Thread: MLB, MLBPA fail to reach new labor agreement; league in 1st lockout since 1990

Originally Posted by King87

They need to reduce the impact of the luxury tax and focus more on scum teams like the Pirates.

MLB teams do have too much control for too long on players, and the arbitration system sucks.

Owners proposed raising the luxury tax threshold from $210 million to $214 million. MLBPA's original proposal was $245 million. I think the two parties will compromise at $225 million or somewhere in that range.

Owners have proposed a lottery system for the MLB draft to discourage tanking for teams like the Pirates but only the top bottom three teams would be shuffled and I don't think the MLBPA likes that when in many years, the second or third overall pick is better than the first overall pick. MLBPA wants the bottom eight teams to be shuffled in the lottery. I think the two parties will compromise at the bottom five or six teams will be shuffled instead of using order of finish.

Also, I liked that the owners proposed that a team that finishes in the lottery for more than three straight years is no longer eligible for the first overall pick in the fourth year.

As for team control, I side with Max Scherzer when he says free agency is no longer six years, it's become seven years because of service time manipulation.

But I will say this, there is no way the owners will agree to reducing free agency from six to five years. They're willing to shut down the sport for an entire year to win this war. That's the scary part about this lockout. I feel like almost all of the issues can be resolved by mid-February but I don't know what the owners can do to get the players to table this demand.