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The original rules of baseball were in competitive balance, and became a popular game because it was fair and balanced. It required no tinkering, and went for decades without any rule changes. A game lasted about long as a B Movie -- the first one I attended, in 1949, lasted 1:38. Between innings, 60 seconds. Same for pitching change. A game has 17 inning breaks and five Chevy calls to the bullpen, 44 minutes, nearly half a game time, for TV ads. They'll shorten a game 44 minutes by making the bases 3 inches bigger? There's an elephant in the room.
The game probly does need a pitch clock, because managers abused it. Eddie Stanky was personally responsible for three rule changes I know about, and once had a forfeit against him on an unwritten rule.. There's a rule against Eddie Gaedel but not Aaron Judge.
Baseball rules were once for the players, fair and competitive, and fans loved it for that reason. But now it is played for the paying customers and fans hate it it for that reason. And they think they can fix it making them stand in boxes. Even the catcher's box makes no sense. They abolish the IP, but kept the catcher's box.
[quote=TheseGoTo11;64942302]Interesting that these are very close to the numbers so far for spring training vs. last year in MLB.
Big fan of the pitch clock, has been a noticeable improvement in the spring training games I've watched.[/QUOTE
The pitch clock and the rule where the catcher can no longer physically block the plate is the ONLY changes that I'm fine with over the last few years. Oh, one other thing. All trash cans in the dugouts have to be breakable plastic (thanks Houston Astros). Otherwise, leave the game alone. Quit ruining it.
Saw where the Red Sox already did a work-around with the shift. Joey Gallo up to bat , they moved the CF player to a short RF position, and the LF guy to CF. Of course if Gallo hits to the opposite field down the 3rd base line, may be a triple or inside the park homer.
I walked over to the stadium to catch the Braves game a couple of days ago.
I like the pitch clock. I saw a Twins hitter get called out because he wasn't in the batters box & ready to hit at the 8 second mark...he just walked back to the dugout with a dumfounded look on his face.
The game moved along really well...and my Braves won 7-5, so I'm happy.
I saw Olsen and Riley both go deep, & Riley's ball was estimated to be a 460' blast. It almost went over the giant Green center field wall they use as a backdrop for hitters.
So.. With the pitch clock.. If there's another of those situations where bugs are swarming the batter or pitcher..
They have something spelled out for what happens then? I mean, I can easily see either calling time in that situation just from a bug in the eye or down the throat or something.
While I don't think a pitch clock is inherently good or bad.. I think it's a good idea to try because SOMETHING needs to change. But.. I also leave open for the 'odd' situations that do happen. I mean.. Sometimes, a batter is going to have a sneeze coming on and you want to say "Hey.. Hold up a sec here, let me sneeze first"
Can batters/pitchers still get a timeout in the event some.. Oddity happens?
We went to the Spring Training game yesterday between the Pirates and the Blue Jays. Unlike the last time we went, 11 years ago, the game was not sold out. That being said, we had fun.
Here are a few takes. The Pitch Clock was ok. There is also a 2 minute clock between innings. And a timer for warming up pitchers during the inning. The Blue Jays were the only ones who pulled the pitcher who was struggling mid-inning. Result, the time of the game was about 2 hours. Start to finish. That was ok I guess. Used to a three hour game growing up, so no big deal. But in a society where TV and video games have brought the attention span way down to a few minutes, the game is trying to speed up to keep up.
Disagree with the shift rule. Also disagree highly with the pickoff rule. That is baseball, pitcher trying to keep the runner from getting a free base.
Probably the two things I hate most are the round robin inter-league games. While this may appeal to some of the younger fans and will draw out fans of , say the METS who have relocated to Texas, the old timer baseball purist in me dislikes the way that it decreases league games and shortens rivalries. FOR example, the Red Sox and Yankees played 19 times last year, but only 12 times this year. The expense of making the Yankees play the Marlins and the Diamonbacks is that they get fewer games vs division rivals.
While MLB is desperate to sell more tickets, and nothing wrong with that, the later problem is that a team may make the extended playoffs by winning games against teams in the other league as opposed to teams in their own league, and again, baseball purists such as myself have also spoken out. It was a problem from the beginning, according to this article from ten years ago
I think the 162 games should be focusing on the league opponents, in my opinion, and they should go back to letting the ALl Star Game winner get the 4 home game advantage for their league in the world series. They also should ditch all the inter-league games and let the teams focus on division rivals. Let the Rangers and Angels duke it out for 3rd place, and let the Rays and the a's have plenty of chances to decide who has the worst stadium in major league baseball.
Just my opinion, and honestly, if we had a venue here that was not so horrible in every way for baseball, I would go more often like I did when I lived elsewhere.
The new rule: Pickoffs are one version of a "disengagement," which consists of any time the pitcher makes a pickoff attempt, fakes a pickoff, or simply steps off the rubber for any reason, as well as when the defense requests time. Pitchers are allowed two disengagements per plate appearance without penalty. The disengagements rule resets if a runner or runners advance a base within the same plate appearance.
So after the pitcher has stepped off twice, what's to stop the runner from just taking off the moment the pitcher steps onto the mound? Especially if the pitcher is prohibited from pitching under the "quick pitch" rule? The pitcher is "locked". Can't step off and can't pitch. Only defense is to not make pickoff attempts unless it's a sure thing.
The new rule: Pickoffs are one version of a "disengagement," which consists of any time the pitcher makes a pickoff attempt, fakes a pickoff, or simply steps off the rubber for any reason, as well as when the defense requests time. Pitchers are allowed two disengagements per plate appearance without penalty. The disengagements rule resets if a runner or runners advance a base within the same plate appearance.
So after the pitcher has stepped off twice, what's to stop the runner from just taking off the moment the pitcher steps onto the mound? Especially if the pitcher is prohibited from pitching under the "quick pitch" rule? The pitcher is "locked". Can't step off and can't pitch. Only defense is to not make pickoff attempts unless it's a sure thing.
The catch is, no penalty is applied if the pitcher's disengagement results in an out or at least one baserunner advances during the disengagement. So two prior disengagements is not necessarily a free pass for the baserunner(s).
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