but I’d cancel everything until a vaccine is confirmed and readily available. Public health is more important than personal entertainment. Sucks, but them’s the breaks. Time to find new hobbies.

 

[Huber.]

https://www.cleveland.com/coronavir...ge-gatherings-to-slow-coronavirus-spread.html

Not being able to attend a game at Progressive Field this summer is far too depressing of a thought to even process.

Not one mention of the Indians. The hard part about starting sports back up is some states are going to be ahead of others in terms of cases

 

[NorthCoastBias]

Ken Rosenthal out here dropping news bombs at 11 pm on a Friday. Things aren’t looking promising.

 

[BMAN]

Watch the Indians win the WS finally with no fans.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Watch the Indians win the WS finally with no fans.

As someone born after 1948 I'll take it any way I can get it.

Besides, we should be back to normal by December.

 

[CATS44]

Two replies in one post...lol.

1) Hotels are empty right now. Many future reservations have been canceled...and the hotels that normally handle MLB have blocks of rooms that will be available. If I own the Cleveland Super Duper hotel which normally accommodates Tribe opponents, I right now have an empty hotel and a ton of rooms available every day on my calendar.

2) The big reasons that teams no longer play a compressed schedule is due to owners not wanting the lost revenue from double headers and the PA insisting upon off days.

In 1961, the first year of the 162 game season, the Indians opened on April 11th and finished on Oct 1st...and played 21 doubleheaders. (Some of them were due to make up games.)

This season they were supposed to open on Mar 26th.....sixteen days earlier.

Several of the models listed above come very close to my suggestion, which was 126 games in eighteen weeks. If the season opened on June 1st (It wont), it could be easily done, ending at about the normal date. If MLB was willing to back up the end a few weeks, a mid June start might due the trick.

Rosters would have to expand to around 30, to ease wear and tear on the players.

I agree, though that it is highly unlikely that this season is going to go much more than 100 games, because July is a more likely target to start.

But I disagree that the schedule couldn't be recreated without a lot of trouble.

 

[Derek]

Two replies in one post...lol.

1) Hotels are empty right now. Many future reservations have been canceled...and the hotels that normally handle MLB have blocks of rooms that will be available. If I own the Cleveland Super Duper hotel which normally accommodates Tribe opponents, I right now have an empty hotel and a ton of rooms available every day on my calendar.

2) The big reasons that teams no longer play a compressed schedule is due to owners not wanting the lost revenue from double headers and the PA insisting upon off days.

In 1961, the first year of the 162 game season, the Indians opened on April 11th and finished on Oct 1st...and played 21 doubleheaders. (Some of them were due to make up games.)

This season they were supposed to open on Mar 26th.....sixteen days earlier.

Several of the models listed above come very close to my suggestion, which was 126 games in eighteen weeks. If the season opened on June 1st (It wont), it could be easily done, ending at about the normal date. If MLB was willing to back up the end a few weeks, a mid June start might due the trick.

Rosters would have to expand to around 30, to ease wear and tear on the players.

I agree, though that it is highly unlikely that this season is going to go much more than 100 games, because July is a more likely target to start.

But I disagree that the schedule couldn't be recreated without a lot of trouble.

That's still a schedule density of just 0.936, so let's put that as a cap.

I think, at this point, the most optimistic start date is early July.

July 1 to _______:
Oct 1 - 92 days, 86 games
Oct 15 - 106, 99
Nov 1 - 123, 115
Nov 15 - 137, 128
Dec 1 - 153, 143

Personally, I don't expect them to approach that level of schedule density, nor do I think they'll start by July. I'm probably 50/50 on whether there is any season at all right now.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

That's still a schedule density of just 0.936, so let's put that as a cap.

I think, at this point, the most optimistic start date is early July.

July 1 to _______:
Oct 1 - 92 days, 86 games
Oct 15 - 106, 99
Nov 1 - 123, 115
Nov 15 - 137, 128
Dec 1 - 153, 143

Personally, I don't expect them to approach that level of schedule density, nor do I think they'll start by July. I'm probably 50/50 on whether there is any season at all right now.

I like to think they can work something out where they do some kind of social distancing, like only sell even-numbered seats or skip every other row for example. Kind of like the White House press conferences where the reporters all have two seats between them. They might only be able to sell 15,000 tickets for a 45,000 seat stadium, but they would still get the TV revenue and it would be better than no season at all, which nobody wants.

A lot of businesses are staying open by forcing customers to keep social distance. My supermarket, for example, has made all the aisles one-way and has closed every other self-checkout station. They could do something like that at ballparks even if it meant limiting attendance and closing the concessions. Everybody bring their own snacks.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I like to think they can work something out where they do some kind of social distancing, like only sell even-numbered seats or skip every other row for example. Kind of like the White House press conferences where the reporters all have two seats between them. They might only be able to sell 15,000 tickets for a 45,000 seat stadium, but they would still get the TV revenue and it would be better than no season at all, which nobody wants.

Heck, a lot of games, like between the Royals and Tigers for example, won't get 15,000 fans anyway. Just spread 'em out unless they're families.

A lot of businesses are staying open by forcing customers to keep social distance. My supermarket, for example, has made all the aisles one-way and has closed every other self-checkout station. They could do something like that at ballparks even if it meant limiting attendance and closing the concessions. Everybody bring their own snacks.

 

[6.19.2016]

https://www.cleveland.com/coronavir...ge-gatherings-to-slow-coronavirus-spread.html

Not being able to attend a game at Progressive Field this summer is far too depressing of a thought to even process.

TLDR for below: There's more to the story.
--------------------------------------

It still merely reaffirms CDC and state guidelines that don't necessarily have firm timetables, and may be rescinded/shortened at any point, as people had noted about, for instance, the Virginia lockdown that as written now extends well into June.

A key quote from it:

“This may or may not extend throughout the summer.”

Relevant global/other sports news/rumors....regarding the Windy bombs about the China basketball league and NBA restart attempts, note these replies to him:



I was under the impression that the China league was almost entirely players from China - excluding, for instance, US citizen Jeremy Lin - and involved travel to teams exclusively within China, but the international travel for players like Lin to get there is certainly a hurdle. And while pretty much no one believes the official flattened-curve numbers for China, the rumored new cases are likely almost all in Wuhan.

The international travel factor is not necessarily a hurdle; I have heard from UFC die-hards that Khabib, for instance, will get an exemption from Russia for 249, but can't confirm for sure.

 

[CATS44]

One thing that MLB could do right now is plan for a centralized booking of hotels.

Instead of 30 teams scrambling to book rooms on short notice...

MLB could contact a major hotel in each MLB city now and arrange for enough rooms on a contingency basis. Once a starting date is announced, each hotel would get a schedule and set aside the rooms for every date its local team plays at home.

Kinda like a major corporations centralizing of purchasing.

 

[prf100]

They might only be able to sell 15,000 tickets for a 45,000 seat stadium, but they would still get the TV revenue

So... standard business for the Tribe.

 

[sportscoach]

So... standard business for the Tribe.

I said it earlier that the Indians could get away with selling seats that are all one apart and let people move close or farther apart from there lol