MLB and the Detroit Tigers Bandwagon Thread

[froot loops]

To me, baseball is best when you are following it during the season. To me it's harder to follow when the games take so long. On top of that they are losing young fans because of the slow pace of the game. I'd rather not have a pitch clock or outlaw the shift. If there are other innovations to speed up the game and lessen the emphasis on the three outcomes, I'm all for them instead.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Next year, they are talking about a pitch clock and eliminating defensive shifts. I hate both ideas. I generally think all sports try very hard to fix things that aren’t broken.

I like to break you for my daily fix...

[Whitley]

To me, baseball is best when you are following it during the season. To me it's harder to follow when the games take so long. On top of that they are losing young fans because of the slow pace of the game. I'd rather not have a pitch clock or outlaw the shift. If there are other innovations to speed up the game and lessen the emphasis on the three outcomes, I'm all for them instead.

Outlawing the shift is such a knee jerk reaction. There are a couple ways you tweak it without eliminating it

1) All four IFs MUST have both feel on the IF dirt. Deploy them anyway you want but they have to be on the IF dirt. This would eliminated the softball rover type---30 feet on the OF grass

2) Limit the number of times it can be deployed during the game. Say like 9 times (a time would be a PA whether used for all of the PA or just once) over the course of the game (even if it went to extras). This would introduce more strategy to the game.

[WM Wolverine]

Maybe there is data on the time between pitches & and its affect on game times but what bothers me is the multiple pitching changes in the same inning. I'd like to see ZERO warm-up if you swap a pitcher mid inning, if you want to bring in a reliever mid-inning, he's to be ready to throw. We've seen a single inning take in excess of an hour due to 4-5 pitching changes between both teams.

[Whitley]

Maybe there is data on the time between pitches & and its affect on game times but what bothers me is the multiple pitching changes in the same inning. I'd like to see ZERO warm-up if you swap a pitcher mid inning, if you want to bring in a reliever mid-inning, he's to be ready to throw. We've seen a single inning take in excess of an hour due to 4-5 pitching changes between both teams.

Absolutely no chance of that happening. The mound on the field is different from the one in the bullpen. They get 8 warmup pitches and I am fine with that because that allows them to get used to the mound. Those warmup pitches allow the pitcher also all them to fix the mound if needed to (ie if their pitching motion has them landing in a divot that is already there), so there is an injury avoidance component to it as well.

[froot loops]

The thing is, everyone can come of with some reason why you can't implement a rule change and that always carries the day. So nothing ever happens and the game continues longer and slower. At this rate, games will be 3:30 in a few years.

[Da Geezer]

Once the batter gets in the box, he stays in the box, unless he is hit by a foul.

[froot loops]

That's one of the half measures they have tried in last 5 years.

[Mike]

The thing is, everyone can come of with some reason why you can't implement a rule change and that always carries the day. So nothing ever happens and the game continues longer and slower. At this rate, games will be 3:30 in a few years.

Aren’t they now? The Red Sox and Yankees can barely play a 9 inning game in under 4 hours. We can thank Tony LaRussa for the 4 hour 9 inning game. Why he hasn't been fed to a wood chipper yet is beyond me.

[iam416]

As I've said, I prefer the shorter version of baseball (much like I prefer the NBA of the 80s). But, there's no real way to meaningfully limit time w/o significantly altering the game. I may think that the NBA game is way too much 3-oriented and while I think a rule limiting 3pt attempts to, say, 20 per game would serve my interests, I also realize that it changes the nature of the game. A lot.

For each game, fans can vote with their feet and eyeballs, and I'm not sure there's some sort of huge groundswell being voiced for change to baseball. It seems like a really healthy sport. Inferrnal sabermetrics and all.

[THE_WIZARD_]

I'd like to send you some chin music...

[iam416]

Getting brushed back with a 45 mph "heater" scares exactly no one. Well, maybe Strangelove, but only because Cornell "men" wholly lack fortitude to go along with wholly lacking any meaningful indicia of manhood.

[THE_WIZARD_]

...you are being generous with the 45mph...

[froot loops]

Aren’t they now? The Red Sox and Yankees can barely play a 9 inning game in under 4 hours. We can thank Tony LaRussa for the 4 hour 9 inning game. Why he hasn't been fed to a wood chipper yet is beyond me.

They haven't got there yet, but it's gained 7 minutes a game in a few years.

[froot loops]

As I've said, I prefer the shorter version of baseball (much like I prefer the NBA of the 80s). But, there's no real way to meaningfully limit time w/o significantly altering the game. I may think that the NBA game is way too much 3-oriented and while I think a rule limiting 3pt attempts to, say, 20 per game would serve my interests, I also realize that it changes the nature of the game. A lot.

For each game, fans can vote with their feet and eyeballs, and I'm not sure there's some sort of huge groundswell being voiced for change to baseball. It seems like a really healthy sport. Inferrnal sabermetrics and all.

The reason they are talking about this is because the the fans are voting with their feet and eyeballs.