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"If the umpires did go on strike, do you think any of the current umpires would be a weasle and go ahead and work games anyways?"
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Mark:
I doubt that initially there would be guys that break the boycott. Most of this opinion is rooted in the fact that many, many MiLB have full time jobs outside of umpiring. Unlike MLB umpires the MiLB guys probably make more money during their off season.
The challenge MiLB teams have is that their highest level of baseball starts first. Short Season A ball teams don't play until June so there is no hurry for that group to settle.
I know that the AAA Pacific Coast League is already developing "fill-in" plans for umpires. I am sure by mid-February leagues will have a "Plan B".
In Portland alone we have five retired MiLB umpires (most got as high as AA) and four D1 umpires that all would probably work AAA games in this town. We also have at least 15 professional umpire school graduates.
As I said above:
The quality of the umpiring would certainly not be as good as the professional umpires but eventually things would settle down and the managers, players and owners could live with lesser quality umpiring.
Umpiring does not effect a game enough to be of serious concern to the powers that run MiLB.
Of course, this is just an opinion.
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