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7 minutes ago, FiddySicks said:


Why even bother when they’re going to have to change in a few years anyway? 

 

Change? Is Oakland getting a new stadium or something?

 

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30 minutes ago, Cujo said:

Change? Is Oakland getting a new stadium or something?

They've got a plan in place for a new park at Howard Terminal that seems to be a-go, even if it was delayed a bit, and they're hoping for it to get the final approval from City Council sometime this year.

 

Can't see the A's wanting out of Oakland while this ball is rolling, though, which is what I assume Fiddy was referring to.

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They’ve been trying to get a new ballpark approved for like a quarter of a century now. I’ll believe it when I see it. 

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On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
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The Twins are 5-0-3.

Disclaimer: If this comment is about an NBA uniform from 2017-2018 or later, do not constitute a lack of acknowledgement of the corporate logo to mean anything other than "the corporate logo is terrible and makes the uniform significantly worse."

 

BADGERS TWINS VIKINGS TIMBERWOLVES WILD

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https://www.atlanticleague.com/news/index.html?article_id=1577

 

 

Atlantic League to test two new rules for MLB.

 

1.  Moving the pitching rubber back 12 inches to 61’6” will provide batters with more time to react to pitches. The expectation is that more reaction time will help batters make contact more frequently, putting more balls into play, and creating more action in the game.

 

2.  Once a team’s starting pitcher is replaced, the team will lose its Designated Hitter for the remainder of the game. The Club will be required to use a pinch hitter, or the relief pitcher will bat.

 

New Rule 1 seems pretty stupid.  New Rule 2 seems awesome.

 

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New rule 1 is a terrible idea that I predict will not only not solve the problem, it'll make it worse. A foot is a massive distance when it comes to pitching. When I heard they were going to move the rubber back I thought they meant like 1-2 inches to account for the growth in the size of pitchers over the decades. One foot might as well be five feet. There will be more walks, more strikeouts, more pitcher injuries, and with more time to react probably more home runs. There's like 8 things you should do first before altering the fundamental shape of the playing surface. I've come around on banning the shift. Just do that so left handed batters can play the game again. 

 

New Rule 2 - Not sure why that wasn't always the rule in the AL, but at this point I think it's overthinking it. Just use the AL's DH system in the NL. Don't make it hard. 

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I think "altering the fundamental shape of the playing surface" is a better idea than legislating where players can and can't stand.  I like that a team could, if it wanted to, have 7 right fielders, a pitcher, and a catcher.  It would be ridiculous, but they should be able to do it.

 

Changing the playing surface happens in all sports as times change.  The NBA widened the lane because of Wilt Chamberlain, the NHL has made multiple changes, and the NFL has moved the goal posts (and they should do it again.)

 

When these rules and dimensions were designed, the game was played by average-ass white guys who could barely hit 90MPH.  Maybe one guy could hit 100.  Now pretty much everyone throws in the high 90s and it's totally normal for a guy to hit 103.  As players evolve, the rules should too.  Most NBA centers are close to (if not taller than) 7' and come from all over the world, but when Naismith invented the game, it was just dopey white guys chucking a rock at a peach basket.  

 

I don't know if a foot is significant or not - but it's good that they're testing it out somewhere so they can collect the data needed to decide if to try it at a higher level.  My only problem with it is that it could have an affect on young pitchers' arms if they're trained to throw from 61'6" and then get called up and have to re-train themselves for 60'6"..

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7 minutes ago, BBTV said:

I think "altering the fundamental shape of the playing surface" is a better idea than legislating where players can and can't stand.  I like that a team could, if it wanted to, have 7 right fielders, a pitcher, and a catcher.  It would be ridiculous, but they should be able to do it.

 

Changing the playing surface happens in all sports as times change.  The NBA widened the lane because of Wilt Chamberlain, the NHL has made multiple changes, and the NFL has moved the goal posts (and they should do it again.)

 

When these rules and dimensions were designed, the game was played by average-ass white guys who could barely hit 90MPH.  Maybe one guy could hit 100.  Now pretty much everyone throws in the high 90s and it's totally normal for a guy to hit 103.  As players evolve, the rules should too.  Most NBA centers are close to (if not taller than) 7' and come from all over the world, but when Naismith invented the game, it was just dopey white guys chucking a rock at a peach basket.  

 

I don't know if a foot is significant or not - but it's good that they're testing it out somewhere so they can collect the data needed to decide if to try it at a higher level.  My only problem with it is that it could have an affect on young pitchers' arms if they're trained to throw from 61'6" and then get called up and have to re-train themselves for 60'6"..

 

Legislating where players can and can't stand happens all the time in sports too. There's illegal defenses in basketball and football and in hockey you can't just skate where ever you want all the time. If we're going to do the "But in Other Sports" thing we can do that with banning the shift too.

 

I used to be pro-shift, but in the last few years I'm tired of watching left handed batters either strikeout attempting to hit opposite field, hit home runs, or hit it into a wall of fielders. I'm the guy who thinks the NHL needs to grow the nets by 1 inch on all sides so I'm not opposed to changing dimensions. I'm saying if the problem is that there's too many walks, too many strikeouts, and too few balls in play (and I do think this is one of game's biggest problems) then there's better solutions than moving the rubber that far.

 

I'm curious, what's your suggestion for moving the goalposts further in the NFL? Narrower goalposts or further back? 

 

 

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The best solution for MLB is also the most impractical one: Making the fields bigger. And I'm talking first half of the 20th Century-type big. Left field in Joe DiMaggio's day was a canyon. You make hitting home runs harder to do, you force teams to find other ways to generate run scoring. It would also make the actual act of hitting home runs a bit more special again if they weren't as common as they are. 

 

But it goes without saying why this is a difficult thing to do. Modern day stadiums aren't designed for this. The archaic stadiums in baseball today were built the way they were to fit into the street boundaries surrounding them. It also pushes fans in the outfield and down the left and right field lines further away as well. It's...not practical. But in an ideal world, that's about as good of a solution I could think of. 

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4 hours ago, CS85 said:

https://www.atlanticleague.com/news/index.html?article_id=1577

 

 

Atlantic League to test two new rules for MLB.

 

1.  Moving the pitching rubber back 12 inches to 61’6” will provide batters with more time to react to pitches. The expectation is that more reaction time will help batters make contact more frequently, putting more balls into play, and creating more action in the game.

 

2.  Once a team’s starting pitcher is replaced, the team will lose its Designated Hitter for the remainder of the game. The Club will be required to use a pinch hitter, or the relief pitcher will bat.

 

New Rule 1 seems pretty stupid.  New Rule 2 seems awesome.

 

New Rule 1, sh**.

 

I've been saying New Rule 2 for years! I prefer the NL style, no DH, but I'm also a realist and know it's probably coming. So having the DH ONLY for the starting pitcher combines the best of both. It's an AL game, no pitchers batting, up until there's a change (I'd exclude injuries), then it's NL-style managing. You can double-switch the DH into the field if it's a bat they want to keep in the line-up. Plus, relief pitchers rarely ever bat anyway.

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If they want to help the batters out, stop calling these pitches strikes.

 

 

Is Rule #2 an attempt to address any specific problem (such as openers or starters not pitching deep into games)?  Or just to expand the DH to both leagues and keep those who oppose somewhat happy?

 

edit: Disregard the last part since the article explains why, which is to compromise between historical AL and NL rules and to incentivize starters pitching deeper into games.  I really like that rule.

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They need to superimpose two graphics:  One that is what the actual strikezone is, another that is the umpire's zone as the game goes on. 

 

The latter zone would probably look like an amoeba or something, but it would certainly be interesting to see as the game goes on just how badly many of these umpires do when calling Balls and Strikes because they have no discipline to the real strikezone. 

 

 

And honestly if having a robot calling actual balls and strikes means an umpire strike, :censored: 'em.  There's plenty of non-union baseball umpires who love the sport enough to be ushered into the bigs and let an earpiece or other indicator tell them ye or nay.

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Bo Bichette joined Joe DiMaggio with 14 multi extra base hits in his first 87 games. He's going to continue to be a special player. There's so much talent for the Jays; the sky's the limit. (But, I think this year will involve more growing pains as they continue to grow as a team. I think their window starts to open next year in 2022.)

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8 hours ago, Sport said:

 

Legislating where players can and can't stand happens all the time in sports too. There's illegal defenses in basketball and football and in hockey you can't just skate where ever you want all the time. If we're going to do the "But in Other Sports" thing we can do that with banning the shift too.

 

I used to be pro-shift, but in the last few years I'm tired of watching left handed batters either strikeout attempting to hit opposite field, hit home runs, or hit it into a wall of fielders. I'm the guy who thinks the NHL needs to grow the nets by 1 inch on all sides so I'm not opposed to changing dimensions. I'm saying if the problem is that there's too many walks, too many strikeouts, and too few balls in play (and I do think this is one of game's biggest problems) then there's better solutions than moving the rubber that far.

 

I'm curious, what's your suggestion for moving the goalposts further in the NFL? Narrower goalposts or further back? 

 

 

 

I'd make the goal posts slightly narrower.  I think that would have been a better solution than moving the extra point try back.  

 

The goal posts were designed for fat straight-on kickers who may have also been playing a real position too.  Whoever invented the goalposts never imagined that kickers would be so well-trained and so specialized that team strategy would devolve to just getting to the 40 yard line to try a 57-yard field goal.

 

Players change, the game changes, and sometimes the field needs to as well.  I don't know that the mound needs to be moved back - it's honestly not something I had thought of - but I don't think the idea of messing with fields should be dismissed.

 

Honest question - if humans evolved to where average male height was 6'5", and there were lots of 9'-tall guys that basically just dropped the ball into the basket, wouldn't that basically be a different game than what we have now?  Wouldn't raising the net and widening the lane and court bring the game back closer to how it was originally intended?

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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I would actually modify the football goal posts so that the crossbar is higher. That would have a greater effect on field goal lengths. 

Baseball has already lowered the mound so modifying the distance is not as far fetch as an idea as I first thought. But baseball is unique in the sense that the playing surface varies. However some of the aspects are questionable. One thing I would have has standards on is how far the seats are from the outfield. If you don't want fan interference, don't put seats there?

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12 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

Players change, the game changes, and sometimes the field needs to as well.  I don't know that the mound needs to be moved back - it's honestly not something I had thought of - but I don't think the idea of messing with fields should be dismissed.

 

Honest question - if humans evolved to where average male height was 6'5", and there were lots of 9'-tall guys that basically just dropped the ball into the basket, wouldn't that basically be a different game than what we have now?  Wouldn't raising the net and widening the lane and court bring the game back closer to how it was originally intended?

 

This is the reason I want the NHL to increase net size by a couple inches. Goalies are on average something like 6 inches bigger without equipment than they were 50 years ago. With better, bigger, lighter equipment, along with better training by better athletes the amount of available net space is tiny compared to what the Original 6 guys were dealing with. It's basically twice as hard to score now than it was in the 80's, and that's before you factor in that every other player on the ice is also bigger, but the ice surface is the same size. We're at the point where a change is necessary. A small change, though. 

 

Hockey has tried everything else to solve the problem including equipment limitations before going to changing the size of something that's been constant for over a century. With baseball I'd prefer trying some other things first before we mess with the rubber distance. What's the average pitcher's height and arm length compared to 50 years ago? It's not a literal foot bigger, is it?12 whole inches is a drastic overcorrection. I was thinking more like 2 inches. 

 

To answer your question about basketball, yeah I do think eventually we'll see the NBA go to a bigger courts and taller baskets. Eventually all these sports will have to adapt their playing surfaces and equipment to account for the physical changes of the players, but they should do it incrementally.

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