Baseball union head Donald Fehr thinks it is too early to start labor negotiations before the Dec. 19 expiration of the sport's collective bargaining agreement. On his tour of the 30 major league spring training camps, Fehr met for 1 1/2 hours Thursday with Atlanta Braves players. Management hopes to get an early start on bargaining -- if next season is played without a new deal in place, there would not be a luxury tax. "There has been no formal date set," Fehr said. "It's early. We'll have to see. The obvious goal is to get a deal done, and we'll certainly try as hard as we can to do it and, hopefully, the owners will, too."