Carfado: GM's Actually Took Vote On Shift Ban

[DrungoHazewood]

Hockey and NFL use the inactive for those a little nicked up and don't have to put them on IR.

I am not in favor of having inactive, let them have 28, only talking three more position players.

I guess that's an okay compromise. You could have room for pinch runners, platoon outfielders, and LOOGYs. But my fear is that (without explicit restrictions) you'll just get 17-man pitching staffs.

[Number5]

When the rosters were set at 25, most teams carried 10 pitchers and 15 position players. The Orioles had an advantage under Weaver for years, carrying only 9 pitchers, which gave them an extra bat/glove. It wasn't unusual for a team to carry 3 catchers on the 25-man roster. Since the norm is for a team to carry 12 pitchers nowadays, perhaps a 26-man or 27-man active roster would make some sense. Surely the players union would be in favor. The owners wouldn't want to pay the extra salaries, though, I'm sure.

[crawjo]

I'd be very happy with added advertising on screen, in the stadium, or even on-uniform in exchange for less commercial breaks and quicker between-action pace. But I know there are a lot of folks who disagree, who see a, say, MasterCard logo on a Yankee uniform as some kind of blasphemy. All I know is that soccer finishes all of their regular season games in under two hours with commercials only at the half, they have teams with the Yanks' payroll, and nobody much cares about the ads on screen or on Leo Messi's sacred Barcelona shirt.

I would be in favor of this if it severely cut down on the time between innings.

[AdamK]

I'd be very happy with added advertising on screen, in the stadium, or even on-uniform in exchange for less commercial breaks and quicker between-action pace. But I know there are a lot of folks who disagree, who see a, say, MasterCard logo on a Yankee uniform as some kind of blasphemy. All I know is that soccer finishes all of their regular season games in under two hours with commercials only at the half, they have teams with the Yanks' payroll, and nobody much cares about the ads on screen or on Leo Messi's sacred Barcelona shirt.

There's really only one brand I want on my favorite baseball uniform...

... Flaherty.

[OrioleMagic79]

STOP TRYING TO SPEED UP THE GAME!!! AHHHHHH!!!

I use baseball as my leisure/recreation...please don't shorten that for me so Inhave to go back to reality sooner and probably check my work email again before bed because the game is over a half hour sooner...if you don't like games going until late, then start the games at 6pm...nothing wrong with that...just don't speed up my outlet...

[Can_of_corn]

STOP TRYING TO SPEED UP THE GAME!!! AHHHHHH!!!

I use baseball as my leisure/recreation...please don't shorten that for me so Inhave to go back to reality sooner and probably check my work email again before bed because the game is over a half hour sooner...if you don't like games going until late, then start the games at 6pm...nothing wrong with that...just don't speed up my outlet...

You could always just turn on a west coast game.

[DrungoHazewood]

STOP TRYING TO SPEED UP THE GAME!!! AHHHHHH!!!

I use baseball as my leisure/recreation...please don't shorten that for me so Inhave to go back to reality sooner and probably check my work email again before bed because the game is over a half hour sooner...if you don't like games going until late, then start the games at 6pm...nothing wrong with that...just don't speed up my outlet...

There's always international test cricket. Those matches last five days, and they take regular breaks for tea. You might never have to check your work email again.

[Woody Held]

STOP TRYING TO SPEED UP THE GAME!!! AHHHHHH!!!

I use baseball as my leisure/recreation...please don't shorten that for me so Inhave to go back to reality sooner and probably check my work email again before bed because the game is over a half hour sooner...if you don't like games going until late, then start the games at 6pm...nothing wrong with that...just don't speed up my outlet...

Bravo- I love my time at the game.

[DrungoHazewood]

Bravo- I love my time at the game.

My kids love watching the Orioles. Right up until they have to go to bed in the bottom of the 4th of a 3:27 game.

My son Nate still talks about the epic* O's/Royals extra inning playoff game that happened to be on a non-school night so he got to stay up with Dad until 12:30 in the morning. That was probably the only night game he's ever seen the end of. Is it really good for the future of the sport when a kid might be a teenager before he can regularly watch through to the end of a ballgame?

* The O's lost so "epic" here is defined kind of like walking across the Sahara desert.

[BohKnowsBmore]

It's interesting. I feel like the various proposals bandied about have served to make the "pace of the game" into more of an issue. It seems that many who have never really had an issue with it (this is a more in general observation, not referring to individuals on the OH) have latched on to a certain proposal and if its not changed then we have a "pace of the game" CRISIS!

What's funny is that some of the biggest complainers I've heard are broadcasters. Heard one who was on 105.7 the Fan (from ATL I believe) saying how 3+ hour games make him want to shoot himself (or some similar hyperbole). Geez... these guys call baseball games for a living, I feel like their personal gripes about them dragging on are WAYYYYYYY down the list of what I care about or even types of complaining I am open to hearing from others.

[Woody Held]

There are common sense way to speed up the game. Hopefully we won't have to endure Mike Hargrove batting rituals in the future . That said lets make changes that eliminates dead time but doesn't impact the integrity of the game.

[BohKnowsBmore]

There are common sense way to speed up the game. Hopefully we won't have to endure Mike Hargrove batting rituals in the future . That said lets make changes that eliminates dead time but doesn't impact the integrity of the game.

This is where I'm at. I don't think there is anything wrong with trying to prevent unnecessarily long games (i.e. non-EI affairs that go over 3.5 hours). I'm all for things like stopping the Yankees from having a conference on the mound seemingly before every pitch. I just don't want to see anything that fundamentally changes the game, like disallowing pitching changes or something like that.

[BarclaySouthway]

Do this. Also, offer advertising/branding on screen if they have to (or better yet, on whatever electronic displays in the park that are up for grabs) so the game can resume but viewers can see who the rest of the inning is 'brought to you by:'

Watching a soccer game on TV accomplishes this because the flow needs to be continuous. I'd rather the ballpark's be less cluttered with advertising and I certainly hate to see branding on uniforms (other than the team) but I think for television viewers they can figure out a way to get back to the game without missing revenue generated from ad space somewhere.

I'd be very happy with added advertising on screen, in the stadium, or even on-uniform in exchange for less commercial breaks and quicker between-action pace. But I know there are a lot of folks who disagree, who see a, say, MasterCard logo on a Yankee uniform as some kind of blasphemy. All I know is that soccer finishes all of their regular season games in under two hours with commercials only at the half, they have teams with the Yanks' payroll, and nobody much cares about the ads on screen or on Leo Messi's sacred Barcelona shirt.

If they cut commercial breaks, kept the batter in the box, limited mound conferences to one per inning, and set a 2-batter minimum for pitchers, the game would zip along so fast that owners would start complaining about lower concession revenue.

I would be in favor of the first 3. The first one is so obvious, I'm surprised hasn't been discussed more.

[weams]

Bravo- I love my time at the game.

Make it longer.

[DrungoHazewood]

Make it longer.

Wonder if anyone has ever studied TV ratings over the length of the game? Like, if you start off with a 5 share (just making up numbers here), what's the average rating in the 8th? How does that change if it's a close game or a blowout? It wouldn't surprise me if the number of eyeballs on an average weekday baseball game declines by 50% or more from start to finish, but that's just a guess.