MLB is deadening the baseball for 2021

[Three Run Homer]

10 minutes ago, scOtt said:

Well he was wee...

wee-ish.

I would like to see a team give a September roster spot to a little person whose sole job would be to draw a walk in clutch situations (to be immediately be replaced by a pinch runner).  If the bases were loaded and it was a tie game or a one-run deficit, wouldn't someone like Eddie Gaedel be the best player you could possibly send to the plate?  

[Mooreisbetter27]

21 minutes ago, scOtt said:

MY GOD! It's a great movie with GREAT actors and great actresses...

but what a terrible, nasty scene to watch! YEEEE!

Be happy you didn't get the book version where she use an axe instead of a sledgehammer!

[scOtt]

Just now, Three Run Homer said:

I would like to see a team give a September roster spot to a little person whose sole job would be to draw a walk in clutch situations (to be immediately be replaced by a pinch runner).  If the bases were loaded and it was a tie game or a one-run deficit, wouldn't someone like Eddie Gaedel be the best player you could possibly send to the plate?  

Would depend on the roster size and if there were any restrictions... but yeah. if you were down and dirty in a Pennant race Eddie could be a weapon.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Mooreisbetter27 said:

Be happy you didn't get the book version where she use an axe instead of a sledgehammer!

Couldn't find a gif of the book version.

[OFFNY]

1 hour ago, scOtt said:

 

Well, he was wee ........

 

 

........ wee-ish.

 

o

 

He was murdered 10 years later, in 1961.

Ironically, the only Major League baseball player to attend his funeral was ...... Bob Cain, the opposing pitcher who issued the Walk to Gaedel in his only Plate Appearance.

Also ironically, Bob Cain was acquired by Gaedel's team (the St. Louis Browns) the very next season, in 1952. 2 years after that, those Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles.

o

[DrungoHazewood]

20 hours ago, Three Run Homer said:

I would like to see a team give a September roster spot to a little person whose sole job would be to draw a walk in clutch situations (to be immediately be replaced by a pinch runner).  If the bases were loaded and it was a tie game or a one-run deficit, wouldn't someone like Eddie Gaedel be the best player you could possibly send to the plate?  

In my OOTP league I put a 3' 6" guy on the roster of an obscure indy league team, with essentially zero ratings in everything except an 80 plate discipline and maybe some speed.  But without my intervention he evolved over time into a reasonably good player (in OOTP listed heights and weights are largely cosmetic; everything comes from ratings) who also walked once every three plate appearances.  By coincidence he signed with the Orioles and had a pretty long MLB career.

[Camden_yardbird]

On 2/8/2021 at 4:36 PM, NCRaven said:

At least MLB recognizes that there's an issue and is responding in some way, even if it's gradually.  I know some here run down baseball for being slow to adapt.  But, I rather like the fact that they don't screw around with the game in the way that football and basketball have.

Football is a better product than baseball and better than it was 20 years ago with more parity in the league than baseball. Their rule changes have increased player safety and were needed expediently.

Basketball is more popular among young people and the game outside of defensive hand checking has not changed its rules significantly in years.  The 3 ball revolution is a result of statistical analysis very similar to sabermetrics.  It still has problems with parity, and the back to backs they are playing this year really bare that out though that is probably a result of it being a player driven league and those players going to the same big cities.

Baseballs adaptations which largely come from new CBA agreements aren't driven primarily by how rule changes effect the fairness of the sport but by where the money is going.  Deadening the ball, less homeruns,  will drive down salaries.  Home runs, offense, are exciting, so why would baseball do what looks like a counterintuitive move?  Call me a pessimist, but thats why this being done.  Manfred is so beholden to the owners right now and every move he makes reflects that.