Are we witnessing the death of the Orioles?

[ORIOLE33]

49 minutes ago, Frobby said:

The NLCS is on FOX (FS1).    FOX gets the World Series and alternates between the ALCS and the NLCS each year, with TBS getting the other championship series.     

I know. I was talking about Fox, not FS1. 

[backwardsk]

9 hours ago, theocean said:

Last night it really hit me, but baseball's biggest problem might be that its biggest playoff games are on TBS. The Yankees and Astros have some of the biggest and most marketable players in the game. It is exactly the type of game that should be use to expand the game.

I wanted to watch it. But as a cord cutting millennial, it was simply too difficult for me to get it on my TV. I ended up watching Joe Flacco throw to empty parts of the field during the lousy Thursday Night Football game.

So, if me, a huge baseball fan isn't even going through the trouble to watch a ALCS game between two big teams - - what are casual fans doing!?

Cut the cord.  But then stagger your free trials of Sling and YouTube tv to watch the playoffs before the World Series.  Or pay one month of sling for $25

[eddie83]

10 hours ago, Uli2001 said:

Is this cause or consequence though? Have you asked yourself why networks or even ESPN are not buying these games?

 

10 hours ago, Redskins Rick said:

There isnt a big demand in the viewing public to see these games, which is where Cable makes their revenue, commercial ads.

If the demand was there, companies would be outbidding each other to market it.

ESPN airs 40 million college football games. That is one reason. Also they love the NBA which they air. 

FS1 bought the games because they are trying to grow their channel. They need important games for people to want the channel. That said for a Game 7 at the least it should air on FOX. FOX extended it’s deal awhile ago. It’s through 2028. 

I don’t watch much ESPN anymore,  that said I would really try to get off of TBS and go to ESPN. I don’t think TBS does a bad job but more playoffs being on ESPN would be a  benefit to the sport.  

[Uli2001]

23 hours ago, Roll Tide said:

I think a serious injury to Mike Trout would probably dominate the headlines on the day it happened.

Mahomes is not even in the top 5 of biggest stars in the NFL, while Trout is arguably the top one in MLB.

[Uli2001]

On 10/18/2019 at 10:45 AM, spiritof66 said:

Agreed. 

For me, the inordinate amount of time between pitches harms the game not only by making games last longer. Especially with certain pitchers, that down-time disrupts things so much that when I watch a game on TV or on the internet I am increasingly likely to find something to do between pitches -- change channels, read, read (or write) posts on the Game Thread, watch another game on MLB, or otherwise surf the internet -- and sometimes I get distracted and don't return to the game right away. I don't feel that lapse if I'm at a game -- there's plenty to look at and talk about between pitches, and many fewer distractions -- but when I'm watching in a room full of other stuff to do it happens. (I used to react in much the same way watching football on TV when teams took 30 seconds or so huddling between plays.)

I have no proof of this, but I believe the problem is pretty well entrenched at all levels of baseball, at least in the U.S. Guys who come up as pitchers are trained to believe, and it may be true, that they get an advantage from working deliberately so that they have time to focus their minds and their mechanics on each pitch. MBL and MiL managers and coaches then say, again maybe accurately, that if certain of their pitchers are forced to speed up, their chances of success will be adversely affected. So nothing -- or nothing decisive -- happens

Quote

If they are mediocre. I have always heard the great pitchers say that you need to work fast and throw strikes.

On 10/18/2019 at 10:45 AM, spiritof66 said:

Based on the above, I don't think you can flip a switch and enforce a pitch clock immediately. It could be phased in, I guess. But the critical step is to commit to, and announce, the rigid enactment and enforcement of a 15- or 20-second pitch clock in organized baseball in, say, three years, sending an unambiguous to young pitchers and their coaches that if those pitchers aspire to play professionally, they'd better learn to do what pitchers did for almost 100 years: receive the ball, take a sign, wind up or stretch, and throw the damn thing toward the plate right away.

I pulled this video of a 1975 World Series game randomly from YouTube. Again randomly, I looked at about 10-12 pitches. The times from pitchers receipt of the ball to throwing it (excluding one time when the batter stepped out of the box and another when a foul line umpire called time out) ranged from about 11 to 18 seconds. 12-14 seemed typical. 

This can be fixed. I don't know much the fix would help the game. If there's a reason not to try to find out, that reason escapes me.

I think this is related to my previous comment: they don't teach the game properly these days.

[Can_of_corn]

On 10/18/2019 at 11:45 AM, spiritof66 said:

Agreed. 

For me, the inordinate amount of time between pitches harms the game not only by making games last longer. Especially with certain pitchers, that down-time disrupts things so much that when I watch a game on TV or on the internet I am increasingly likely to find something to do between pitches -- change channels, read, read (or write) posts on the Game Thread, watch another game on MLB, or otherwise surf the internet -- and sometimes I get distracted and don't return to the game right away. I don't feel that lapse if I'm at a game -- there's plenty to look at and talk about between pitches, and many fewer distractions -- but when I'm watching in a room full of other stuff to do it happens. (I used to react in much the same way watching football on TV when teams took 30 seconds or so huddling between plays.)

I have no proof of this, but I believe the problem is pretty well entrenched at all levels of baseball, at least in the U.S. Guys who come up as pitchers are trained to believe, and it may be true, that they get an advantage from working deliberately so that they have time to focus their minds and their mechanics on each pitch. MBL and MiL managers and coaches then say, again maybe accurately, that if certain of their pitchers are forced to speed up, their chances of success will be adversely affected. So nothing -- or nothing decisive -- happens.

Based on the above, I don't think you can flip a switch and enforce a pitch clock immediately. It could be phased in, I guess. But the critical step is to commit to, and announce, the rigid enactment and enforcement of a 15- or 20-second pitch clock in organized baseball in, say, three years, sending an unambiguous to young pitchers and their coaches that if those pitchers aspire to play professionally, they'd better learn to do what pitchers did for almost 100 years: receive the ball, take a sign, wind up or stretch, and throw the damn thing toward the plate right away.

I pulled this video of a 1975 World Series game randomly from YouTube. Again randomly, I looked at about 10-12 pitches. The times from pitchers receipt of the ball to throwing it (excluding one time when the batter stepped out of the box and another when a foul line umpire called time out) ranged from about 11 to 18 seconds. 12-14 seemed typical. 

This can be fixed. I don't know much the fix would help the game. If there's a reason not to try to find out, that reason escapes me.

I find it amazing that you appear to be putting all of this on the pitcher, and none on the hitters who feel a need to step out between every pitch and adjust everything.

[Absltgreek]

19 minutes ago, Uli2001 said:

Mahomes is not even in the top 5 of biggest stars in the NFL, while Trout is arguably the top one in MLB.

[Roll Tide]

5 hours ago, Uli2001 said:

Mahomes is not even in the top 5 of biggest stars in the NFL, while Trout is arguably the top one in MLB.

Mahomes was the top rated player at his position last year. He was well on his way this year for a top 5 finish at least. And QB is arguably the most important position on the field. 

[Uli2001]

2 hours ago, Roll Tide said:

Mahomes was the top rated player at his position last year. He was well on his way this year for a top 5 finish at least. And QB is arguably the most important position on the field. 

Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, are all bigger stars at QB. I would put Russell Wilson ahead of Mahomes at this point too. JJ Watt rounds out the top 5.

[Roll Tide]

8 hours ago, Uli2001 said:

Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, are all bigger stars at QB. I would put Russell Wilson ahead of Mahomes at this point too. JJ Watt rounds out the top 5.

Brady, Rodgers, and Brees are all aged veterans. And no longer at the peak of their career. Mahomes was has been scorching since last year and is (perhaps was) a rising star.

Wilson is also at the top of his game

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001007337/article/qb-index-patrick-mahomes-leads-yearend-rankings

 

[spiritof66]

16 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

I find it amazing that you appear to be putting all of this on the pitcher, and none on the hitters who feel a need to step out between every pitch and adjust everything.

I didn't mean to do that. Once a hitter steps in, he stays in and won't be granted time out unless he breaks a bat or a bug flies in  his eye or something. But I think that would be much less of a problem if pitchers were throwing the ball within 15 seconds.

[Roll Tide]

16 hours ago, Absltgreek said:

I'm interested to know what you are trying to say?

[weams]

17 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

I find it amazing that you appear to be putting all of this on the pitcher, and none on the hitters who feel a need to step out between every pitch and adjust everything.

Didn't Nomar and Ortiz invent this?

[weams]

44 minutes ago, Roll Tide said:

Brady, Rodgers, and Brees are all aged veterans. And no longer at the peak of their career. Mahomes was has been scorching since last year and is (perhaps was) a rising star.

Wilson is also at the top of his game

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001007337/article/qb-index-patrick-mahomes-leads-yearend-rankings

 

Wilson is incredible. 

[mdbdotcom]

Just now, weams said:

Didn't Nomar and Ortiz invent this?

Mike "The Human Rain Delay" Hargrove