The Cardinals and Brewers are postponed Friday due to COVID-19

The Marlins vs. Nationals and Blue Jays vs. Phillies games this weekend have been postponed due to coronavirus concerns.

Now, add to that the Cardinals/Brewers game Friday, which was supposed to be a 1:10 p.m. CT start:

Per this ESPN.com article, two Cardinals players tested positive. Here’s what’s going to happen going forward:

For now. But consider this:

And this:

This is all one big mess. Six of the 30 teams, therefore, won’t be in action tonight, and the postponement in Milwaukee was rescheduled as a doubleheader Sunday:

Though MLB’s statement says “traditional doubleheader,” that terminology is usually taken to mean two games with 20-25 minutes in between as opposed to a day game and a night game, the statement doesn’t say whether those games Sunday will be seven innings each, as was reportedly agreed to by players and owners, or nine innings each. This report says it will be two seven-inning games:

And then there’s this:

Of course players want to play. That’s what they do. And if it “crumbles,” it’s because of a disease that’s very difficult to control at this point, even if players are following all the proper protocols.

Further, we still don’t know when the Marlins will be playing again, and:

Can you imagine being that bus driver? At least the Cardinals, apparently, did social-distance on their flight to Milwaukee:

I realize this article so far has been one big sequence of things from Twitter, and this is where Twitter can be useful, posting useful information in real time.

Questions have to be raised whether it’s worth continuing the season at this point, or whether baseball might be better off doing something like this:

That’d be fun, at least. The bubble idea probably could have worked for MLB, I think, if they had put it in three different areas, one for East teams, one for Central, one for West. In fact, such an idea was briefly floated back in April. They probably could have pulled that off, or perhaps put some teams in southern California (Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego). The NBA and NHL are making bubble ideas work.

I am still on the fence about whether baseball should shut down. Yes, COVID-19 is clearly spreading through various teams. On the other hand, the Cubs and quite a few other teams have taken the protocols quite seriously and have had no major infections — although the Cubs have had two coaches test positive, and Tommy Hottovy was quite ill for a time and Mike Napoli has yet to report. Consider this:

This is going to wind up happening to other teams, even though most owners can probably afford to keep their full-time staffs through this season and beyond. Wealthy owners can handle a shutdown. The wealthiest players can, too. But there are minor leaguers who already have no games and little money to get through this year, and most full-time staffers for MLB teams don’t make a great deal of money.

It’s not an easy call. MLB is clearly going to try to go ahead with the plan to finish the 60-game season (though how they’re going to make up all these postponements is problematic) and get to the postseason, because that’s where the real money is. But could they possibly get those big postseason dollars with some sort of tournament?

One thing is certain: MLB should not sell a single ticket in a ballpark this year. If they can’t keep players and staff safe from COVID-19, how could they keep thousands of fans (even at 20 percent capacity) safe?

It’s a mess, and there are no easy answers. As always, we await developments.