Mariners Moose Tracks, 2/2/22: CBA Updates, Tom Brady, and Brian Flores

It was a major day for NFL news, but there was some baseball news too.

Good morning everybody! Here’s what’s happening (or not happening) around baseball.

In Mariners news...

• The Arkansas Travelers announced their coaching staff for the 2022 season. The staff features some former Mariners.

Around the league...

• Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association met yesterday but — surprise, surprise — the two sides did not make a whole lot of progress. The players made very minimal changes to their latest proposal and are now seemingly waiting on the league to make concessions. A delay to spring training seems like a certainty at this point.
• In other news, go vote for Michael Ajeto for the 2022 SABR Analytics Conference Award for Contemporary Baseball Commentary! You can vote twice if you vote separately at Fangraphs. And a third time if you vote at IBWAA.
• Alex Chamberlain at Fangraphs broke down vertical approach angle for dummies.
• On the first day of Black History Month, Minor League Baseball announced an initiative targeting Black communities in minor league cities.

Anders’ picks...

• After a weird back-and-forth with the media over the last few days, Tom Brady officially announced his retirement from football. Brady, 44, was coming off perhaps the greatest offensive season in his career.
• In other football news, former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is suing the Denver Broncos and New York Giants over racist hiring practices. The allegations include text message receipts and a whole host of people involved.