Just As Baseball Went Into a Lockout, MLB Scrubbed All The Players' Faces From Their Site And Replaced News Stories With Generic Articles About The History Of The Game

Patrick Smith. Getty Images.

As the clock stuck 12:01am this morning Major League Baseball went into a lockout against its players as a new CBA agreement could not be reached. As a first strike, Major League Baseball proceeded to wipe every member of the MLBPA from their database and website. Every picture is just a grey avatar right now unless you are a player who isn't part of the player's association. There are legality reasons behind it, but it really just screams big just broke up with your girlfriend and deleted your entire instagram energy.' Here's a glimpse at what you're looking at. It's not even petty, it's just stupid. 

A few players like Jameson Taillon had a little fun with it changing his Twitter avi while also exposing how injured players can't rehab the right way now. 

Lovely! This is what the website looks like as of this moment. The left hand column is hilarious.  

There's been over a billion and a half dollars worth of signings this month (something I'm sure Manfred was furious about) and you've got articles about Fernando Valenzuela and the best baseball road trips at the top of the league's website. If this isn't a microcosm of how stupid a sport this is then I don't know what is. 

Manfred's letter to the people completing blamed the players was tweeted out late last night. 

"This defensive lockout was necessary because the Players Association’s vision for Major League Baseball would threaten the ability of most teams to be competitive. It’s simply not a viable option. From the beginning, the MLBPA has been unwilling to move from their starting position, compromise, or collaborate on solutions."

It's all a mess. Today we had Manfred talk to the media and try to describe why free agency is bad. God forbid a player works hard and performs well enough to earn a nice contract. To Manfred that's all terrible, it's all about the owners who sign his checks saving money. Dude's the worst. 

We now enter a very dark winter of nothingness. The only thing that can basically happen right now is a manager or coach getting hired so I guess the Mets will be in business since they do not have one currently. We're probably looking at two months minimum of the owners and players union fighting back and forth before we come close to a compromise. I really don't think this will cut into the season since that helps no one, but it's not gonna be a fun few months here.