Commissioner YOU

What changes would you attempt to implement were you the new Commisioner of MLB, if any?

Shorten the season by 20 or 30 games to start...even though I like to watch them all there are just way to many IMO.

Try to find a way to reset the divisions. Maybe try Roto style? Something like the old days. AL, NL, Top 6 teams in each conference make the playoffs. I guess thats kinda like Basketball.

Trades in the draft would be nice.

Salary floor and cap! And, maybe bring back the full on reserve clause...:mwahaha:

On a serious note:

Revenue Sharing: clubs would be required to pay at least 85% of local revenues (including those from RSNs) into the general fund, which then would be paid out equally to all 30 teams. This would have to come off the real books, not the cooked ones, and no more of this business where YE$ pays the Yankee$ a fraction of what their broadcast rights are actually worth in order to keep other teams from getting at the money.

Rules: enforce the strike zone as written. If that doesn't help even out the pitching/hitting balance, raise the mound (at certain yearly intervals) until the 1968 mound is restored.

Scheduling: restore the balanced schedule. Require one scheduled doubleheader per team per month to knock a week off the back end of the schedule. Make the first round of the playoffs seven games.

On a (somewhat) frivolous note:

No team that entered the league before 1960 would be allowed to have pinstriped uniforms. No team would be allowed pinstriped road uniforms, period. Names would have to be worn on all jerseys--home and road.

Good thread idea!

1. Eliminate interleague play, this idea took alot of excitement out of the All-Star Game and World Series

2. Expand the 25 man roster to 26, with all the specialty relievers now teams don't have much of a bench.

3. Contract the MFY's and Red Sox. Seriously do it.

4. Enforce the actual strike zone.

Other than that, I love the game the way it is.

Shorten the season by 20 or 30 games to start...even though I like to watch them all there are just way to many IMO.

Try to find a way to reset the divisions. Maybe try Roto style? Something like the old days. AL, NL, Top 6 teams in each conference make the playoffs. I guess thats kinda like Basketball.

Trades in the draft would be nice.

Salary floor and cap! And, maybe bring back the full on reserve clause...:mwahaha:

I agree the season is too long and would return to the 154 game schedule. A balanced schedule wherein each league drops the divisions and goes back to the old AL/NL format eliminates the misfortune of playing Boston/NY in an unfair and unlevel playing field (at least far less often). I'd do top four in each league.

Trades in the draft would be awesome! I've wanted that for sometime... at least on a trial basis.

Salary cap and floor is another pet peeve of mine... we think alike.

On a serious note:

Revenue Sharing: clubs would be required to pay at least 85% of local revenues (including those from RSNs) into the general fund, which then would be paid out equally to all 30 teams. This would have to come off the real books, not the cooked ones, and no more of this business where YE$ pays the Yankee$ a fraction of what their broadcast rights are actually worth in order to keep other teams from getting at the money.

Rules: enforce the strike zone as written. If that doesn't help even out the pitching/hitting balance, raise the mound (at certain yearly intervals) until the 1968 mound is restored.

Scheduling: restore the balanced schedule. Require one scheduled doubleheader per team per month to knock a week off the back end of the schedule. Make the first round of the playoffs seven games.

On a (somewhat) frivolous note:

No team that entered the league before 1960 would be allowed to have pinstriped uniforms. No team would be allowed pinstriped road uniforms, period. Names would have to be worn on all jerseys--home and road.

Good stuff here... agreed with the scheduling of double-headers/strike zone enforcement-mound changes.

Good thread idea!

1. Eliminate interleague play, this idea took alot of excitement out of the All-Star Game and World Series

2. Expand the 25 man roster to 26, with all the specialty relievers now teams don't have much of a bench.

3. Contract the MFY's and Red Sox. Seriously do it.

4. Enforce the actual strike zone.

Other than that, I love the game the way it is.

I like interleague play... but follow your reasoning.

26 man rosters... I had decided that if MLB dropped the DH, the Player's Union would be persuaded to agree if rosters expanded to an additional player.

I have plenty of ideas, but here's one some may agree with...

I'd change the voting in the All-Star game to choosing the best LF'er/CF'er /RF'er rather than top 3 OF'ers. LF and RF ARE positions.

On a serious note:

Revenue Sharing: clubs would be required to pay at least 85% of local revenues (including those from RSNs) into the general fund, which then would be paid out equally to all 30 teams. This would have to come off the real books, not the cooked ones, and no more of this business where YE$ pays the Yankee$ a fraction of what their broadcast rights are actually worth in order to keep other teams from getting at the money.

The important part is having them count *all* the revenue instead of hiding the TV money.

My preference would be for the 2 teams that play each game to split all the revenues for that game between them, with the winner of the game getting slightly more than 50% and the loser slightly less. How much should "slightly" be, I don't know. I think setting it properly would fix the problem of needing a salary floor. I'm not in favor of salary caps, and I think making the teams share all the money with whoever they're playing would solve the problem enough. The MFY's would still be richer, but by a much smaller a multiplier. Splitting it on a game-by-game basis would help even out things within a division with an unbalanced schedule.

However, I agree that your idea is better than what they do now.

Rules: enforce the strike zone as written. If that doesn't help even out the pitching/hitting balance, raise the mound (at certain yearly intervals) until the 1968 mound is restored.

I agree about the hitting/pitching balance being way out of whack.

I agree about the strike zone.

I think they should make bat handles fatter to stop the death-shards and make the bats heavier to reduce bat speed.

However, doing that plus raising the mound back up might be overkill. Balance is a tricky thing.

Scheduling: restore the balanced schedule. Require one scheduled doubleheader per team per month to knock a week off the back end of the schedule. Make the first round of the playoffs seven games.

I like the schedule unbalanced. I want to play the MFY's and BOS more than SEA or KC.

I also wish they'd rationalize the stupid TV blackout rules and territories. The way people get blacked out is insane.

I would also give teams veto power over how their name and symbols are abused by merchandisers. The owner of the Orioles should be able to say, "No green and pink Oriole hats" if he wants to.

1. Eliminate interleague play, this idea took alot of excitement out of the All-Star Game and World Series.

I'd change the voting in the All-Star game to choosing the best LF'er/CF'er /RF'er rather than top 3 OF'ers. LF and RF ARE positions.

I agree with both of these ideas. I've expressed the eliminate IL play idea before...wonder why I forgot it this time?

My preference would be for the 2 teams that play each game to split all the revenues for that game between them, with the winner of the game getting slightly more than 50% and the loser slightly less. How much should "slightly" be, I don't know. I think setting it properly would fix the problem of needing a salary floor. I'm not in favor of salary caps, and I think making the teams share all the money with whoever they're playing would solve the problem enough. The MFY's would still be richer, but by a much smaller a multiplier. Splitting it on a game-by-game basis would help even out things within a division with an unbalanced schedule.

If you were to implement a game by game split, I'd be interested to see which owners outside of the AL and NL East divisions suddenly became far less supportive of the unbalanced schedule! :laughlol:

1. Eliminate divisions, have each league be one 16-team table.

1b. Make a big deal out of the regular season league champions, but keep the 8-team playoffs as a post-season tournament.

2. Expand the American League by two teams.

3. Eliminate interleague play.

4. Return to the balanced schedule.

5. Eliminate territorial restrictions, especially for media blackouts and franchise movement.

6. Enact some type of market-based revenue sharing that rewards success but keeps large market teams from having a huge inherent advantage.

7. Negotiate with advertisers to put ads on uniforms and other places such that the commercial timeouts between half innings would be reduced to one minute.

8. Vastly simplify the balk rule, basically just saying "don't stop your windup in the middle to throw to a base, all else is ok."

9. Allow owners to sell their teams to anyone they wish who has the financial means to purchase the team at a fair market value.

10. Establish equal-partner working agreements with foreign leagues (Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Italy, Mexico, etc) to grow the game and maintain viable professional leagues in other countries. Encourage inter-country tournaments and championships for both national teams and club teams.

11. Set a minimum bat weight of 32 ounces, and a minimum handle thickness TBD.

12. Establish an open process where the resiliency coefficient of MLB baseballs for the upcoming season is determined during each offseason, and then set and tested by an independent laboratory working in conjunction with the official baseball supplier.

13. Establish a rule that all ballparks built or renovated after June 1, 2009 have to have a sum of their LF/LC/CF/RC/RF fence distances in feet (measured at 0, 22.5, 45, 67.5, and 90 degree points from the foul line) of at least 1860. For example, 330 + 390 + 420 + 390 + 330 = 1860.

14. Set up a plan to enact a real-time system to automate ball/strike calls and relay the results to the home play umpire in an unobtrusive way.

15. Once #s 5 and 6 have been implemented, eliminate the amateur draft.

Pretty much everything Commish Why Not? would do would be shot down by the players' union.

--Crazy harsh penalties for steroid use, like two years for a positive test OR connection to internet pharmacies, etc.

--More sweeping revenue sharing or a salary cap offset by higher minimum salaries and/or a 26th roster spot.

--Bigger strike zone, cutting back on batters' armor.

1) Make the June draft be worldwide eligibility.

2) Salary cap (both floor and ceiling)

3) Have 10 person line-up, that includes a DH and the pitcher hitting. Allows for more offense (CHICKS DIG THE LONG BALL!!!) and gets rid of the AL disadvantage in WS.

3) Change the allstar game from AL vs NL to USA vs The World. Maybe it will bring back some pride, for our National pastime.

4) Market players more.

5) Become more fan friendly at the stadiums, by opening gates earlier, to watch BP. Bring back the bullpen car.

6) Have more oldtimers games. Don't let young fans forget the history of the game, by letting them know about the stars of years past.

1) Make the June draft be worldwide eligibility.

I bolster this idea by making the draft mandatory for all players entering MLB. Everyone gets drafted, no exceptions. MLB would then take over any team's over seas development facilities should the team so desire. Then tear up the weird deal with the Japanese league. If a player in Japan wants to enter the US draft, they should go for it.

Second, in order to properly implement revenue sharing, MLB should take over accounting for all teams. No teams should be able to hide revenue in regional TV networks or whatever shenanigans they could be pulling.