Morning Mound Visit: No deal yet, MLB extends deadline

On Monday, the league presented another deadline to accept a deal and preserve a 162-game season. An agreement needed to be reached on Tuesday or else the league would cancel another week of games. I wasn’t optimistic about the chances of that happening, but the league and the union negotiated for 17 hours and will resume talks Wednesday morning.

A major sticking point throughout talks has been where to set the competitive balance tax threshold. MLB has been reluctant to raise it beyond $220 million in the first year, and the league budged in the last week but only slightly. Now, the league is willing to start at $230 million and end at $242 million.

In exchange for this minor increase, MLB wants to add a third surcharge, so teams pay even more for going well above the CBT. This third surcharge would be set $60 million above the CBT.

None of that is official yet, of course. Talks will resume Wednesday morning, but for now, no news is good news, right?

Robert Kelley | Bucs Dugout: A ban to the infield shift is likely coming. The rule change is controversial, but let’s remember, the shift has less of an impact on the game than we think.

Davy Andrews | Baseball Prospectus: Baseball Prospectus is running a feature on baseball video games, and on Tuesday, Davy Andrews took a look at Major League Baseball featuring Ken Griffey Jr. on N64. How does this staple of third-grade sleepovers hold up today?