Baseball 2019

More ranting on that pitcher must face three hitters rule. So, what happens if the pitcher is the setup guy, bottom off 8th, he gives up a homer and now the the scored is tied or pitching team is up by one? The manager than can't yank him to bring in a closer? If so, then gimme a break! :facepalm:
 
A silly rule baseball should adopt (me be sarcastic) to speed up the game is if a team is winning by 5 or more runs by the 7th inning, call the game over as I'm sure statistically, odds of a team coming back down by 5 or more that late in the game is pretty slim.
 
steelyman said:
I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t seen much minor league ball since moving to NC. Only the Mudcats (no Durham Bulls yet. Shame!)
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I love minor league ball. I actually love the experience more than major league ball, even though I don't tend to have strong rooting interest in the minors. We try to get to a minor league park whenever we travel to a new area (and major league if it's around). One year saw us through west and central Pennsylvania, and we went to PNC Park for a Pirates game (was rained out, but we were in the park for an hour), and through Altoona to watch a Curve game.

A couple years ago, on vacation to Santa Fe, we went to see an Albuquerque Isotopes game. And this year, we're going to try to a game or two in with the closest local minor league team, the Hillsboro Hops (a low A that only plays in the summer), and that's still about 60 miles away.

I love the cheap tickets. And the entertainment between innings. (I don't like gimmicks while the game is going on, but between innings, sure.). You don't get a lot of abusive cranks yelling obscenities at the opposing team or opposing fans (in my experience). It's just fun. And did I mention the cheap tickets? Some of the best seats in the house go for $15-20 in most cases.

Our church is also planning a group activity around a Mariners game some time this summer. Needless to say, that won't be so cheap!
 
I went to Portland, OR (nice town!) for a conference many years ago and scheduled my flight a few days early to be a tourist.

I was wandering and found myself at the ball park where the Rockies were about to play the Eugene Emeralds. Fun way to spend the afternoon! The dogs tasted the same, the beer was beer, and it was baseball!
 
Uncle Lumpy said:
Would these changes save baseball? Maybe not, but I'd take more interest again. I used to be a baseball guy through-and-through. Last season I watched a couple of games in total.
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Same here. I've probably said this before, but it used to be when I traveled to a big city, I'd check the schedule to see if the team was in town so I could catch a game, and if I could juggle my schedule to do it, I would. Now it really doesn't occur to me to check.
 
Does anyone know of Internet radio sites that broadcast MLB games for free, or is that also relegated to paid/subscription?

I do miss sitting on the porch with the game on the radio.
 
JDARNELL said:
I don’t like the pitcher must face 3 batters. I can see a lot of mismatches now due to the offensive team can substitute right handed or left handed batters stacking the odds when the defensive coach is now stuck. I guess you play the hand that is dealt to you.
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From the article I read today they said this might not make it into the rules...


One way to fix this is to limit the number of pitchers that can play in a game... say 3 or 4... soccer had a limit that you can substitute 3 players in a game... if an injury occurs after that you play a man down...




NOW... that might be something... just throwing this out without much thought... say that you give them a total of 4 pitchers for a game (unless it goes extra innings)... if they want to bring in another pitcher they have to remove a filed player and play short handed... another pitcher after that and you lose another field player... that would be some kind of strategy to figure out what you want to do...
 
As to the time of the game, I agree it has gotten way out of hand... but that is because of the situational play.. not just pitcher but batter... and even runners at times...


Look back at the 80s for number of complete games... you will see many..


Checking stats and last year there were 8 pitchers with 2 (yes TWO) complete games, which was the max...


In 2008 one had 12 and 2nd had 9...


In 1987 there were 15 players with 10, with Clemens leading with 18... yes 18 complete games... more than the top 8 players of last year...


Went back to 1980 and someone had 28!!! So, 28 complete games of 35 pitched...
 
Here's my MLB rant. They should have a time clock on pitchers, some take way too long between pitches. Another thing that annoys me is why does a pitcher who has been warming up in the bullpen for 20 minutes need additional time to warm up on the mound when they come into a game. What other sport allows a player replacing someone else in a game to stop the game while they warm up first? I would only allow it only under special circumstances like if the pitcher being replaced is injured and the relief pitcher didn't have time to warm up. Way too many visits to the mound by coaches, I'm all for cutting those back even more. Way too many games during a MLB season, most of the games during the first half of the season are meaningless.
 
easysurfer said:
More ranting on that pitcher must face three hitters rule. So, what happens if the pitcher is the setup guy, bottom off 8th, he gives up a homer and now the the scored is tied or pitching team is up by one? The manager than can't yank him to bring in a closer? If so, then gimme a break! :facepalm:
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Heaven forbid the setup guy would actually have to take on a different role for 2 more batters! I mean, he would have to do something totally different, like throw pitches...try to get batters out...:facepalm:

I could see them waiving this rule for the 9th inning and extra innings though.
 
One way to limit coach visits to the mound would be to require a timeout be called, and limit those to 3-4 per nine innings.
 
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easysurfer said:
More ranting on that pitcher must face three hitters rule. So, what happens if the pitcher is the setup guy, bottom off 8th, he gives up a homer and now the the scored is tied or pitching team is up by one? The manager than can't yank him to bring in a closer? If so, then gimme a break! :facepalm:
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To be honest, I would give each manager ONE opportunity per game to waive that rule. If it went extra innings, I would give them ONE more.

That said, I think the whole "setup/closer" idea is stupid in the *general* case. There is no evidence that the "fireman" is better used in the 9th, ONLY in a "save situation", than in the '70s and early '80s when Fingers, Gossage, Sutter, Smith and others defined the "fireman". And back then, they didn't exclusively work the 9th. They worked late in a game in high leverage situations. Their job was not to rack up saves -- it was to come in for a few hitters late in a game, in a clutch situation, to snuff out a potential big inning. They often didn't even *finish* the game.

The "setup/closer" worked well for the A's in the late '80s and early '90s because they had the right personnel for it -- Honeycutt to "set up" the 8th for Eckersley in the 9th. Not all teams -- not even most, IMO -- are built that way, but teams are conditioned to think that way now, and these days, ace relievers demand saves. I think it's dumb that ace relievers think they can only be effective when they come in the game at the START of the 9th inning, and only in a "save situation". The save statistic is a perfect example of a stat driving a managerial decision, not the other way around. The problem is, as advanced as sabermetrics and analytics have become, they haven't found a better way to determine the value of a "fireman" through metrics.
 
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The three hitters rule is a bad one. I’d prefer a limit on the time allowed between the last pitch thrown by the relieved pitcher and the first thrown by the reliever, especially if the reliever has been warming up (exception in case of injury to the departing pitcher). Time spent in a mound visit included in the limit.
 
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ziggy29 said:
To be honest, I would give each manager ONE opportunity per game to waive that rule. If it went extra innings, I would give them ONE more.

That said, I think the whole "setup/closer" idea is stupid in the *general* case. There is no evidence that the "fireman" is better used in the 9th, ONLY in a "save situation", than in the '70s and early '80s when Fingers, Gossage, Sutter, Smith and others defined the "fireman"... .
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I've seen times where relying on relief pitchers too often or closer backfires.

I just think the decision should be up to the managers and not some rule saying when you can't/can use a player.
 
The review of an umpire's call via instant replay is anything but instant. Usually several minutes tick off while the play is reviewed remotely. Several reviews happen per game, so I'd guess in total they slow the game another 10 minutes, 10 boring minutes of zero action.
 
ziggy29 said:
That said, the proposal about three batters should change. They should NOT have to face three batters if they get through the end of the inning. Pitching changes between innings do not lengthen the game. So it should be "three batters or until the end of the inning, whichever is less".
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That is the rule.
 
More on those upcoming rules for 2020 and discussions on them:

Three-Batter Minimum
There’s no other way to look at this: this is a terrible rule. For the sake of taking away one pitching change every other game, MLB messed with the integrity of the game by penalizing strategy and innovation.
“It’s stupid,” said one major league manager. “It’s as if the NBA decided, ‘Okay, on Tuesday nights three-point shots no longer will be allowed.’ I’m all for things that help move the game along, but leave the strategy alone.”
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ml...-announced-rule-changes/ar-BBUMMCj?li=BBnba9I
 
zinger1457 said:
Here's my MLB rant. They should have a time clock on pitchers, some take way too long between pitches. Another thing that annoys me is why does a pitcher who has been warming up in the bullpen for 20 minutes need additional time to warm up on the mound when they come into a game. What other sport allows a player replacing someone else in a game to stop the game while they warm up first? I would only allow it only under special circumstances like if the pitcher being replaced is injured and the relief pitcher didn't have time to warm up. Way too many visits to the mound by coaches, I'm all for cutting those back even more. Way too many games during a MLB season, most of the games during the first half of the season are meaningless.
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More post I have not read, so hope nobody has addressed this...


The reason is that the pitcher and catcher has to get on the same page... it is not like they are warming up, they have a limited number of pitches so the catcher can get used to the new pitcher... oh, and the pitcher and get used to the mound as it is never the same in the pen as on the field... and sometimes I have seen the ump watch so he gets used to the pitches...


If a pitcher is injured then the relief pitcher gets as long as he wants to warm up already...
 
Sometimes the game is so slow I need to use that 7th inning stretch every inning to prevent from taking a nap.
 
ziggy29 said:
I'm not advocating a return of this tactic, but before the 1970s (and even the 1970s had Mike Hargrove, the "Human Rain Delay"), if you stepped out too much on guys like Gibson and Drysdale, prepare to get plunked with a fastball.
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Carelton Fisk was the "Human Rain Delay" although Mike Hargrove was almost as annoying.
 
I do not remember if I had posted this before or not...


This was awhile back, but still interesting... I cannot remember the details but here is the gist..


This was back in the time when games were taking 2 1/2 hours on avg... it was the last game of the season and the plate ump was retiring after the game... he told both clubs that he was not going to put up with anything... and did not... total time of the game was something like 1 hour 50 minutes... even the announcers were talking about how he was not allowing batters to step out of the box and other delaying tactics...
 
Just placed $1700 on the Cardinals to win the central
Another $1700 on the Nationals to win the NL east
And $600 on the Yankees to win the AL east
 
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