0-for-2, but Who's Counting?

Baseball ownership suggested federal mediation to break the impasse with players, who rejected the idea yesterday. Say what you will about the owners, but they’re sure willing to do stuff that doesn’t produce the desired results. First, they call a lockout because, according to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, they wanted to protect against a repeat of 1994. You can’t have a strike late in the season if you lock out players before it even starts, right? Clever guys. Now, with the mediation offer, they can claim the high ground, that they want to forge a deal with an “impartial third party to help bridge gaps and facilitate an agreement,” as a statement put out by MLB put it. Question: Would owners make the offer if they thought a mediator would rule against them? I guess the good news here is if and when a new collective bargaining agreement is reached, drug testing will remain in place. We don’t want a repeat of Sosa-McGwire, now do we? Right, guys?