Tag: Miami Marlins

Panthers 1 of 20 teams with approved infectious disease emergency response plans

Their infectious disease emergency response plan is one of 20 from NFL teams that have been approved by the NFLPA.

Global pandemic or no, the 2020 NFL season is going to start on time. When or if it will finish is another question entirely. What’s become clear after just a few days of MLB games is that teams need a plan for when things go wrong. With the Miami Marlins being forced to postpone games already due to a rash of positive COVID-19 tests, things look grim for football.

Circumstances on the ground will no doubt change once the practices and the games begin, but for now the Carolina Panthers have a plan. Their infectious disease emergency response plan is one of 20 from NFL teams that have been approved by the NFLPA.

Hopefully “going last” among the sports leagues will prove to be an advantage and enable the NFL to learn from the others leagues’ mistakes. The NBA is up next, with games resuming in the Orlando bubble on Thursday night.

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What MLB’s recent COVID-19 outbreak tells us about the likelihood of a college football season

The Major League Baseball season began on Thursday and became the first of the four major sports to return to action during the COVID-19…

The Major League Baseball season began on Thursday and became the first of the four major sports to return to action during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Included among the safety protocols are an altered regional schedule which limits travel, no fans in attendance, daily testing and required masks in the clubhouse.

The beginning of the season seemed to begin without a hitch, as positive tests were few and far between and outbreaks between the teams were avoided.

Well, today that changed as the Miami Marlins reported that upwards of 40 percent of their active players returned positive tests.

The outbreak within the Marlins team and staff led to the postponement of their game tonight against the Baltimore Orioles as well as the postponement of the Philadelphia Phillies’, the Marlins’ weekend opponent, game tonight against the New York Yankees.

Here is the MLB’s statement:

Now, there are obviously a lot of question marks surrounding the MLB season and what’s to come with both the Marlins and around the rest of the league. While it isn’t necessarily directly related to the Wisconsin Badgers and the college football season, this outbreak and how it’s dealt with can tell us a lot about what is to come this fall–were a season to happen.

Here are four main takeaways:

 

1. The NBA is happening in a bubble, college football and the MLB are not. Whether this outbreak stays within the Marlins’ team and doesn’t spread to the Phillies will go far towards determining in what capacity the college football season can happen

The Big Ten Conference will hold a similar regional format, though obviously only with one game per week instead of six or seven. If a team in the Big Ten returns a large number of positive tests but it stays within that team, a quarantine would be possible and allow for the season to continue given the extra weeks of flexibility.

If it spreads to other teams, though, that is when a season cancellation would become likely.

How the MLB deals with this recent news will give college football a clear path towards what it would take to safely continue their season or cancel it all together if a situation like this arises.

 

2. The Marlins played on Sunday after three players returned positive tests–with those players obviously not taking the field. There will need to be language in college football’s safety protocol which addresses that 

As Matt Breen put well in the tweet below, the Marlins held a meeting after three tests were positive and they decided to play. The MLB did not have language in their return-to-play manual that addressed what happens with the team if a few players test positive.

College football obviously doesn’t have a singular governing body. What the Big Ten can do, though, is look at the MLB’s shortcomings and create a clear course of action if players test positive.

 

3. Lets say the season starts on time with weeks of flexibility in the case of positive tests cancelling games, the fact that the MLB, NFL and NBA are all professional leagues while college football is not creates a grey area around what happens when tests return positive

The MLB has a players union. The NFL has a players union. The NBA has a players union. And all of the athletes are paid and were–or will be–given the chance to opt out of the season without losing their job.

College football is far, far from that.

Players will have a chance to not play, but will it cost them a year of eligibility or their scholarship? How would it get dealt with if programs return positive tests and players then don’t want to play?

The lack of a union-like structure, a commissioner and the athletes getting paid for playing will create a challenging situation if players and staff test positive.

 

4. Question marks aside, watch how the MLB both handles this situation and the remainder of their season. If it gets cancelled, college football will heavily be in doubt. If they’re able to continue safely, there will be a framework towards safely playing a season

As I said in No. 1, how MLB deals with this specific situation–and whether the virus spread to the Phillies during competition–will give the Big Ten and college football a framework to work with.

But more big picture, how the MLB goes about running their season and if they are able to at all will have a profound effect on if college football can happen.

If this recent outbreak leads to a season cancellation I see a scenario where conferences follow the Ivy League and others in cancelling or postponing their fall competition.

If it is dealt with safely and the league is able to continue play, it is good news for the likelihood of football this fall.

In total, the MLB and other non-bubble leagues restarted their season knowing the inevitability of at least a few players and staff members contracting the virus. The safety protocols in place were created to limit the spread and hopefully restrict it completely.

How the next few weeks go will determine what college football will need to do in order to operate safely–or even completely determine whether the sport can happen at all.

Gators News: July 27, 2020

Welcome to another week at Gators Wire and this one has already gotten off to a wild start with the latest news from MLB’s summer season. 

Welcome to another week at Gators Wire and this one has already gotten off to a wild start with the latest news from Major League Baseball’s coronavirus-shortened season.

COVID-19 has made its first major impact on the restarted MLB schedule, with 14 members of the Miami Marlins testing positive for the virus after a weekend series with the Philadelphia Phillies, resulting in the postponement of two games tonight and possibly more moving forward.

Nonetheless, MLB appears to be hell-bent on pushing forward with its pandemic-truncated season despite what appears to be a significant chink in its coronavirus armor despite expert opinion to the contrary.

Enjoy the boys of summer while you can folks because this blimp is going down in flames. Hopefully, they put a stop to this madness before anyone gets seriously ill… or worse.

Here is the news from around the Gator Nation from his past weekend.

Around the Swamp

It’s great to be a Florida Gator!

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If MLB couldn’t get through a week of games, the NFL has no chance

The Marlins COVID-19 outbreak is awful news for the NFL.

Well, that didn’t take very long. After just four days of games, the MLB season is already in peril after at least 14 Marlins players and coaches tested positive for COVID-19, which has already led to the postponement of games.

As MLB scrambles to figure out where to go from here — though one would hope the league had already prepared such a scenario —  the NFL world has gone into full-on panic mode and with good reason: If baseball, a non-contact sport with smaller rosters and coaching staffs, couldn’t make this work, football does not stand a chance. It’s hard to argue against that logic.

While the NBA’s bubble model has inspired some hope for professional sports starting back up in this country, it doesn’t really mean anything for the NFL season, which will be played under different circumstances. The NBA’s ability to put on a season — and, remember, we haven’t even gotten to the games that count yet — means nothing for football. So, no, this isn’t the other side of the story…

The Marlins outbreak will likely lead to calls for the NFL adopting a bubble approach, but it’s far too late for that. Whether the NFL looked into such a model isn’t clear, but the logistics probably would have prevented it anyway. Procuring an isolated area capable of housing 32 NFL teams (plus referees!) would have been impossible on such short notice. Once that became apparent, the league should have come to the same conclusion that baseball will be likely be forced to come to in the very near future: This isn’t going to work.

The one advantage the NFL has over MLB is there are six days in between games. That’s a lot of time to test and, more importantly, to get those test results back. But the virus does not take Fridays or Saturdays off. That gap between games means nothing once we get past the early part of the week. It’s worth noting that the news of the Marlins outbreak broke on a Sunday.

Imagine if that happened in the NFL. Imagine if the league had to cancel a week of games. This isn’t baseball. You can’t make up football games by playing a doubleheader or taking advantage of a scheduled day off. One canceled game would throw off the entire season, as CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones illustrated with this scenario:

If the Seahawks’ Week 10 game against the Rams is canceled due to one of the teams not having enough healthy players, you could wind up with NFC West standings that look like this:

San Francisco 12-4
Seattle 11-4
Los Angeles 10-5
Arizona 9-7

Yes, you could take the win percentages of the teams and decide the division as such. But in this scenario, had Seattle beaten the 49ers twice, that Week 10 win against L.A. would have made the Seahawks the division champs and possibly given them the No. 1 overall seed and first-round bye. Instead, a wild-card headache would ensue across the NFC.

Based on what we’ve seen in the MLB, it’s a near-certainty that at least one NFL game — and likely many more — would be canceled, throwing the league standings into complete disarray.

And that’s just a logistical concern!

Remember, one NFL game being canceled means that several players were infected with a disease that ravages the body. These are people with lives that exist outside of football. They have families. We’d be putting lives in danger for the sake of entertainment. It feels like we recklessly skipped right over the question “Should NFL play football in 2020?” and moved onto “Can the NFL play football in 2020?”

It’s looking more and more like those two questions have the same answer.

Amid Marlins outbreak, Brett Brown feels fortunate NBA is in a bubble

Amid a COVID outbreak with the Miami Marlins, Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown feels safe inside the NBA bubble.

Resuming a sports season in the middle of a global pandemic is no easy feat. There have got to be tons of precautions taken by each league and each team and individual to ensure everybody’s safety.

The NBA went with the bubble rout as they try and resume the season safely and so far, the results have been encouraging. There have been zero positive cases of COVID-19 inside the bubble since the 22 teams got to Orlando. There have been protocols that each individual has to go through every morning and these precautions have kept things running smoothly.

“I think what the NBA has done in the environment that we are all in is spectacularly brilliant,” said Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown. “I think it’s elite. I personally have zero complaints about anything that might prohibit us [from] doing our jobs. I think we have the resources, I think we have the environment. I think it’s an incredibly unique opportunity and I think the NBA and Adam Silver deserve a lot of credit.”

Even though the bubble has had these teams and players inside for only a few weeks, everything that has gone down has given everybody a sense of safety and security moving forward. There is the confidence that the league can really finish up the season and do it the right way.

“I concede that it’s early days, but let’s just say what we know now continues and every day I go through with my wrist band and every day I take my temperature and every day I do my oxygen test and it immediately goes to a Bluetooth device on my phone that lets me in places,” Brown continued. “Every day I’m tested with mouth and nasal swabs and you just can’t create a better environment, one of safety, one of efficiency, one of professionalism than what we have experienced, in my opinion.”

On Monday morning, there was a reported outbreak of the virus amongst the Miami Marlins of MLB who were just in Philadelphia for their season-opening series with the Phillies. This then led to the Marlins home opener being canceled Monday night and the Phillies matchup with the New York Yankees also being canceled.

MLB has been allowing teams to play in their home ballparks and teams are traveling from city to city. While there are no fans allowed in the stadium, that is still an uneasy plan given the unknowns of this virus. Maybe they should have taken the bubble approach as well.

“I just can’t imagine it not being a blueprint to many things,” Brown finished with. “It’s easy to go to sports, maybe there’s something corporate that we’re not thinking about, maybe other forms of entertainment that want to pull something like this off, but I give a full thumbs up to Adam Silver and the NBA. I’m proud to be here, I feel safe being here, and it lets me do my job.”

The Sixers take on the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday in their third and final scrimmage game before their first seeding game on Saturday. [lawrence-related id=35590,35578,35572]

USC Baseball: 5th-round pick Kyle Hurt signs with Marlins

Former USC Trojans right-hander Kyle Hurt has signed a deal with the Miami Marlins, who selected him in the fifth round of the MLB draft.

The USC Trojans have had a player selected in every MLB Draft going back to the 1960’s, and that streak was barely kept alive in 2020 by right-hander Kyle Hurt.

Hurt was selected by the Miami Marlins in the fifth, and final, round of the draft – which was shortened this season thanks to COVID-19 and the lack of minor leagues.

Hurt finally signed his contract with Miami, inking a deal worth $300,000 dollars. He was not added to Miami’s 60-man taxi squad, however, so he will not play affiliated baseball until the 2021 season.

Hurt was USC’s best pitcher in the very abbreviated 2020 season, posting a 2-1 record with a 3.71 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 17 innings. He runs his fastball up to 96 miles per hour, which is what drew scouts to watch him despite a rather pedestrian career overall with the Trojans.

Now, he will look to get work in at Miami’s facility in Florida before hopefully starting to turn some heads during the 2021 minor league season.

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Miami Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies odds, picks and best bets

Previewing Friday’s Miami Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies sports betting odds and lines, with MLB betting picks, tips and best bets.

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The Miami Marlins visit the Philadelphia Phillies Friday at Citizens Bank Park for a 7:05 p.m. ET start. We analyze the Marlins-Phillies MLB betting odds and lines, with betting advice and tips around the matchup.

Marlins at Phillies: Projected starting pitchers

RHP Sandy Alcantara vs. RHP Aaron Nola

Alcantara in 2019: 6-14, 3.88 ERA in 32 starts.

  • 2019 vs Phillies: 2-1, 3.86 ERA in 3 starts.
  • Career vs Phillies: 3-1, 2.81 ERA in 4 starts.

Nola in 2019: 12-7, 3.87 ERA in 34 starts.

  • 2019 vs Marlins: 0-2, 2.08 ERA in 3 starts.
  • Career vs Marlins: 3-6, 3.28 ERA in 13 starts.

Baseball season is finally here! Get some action on the 2020 season with an MLB bet at BetMGM in NJ, IN, CO and WV. Bet now!

Marlins at Phillies: Key injuries

(List of injuries around the league)

The Phillies dealt with their fair share of COVID-19 cases a few weeks ago, including closer Hector Neris and 2B Scott Kingery. They should be ready to roll for Opening Day, though, and both teams will be close to full strength.

Marlins

  • OF Lewis Brinson (illness) doubtful

Phillies

  • RP Seranthony Dominguez (elbow) out
  • OF Mikie Mahtook (positive COVID-19 test) out

Marlins at Phillies: Odds, lines, picks and betting tips

MLB odds courtesy of BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports for a full list. Odds last updated at Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Prediction

Phillies 4, Marlins 3

Moneyline (ML)

The MARLINS (+165) come into this game as underdogs, but stand a decent chance of pulling this one out with Alcantara on the mound. He thrived down the stretch in 2019, with a 2.78 ERA across his final 11 starts. A price of -189 on the Phillies is a little steep, even in their home park.

New to sports betting? A $10 bet on the Marlins to win the game will turn a profit of $16.50 if they prevail.

Run line/Against the spread (ATS)

It’s probably best to AVOID this one altogether. The Marlins are a good bet to keep this one close, but taking the Moneyline, rather than +1.5 (-134), is probably the way to go. Meanwhile, the Phillies check in at -1.5 (+110), but look elsewhere for value.

Over/Under (O/U)

The UNDER 9 (-110) is the side to take here. This is a matchup of two strong pitchers, and one pretty weak offense in Miami. Both starters have fared well in the past against the team they’ll be facing today, and should continue that trend. Look for this game to be a rather low-scoring affair.

Want some action on this game? Place a bet at BetMGM now. For more sports betting tips and advice, visit SportsbookWire.com.

Follow @SportsbookWire on Twitter and Facebook.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

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2020 MLB Futures Odds: How many games will the Miami Marlins win?

Looking at 2020 MLB futures odds for how many games the Miami Marlins will win in the 60-game MLB season.

How many games will the Miami Marlins win in the 60-game 2020 MLB season? We look at the Marlins‘ MLB futures odds, including their projected 2020 win total and Over/Under odds at BetMGM, and make our best bet.

Miami Marlins’ 2019 recap

The Marlins finished 2019 as the worst team in the National League, going 57-105 and 40 games out of first place in the NL East. They were, however, a surprisingly above-.500 bet against the run line, going 84-78 with a 79-73-10 Over/Under record.

Miami Marlins’ offseason

In free agency, they added OF Corey Dickerson, C Francisco Cervelli and P Brandon Kintzler. They added INF Jonathan Villar via trade and lost INF Starlin Castro and P Wei-Yin Chen.

Also see:

Miami Marlins’ 2020 schedule

The Marlins open the season at the Philadelphia Phillies July 24. They’ll play their four NL East rivals 10 times apiece with the remaining 20 games vs. the AL East. They’ll play the in-state rival Tampa Bay Rays six times, the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays four times apiece and the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees three games each.

Baseball season is finally here! Get some action on the 2020 season with an MLB futures bet at BetMGM in NJ, IN, CO and WV. Bet now!

How many games will the Marlins win in 2020?

Odds via BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Tuesday, July 7 at 7 a.m. ET.

The Marlins’ projected win total is 23.5. with the Over +100 and the Under -120. They aren’t really any better than last year and 24 wins would be a winning percentage of .400, better than last season (.352). In a short season, unless they get hot early, they are likely to find themselves plummeting to the bottom of the league. I’m taking the UNDER 23.5 WINS (-120).

Miami Marlins’ World Series odds

Only one team in the majors has longer odds than the Marlins’ +50000. The Orioles are +100000 – the Seattle Mariners are also +50000. DO NOT BET the Marlins to win it all.

Miami Marlins’ playoff odds

The Marlins are NOT A GOOD BET IN ANY WAY, not for the World Series, not to win the NL pennant (+25000) and not to win the NL East (+15000), a division where the four other teams are +325 or less.

Want action on any 2020 MLB futures? Sign up and bet at BetMGM. For more sports betting picks and tips, visit SportsbookWire.com.

Follow @senorjessroot on Twitter, and follow @SportsbookWire on Twitter and Facebook.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

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Oklahoma signee Daxton Fulton picked No. 40 by Miami Marlins, will sign with Miami

The Oklahoma baseball program got another boost in notoriety from the MLB Draft, but suffer an unexpected loss at the same time. 

The Oklahoma baseball program got another boost in notoriety from the MLB Draft, but suffer an unexpected loss at the same time.

A day after class of 2021 high school signee Ed Howard was selected by the Chicago Cubs with the No. 16 pick by the Chicago Cubs, all eyes moved toward fellow class of 2021 member Daxton Fulton.

The Mustang, Oklahoma, native had top first-round prior to having Tommy John surgery in 2019. After falling out of the first round and competitive balance round A, there were expectations that may have helped his case of making it to campus.

The Miami Marlins selected Fulton with the 40th pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, and the Oklahoma signee will in fact sign with Miami way over the $1.86 million signing bonus slotted for the 40th pick.

The 6-foot-6 left-handed pitcher was originally committed to Vanderbilt before flipping and signing with Oklahoma late. Fulton was considered the top left-handed high school arm in the 2020 MLB Draft class.

The Sooners are still waiting on word when, if juniors Levi Prater, Dane Acker, and high school signees Cade Horton and Jace Bohrofen will get drafted.

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How many games will the Miami Marlins win in 2020?

Previewing the Miami Marlins’ MLB win total and World Series odds, with MLB betting odds, picks and best bets

The Miami Marlins languished not only at the bottom of the National League East standings in 2019, but they were one of the worst teams in all of baseball. They turned the keys to the car over to younger players, and it was sink or swim – apropos for a team nicknamed the Marlins.

Today, we focus on the Marlins’ 2020 projected regular-season win totals and World Series odds. Do the Marlins have what it takes? Let’s analyze:

Miami Marlins 2019 wins

The Marlins managed just 57 victories against 105 losses in 2019, worst in the National League and third-worst in the majors. It marked their 10th straight losing season and saw them lose the second-most games in franchise history (only the 54-108 campaign in 1998 was worse).

Miami Marlins offseason

The Marlins looked like a disaster on paper last season. They parted with All-Star backstop J.T. Realmuto last offseason, and the roster was full of misfits and no-names. This offseason, the powers that be constructed a roster which looks to be a little more competitive. The addition of 2B/3B Jonathan Villar solidifies the top of the batting order, 1B Jesus Aguilar, an All-Star in Milwaukee in 2018, gives the Marlins some power in the middle of the order, and INF Sean Rodriguez gives the team depth all over the infield. RP Brandon Kintzler was also added, and he figures to close out the rare wins. C Francisco Cervelli is a nice depth-piece addition, and OF Corey Dickerson gives Miami a nice, cheap bat for two years. Hey, even OF Matt Kemp could be a steal if he still has anything left in the tank.

Baseball season is right around the corner! Get some action on this season with a MLB futures bet at BetMGM. Sign up at BetMGM now!

Miami Marlins World Series odds

The Marlins (+100000) share the longest odds with the Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals, so don’t expect any parades down Calle Ocho anytime soon. Still, this team should make some improvement in the standings.

How many games will the Marlins win in 2020?

I like the Marlins to go OVER 64.5 (-110) wins and avoid back-to-back triple-digit loss seasons. They have smartly added some offense and veteran leadership, and they have a slew of talented prospects ready to make their make in South Florida, too. This team won’t jump up and be remotely close to challenging the Atlanta Braves or Washington Nationals, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Marlins flirting with 70 wins in September, either. They’ll be a tough out down the stretch when other NL teams are trying to position themselves for postseason seeding, and the Marlins might actually have their fans looking forward to 2021.

Want some action on the MLB season or other sports? Place a bet at BetMGM now. For more sports betting tips, visit SportsbookWire.com.

Follow @JoeWilliamsVI and @SportsbookWire.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

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