2019 Baseball season (1 Viewer)

[marco55]

Get used to it. The man on second in extra innings is here to stay; there is little sense in playing inning after inning - this rule gets rid if it. The 7 inning double headers is a possibility and there will be some sort of expanded playoffs although maybe not in this guise.

I don't have to get used to it it's my choice.If they want to lose lifelong baseball fans that's up to them but they can't afford to lose too many.
Mark

 

[jazzeum]

I don't have to get used to it it's my choice.If they want to lose lifelong baseball fans that's up to them but they can't afford to lose too many.
Mark

It’s a rule that I’m sure is here to stay. I agree it’s your choice and you can choose not to like it by not watching games. That is completely your choice. However, if you watch you are going to have to accept or acknowledge it’s existence. I don’t like the shift but I accept that’s it’s part of today’s game.

 

[marco55]

I don't like giving someone help like this,they should have to earn it.
Mark

 

[Louis Badolato]

It’s a rule that I’m sure is here to stay. I agree it’s your choice and you can choose not to like it by not watching games. That is completely your choice. However, if you watch you are going to have to accept or acknowledge it’s existence. I don’t like the shift but I accept that’s it’s part of today’s game.

Fans get to vote with their wallet. This is not the all-powerful NFL that has such lucrative TV contracts that they can afford to completely ignore their fan base. If attendance in stadiums and TV ratings (which are already down) dip further, because the lifelong fans like myself stop paying for their season tickets and stop watching games, MLB can and will change the rules. The long coming universal DH (the one change I like this season), which many fans have been calling for since interleague play began, has finally come to baseball. If you recall, the fan outcry about how bad the umpiring has been led to instant replay, and if Covid had not wiped out the minor league season, they were going to test electric eye strike calls this season at one level of the minors. The more fans who see how regularly incorrect the umpires are at calling balls and strikes via K-zone, the more MLB will be pushed to change this rule as well. All it would take is enough people voting with their pocket books and the shift will be banned. And not a moment too soon. I almost wish I hadn't already used my credit from this year's season ticket package to purchase next years.

 

[Warrior]

It’s a rule that I’m sure is here to stay. I agree it’s your choice and you can choose not to like it by not watching games. That is completely your choice. However, if you watch you are going to have to accept or acknowledge it’s existence. I don’t like the shift but I accept that’s it’s part of today’s game.

The new rules are idiotic, you're taking away the human element of the game; baseball is the one sport with no clock, the game ends when the home team makes the final out either in the top of the inning or the bottom or scores a run and a walk off win.

I don't like college football OT either, you start at the 30; you should have to earn that field position, just like you should have to earn a runner on second base.

Call me old school, that's fine with me.

Dumb, idiotic and moronic ideas.

And leave it to the RS, they won 5 out of their last 6 and finished 18-18 after a horrible start, they can't even tank the right way to get a top draft pick.

 

[Panzer ace]

I’d like to see how the expanded playoffs work in a full season.

A 60 game season doesn’t provide enough games to fully evaluate the concept.

 

[jazzeum]

As a follow up to yesterday’s discussion, according to an article in Monday’s New York Times, Manfred hopes to keep the expanded playoffs in the future but at 14 teams, instead of 16, subject to agreement with the Union.

 

[marco55]

Not liking that.That's strike 2. 14 out of 30 teams making the playoffs is ridiculous.
Mark

 

[Warrior]

As a follow up to yesterday’s discussion, according to an article in Monday’s New York Times, Manfred hopes to keep the expanded playoffs in the future but at 14 teams, instead of 16, subject to agreement with the Union.

You'd think the union would go along with it; more games, more money, but from what I've read, they are\ not keen on the idea as it minimizes the importance of the regular season, they are worried salaries will drop and some specialists like bullpen arms will be short changed.

Money, money, money; it's all about money.

 

[jazzeum]

It’s always about the money.

 

[theBaron]

Brad,

...Baseball needs other changes, like taking ball and strike calls away from umpires and using an "electric eye" to get called balls and strikes correct 100% of the time, which would solve the related problem of hypersensative (and generally bad) umpire's right to throw people out of the game for arguing balls and strikes. I watch these games with the electric eye box in place, and the Umpires get close calls (within about 6 inches of the edges of the box) wrong about 50% of the time. Its especially bad where the catcher needs to reach for the ball. A pitch well within the strike zone will almost always be called a ball if the catcher has to reach across the plate to catch it. And don't get me started on how easily the umpires are fooled by catchers framing pitches. In the 80's and the 90's the strike zone was called incorrectly wide, now it is called incorrectly high and low. Getting the strike zone correct, so it is fair for pitchers and hitters every day, and does not change with a mercurial umpire's mood, is essential as far as I'm concerned. The other day an umpire called a pitch that literally crossed the plate at the top of Aaron Judge's ankle guard (at least 8-10 inches below his knee) strike 3. Umpires are not the "human element" of the game I pay for season tickets to see. If a highly skilled player makes an error or baserunning mistake, that is the "human element" I am willing to accept. Umpires changing the outcomes of games by screwing up the strikezone needs to go.

I agree, Louis. Calling the strike zone badly is the root cause for the rise in the number of pitches thrown, as batters foul off questionable pitches and pitchers have to throw more. None-not one-of the measures that MLB has implemented to resolve the length of games addresses this, not limiting mound visits, not restricting a manager's ability to replace pitchers, not the ghost man rule, not the pitch clock (still being tested in the minors). None of these things has led to a shortening of the game, because in the end, pitchers are still throwing more pitches per inning than they did only a few years ago. Until MLB addresses the inability of the umpires to call the strike zone as defined and consistently, nothing they do will resolve the issue and certainly not improve the game.

Personally, I'd like to see baseball adopt the third strike foul rule that softball has-if a batter has 2 strikes and his a foul ball, it's strike 3 and he's out. That would speed up the game. An at bat would be 6 pitches at the most.

Prost!
Brad

 

[marco55]

I know that I'm in the minority but I see no need to speed up the game.The purpose of watching a game for me is sitting back (or laying) relaxing and forgetting about everything else for 2-3 hours.If your wanting to hurry it up and getting the game over you might as well not even watch it. Just my 2 cents.
Mark

 

[Louis Badolato]

I agree, Louis. Calling the strike zone badly is the root cause for the rise in the number of pitches thrown, as batters foul off questionable pitches and pitchers have to throw more. None-not one-of the measures that MLB has implemented to resolve the length of games addresses this, not limiting mound visits, not restricting a manager's ability to replace pitchers, not the ghost man rule, not the pitch clock (still being tested in the minors). None of these things has led to a shortening of the game, because in the end, pitchers are still throwing more pitches per inning than they did only a few years ago. Until MLB addresses the inability of the umpires to call the strike zone as defined and consistently, nothing they do will resolve the issue and certainly not improve the game.

Personally, I'd like to see baseball adopt the third strike foul rule that softball has-if a batter has 2 strikes and his a foul ball, it's strike 3 and he's out. That would speed up the game. An at bat would be 6 pitches at the most.

Prost!
Brad

Brad,

I agree with everything else you say, but the softball rule is just too big of a change for me to accept in baseball. A batter's ability to foul off tough pitches until he gets one he can handle is part of his skill set. I think using "K-zone" technology to get the ball and strike calls correct every time would speed up the game.

 

[Warrior]

I have no confidence in the Yankees doing anything in the post-season. After their walking wounded returned, they looked like they got their game back in winning 10-in-a-row, but then stumbled to the finish line with a 2-6 record in the last 8 games, with their bats completely silent in the six losses. In fact they went six straight games without hitting a single homer. That was pretty disturbing, considering they have the major league batting champ in D.J. LeMaheiu, and the home run king in Luke Voight (second in the league in RBI's as well). Part of the story is their allegedly all star catcher Gary Sanchez posting the lowest batting average for a qualifying player in major league history (.148). Their bull pen also dramatically underachieved. They needed help from the lowly Orioles to not drop to third place in the East and the 8th cede in the playoffs as they were shut out by a scrappy Marlins team in their last game of the season. I see them getting quietly eliminated in Cleveland. Rays vs. Dodgers in the World Series.

You are the biggest reverse lock in the history of sports; the Yankees burped and farted their way down the stretch, barely hit any home runs and limped into the post season.........so what happens; lead off base hit and then Quasimodo hits one to Toledo.....................

Yeah, they have no shot.............:rolleyes2::rolleyes2::rolleyes2::rolleyes2:

 

[mikemiller1955]

Brad,

I agree with everything else you say, but the softball rule is just too big of a change for me to accept in baseball. A batter's ability to foul off tough pitches until he gets one he can handle is part of his skill set. I think using "K-zone" technology to get the ball and strike calls correct every time would speed up the game.

it would not only speed it up pace of play...
it would make it level for all pitchers eliminating the umpires countless mistakes...
and the umpires personal idea of what the strike zones is that night...

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/mlb-umpires-strike-zone-accuracy

 

[Warrior]

Question; "How do you know it's October?"
Answer; "Cleveland, Minnesota and Oakland are all losing in the playoffs"

 

[Warrior]

You are the biggest reverse lock in the history of sports; the Yankees burped and farted their way down the stretch, barely hit any home runs and limped into the post season.........so what happens; lead off base hit and then Quasimodo hits one to Toledo.....................

Yeah, they have no shot.............:rolleyes2::rolleyes2::rolleyes2::rolleyes2:

The Yankees have hit more home runs tonight than they did in their last 8 games.

 

[jazzeum]

Rob Manfred was on The Big Time Baseball podcast on Monday with Jon Heyman and Tony Gwynn Jr. and he indicated that he liked the concept of expanded playoffs although what the number of teams would be is still to be determined. Of the three rules implemented for this season — extra inning rule, DH in the NL and seven inning Doubleheaders — he thought the rule with the best chance to be adopted was the first one and the one least likely to be adopted was the Doubleheader one. The NL DH rule is the one open to question. That last response surprised me because the DH is a rule that should be adopted by the NL; it’s the only league in organized baseball that doesn’t use it. As the saying goes, one is a lonely number.

 

[Panzer ace]

Doubleheaders are rare and changing them to 7 innings upsets the history of the game.

For example many no hitters are broken up in the 8th inning or later.

 

[Combat]

Did the Brewers find a time portal back to the 70s in those funky uniforms last night? I only watched one at bat in the entire game but the guy batting for Milwaukee was in Chris Farley-like condition. He looked like the guy in charge of the beer keg in a softball league.