MLB Bullets isn’t sure who’s winning

Depending on the day, or perhaps the minute, or maybe just which writer has had coffee or not, you will get a very different sense of how negotiations are or are not going between MLB and MLBPA regarding the 2020 season.

If you ask Howard Cole at Sports Illustrated, he says the owners have the players where they want them, but over at NJ.com Bob Klapisch shares a former commissioner’s view that the player’s union can’t be broken. Klapisch says, in fact, “It’s sheer stupidity, not stubbornness, that’s sabotaging a season that could still be saved.” More on this from Al at 9 a.m. CT.

Meanwhile this Sponge Bob meme sort of sums up how I feel about it.

• Ken Rosenthal shares that the previously hoped for July 4 start date is unlikely to happen now, if baseball returns at all. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Can the Red Sox use clout and branding to lure in free agent players not signed in the draft? According to Chris Cotillo, they sure hope so.
• Colin Poche shares his soberingly similar personal story to Tamir Rice, and how only the color of his skin changed the outcome, reported by Marc Topkin.
• Ashley Fetters shares to stark realities of life with no baseball for minor league towns in a tough New York Times piece.
• Kevin Reichard shares that the West Coast League has been forced to cancel its 2020 season.
• Some of MLB’s current managers are considered “high-risk” for coronavirus. Jayson Stark speaks to them about what lays ahead. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• What’s going on with Clayton Kershaw? Ben Clemens looks at why the once unstoppable ace suddenly became human.
• Craig Edwards takes a look at what Mike Trout’s stats would be like if he only played 50 games a year.
• How do prospects handle the draft when their fathers were major leaguers? Peter Gammons looks at several potential draftees with famous baseball dads. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Rob Arthur suggests it’s high time baseball reflect on its own problems with racism.
• Joey Votto pens a powerful op-ed about his own white privilege.
• No comment necessary here:

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.