Major league innovations

[mvp 78]

You forgot: end "instant" 15-minute replays of safe slides into bases not home where runners maybe disconnect with the bags for a millimeter and a millisecond...

 

The robot umps will be armed. No one will question them.

[mvp 78]

Can you blame them? He completely ignored the DH issue and instead gave them veggie dogs!!

 

The only thing worse than watching a pitcher bat is watching a pitcher bat while eating a veggie dog...

 

What if I allowed fans to bring coolers into ballparks again?

[mvp 78]

Can you blame them? He completely ignored the DH issue and instead gave them veggie dogs!!

 

The only thing worse than watching a pitcher bat is watching a pitcher bat while eating a veggie dog...

 

Also, the DH issue is fixed by ending interleague games. AL pitchers hitting in the WS is good. During the regular season it's bad.

[notin]

Also, the DH issue is fixed by ending interleague games. AL pitchers hitting in the WS is good. During the regular season it's bad.

 

Even without interleague games, the DH needs to go. And no, AL pitchers batting in the World Series is NOT a good thing.

 

I'm beginning to think you like veggie dogs, too...

[mvp 78]

Even without interleague games, the DH needs to go. And no, AL pitchers batting in the World Series is NOT a good thing.

 

I'm beginning to think you like veggie dogs, too...

 

Wooah, buddy... Maybe you should just spend your time scouting HS games like my Chief of Staff: Sir Beach of Fred.

[notin]

Wooah, buddy... Maybe you should just spend your time scouting HS games like my Chief of Staff: Sir Beach of Fred.

 

High school is probably the highest level in which pitchers should be allowed to hit.

 

And if some team offered me a job scouting high school games, I’d leap at the opportunity. I’d probably be awful at it, but it would probably be the happiest I’ve ever been at a job.

 

Not that I respect your Chief of Staff for doing it for free, and I question why you knighted him. Clearly the veggie dogs have clouded your thinking...

[notin]

What if I allowed fans to bring coolers into ballparks again?

 

There are security issues with coolers. For example, patrons can use them to bring in explosive devices, or worse, cans of Stroh’s Light that they didn’t pay $11 apiece for. Are you now trying to take away my God-given right to pay $11 for a cup of liquid that tastes almost, but not quite, completely unlike beer?

[mvp 78]

High school is probably the highest level in which pitchers should be allowed to hit.

 

And if some team offered me a job scouting high school games, I’d leap at the opportunity. I’d probably be awful at it, but it would probably be the happiest I’ve ever been at a job.

 

Not that I respect your Chief of Staff for doing it for free, and I question why you knighted him. Clearly the veggie dogs have clouded your thinking...

 

Well, I did have an Updog a few weekends ago.

[mvp 78]

There are security issues with coolers. For example, patrons can use them to bring in explosive devices, or worse, cans of Stroh’s Light that they didn’t pay $11 apiece for. Are you now trying to take away my God-given right to pay $11 for a cup of liquid that tastes almost, but not quite, completely unlike beer?

 

Yes. This is now a totalitarian state.

[notin]

Yes. This is now a totalitarian state.

 

Now? We're talking about MLB here - an organization where the employees once had to sue for the right to switch jobs...

[notin]

The robot umps will be armed. No one will question them.

 

OK, I am not in favor of giving arms to a cybernetic version of Angel Hernandez that is able to make horrific decisions at inhuman speeds. Can we instead just equip them with Artificial Intelligence capable of quashing any controversy with clever and scathing insults? Like a robotic Don Rickles? Also, they would need to be mic'd...

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

There are security issues with coolers. For example, patrons can use them to bring in explosive devices, or worse, cans of Stroh’s Light that they didn’t pay $11 apiece for. Are you now trying to take away my God-given right to pay $11 for a cup of liquid that tastes almost, but not quite, completely unlike beer?

 

In Fenway they used to water down the kegs so much we called the beer "Charles Light"... after their water source, the nearby river.

[notin]

In Fenway they used to water down the kegs so much we called the beer "Charles Light"... after their water source, the nearby river.

 

Having grown up near the banks of the Charles River, I can tell you right now one of the rarest things in it is water....

[mvp 78]

OK, I am not in favor of giving arms to a cybernetic version of Angel Hernandez that is able to make horrific decisions at inhuman speeds. Can we instead just equip them with Artificial Intelligence capable of quashing any controversy with clever and scathing insults? Like a robotic Don Rickles? Also, they would need to be mic'd...

 

I will also be employing those Boston Dynamics robot dogs to usher and work concessions. They will be outfitted with fur and ears that can position themselves to show how the robot is feeling at any given moment (threatened, sad, happy, angry, etc.).

 

Also, why have a robot Don Rickles when you can just do a hologram version?

[mvp 78]

Having grown up near the banks of the Charles River, I can tell you right now one of the rarest things in it is water....

 

The water there is so much cleaner now that at one point there were several ideas about adding a beach on the Boston side of the river. My dog would always lap some of that water up when we'd walk around the city. He lived a good long life and enjoyed many afternoons snacking on sausages from street vendors outside of Fenway.

[notin]

The water there is so much cleaner now that at one point there were several ideas about adding a beach on the Boston side of the river. My dog would always lap some of that water up when we'd walk around the city. He lived a good long life and enjoyed many afternoons snacking on sausages from street vendors outside of Fenway.

 

Where I grew up, we found the quarries safer and cleaner to swim in. Granted, this was a few decades back...

[moonslav59]

Also, the DH issue is fixed by ending interleague games. AL pitchers hitting in the WS is good. During the regular season it's bad.

 

I'm curious why so many people hate interleague games.

 

I love them, and if you are a Sox fan living in an NL city, like I am in Houston, it was great being able to see my team live, every so often.

[notin]

I'm curious why so many people hate interleague games.

 

I love them, and if you are a Sox fan living in an NL city, like I am in Houston, it was great being able to see my team live, every so often.

 

I love them.

 

I just wish everyone had the DH, and the different set of rules makes zero sense to me. I am well beyond thinking "that is part of the beauty of baseball." It isn't. It's now part of the sports remarkably slow method of fixing mistakes and loud self-adulation when they finally get it right...

[mvp 78]

I'm curious why so many people hate interleague games.

 

I love them, and if you are a Sox fan living in an NL city, like I am in Houston, it was great being able to see my team live, every so often.

 

1. They ruined the midsummer classic.

2. It took away a lot of the mystique around the World Series.

3. The Sox are ending their season against a team with a win/loss record that has zero impact on them.

4. It allows the NL to have pitchers hit and the rest of us fans can enjoy the DH.

[notin]

1. They ruined the midsummer classic.

2. It took away a lot of the mystique around the World Series.

3. The Sox are ending their season against a team with a win/loss record that has zero impact on them.

4. It allows the NL to have pitchers hit and the rest of us fans can enjoy the DH.

 

1. Bud Selig did that.

2. Not to me. Other sports play league-wide schedules, but I still enjoy the Super Bowl and NBA championship series.

3. Didn't that happen before interleague play, too?

4. I hope I do not need to re-state my opinion on this.

[Maxbialystock]

Interleague games make all kinds of sense.

 

The WS lost its mystique when MLB decided they wanted a more inclusive postseason, which now begin with tiebreakers followed by one game play-ins, followed by DS, LS, and finally the WS. That's after a 162 game regular season which last about 6 months, playing 6 games a week.

[notin]

Interleague games make all kinds of sense.

 

The WS lost its mystique when MLB decided they wanted a more inclusive postseason, which now begin with tiebreakers followed by one game play-ins, followed by DS, LS, and finally the WS. That's after a 162 game regular season which last about 6 months, playing 6 games a week.

 

To be fair, the one game play-in was always an option in the event of a tie. It sounds like from your previous posts, you might have even seen the first one back in 1948(?).

[jacksonianmarch]

Hate the double hook idea and the deeper mound idea. The best idea possible would be to enforce a limited shift. Yes, guys throw harder and yes, hitting is harder, but when you can stack your fielders on one side of the field, it’s clearly made for an impediment to offense that’s changed the game. When MLB rid the world of the rocket ball, they unintentionally made the game less watchable since now there’s very little offense. Stop tinkering with the ball and the mound and the DH (although making it universal isn’t a bad idea). The game was fun when you had teams like the late 80s Cards who could hit for average and steal you to death. The shift really limits that since now we can tell where you hit the ball with a high degree of certainty.

[moonslav59]

Hate the double hook idea and the deeper mound idea. The best idea possible would be to enforce a limited shift. Yes, guys throw harder and yes, hitting is harder, but when you can stack your fielders on one side of the field, it’s clearly made for an impediment to offense that’s changed the game. When MLB rid the world of the rocket ball, they unintentionally made the game less watchable since now there’s very little offense. Stop tinkering with the ball and the mound and the DH (although making it universal isn’t a bad idea). The game was fun when you had teams like the late 80s Cards who could hit for average and steal you to death. The shift really limits that since now we can tell where you hit the ball with a high degree of certainty.

 

They had the shift before, so it really hasn't changed the game, in that way.

 

What has changed is that they do it much more often and to a greater extreme.

 

Players used to be lauded for knowing better where to position themselves. Now, they are told where to stand- almost to the inch.

[moonslav59]

Just have a pitch clock that is enforced.

Make teams have a RP'er ready to come in and put a clock on that, too.

Just those two things would make a huge difference.

 

I'm okay with keeping the min batter rule or maybe limiting the amount of pitchers a team can have on the ML roster, but I don't want extreme measures taken that radically change the game, except for the universal DH which was a major change.

 

The man of second rule is growing on me, and maybe some of these other suggested changes would, too, but let's try simple changes, first.

[notin]

Hate the double hook idea and the deeper mound idea. The best idea possible would be to enforce a limited shift. Yes, guys throw harder and yes, hitting is harder, but when you can stack your fielders on one side of the field, it’s clearly made for an impediment to offense that’s changed the game. When MLB rid the world of the rocket ball, they unintentionally made the game less watchable since now there’s very little offense. Stop tinkering with the ball and the mound and the DH (although making it universal isn’t a bad idea). The game was fun when you had teams like the late 80s Cards who could hit for average and steal you to death. The shift really limits that since now we can tell where you hit the ball with a high degree of certainty.

 

I do frequently try to compare the changes in baseball to other sports and how they handle the situations. Maybe too often. But still, I'm going to do it again.

 

In football - a sport with more rules regarding where players lineup than any other sport and possibly more than all other sports combined - we have seen defense make changes to take away all kinds of offense. I don't know when the prevent defense was started or who was the first coach to put in a nickelback. But I do know these changes were put in to take away some of the most exciting plays in the sport. There is nothing in football more exciting that watching the QB chuck the ball 60 yards downfield to complete a pass and either score a touchdown or at a minimum, get a first down (barring the extremely rare 3-and-61), yet when opposing teams threw double coverage or had extra players back there, we all understood. In fact, we hoped the offense would accept the challenge in front of them rather than complain about how it was ruining the game.

 

But with baseball, suddenly, we don't want the defense to try and prevent scoring?

 

Even though, unlike football, baseball fields do not have consistent and equal dimensions, they are still all very big and they are defended by the same number of players on every team. And maybe, like in football, they need to adjust how they handle the situation. For example. if a football team sees the team has 5 or 6 defensive backs aggressively taking away everything deep, then they have fewer players somewhere else. Hey, no linebackers in the box? Maybe time to run the draw play!

 

And the shift has been around baseball for a long, long time. Even the Williams Shift itself actually predates the career of Ted Williams! It goes back to the 1920's when it was first used against Frederick "Cy" Williams. No one said a thing about it ruining the game for decades, as it was always simply viewed as defenses playing defense.

 

The shift itself is primarily used against left-handed hitters aka the least common ones, but these are still among the best hitters in the world. Dropping down a bunt or going to other way with greater frequency - something many left-handed hitters are very capable of doing - should be the answer. If they are stacking right field, try to hit it to left. If the shortstop is up the middle and the third-baseman has the whole side to defend, go the other way. Hit it where they ain't.

 

The real problem has been the philosophy of hitters and coaches and even some saber-metric types thinking "the one way to beat the shift is to power the ball over the shift. Launch angles and exit velocities are the key." No, those are the traps you have been falling into, because you're still attacking the teeth of the shift.

 

No one shifts on the light-hitting second baseman with single digit home runs over his 5 year career. The players they shift on are players who do rank among the most dangerous hitters in the world and hitters who have made a career learning how to adjust around every prior strategy to nullify them. And they need to learn how to handle this strategy. And if enough of them master the art of hitting away from the shift, the shift will become a lot less prevalent.

 

But until then. it's just defenses playing defense...

Edited April 16, 2021 by notin

[mvp 78]

Interleague games make all kinds of sense.

 

The WS lost its mystique when MLB decided they wanted a more inclusive postseason, which now begin with tiebreakers followed by one game play-ins, followed by DS, LS, and finally the WS. That's after a 162 game regular season which last about 6 months, playing 6 games a week.

 

3 divisions plus one wild card winner is fine by me.

[mvp 78]

Hate the double hook idea and the deeper mound idea. The best idea possible would be to enforce a limited shift. Yes, guys throw harder and yes, hitting is harder, but when you can stack your fielders on one side of the field, it’s clearly made for an impediment to offense that’s changed the game. When MLB rid the world of the rocket ball, they unintentionally made the game less watchable since now there’s very little offense. Stop tinkering with the ball and the mound and the DH (although making it universal isn’t a bad idea). The game was fun when you had teams like the late 80s Cards who could hit for average and steal you to death. The shift really limits that since now we can tell where you hit the ball with a high degree of certainty.

 

I think they may be doing that as well. There was something on the table about forcing all infielders to play on the dirt or closer as well as not allowing more than 2 infielders on either side of 2b.

[mvp 78]

Just have a pitch clock that is enforced.

Make teams have a RP'er ready to come in and put a clock on that, too.

Just those two things would make a huge difference.

 

I'm okay with keeping the min batter rule or maybe limiting the amount of pitchers a team can have on the ML roster, but I don't want extreme measures taken that radically change the game, except for the universal DH which was a major change.

 

The man of second rule is growing on me, and maybe some of these other suggested changes would, too, but let's try simple changes, first.

 

No on mound warmups for a reliever. They should be ready to go once they leave the pen.

[mvp 78]

Just have a pitch clock that is enforced.

Make teams have a RP'er ready to come in and put a clock on that, too.

Just those two things would make a huge difference.

 

I'm okay with keeping the min batter rule or maybe limiting the amount of pitchers a team can have on the ML roster, but I don't want extreme measures taken that radically change the game, except for the universal DH which was a major change.

 

The man of second rule is growing on me, and maybe some of these other suggested changes would, too, but let's try simple changes, first.

 

I'm not super against it. I have half wondered if any game that got past 9 innings gave out a loser's point, but it doesn't feel right.

 

I'm also fine with 7 inning double headers.