2022-23 MLB offseason thread

[Sec19Row53]

5 minutes ago, OnWis97 said:

[1] As a traditionalist, I don't like the runner on second. [2]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. [3] 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. [4]The real challenge is how to speed that up...pace-of-play to 1) [5]keep fans interested and 2) [6]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. [7]But the game sure was fun...

Specific points

1 - Co-signed

2 - Absolutely agree

3 - You lost me here. Soccer isn't as popular as its fans believe that it is. Regardless, what works in one sport doesn't apply to another. If it did, then the NFL (and NHL) never would have had ties because baseball (and basketball) didn't.

4 - Yup

5 - I'm more ambivalent on this one. I agree that fans have to care about baseball, but not all fans lose interest in a game that many people would consider boring or one that causes them to lose interest. We can't fix a problem by changing what we think interests fans if that interest isn't shared by some overwhelming percentage of the fanbase.

6 - See 1 and 2 above

7 - see 6

[Sport]

The pitch clock is going to help with the pace of play, but the shift ban resulting in more hits by lefties might offset any time saved. It'll be interesting to see what our game length numbers are when we have a good sample size by the middle of the season. 

 

To me the extra innings runner is a solution in search of a problem. Very few games actually ever reach the 13th or later innings. I wish they'd at least let them go through the 10th, 11th, and 12th innings like normal before resorting to the Random Variance Creator.

 

Minor nitpick: It's not a "Ghostrunner". Stop calling it that. A ghostrunner is when you don't have enough players for a full game or practice so you have empty bases function as if an imaginary runner was there. This is a guy who starts on second for no good reason, but he is a very real human baserunner. 

[OnWis97]

7 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Specific points

1 - Co-signed

2 - Absolutely agree

3 - You lost me here. Soccer isn't as popular as its fans believe that it is. Regardless, what works in one sport doesn't apply to another. If it did, then the NFL (and NHL) never would have had ties because baseball (and basketball) didn't.

4 - Yup

5 - I'm more ambivalent on this one. I agree that fans have to care about baseball, but not all fans lose interest in a game that many people would consider boring or one that causes them to lose interest. We can't fix a problem by changing what we think interests fans if that interest isn't shared by some overwhelming percentage of the fanbase.

6 - See 1 and 2 above

7 - see 6

3. I absolutely think ties in MLB are a non-starter. I know I am in the minority (to say the least).

5. That's an interesting point. I love a 2.5-hour nine-inning pitchers' dual that ends 1-0 or 2-1. And there definitely has to be a balance between attracting casual fans and keeping the game to mostly what it ought to be. I definitely don't want to see games be 15-9 just because some people might like high-scoring games. I kinda think pace-of-play and balls-in-play will take care of it.

[Kramerica Industries]

It's completely impossible to do, but the single best thing that could happen to baseball is if the fences at every stadium could be moved back 50 feet from where they currently are. Make hitting home runs that much harder to do. Baseball is at its most exciting when the action is happening on the basepaths, and if home runs were much harder to hit, that would force the game into having to become more line drive oriented, trying to steal bases or pull of hit-and-runs, try for an extra base, all that kind of stuff. It would even have the effect of making home runs more special again due to their decreased quantity.

 

Again, not possible in real life, but I wish it were, at least to some degree.

[gosioux76]

21 hours ago, Kramerica Industries said:

It's completely impossible to do, but the single best thing that could happen to baseball is if the fences at every stadium could be moved back 50 feet from where they currently are. Make hitting home runs that much harder to do. Baseball is at its most exciting when the action is happening on the basepaths, and if home runs were much harder to hit, that would force the game into having to become more line drive oriented, trying to steal bases or pull of hit-and-runs, try for an extra base, all that kind of stuff. It would even have the effect of making home runs more special again due to their decreased quantity.

 

Again, not possible in real life, but I wish it were, at least to some degree.

 

I know I'm an old man yelling at clouds with this, but among the worst side effects of this analytics era of baseball is how it turned the art of base stealing into an exercise in high-risk inefficiency. 

 

Some of my favorite players as a kid were the prolific base stealers. There once was a whole class of superstars identified solely by their ability to steal bases, and you could trace them back by era: Ty Cobb to Maury Wills and Lou Brock to Rickey Henderson, Tim Raines and Vince Coleman. Getting 100 stolen bases in a season was a landmark stat, on par with hitting 50+ home runs. 

 

Then, suddenly, it wasn't anymore. Now stealing 20 bases is a landmark and hitting 50 homers is normal. 

 

I still love the sport, but it's turned into the arcade version of itself. The art of it has vanished with time. Any rule changes should be designed to bring that back. 

[Discrim]

On 1/25/2023 at 8:42 AM, Sport said:

 

 

*including two for the Reds and winning the division with the Reds should count twice because look at us now. 

Ugh... I'm not sure who's in worse shape between your guys and the Pirates.  Almost makes me want Marge Schott back, if only because the Reds were actually good and it was more fun (and more moral) to hate that racist hag.  As it is, both teams are trash, the only real difference is the Reds have Joey Votto, and the Pirates don't.

[heavybass]

Add the Brewers to the :censored: list for telling their best player that it was his fault for missing the playoffs... scumbags.

[heavybass]

 

[BBTV]

The arbitration process is pretty stupid.  It's not like even if players win, they get anything close to what they'd get on the open market.  I'm really not sure why a player would ever want to be in that room.  Also there should be a way for it to not be all or nothing (player's ask or team's offer) - the arbitrator should be able to say that it's somewhere in the middle - or even way above  either.  But quibbling over $700K is pretty petty by the Brewers.  The good will lost is more than $700K - even if they were correct.

 

Speaking about quibbling over $700K (or, not quibbling over $700K), the Phillies managing partner just said this yesterday:

 

“How much money did the ‘27 Yankees make? Or the ‘29 A’s? Or the ‘75-76 Big Red Machine?” Middleton said. “Does anybody know? Does anybody care? Nobody knows or cares whether any of them made any money or not. And nobody cares about whether I make money or not. If my legacy is that I didn’t lose any money owning a baseball team on an annual operating basis, that’s a pretty sad legacy. It’s about putting trophies in the cases.

 

“If your ambition is to be good, you don’t make those decisions [to sign Turner]. If your ambition is to be great, you make those decisions. It’s about desire, really. I just want to win.”

 

He then went on to say he no longer cares about any luxury tax, and it's now thought that they may be prepared to sign or trade for someone to replace Castellanos, even if it means that a $20M/year guy is sitting on the bench doing nothing (which is about all that Castellanos is good for.)

 

They could also make a run at Machado, since they're set up to potentially have an opening at 3B.

[TBGKon]

2023 Thread can be found here