New MLB commish wants to change the game....

• like_that

  

  wkfan;1700306 wrote:I went to ONE Browns game....one of the worst sporting event experiences of my life.
  
  Never will go again.

  Are you even a Browns fan? Regardless, at least you went to ONE.
• thavoice

  Hell I even have been to a browns game (not vs steelers) in cleveland once.....
• Al Bundy

  I'd like to see baseball get rid of the in the neighborhood ruling at second base. Can you imagine a football official saying, "He was close enough to the end zone, let's just give him the td."
• wkfan

  like_that;1700309 wrote:Are you even a Browns fan? Regardless, at least you went to ONE.

  Yes, I am a Browns fan...not as big as I once was, however.
  
  The issue was the fans....worst fans I have ever encountered. The guy next to me passed out after puking in his spit cup, I almost got into a fight because I did not stand up the entire game...and these were Browns fans bitching at a Browns fan!
• thavoice

  wkfan;1700317 wrote:Yes, I am a Browns fan...not as big as I once was, however.
  
  The issue was the fans....worst fans I have ever encountered. The guy next to me passed out after puking in his spit cup, I almost got into a fight because I did not stand up the entire game...and these were Browns fans bitching at a Browns fan!

  See IGGY and Footwedge.
  I honestly have never seen fans of the same teams go after eachother more than I do browns fans!
  
  Was it at Municiple in the dawgpound?
• wkfan

  Al Bundy;1700316 wrote:I'd like to see baseball get rid of the in the neighborhood ruling at second base. Can you imagine a football official saying, "He was close enough to the end zone, let's just give him the td."

  This.
  
  Also, the crux of the issue with baseball is that people find it a boring sport. Even those who love the game, like me. Why do they find it boring....it is SSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW.
  
  Here are a couple of suggestions.....
  
  1. Call the strike zone as it is written. Calling a larger strike zone means more strikes called. More strikes called means more swinging and fewer walks. More swinging means more hitting and more scoring. More scoring is less boring!
  2. Somehow make the pitchers pitch faster and the batters not step out, adjust gloves, helmet and crotch between every pitch, etc.
  
  There is no need to do anything with prohibiting shifts or any other strategic moves done by the either the offense or the defense.
  
  Only one other possible suggestion would be for an intentional walk...instead of making the pitcher throw the 4 balls, just send the batter to 1st base. This does not happen that frequently, though.
• wkfan

  thavoice;1700322 wrote:See IGGY and Footwedge.
  I honestly have never seen fans of the same teams go after eachother more than I do browns fans!
  
  Was it at Municiple in the dawgpound?

  No...in Browns Stadium in the upper deck.
• like_that

  

  wkfan;1700317 wrote:Yes, I am a Browns fan...not as big as I once was, however.
  
  The issue was the fans....worst fans I have ever encountered. The guy next to me passed out after puking in his spit cup, I almost got into a fight because I did not stand up the entire game...and these were Browns fans bitching at a Browns fan!

  You sound like our residential *****, cry4fail.
• thavoice

  wkfan;1700336 wrote:This.
  
  Also, the crux of the issue with baseball is that people find it a boring sport. Even those who love the game, like me. Why do they find it boring....it is SSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW.
  
  Here are a couple of suggestions.....
  
  1. Call the strike zone as it is written. Calling a larger strike zone means more strikes called. More strikes called means more swinging and fewer walks. More swinging means more hitting and more scoring. More scoring is less boring!
  2. Somehow make the pitchers pitch faster and the batters not step out, adjust gloves, helmet and crotch between every pitch, etc.
  
  There is no need to do anything with prohibiting shifts or any other strategic moves done by the either the offense or the defense.
  
  Only one other possible suggestion would be for an intentional walk...instead of making the pitcher throw the 4 balls, just send the batter to 1st base. This does not happen that frequently, though.

  1. While the strike zone is smaller than what the rule book says, walks the last two seasons occurred LESS than 8% of the time (7.6 and 7.9%). Going back to 1950, it has never been that low. Last year there was a 20% k rate. It has steadily increased and was less than 10% in 1950. Bigger K zone would = more K's and less hitting actually.
  
  
  
  2. That is the point of a proposed time clock.
• lhslep134

  

  wkfan;1700336 wrote: 2. Somehow make the pitchers pitch faster and the batters not step out, adjust gloves, helmet and crotch between every pitch, etc.
  
  
  Only one other possible suggestion would be for an intentional walk...instead of making the pitcher throw the 4 balls, just send the batter to 1st base. This does not happen that frequently, though.

  I'm all for reducing the time between pitches, i.e. pitch clock and a limit on a batter stepping out of the box.
  
  Also I'm pretty sure they do that already, depending on the situation. A lot of times a manager will have the pitcher throw all 4 pitches, and deliberately slow at that, to give his bullpen pitcher more time to warm up. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure they can opt do it without throwing pitches.
• HitsRus

  

  Al Bundy;1700316 wrote:I'd like to see baseball get rid of the in the neighborhood ruling at second base. Can you imagine a football official saying, "He was close enough to the end zone, let's just give him the td."

  Basically it is a rule just to prevent injuries....and yes the NFL has rules like that...IMO too many of those pussification rules.
• lhslep134

  

  Al Bundy;1700316 wrote:Can you imagine a football official saying, "He was close enough to the end zone, let's just give him the td."

  I can imagine a football official saying he violated the neighborhood rule around the punt returner.
  
  Both are designed to prevent collisions.
• HitsRus

  

  Calling a larger strike zone means more strikes called. More strikes called means more swinging and fewer walks. More swinging means more hitting and more scoring. More scoring is less boring!

  A larger strike zone means more advantage to the pitcher and would make for quicker but less scoring games. Scoring makes longer innings and that takes time. So it is somewhat of an oxymoron here when you (or the commish) says he wants more offense, but shorter games.
  
  Personally, I don't like the postage stamp strike zone, because it has led to an overabundance of mashers vs. finesse hitters.
  
  thevoice mentioned that K's are up to 20%....that's because coaches teach swinging hard on every pitch and no longer have to protect the high end of the zone. And that has led to shifts, because you no longer have guys cutting down their swings to "protect" or trying to just put the ball in play. In fact, it is amazing how few major leaguers can get a ball in play, even when the game depends on it.
• thavoice

  lhslep134;1700347 wrote:I'm all for reducing the time between pitches, i.e. pitch clock and a limit on a batter stepping out of the box.
  
  Also I'm pretty sure they do that already, depending on the situation. A lot of times a manager will have the pitcher throw all 4 pitches, and deliberately slow at that, to give his bullpen pitcher more time to warm up. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure they can opt do it without throwing pitches.

  Pretty sure in MLB you have to throw all 4. 99.9% certain or else they would not do it every time. Yeah, sometimes it is to give the BP guy extra time, but many times it is the same pitcher who stays in.
  
  That argument gets brought up alot to speed up games. That would be very, very margineable as they dont do it often.
• Al Bundy

  thavoice;1700359 wrote:Pretty sure in MLB you have to throw all 4. 99.9% certain or else they would not do it every time. Yeah, sometimes it is to give the BP guy extra time, but many times it is the same pitcher who stays in.
  
  That argument gets brought up alot to speed up games. That would be very, very margineable as they dont do it often.

  The time saved by doing that wouldn't be worth it. An intentional walk happens at most a few times a game, so you would only be saving a couple of minutes in those cases. There are many games that don't have any intentional walks in them.
• Al Bundy

  HitsRus;1700348 wrote:Basically it is a rule just to prevent injuries....and yes the NFL has rules like that...IMO too many of those pussification rules.

  I think that you are confusing subjective calls with objective calls. Whether or not a foot is on the base is an objective call. It is just a terrible rule that should be reviewable.
• thavoice

  The heyday of HR and scoring was in 1999-2000. 5526/5692 HRs and just under 25,000 runs scored.
  Then you know what happened....
  
  2001 MiLB started testing for steriods. HRs in 2002 dropped by 399 down to around 5000. and runs by around 1,800. It obviously got everyone's attention.
  2002-2003 they creaped back up to the 5400 mark.
  
  Then in 2003 MLB started their testing. It was anonymous and a rule stipulated that if 5% or more tested positive then the next year it would become the law of the land. 5% or more tested positive. 2004 they were back to 5400+ HRs. The penalty at that time was counseling/treatment for the first offense and 10 days suspension for the second. Not too much of a deterrent.
  
  
  The next shoe to fall was in 2006 when the suspensions went from 10 up to 50.
  
  2006 say HRs fall by 430 HRs and scoring was down just slightly.
  Since the penalties actually became a true penalty HRs have fallen by 1,200 by the 2014 total, and scoring was below 20,000 runs for the first time since 1995.
  
  
  League avg was .251 last year which was the lowest since the early 70's. 1968 they lowered the mound 5 inches to help hitting.
  
  Steriods helped fuel the offense in MLB and the longer we go without them the lower the offensive numbers become. Hitters are going to have to reinvent themselves.
• thavoice

  HitsRus;1700348 wrote:Basically it is a rule just to prevent injuries....and yes the NFL has rules like that...IMO too many of those pussification rules.

  Yeah, it is to prevent injuries and you really are supposed to be right there and able to touch the bag anyways but I agree sometimes they ring em up with too generous of a gap.
• thavoice

  HitsRus;1700358 wrote:A larger strike zone means more advantage to the pitcher and would make for quicker but less scoring games. Scoring makes longer innings and that takes time. So it is somewhat of an oxymoron here when you (or the commish) says he wants more offense, but shorter games.
  
  Personally, I don't like the postage stamp strike zone, because it has led to an overabundance of mashers vs. finesse hitters.
  
  thevoice mentioned that K's are up to 20%....that's because coaches teach swinging hard on every pitch and no longer have to protect the high end of the zone. And that has led to shifts, because you no longer have guys cutting down their swings to "protect" or trying to just put the ball in play. In fact, it is amazing how few major leaguers can get a ball in play, even when the game depends on it.

  I dont know if there is any way to quantify it, but it seems like nowadays there are more pitchers who are hitting mid 90's. Can you imagine how diff it would be to hit if the zone was as big as the rule book says? Agreed though, for years the mantra was power, power, power, and at every position possible. It will take time before the game totally changes.
  With BBCOR bats in HS and college the kids, and coaches, are learning how to deal with the less pop from the bats. In may just be my sector of the world, but I am seeing more small ball being played at the HS level because the bats just dont jump like they used to.
• lhslep134

  

  thavoice;1700359 wrote:Pretty sure in MLB you have to throw all 4. 99.9% certain or else they would not do it every time. Yeah, sometimes it is to give the BP guy extra time, but many times it is the same pitcher who stays in.
  
  That argument gets brought up alot to speed up games. That would be very, very margineable as they dont do it often.

  This is what I was thinking of:
  
  "However, in 2014, Major League Baseball introduced the "automatic intentional walk" on a test basis in the Arizona Fall League, as part of a set of measures to speed up the flow of the game; in this scenario, the manager signals the home plate umpire by showing four fingers, after which the batter automatically moves to first base without the need to throw any pitches."
• thavoice

  lhslep134;1700374 wrote:This is what I was thinking of:
  
  "However, in 2014, Major League Baseball introduced the "automatic intentional walk" on a test basis in the Arizona Fall League, as part of a set of measures to speed up the flow of the game; in this scenario, the manager signals the home plate umpire by showing four fingers, after which the batter automatically moves to first base without the need to throw any pitches."

  Gotcha. Know they tried the pitch clock as well. It is something they can do and I would have no problem with it, I just didnt think it would do much to speed up the game. To really do it you focus on somethng that happens often, such as in between pitches. Hell, there are times Jay Bruce backs all the way out of the dirt area between some pitches.
• HitsRus

  

  I'm okay with the neighborhood call, as long as it's called consistently...then again I played SS into high school and have a spike mark to prove it.
• wkfan

  like_that;1700340 wrote:You sound like our residential *****, cry4fail.

  And you sound like the middle school graduate, working in a minimum wage dead end job, saved my cigarette change for 2 years to be able to buy a ticket people who were sitting around me.
  
  Thanks God many of the 'fans' left so that I could move during overtime and get away from that trash....
• Al Bundy

  I'd like to see them put the home plate collision back in the game. That used to be one of the most exciting plays in baseball.
  
  I would also like to see both leagues have the same rule in regards to the DH. I would be ok with it either way, but it should be the same.
• lhslep134

  

  HitsRus;1700380 wrote:I'm okay with the neighborhood call, as long as it's called consistently...then again I played SS into high school and have a spike mark to prove it.

  Quit yer bitching. I got a lot of people out at third base by using my lower left leg as a barrier absorbing cleats in front of the bag. Once I showed the umpire the runner never got his foot to the base, ump had no choice but to call him out. Resulted in a good amount of cumulative blood loss, but always worth it.