The future of baseball

[Kimmi]

I watched the SNY feed the past two nights. Three observations: 1 - The Sox are a legitimate contender. 2 - The Mets need lessons on hitting or laying off the breaking ball. 3 - The Met's announcers are far , far better than the NESN crew.

 

I thought the Mets crew was very good. I usually can't say that about the away team's announcers.

[a700hitter]

The SNY crew is widely regarded as one of the best in the league

They are very good.

[Bellhorn04]

Don't fall for it! I've been surviving with only radio (except for the last two nights with SNY), and you can too!

 

I listened to some of last night's game on the radio.

 

Thanks for that piece of advice.

 

You're going to be a good accountant!

[mvp 78]

Tony La Russa did not know that he could have used Jose Abreu at second base as the free runner instead of closer Liam Hendriks. Was informed of an amendment to rule by @JRFegan. "I'm guessing you know the rules better. Now I know," he said

[jacksonianmarch]

It is absolutely time for the MLB to look into banning the shift or at least banning the humidors and returning to the rocket ball. The games right now are almost unwatchable. The shift is forcing good hitters to need to elevate their launch angle which is leading to more K's. MLB decided to pull back on the core of the ball which has led to less HRs. What you have is an unexciting product. It is one thing to watch a beautiful pitching duel in between a few badly pitched games. But in today's game, it seems every game is a pitcher's duel and it is more rare to see offense. I can enjoy the purity of a good pitching duel, but most fans cannot and it is killing the product.

 

It is time for a rule where 2 infielders must be on the left side of 2nd and 2 infielders must be on the right side of 2nd. Therefore, if you want to truly shift, you have to pull an outfielder over which leaves a wide open outfield section and a far more enticing target for hitters and a far less enticing scenario for managers to utilize. This will allow the true big power hitters to also have high averages again

[mvp 78]

@JeffPassan

BREAKING: The Oakland A's will start exploring relocation possibilities after Major League Baseball suggested the organization consider moving to other cities if the Howard Terminal stadium proposal is not approved by local politicians.

 

Should have been allowed to move to San Jose 20 years ago.

[moonslav59]

It is absolutely time for the MLB to look into banning the shift or at least banning the humidors and returning to the rocket ball. The games right now are almost unwatchable. The shift is forcing good hitters to need to elevate their launch angle which is leading to more K's. MLB decided to pull back on the core of the ball which has led to less HRs. What you have is an unexciting product. It is one thing to watch a beautiful pitching duel in between a few badly pitched games. But in today's game, it seems every game is a pitcher's duel and it is more rare to see offense. I can enjoy the purity of a good pitching duel, but most fans cannot and it is killing the product.

 

It is time for a rule where 2 infielders must be on the left side of 2nd and 2 infielders must be on the right side of 2nd. Therefore, if you want to truly shift, you have to pull an outfielder over which leaves a wide open outfield section and a far more enticing target for hitters and a far less enticing scenario for managers to utilize. This will allow the true big power hitters to also have high averages again

 

Can a guy stand 1 inch to the left of 2B and run towards 1B after the pitch is thrown?

[moonslav59]

@JeffPassan

BREAKING: The Oakland A's will start exploring relocation possibilities after Major League Baseball suggested the organization consider moving to other cities if the Howard Terminal stadium proposal is not approved by local politicians.

 

Should have been allowed to move to San Jose 20 years ago.

 

TB should move, too.

 

I always felt Miami and Tampa should share a team. Call it the Florida Marlins and play about half their home games in each city.

[redsoxrules]

I read an article where the mlb batting avg is 234. All time low. This shifting crap has got to stop. Changes need to be done. I'm honestly sick of this crap. It's all analytics. Players have a cheat sheet on the field on where to play everyone. Get back to the old playing days and play everyone straight up and enough of these cheat sheet crap. It's getting worse by the year. I watch games and you hear the announcers " oh wow that fielder played that perfecty " no f***ing s***, he looked at his cheat sheet and knew where to position himself. To me this also takes away the human element and who knows if these fielders would be as good without their blanky. I'm 40 years old and if I look back 20 years ago, I was way more interested in games than I am now. And the Sox are killing it with 4 WS titles. If anything I should be more interested with the fact from all the winning.

[notin]

TB should move, too.

 

I always felt Miami and Tampa should share a team. Call it the Florida Marlins and play about half their home games in each city.

 

Tampa baseball was always a bad idea.

 

About 1/4 of the residents of Tampa are retired New Yorkers who brought their pinstriped blood to Florida. Sometimes in little IV bags...

[moonslav59]

Tampa baseball was always a bad idea.

 

About 1/4 of the residents of Tampa are retired New Yorkers who brought their pinstriped blood to Florida. Sometimes in little IV bags...

 

Miami is about the same.

[notin]

It is absolutely time for the MLB to look into banning the shift or at least banning the humidors and returning to the rocket ball. The games right now are almost unwatchable. The shift is forcing good hitters to need to elevate their launch angle which is leading to more K's. MLB decided to pull back on the core of the ball which has led to less HRs. What you have is an unexciting product. It is one thing to watch a beautiful pitching duel in between a few badly pitched games. But in today's game, it seems every game is a pitcher's duel and it is more rare to see offense. I can enjoy the purity of a good pitching duel, but most fans cannot and it is killing the product.

 

It is time for a rule where 2 infielders must be on the left side of 2nd and 2 infielders must be on the right side of 2nd. Therefore, if you want to truly shift, you have to pull an outfielder over which leaves a wide open outfield section and a far more enticing target for hitters and a far less enticing scenario for managers to utilize. This will allow the true big power hitters to also have high averages again

 

You obviously did not watch tonight’s Red Sox game.

 

And I don’t get all this “ban the shift.” It’s a DEFENSIVE ALIGNMENT, not a performance-enhancing drug. If it’s making baseball unwatchable, blame the hitters who refuse to learn how to hit around it...

[notin]

Miami is about the same.

 

Not as bad as Tampa. My brother lived there for years and his attitude was “it’s against the law to be under 50 around here”...

[moonslav59]

You obviously did not watch tonight’s Red Sox game.

 

And I don’t get all this “ban the shift.” It’s a DEFENSIVE ALIGNMENT, not a performance-enhancing drug. If it’s making baseball unwatchable, blame the hitters who refuse to learn how to hit around it...

 

Let’s draw little circles in the OF, too, and make them stay in the circles before every pitch.

[moonslav59]

Not as bad as Tampa. My brother lived there for years and his attitude was “it’s against the law to be under 50 around here”...

 

It’s bigger, too, but they run into the same issue.

 

Even Houston has too many transplants to feel like the whole city is behind the Astros.

[Bellhorn04]

You obviously did not watch tonight’s Red Sox game.

 

And I don’t get all this “ban the shift.” It’s a DEFENSIVE ALIGNMENT, not a performance-enhancing drug. If it’s making baseball unwatchable, blame the hitters who refuse to learn how to hit around it...

 

You can blame whoever you want. Maybe the analytics people and coaches who are apparently telling the hitters to work on their launch angle and not worry about K's.

 

Regardless of who you blame, the game has changed fairly radically in some ways. And unfortunately those ways are not good for the fans.

[notin]

Let’s draw little circles in the OF, too, and make them stay in the circles before every pitch.

 

Also no more breaking balls. Or fastballs over 85mph. Or under 85mph, either.

 

I don’t get some fans. “The shift is killing baseball! No one gets hits!” Last year the cry was “the juiced ball is killing baseball!! Everyone is getting hits!”

[notin]

You can blame whoever you want. Maybe the analytics people and coaches who are apparently telling the hitters to work on their launch angle and not worry about K's.

 

Regardless of who you blame, the game has changed fairly radically in some ways. And unfortunately those ways are not good for the fans.

 

The shift is a result of economic disparity that forces the small market teams to be creative to stay competitive. It’s no surprise strategies that annoy traditional, boring fans like the shift and the opener all originate in Tampa.

 

Get some economic parity in the game and a lot of this goes away...

[Bellhorn04]

Also no more breaking balls. Or fastballs over 85mph. Or under 85mph, either.

 

I don’t get some fans. “The shift is killing baseball! No one gets hits!” Last year the cry was “the juiced ball is killing baseball!! Everyone is getting hits!”

 

The juiced ball was blamed for the surge in home runs, not hits.

[Bellhorn04]

The shift is a result of economic disparity that forces the small market teams to be creative to stay competitive. It’s no surprise strategies that annoy traditional, boring fans like the shift and the opener all originate in Tampa.

 

Get some economic parity in the game and a lot of this goes away...

 

That ain't gonna happen. It's already been tried to some degree with the tax and revenue sharing.

[notin]

That ain't gonna happen. It's already been tried to some degree with the tax and revenue sharing.

 

Then allow the small market teams their creativity.

 

If you think baseball is unwatchable when a left-handed hitter hits into the shift, try taking in a full 162 game season in Pittsburgh after payroll has been cut to the same amount as the toll on the Seventh Street Bridge...

[notin]

The juiced ball was blamed for the surge in home runs, not hits.

 

Was it also blamed for missing the point?

[Bellhorn04]

Then allow the small market teams their creativity.

 

If you think baseball is unwatchable when a left-handed hitter hits into the shift, try taking in a full 162 game season in Pittsburgh after payroll has been cut to the same amount as the toll on the Seventh Street Bridge...

 

It's not really the hitting into the shift that's unwatchable. It's all the K's and the lack of balls in play.

[moonslav59]

It's not really the hitting into the shift that's unwatchable. It's all the K's and the lack of balls in play.

 

Exactly, that's much worse than watching a player hit into an out due to perfect shift positioning. (BTW, we get outs from our opps that way, too.)

 

Start teaching bunting and hitting the other way in the minors, and the shift will be reduced greatly.

[notin]

It's not really the hitting into the shift that's unwatchable. It's all the K's and the lack of balls in play.

 

So it's the inability of the hitters to try to adapt to the shift, like I said.

 

But then I bet even if the shift went away, we would still see hitters emphasizing launch angle and exit velocity...

[mvp 78]

I wouldn't mind the k's and lack of balls in play if there was a pitch CLOCK and batters had to keep one foot in the box. Edited May 26, 2021 by mvp 78

[Bellhorn04]

So it's the inability of the hitters to try to adapt to the shift, like I said.

 

But the emphasis on launch angle resulted in more home runs, and run scoring stayed pretty much the same.

 

This year run scoring has dipped down to 4.38, from 4.83 in 2019 and 4.65 in 2020.

 

It appears that the difference may be the baseballs, which have higher seams and produce more spin.

 

So now fans of offense and runs are getting the worst of all possible worlds.

[mvp 78]

But the emphasis on launch angle resulted in more home runs, and run scoring stayed pretty much the same.

 

This year run scoring has dipped down to 4.38, from 4.83 in 2019 and 4.65 in 2020.

 

It appears that the difference may be the baseballs, which have higher seams and produce more spin.

 

So now fans of offense and runs are getting the worst of all possible worlds.

 

It's also early in the year. Doesn't offense pick up during the warmer months of the season? Too soon to tell?

[notin]

But the emphasis on launch angle resulted in more home runs, and run scoring stayed pretty much the same.

 

This year run scoring has dipped down to 4.38, from 4.83 in 2019 and 4.65 in 2020.

 

It appears that the difference may be the baseballs, which have higher seams and produce more spin.

 

So now fans of offense and runs are getting the worst of all possible worlds.

 

So banning the shift will have very little effect. Hitters will still swing for launch angles and exit velocity. Balls will still have higher seams.

 

MLB just needs to allow teams to employ strategies. I do agree that they shouldn’t alter standard game equipment from year to year...

[Bellhorn04]

It's also early in the year. Doesn't offense pick up during the warmer months of the season? Too soon to tell?

 

It does pick up some, yes.