2022-23 MLB offseason thread

[sc49erfan15]

On 2/4/2023 at 9:55 AM, BBTV said:

Was unable to find the first proposal of the "gorilla rule" (which I think started in my NFL plan, but eventually did make it to MLB and Soccer), but this made me chuckle:
 

 

 

I had forgotten all about this. Re-reading this made my night.

[TrueYankee26]

Silverback gorillas would make a badass mascot, I have only seen Atlanta Silverbacks soccer team use it, and Pittsburg State (Suns too do have one but not on the team logo)

 

[Cujo]

I'm just now finding out about the new MLB schedule where every team plays every team.

 

MLB got this one right, for once.

[Digby]

It took some digesting but I think it'll be the way to do it, with how interleague opponents play just the one series and swap who's at home every year. Four series against your division opponents feels better than six (I could never watch another Red Sox/Orioles game in my life and feel fine) but isn't such a reduction that it wrecks divisional importance.

[BBTV]

 

[Danny the Sheeb]

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-makes-extra-innings-ghost-runner-rule-permanent-for-regular-season-games-per-report/

 

Let me tell you a little story to explain how much I f***ing HATE this rule.

 

So a couple years ago, I was playing high school ball.  My team (which was actually just a random assortment of kids put together by the local Boys & Girls Club) was playing a game against a much better opponent.  By some miracle, we managed to force the game into extra innings.  The ghost runner rule had been a thing at this age level for at least a year or two by this point.  As the visiting team, we batted first and couldn't score a run.  In the bottom half of the frame, our pitcher immediately winged one past the catcher to move the runner to third.  Then, only a couple of pitches later, he committed a balk.  The other team scored WITHOUT A SINGLE BATTER REACHING BASE.

 

That's not baseball.  That's garbage.

 

I despise this rule and will never, ever, EVER see any justification of any sort for it.  You want to make games end sooner?  Work on pace of play instead of worrying about the small percentage of games that actually go into extras.  You don't like the idea of unlimited extras with no ghost runner?  Just incorporate ties.  With the obvious exception of uniform ads, no single decision has made me more angry at MLB since the absolute joke of a COVID """season""" (but that's a rant for another time and place).

 

I love the sport of baseball, but boy is it hard to be a fan of Major League Baseball right now.

 

- Danny

[FiddySicks]

Baseball was already teetering on the brink of collapse as it was, but then they decided to bring in an actual accelerationist as commissioner. Truly stunning how bad of a job Manfred has done since he took over. The game is fundamentally a worse product than it was before he took over. There are a LOT of bad league commissioners out there, but how many can we say actually ruined the fundamentals of the product they were overseeing the way Manfred has? Shameful. 

[TrueYankee26]

MLB made a huge mistake. No one wants the ghost runner.

[BBTV]

3 minutes ago, TrueYankee26 said:

MLB made a huge mistake. No one wants the ghost runner.

 

This post is objectively wrong.

 

I love the ghost runner - and I'm one of the older and more traditionalist members of the forum.

[TrueYankee26]

8 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

This post is objectively wrong.

 

I love the ghost runner - and I'm one of the older and more traditionalist members of the forum.

Ok there is one lol.

 

Still reeks of desparation from MLB to quicken the pace of play because they fear turning away more youth from the game (like me, I am 31). There are better ways.

[Kramerica Industries]

 the owners,  the commissioner,  this league.

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, TrueYankee26 said:

There are better ways.

 

Such as....?

 

It actually has nothing to do with "pace of play".  Think about it - how does it quicken the "pace"?

 

It has to do with two things:

 

1) player health and safety.  There's no need for a game to go 15 innings and a team to burn all its relievers, only to have to come back the next night and pitch guys that probably need rest because they were used in a meaningless 16-inning game.

 

2) length of game.  There's absolutely no need for a regular season game to end after 10:30 (they should probably end at 10:00).  You want for parents to let their kids stay up to watch whole games, which is kinda hard when games go as long as they do.  And you also want to take your kid to a game without ruining his next day of school because he was up too late (let alone your next day at work.)

 

Personally, I find that it adds drama and makes every pitch count.  Also adds a lot of strategy, which is needed since some has been lost due to the DH.

[Dilbert]

Are ol friend Joe West seems to be unhappy that anybody can edit wikipedia.

 

https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2023/02/13/joe-wests-apparent-new-job-in-retirement-pugnacious-editor-of-his-own-wikipedia-page/

[TrueYankee26]

59 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

Such as....?

 

It actually has nothing to do with "pace of play".  Think about it - how does it quicken the "pace"?

 

It has to do with two things:

 

1) player health and safety.  There's no need for a game to go 15 innings and a team to burn all its relievers, only to have to come back the next night and pitch guys that probably need rest because they were used in a meaningless 16-inning game.

 

2) length of game.  There's absolutely no need for a regular season game to end after 10:30 (they should probably end at 10:00).  You want for parents to let their kids stay up to watch whole games, which is kinda hard when games go as long as they do.  And you also want to take your kid to a game without ruining his next day of school because he was up too late (let alone your next day at work.)

 

Personally, I find that it adds drama and makes every pitch count.  Also adds a lot of strategy, which is needed since some has been lost due to the DH.

Yes I meant length of the game there but I like that baseball is not like the other sports with a game clock. I also dislike banning the shift, hitters have to adjust; imagine banning the blitz in football? Bigger bases, alright. Universal DH, hell yes I am absolutely for it. I like the pitch clock if they absolutely have to make the game go faster

[BBTV]

28 minutes ago, TrueYankee26 said:

Yes I meant length of the game there but I like that baseball is not like the other sports with a game clock. I also dislike banning the shift, hitters have to adjust; imagine banning the blitz in football? Bigger bases, alright. Universal DH, hell yes I am absolutely for it. I like the pitch clock if they absolutely have to make the game go faster

 

I am also against legislating where people stand on a baseball field, but at the same time, I want to see more action and I don't want big-meaty home-run hitters have to adjust their swing so they can hit weak grounders down the 3b line to beat the shift, or bunt like Bryce does periodically.  

 

I don't see any parallels to banning the shift to banning the blitz.  A better comparison would be changing the rules on where receivers can be in order to be eligible or rules on motion - which the league has done as the game has evolved.  

 

Baseball is the only game that hasn't evolved as times change, as athletes change, and as fans change.  There's some charm in that, and I don't blame anyone who loves baseball for that very reason.  I used to be one of those people, but as I get older, I find that I have less patience to waste what time is remaining in my life watching Ryan Howard bat .200 because he lined out 50 times to a shortstop playing in short right field.

 

EDIT;

banning the shift is also closer to the NBA changing the size of the lane because Wilt Chamberlain was too good, or the NHL restricting where goalies can play the puck from, or the NHL banning the neutral-zone trap.  Again, MLB is the only sport that hasn't changed with the times.  If you like that, that's totally cool.

[TrueYankee26]

14 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

I am also against legislating where people stand on a baseball field, but at the same time, I want to see more action and I don't want big-meaty home-run hitters have to adjust their swing so they can hit weak grounders down the 3b line to beat the shift, or bunt like Bryce does periodically.  

 

I don't see any parallels to banning the shift to banning the blitz.  A better comparison would be changing the rules on where receivers can be in order to be eligible or rules on motion - which the league has done as the game has evolved.  

 

Baseball is the only game that hasn't evolved as times change, as athletes change, and as fans change.  There's some charm in that, and I don't blame anyone who loves baseball for that very reason.  I used to be one of those people, but as I get older, I find that I have less patience to waste what time is remaining in my life watching Ryan Howard bat .200 because he lined out 50 times to a shortstop playing in short right field.

 

EDIT;

banning the shift is also closer to the NBA changing the size of the lane because Wilt Chamberlain was too good, or the NHL restricting where goalies can play the puck from, or the NHL banning the neutral-zone trap.  Again, MLB is the only sport that hasn't changed with the times.  If you like that, that's totally cool.

I get it. Heck, in some ways I want it to change with the times (I am pro-universal DH and as a fan of an American League team I am most familiar with the DH and prefer that, and usually I am not keen on analytics, I like just the basic stats and the eye test), but another part of me that is prevailing fears baseball would lose its soul by changing something that I believe is fundamental to the game, you have to earn getting on base (another reason why I dislike the GR) or banning the shift. I am a bit mixed, some things I agree with traditionalists and others I agree with the new school fans.

[tBBP]

7 hours ago, TrueYankee26 said:

Ok there is one lol.

 

Still reeks of desparation from MLB to quicken the pace of play because they fear turning away more youth from the game (like me, I am 31). There are better ways.

 

5 hours ago, BBTV said:

 

Such as....?

 

How about putting in this guy instead??

 

 

 

[fortunat1]

At the end of the day, I view baseball as entertainment; something people can watch for enjoyment and some action. In my eyes, baseball fails to be entertaining when you have to watch 12+ innings of <2 run baseball. Despite being pretty invested in baseball for the last few seasons, my interest has begun to dwindle based solely on the lack of action. The overly long games and lack of offense make it difficult to be engaged, and I'm sure that more casual fans feel the same way as well. I understand that not everyone feels the same way that I do, and that baseball isn't meant to be as exciting or intense as other sports, but I think that the MLB is moving in the right direction by attempting to eliminate the negative aspects of the game.

 

Ideally the MLB would find a way to appeal to both new fans and diehard fans, but that's a tall task that takes years of work. You have to start somewhere though, and I think that things like the ghost runner and shift-ban are moves that will ultimately make the game more appealing to people like me. Hopefully the league can balance the identity of being America's classic pastime while still adapting to the modern issues that they are facing.

[GDAWG]

Since pitchers and catchers are reporting:

 

[OnWis97]

As a traditionalist, I don't like the runner on second. That said, there absolutely need to be measures taken to reduce the length of games. If the ghost runner reduces the length of extra-inning games, than I can accept it. What I would rather to to prevent regular-season games from going super long is have them end in a tie after, say, 12 innings. American fans tend to be very averse to ties, though, so that's probably a non-starter. A cap on possible innings would be great for managing pitching staffs and the bench and would prevent the most ridiculous of the ridiculously late games. Maybe the popularity of soccer will reduce our aversion to ties.

That all said, I think that the primary problem with game length occurs in innings 1-9. The real challenge is how to speed that up...pace-of-play to 1) keep fans interested and 2) make a 3.5-hour nine-inning game a rarity. As a traditionalist, I accept that something has to give, even if I don't know what it is. Hopefully that can include finding a way to have more balls in play. Right now they all go over a wall, fair our foul.

Pitching to contact, stealing bases, hit-and-run, small ball...these were always bad strategies. But the game sure was fun...