[WhatWuzThatBlue]

Just out of curiousity, what happens to the replacements/scabs when (I know, many of you think it's IF) the strike ends?

They will be destroyed by a death beam sent from Birmingham. Just kidding...

Will replacement blues just walk back into their regular assignments as if they had been there all along?

Probably...it's apparent that these guys are willing to umpire for the good of the game and/or they need the money.

Will they find the guys who took THEIR places eager to give the slots back?

I doubt it...they stepped up and filled a niche when the other guy served as a replacement umpire. Few of us are eager to hand back the juicy assignements and take the mundane. However, if they were competent enough to serve as an MiLB replacement, their assignors likely won't ignore them when they return to a regular schedule.

On the other hand, what if the strike doesn't end with AMLU umps coming back?

Then the death ray will be aimed AT Birmingham.

Do the replacements/scabs plan to take three or four years out of their lives to do minor league ball?

Yes. No. Probably. Maybe.
You are talking about several hundred guys - they all of agendas and values, quantifying an entire group is impossible.

Maybe two of them will get MLB jobs, but you have to forgive me if I think that idea is far fetched. What happens, say, next year if the AMLU strike is still ongoing?

It will be interesting to see what happens if the strike is still ongoing and the WUA loses six members. It is not farfetched to think that MLB isn't considering recruiting the best from Japan, Korea, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Australia, Canada or Mexico. They've been rumored to be doing that for a few years.

Will the D1/high school/Legion umps who have been working minor league ball forsake their regular assignments to go to work MiLB for good?

See my previous answer about future assignments.

When these umps lose their regular jobs and their regular baseball assignments, do they expect their fellow umpires to welcome them back with open arms into the "brotherhood"?

Most local associations have loose hierarchys. The best guys usually receive the plums. Assignors would be stupid not to cover their butts and lose talent because the strike is over.

Why should an umpire who has filled in for a replacement willingly give that slot back?

Jiggy would say, "Because they aren't qualified and haven't earned it." Most of us would say that when the replacement trots back to his normal assignments, his partners will want to hear the war stories. Don't kid yourself, plenty of umpires are watching their buddies work those games. They want them to succeed because that opens up another rung on the ladder. But like the WUA, you can only move up when the spot is uncontested.