The future of baseball

[dgalehouse]

The Chicago White Sox, arguably the worst team in MLB history, announced that they are planning on cutting payroll in 2025. 

[mvp 78]

LOfrickingL

[Bellhorn04]

Pretty good article by Joel Sherman on how analytics is shredding pitching staffs.

https://nypost.com/2024/10/18/sports/mlb-bullpens-appear-to-be-reaching-a-breaking-point/

 

[mvp 78]

Robot umps have come.

 

[mvp 78]

Sternberg really has to go. Dude has treated the Tampa area poorly over the past few years and is one of the owners who doesn't want to put any of his money into owning a baseball team. 

[mvp 78]

👀

[Kimmi]

I am not a fan of instant replay, but since we have it, it really irks me that some plays are reviewable and others are not.  The play I am thinking about is the non triple play turned by the Nats a couple of days ago.  It goes without saying that the missed call could have very likely changed the outcome of the game.

Why is a catch versus trapped ball on the infield not reviewable, especially since it is reviewable in the outfield?  For that matter, why isn't every play reviewable?

[Bellhorn04]

12 hours ago, Kimmi said:

I am not a fan of instant replay, but since we have it, it really irks me that some plays are reviewable and others are not.  The play I am thinking about is the non triple play turned by the Nats a couple of days ago.  It goes without saying that the missed call could have very likely changed the outcome of the game.

Why is a catch versus trapped ball on the infield not reviewable, especially since it is reviewable in the outfield?  For that matter, why isn't every play reviewable?

All good points!  

[mvp 78]

17 hours ago, Kimmi said:

I am not a fan of instant replay, but since we have it, it really irks me that some plays are reviewable and others are not.  The play I am thinking about is the non triple play turned by the Nats a couple of days ago.  It goes without saying that the missed call could have very likely changed the outcome of the game.

Why is a catch versus trapped ball on the infield not reviewable, especially since it is reviewable in the outfield?  For that matter, why isn't every play reviewable?

I like replay, but not necessarily how it's implemented. I think most calls on the field should be reviewable. The only ones I'd exclude are balks, check swings and other ump judgement calls like infield flies.  

[Kimmi]

On 4/29/2025 at 1:07 PM, mvp 78 said:

I like replay, but not necessarily how it's implemented. I think most calls on the field should be reviewable. The only ones I'd exclude are balks, check swings and other ump judgement calls like infield flies.  

Fair point about the judgment calls.  It would be hard to say that a judgment call is wrong, though there are times when they are pretty clearly wrong.  Outside of that, it just doesn't make any sense to me why you couldn't review a call like the one mentioned in my previous post.

[mvp 78]

If you wanted another reason to hate the rise of online gambling, here's Liam Hendriks' comments:

 

[mvp 78]

 

[mvp 78]

 

[Kimmi]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

 

Oh goody.  

[mvp 78]

Not that this thread gets much traction, but MLB is experimenting with player positioning again. Per FanGraphs:

 

 The AFL is piloting new rules restricting defender positioning both on the infield (with the bases empty) and, perhaps more notably, in the outfield. Though MLB implemented restrictions on where infielders can play in 2023, this is the first time the league is piloting guard rails around where outfield defenders can be positioned when a pitch is thrown.

These restrictions first came to my attention during Monday’s game at Salt River Field, where Brendan Gawlowski and I noticed two things. First, Brendan noticed that the two teams’ corner outfielders were positioned both very close to the foul lines and much shallower than contemporary outfielders typically play. Of course, there are situations where a team might want to strategically align their outfielders like this, but for both teams to be doing so regardless of the hitter or game situation struck us as strange.

My sources indicated to me that the league’s motivation is to see if further limiting the locations where defenders are allowed to stand will create more base-hit action and have a positive impact on the game’s aesthetics.

Dark green hash marks have been painted on the outfield grass and at points along the arc where the infield dirt meets the outfield grass. Defenders have to stand within a certain distance of these hash marks when a pitch is thrown. Think of it like tape on the floor on the stage at your high school’s production of Little Shop of Horrors, indicating where the actors should stand to be in their best light.

These restrictions only apply to infielders when the bases are empty, but they apply to outfielders at all times.

In this alignment, infielders are forced to play “straight up,” while the corner outfielders are closer to the foul lines, and the center fielder is more shallow compared to where we see big league outfielders normally play nowadays.

If a player is positioned in compliance with the restriction, there is a green “O” visible as their marker. When they’re in danger of leaving the designated location, it shows an orange line, while a red “X” is visible when they’re no longer in compliance.

Penalties for non-compliance are enforced by the field umpires, who can see the LED board from their vantage points. For infielders, non-compliance will only result in a violation if the out-of-place defender is the one who fielded the ball in play; where the runner is placed is then a matter of umpire discretion, though first base seems the most likely spot. In the event a play is made by an outfielder who is outside the allowed radius, how many bases a batter is awarded is again a matter of umpire discretion, similar to the way fan interference is assessed.

Eliminating infield shifts hasn’t had the desired effect on the rate at which balls in play fall in for hits. Historically, the league-wide batting average on balls in play had hovered around .300, but since 2020, that number has shifted down to about .290 or so (it was .290 in 2026). As Russell Carleton has noted for Baseball Prospectus, the combination of lift-obsessed hitters and teams’ ability to use ball-in-play data to strategically position their outfielders, especially moving them deeper to limit the number of extra-base hits they surrender, has resulted in the BABIP environment we’re currently experiencing.

[NHNative]

What a joke is this guard rails nonsense. Let the players and coaches play baseball.

[mvp 78]

16 minutes ago, NHNative said:

What a joke is this guard rails nonsense. Let the players and coaches play baseball.

I agree. I'd let teams do whatever shifting they want to do. All the regulation and added rules hasn't fixed anything. The only thing that has been better is the pitch clock.