How to make baseball more interesting

[spiritof66]

25 minutes ago, Sessh said:

Most of the changes proposed by people on this are depressing. The game is fine the way it is for the most part. I think replay can be improved (sped up) and fewer commercial breaks would do wonders. The thing that hurt the game more than anything else was all the attention on PED's after many decades of widespread use and the increased performance that came with it. The excitement of the late 90's/early 2000's will likely never be seen again and now everyone wants to know what went wrong. People only want to get the games over with as quickly as possible now eve to the further detriment of the game itself. It's pathetic IMO. The game may be dying, but it's not because of pace of play. It's just not exciting anymore (playoffs aside) and all these changes being proposed would only make the situation worse.

I haven't cared about the NFL in about 14 years now and I feel that baseball is starting to go the same way for me, but it has nothing to do with pace of play or foul balls. Something is missing now that was present for a very long time beforehand and if any of these silly rule changes ever see the light of day, they will just be nails in the proverbial coffin.

Well, sure, if you're satisfied with everything about the game the way it is, there's no reason to change anything. 

I love the game the way it is, but some things have changed, and are continuing to change, the game in ways that I don't like. More scoring by HRs. Fewer guys on base and, it would follow, fewer baserunning plays. Many more strikeouts and swings and misses. More foul balls. Too many delaying tactics -- "conferences" at which nothing is discussed, endless throws to check runners -- that serve no purpose other than to get a relief pitcher ready. Too many terrible ball-strike calls by umpires. (Maybe those were always there and we just didn't see them as well, but I think umpires' ability to make accurate calls has been eroded by the higher speed of pitches and the increased deception by catchers.)

If lots of others agree, I think it's worth thinking about at least experimenting with changes that could affect those things.

 

 

 

 

 

[ExileAngelos]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

Ok, how is the shift killing the game?

The shift is leading to fewer balls that end up as base hits.  What's the way to counteract hard hit balls that aren't being rewarded?  Launch angle.  Swing from the heels.  Analytics that suggest striking out not a big deal.  Can't shift against a home run.  

 

It's killing the game because there are fewer and fewer balls put in play.  And balls that are put in play are resulting in fewer runners on base and less action. More and more Adam Dunn type of at bats. 

[Redskins Rick]

55 minutes ago, ORIOLE33 said:

Not to this extent. Eddie Murray was a pull hitter. Do you remember the shift being implemented against him? And I’m not talking about small shifts. I’m talking about these over shifts. 

Eddie was a pure hitters.

Shifts are good against pull hitters only know how to pull the ball.

And you are also correct, its a fad and more team are doing it more and more.

[Moshagge3]

The pitch clock needs to be enforced. Period. SB Nation had an article about why the length of games keeps going up, and found that it's almost all attributable to the pitchers taking more time between pitches. The only drawback of a pitch clock that I can see is that drunken yahoos will start yelling "FIVE, FOUR, THREE..." before every damn pitch, but what are you gonna do. 

I don't see the need for any other changes. Everyone says the manager shouldn't come out to make pitching changes, but one of the real goosebumps moments of baseball is when a pitcher who's pitched a great game walks off the mound to a standing ovation, and the pre-ovation when the manager starts walking out is maybe even better. Alternatively, when the manager goes out and decides to leave the beloved pitcher in and walks off by himself, and the crowd goes crazy, that gives me chills too.

[Redskins Rick]

1 minute ago, Moshagge3 said:

The pitch clock needs to be enforced. Period. SB Nation had an article about why the length of games keeps going up, and found that it's almost all attributable to the pitchers taking more time between pitches. The only drawback of a pitch clock that I can see is that drunken yahoos will start yelling "FIVE, FOUR, THREE..." before every damn pitch, but what are you gonna do. 

I don't see the need for any other changes. Everyone says the manager shouldn't come out to make pitching changes, but one of the real goosebumps moments of baseball is when a pitcher who's pitched a great game walks off the mound to a standing ovation, and the pre-ovation when the manager starts walking out is maybe even better. Alternatively, when the manager goes out and decides to leave the beloved pitcher in and walks off by himself, and the crowd goes crazy, that gives me chills too.

Personally, i think its a lot more borken, than the manager is or isnt allowed to make pitching changes.

We have to get the kids back to playing the game, and then they will be more inclined to watch the game as they get older.

These kids are in the era of electronics and gadgets, old fashion games just dont appeal to them.

 

[Moose Milligan]

8 minutes ago, ExileAngelos said:

The shift is leading to fewer balls that end up as base hits.  What's the way to counteract hard hit balls that aren't being rewarded?  Launch angle.  Swing from the heels.  Analytics that suggest striking out not a big deal.  Can't shift against a home run.  

 

It's killing the game because there are fewer and fewer balls put in play.  And balls that are put in play are resulting in fewer runners on base and less action. More and more Adam Dunn type of at bats. 

But as I said, is that going to make ADHD little Timmy want to watch or play baseball?  Is that his thought process?

Like I said, the goal is to get younger fans into the game.  

[gmelson26]

A salary floor and a salary cap as well as revenue sharing...

You wanna know what's really interesting?  Turning on a game and feeling as though the team you will take to the grave in you heart has an equal chance of winning against teams that are fairly arrayed against them. 

You wanna know what's really interesting?  Feeling that your team has the shot the following year or maybe the year after that because it's on an even playing field with the rest of it's division.

 

I get it, we need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and take a long hard look at Houston 7 years ago.. no excuses.  But I suspect Yankee fans, year in and year out, enjoy watching MLB a lot more Oakland fans.

[ORIOLE33]

47 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Or they can try to hit it to the opposite field.

Not everybody is Tony Gwynn or Ted Williams. 

[foxfield]

More of this...

 

 

 

[Matt Bennett]

 If MLB really does decide it has a fanbase issue(I’ve never looked into it as part of the fan base), want to know how to make the games more interesting? Forget everything in the original post. Altering the game a few seconds here and there won’t attract any more fans and will cause problem soon with the players, loyal diehards, managers, etc. 

Rizzo was right. Shorten the season. 162 games? Every individual game is so insignificant. But if the season was 120 games? You’re getting closer to the point where one individual baseball game has the same significance to the season as one individual hockey game or one individual basketball game. 

[Can_of_corn]

18 minutes ago, ExileAngelos said:

The shift is leading to fewer balls that end up as base hits.  What's the way to counteract hard hit balls that aren't being rewarded?  Launch angle.  Swing from the heels.  Analytics that suggest striking out not a big deal.  Can't shift against a home run.  

 

It's killing the game because there are fewer and fewer balls put in play.  And balls that are put in play are resulting in fewer runners on base and less action. More and more Adam Dunn type of at bats. 

Now I've been watching the launch angle revolution kinda closely, to include reading interviews with proponents.

I don't recall a single one citing the shift as for why they changed their swing path.

 

[Moose Milligan]

17 minutes ago, ORIOLE33 said:

Not everybody is Tony Gwynn or Ted Williams. 

Something to aspire to be.

[ExileAngelos]

6 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Now I've been watching the launch angle revolution kinda closely, to include reading interviews with proponents.

I don't recall a single one citing the shift as for why they changed their swing path.

 

Isn't it obvious?  Do they really need to cite the shift for benefits of lifting the ball and attempting to hit more home runs and fly balls?  The shift absolutely has played a huge part of launch angle revolution. 

[ExileAngelos]

22 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

But as I said, is that going to make ADHD little Timmy want to watch or play baseball?  Is that his thought process?

Like I said, the goal is to get younger fans into the game.  

The goal is to bring more action into the game.  Base hits, base runners, plays at the plate etc.  The shift, at least in my opinion, is hurting the game in the area.  I know the simple answer is to have hitters go the other way to counter the shift.  But we have seen for years now that most of them either aren't capable or aren't willing to do just that. 

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, ExileAngelos said:

Isn't it obvious?  Do they really need to cite the shift for benefits of lifting the ball and attempting to hit more home runs and fly balls?  The shift absolutely has played a huge part of launch angle revolution. 

They felt a need to profess a desire for more extra base hits.  For instance one of them used the line drive up the middle as something that has been preached to them as the ideal at bat.  They said, that's a single, why do I want to hit a single? 

Baseball has realized that the optimum outcome for a pitchers is a strike out and the optimum outcome for a hitter is a home run.  That is what has led to the launch angle revolution.  Not the shift.