Major League Baseball, Players Association announce preliminary Basic Agreement deal | SFGiants.com: News Note: another layer of playoffs and two more Wild Card teams as early as this coming season Highlights of the new CBA include: • Blood testing for HGH with a 50-game suspension for a first failed test, 100 games for a second and lifetime ban with the right to seek reinstatement for the third. • A raise in the minimum salary from $414,000 this year to $480,000 in 2012, and ultimately to more than $500,000. • A luxury tax on teams that spend above an aggregate figure for players signed through the annual First-Year Player Draft and the near elimination of Draft-pick compensation for the signing of free agents. • Subject to MLB discussions with the umpires' union, the expansion of instant replay to include fair and foul calls on balls hit down the line in addition to others trapped by fielders. Replay has been used only to review home runs -- fair or foul, in or out of the park. • Restrictions for the first time on the use of smokeless tobacco on the field or in dugouts. Players are still allowed to chew, but while they're in an area where they can be picked up by a television camera, the protocol now is for them not to have pouches or tins of tobacco visible in their uniform back pockets.
I knew they would not go so far as to allow reviews of safe vs out at first base. Too many bang bang plays that would slow games down. Armando Galarraga would be pissed had they included that. The tobacco thing is kind of a joke. Just don't allow it at all. But then about 1/3 of the players would freak out and would not be able to cope. Initial commentaries I heard so far was that the players gave away a lot and this was a bad CBA for them. Will be interesting in 5 years if we're dealing with what the NBA is going through to get a perceived bad CBA deal reversed.
