Proposed MLB rule changes

[Oxy]

I love the idea of making pitchers step off before they throw to a base. Guys can stare at the foot on the rubber and go at first movement unless that foot moves significantly.

[Baldkin]

You know what would help stop the all or nothing of going for a home run? Get rid of the juiced ball. Why wouldn't you be going for a home run all the time when you know even decent contact has the potential to go over the fence?

 

I doubt it would be enough. We don't know how much of an impact juiced balls are having because everyone started worrying about launch angle at the same time.

 

We have a great idea. Home runs are up 50% in AAA this year.

 

They started using the MLB ball this year.

 

Skill changes or thoughts around it don't magically propagate to the entire MLB population at the drop of a hat. A change in the baseball does.

 

http://owlbb.com/juiced-ball.php

[owbc]

You know what would help stop the all or nothing of going for a home run? Get rid of the juiced ball. Why wouldn't you be going for a home run all the time when you know even decent contact has the potential to go over the fence?

 

I doubt it would be enough. We don't know how much of an impact juiced balls are having because everyone started worrying about launch angle at the same time.

 

We have a great idea. Home runs are up 50% in AAA this year.

 

They started using the MLB ball this year.

 

Skill changes or thoughts around it don't magically propagate to the entire MLB population at the drop of a hat. A change in the baseball does.

 

http://owlbb.com/juiced-ball.php

 

I didn’t realize the AAA rate went up by that much after no change in prior years. Yikes.

 

I would still argue that pace of play and 3TO baseball need to be addressed. Otherwise un-juicing the ball will simply make for a slow, boring game with little offense. Making speed valuable is the key—more stolen bases, more incentive to hit the ball on the ground.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I think (and I've made this argument before) it's not just the pace of play. It's the aesthetic value of the current game. There's less balls put in play, there's a lot more standing around. There's more k's and walks, and there's generally less action than there has been, quite literally ever, in the history of the game. The scoring is up, which is ok I suppose, and homeruns are up, but they're SO up, that the excitement of homeruns has been watered down to a point that a homerun is not an "event" in a baseball game any more.

 

I'm not here arguing that I want bunting, grounders advancing runners, and sac flies galore, but it's just the aesthetic of the current game is frankly, really not an exciting game to watch most nights.

 

You can't MAKE hitters not swing for the fences, and try to steal more bases, and bunt and etc, etc, etc. I don't want a bunch of 3-2 games where all 5 runs scored on sac flies and RBI groundouts. That's boring too! I just think there's a middle ground between fundamentally sound (and boring) baseball and 3TO (and really boring) baseball. I don't know where that is, and I don't know how to reach it. I do think that juicing the baseball so that we have multiple teams on pace for 275 homers isn't really a good start. Having a bunch of pitchers striking out 14+ batters per 9, IMO, is not great for the game either.

[owbc]

I think (and I've made this argument before) it's not just the pace of play. It's the aesthetic value of the current game. There's less balls put in play, there's a lot more standing around. There's more k's and walks, and there's generally less action than there has been, quite literally ever, in the history of the game. The scoring is up, which is ok I suppose, and homeruns are up, but they're SO up, that the excitement of homeruns has been watered down to a point that a homerun is not an "event" in a baseball game any more.

 

I'm not here arguing that I want bunting, grounders advancing runners, and sac flies galore, but it's just the aesthetic of the current game is frankly, really not an exciting game to watch most nights.

 

You can't MAKE hitters not swing for the fences, and try to steal more bases, and bunt and etc, etc, etc. I don't want a bunch of 3-2 games where all 5 runs scored on sac flies and RBI groundouts. That's boring too! I just think there's a middle ground between fundamentally sound (and boring) baseball and 3TO (and really boring) baseball. I don't know where that is, and I don't know how to reach it. I do think that juicing the baseball so that we have multiple teams on pace for 275 homers isn't really a good start. Having a bunch of pitchers striking out 14+ batters per 9, IMO, is not great for the game either.

 

I think the first challenge is to get the majority of fans to accept that changes (beyond un-juicing the ball) need to made and Manfred has so far proven to be completely the wrong person to do so.

 

I'm curious to see what robot umps will do to the game before making other big changes to pitching. It is my belief that it will benefit hitters more than pitchers since the uncertainty of a ball/strike call on the corner forces hitters to swing at balls that might be called strikes. So maybe we will get more contact that way without having to change anything else.

[owbc]

Friday night’s game was case in point for what’s wrong with baseball. A 4-hour game with 18 walks and 19 strikeouts. Only 6 balls landed safely in the outfield, the other 6 hits were HRs or infield singles. Yuck.

 

Does anyone actually watch the whole game?? A 6-5 game with a walk off HR should be exciting but that game was slow and excruciating.

[sveumrules]

The more I think about it, if/when MLB ever does go to an automated strike zone of some sort, the advantage will shift to hitters BIG time.

 

Once guys know, with certainty, where their zone really is & don't have to worry about umps missing all those close pitches around the edges, especially high/low...watch out.

 

I think swing % will fall off pretty dramatically, especially at the outset, & foul balls will increase even more (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/foul-balls-are-the-pace-of-play-problem-nobodys-talking-about) as batters hone in on their one, true zone.

[mtsportsfan]

That was truly a hard game to watch ! As owb touched on , having a automated strike zone might help quite abit. Having umpires mis a ball or strike can Chang's a at bat dramatically

[DuWayne Steurer]

Friday night’s game was case in point for what’s wrong with baseball. A 4-hour game with 18 walks and 19 strikeouts. Only 6 balls landed safely in the outfield, the other 6 hits were HRs or infield singles. Yuck.

 

Does anyone actually watch the whole game?? A 6-5 game with a walk off HR should be exciting but that game was slow and excruciating.

 

That is exactly what I meant in my previous post about the aesthetic value of baseball not being up to par in the current iteration of the game. Last night's game was an absolute abomination to watch.

[RollieTime]

The more I think about it, if/when MLB ever does go to an automated strike zone of some sort, the advantage will shift to hitters BIG time.

 

Once guys know, with certainty, where their zone really is & don't have to worry about umps missing all those close pitches around the edges, especially high/low...watch out.

 

I think swing % will fall off pretty dramatically, especially at the outset, & foul balls will increase even more (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/foul-balls-are-the-pace-of-play-problem-nobodys-talking-about) as batters hone in on their one, true zone.

 

I disagree with the first bolded part in the short term. I think there will be a big advantage to the pitcher when the bottom of the strike zone will actually get called correctly. Seems like a lot of umps aren’t very consistent with calls near the bottom.

 

I do agree with the second bolded part that having a consistent strike zone for guys to adapt to and know what is and isn’t a strike will be beneficial to the hitter, but that it will take a year or two for guys to really get a feel for exactly where the strike zone is. Those fastballs right at the bottom of the zone and curveballs that nearly hit the dirt, but cross right at the knees are going to give hitters FITS when they start getting rung up on those pitches. They will adapt, but it’ll be a painful learning process for the hitters in my opinion.

[rickh150]

Friday night’s game was case in point for what’s wrong with baseball. A 4-hour game with 18 walks and 19 strikeouts. Only 6 balls landed safely in the outfield, the other 6 hits were HRs or infield singles. Yuck.

 

Does anyone actually watch the whole game?? A 6-5 game with a walk off HR should be exciting but that game was slow and excruciating.

 

That is exactly what I meant in my previous post about the aesthetic value of baseball not being up to par in the current iteration of the game. Last night's game was an absolute abomination to watch.

 

Agree and I love baseball... more contact, more action on the bases, less down time... the current action reminds me of current pro tennis with too many aces and unforced errors on the baselines. It was much better to watch in the 70s and 80s when the serve didn't dominate and net play was more common.

[lcbj68c]

Agree and I love baseball... more contact, more action on the bases, less down time... the current action reminds me of current pro tennis with too many aces and unforced errors on the baselines. It was much better to watch in the 70s and 80s when the serve didn't dominate and net play was more common.

 

Whats this tennis you speak of?

[645]

Almost everyone is trying to hit a home run now in every inning, every count, every situation. Probably 90% of the time that MLB players swing the bat the goal is a home run. Any other game action is purely accidental or will be soon.

 

That's all the justification I need for major rule changes to RESTORE the game to a previous state. Baseball has already changed to something new, the goal of any changes should be to get things back to what I would argue is a better version of baseball.

 

Attendance is down 4,000 fans/game from the peak in the late-2000s but it is clear visually that WAY more people are leaving the game in the 6th-8th inning than they used to, generally because that's when games are hitting the 2.5-hour mark. The fans are not invested in the outcome because the games are too long.

 

My main solution is to make stolen bases WAY easier (similar to the current test in the Atlantic league with pitchers needing to step off)--ideally a 75% success rate for the average runner and nearly 100% for the fastest guys in the league. That should greatly change the value equation in favor of fast, exciting but lower-OPS guys who are currently headed to extinction. I also think it is a way to make 3TO baseball more exciting since a walk should lead to more movement on the bases.

 

It's not that although from a fan's view point it can look like that. heres a real good article on what they are trying to do.

 

https://prospects365.com/2019/08/04/new-age-hitting/

 

It's about doing Damage and they are finding they can do more damage the harder the ball is hit and it's not just Home Runs more Doubles fall in by hitting the ball hard and simply put that's not going away for the simple fact It's working.

[danzig6767]

Friday night’s game was case in point for what’s wrong with baseball. A 4-hour game with 18 walks and 19 strikeouts. Only 6 balls landed safely in the outfield, the other 6 hits were HRs or infield singles. Yuck.

 

Does anyone actually watch the whole game?? A 6-5 game with a walk off HR should be exciting but that game was slow and excruciating.

 

That is exactly what I meant in my previous post about the aesthetic value of baseball not being up to par in the current iteration of the game. Last night's game was an absolute abomination to watch.

All of the shifting data is part of the reason why we see less hits.

 

Look how often say with runners on base, a batter hits a ball hard up the middle which used to almost always be a hit, now though a defender is standing right there and instead it's a double play.

 

For lefthanded batters with a pull tendency, they not only face three infielders on the pull side of the infield, the secondbaseman is playing in the outfield grass.

 

So for batters with a pretty extreme ground ball profile, they may as well swing for the fences given such a high percentage of their ground balls will end up being an out.

[Oxy]

That is a good prospect 365 article.

 

I don't have a problem with more guys hitting home runs when the situation calls for it (which is basically what has happened...There isn't an increase in HRs from the top tier of guys like there was in the steroid era, there is just an increase in 2B, SS, CF, and catchers hitting for power when in the past those were mainly defensive and/or speed guys).

 

However, it does really bug me when there are certain situations where swinging "to do damage" as the article states results in more Ks when simply a single or even just a BIP will likely do the trick (scoring 1 run late to take the lead....getting guys in from 3rd...getting the lead off guy on base, etc.).

 

Still, as Danzig said, shifting is a bigger problem than hitting philosophy, since it's just plain a lot harder to hit singles against the shift.

 

 

How about just shortening the basepaths to 88 feet? Speedy ground ball guys' average and stolen base attempts/success rates would go way up making them more valuable. You'd have to give pitchers/D a little bit somewhere else though, or else R/game would go up way too much.

 

That's the odd thing about the "problem" in that teams aren't scoring a ton more runs than they used to, they are just doing it a different way that is mostly boring. HRs aren't boring, but BBs are, and Ks with guys on base are boring too.

[owbc]

How about just shortening the basepaths to 88 feet? Speedy ground ball guys' average and stolen base attempts/success rates would go way up making them more valuable. You'd have to give pitchers/D a little bit somewhere else though, or else R/game would go up way too much.

 

That's the odd thing about the "problem" in that teams aren't scoring a ton more runs than they used to, they are just doing it a different way that is mostly boring. HRs aren't boring, but BBs are, and Ks with guys on base are boring too.

 

I believe the Atlantic League is now using larger bases (which effectively shortens the basepaths).

 

If the ball wasn't juiced we would see a dramatic decrease in offense...deadball era except with 3TO baseball and 3.5 hour games. Now that would be a disaster--hence why the ball can not be 'un-juiced' without other concurrent changes.

[homer]

Friday night’s game was case in point for what’s wrong with baseball. A 4-hour game with 18 walks and 19 strikeouts. Only 6 balls landed safely in the outfield, the other 6 hits were HRs or infield singles. Yuck.

 

Does anyone actually watch the whole game?? A 6-5 game with a walk off HR should be exciting but that game was slow and excruciating.

 

That is exactly what I meant in my previous post about the aesthetic value of baseball not being up to par in the current iteration of the game. Last night's game was an absolute abomination to watch.

 

Agree and I love baseball... more contact, more action on the bases, less down time... the current action reminds me of current pro tennis with too many aces and unforced errors on the baselines. It was much better to watch in the 70s and 80s when the serve didn't dominate and net play was more common.

 

Should go back to wooden rackets! Seriously.

[stoutdude04]

 

Should go back to wooden rackets! Seriously.

 

I have my high schoolers hit overheads with wooden rackets since the sweet spot is so small.

[Oxy]

This would seriously speed up the game but could screw up a lot of offensive stats as good teams would have fewer offensive innings than bad teams:

 

After the 6th inning, the team in the lead has the option to delay their next innings at bats--letting the trailing team consecutively use the offensive half of its innings until its 9 offensive innings are up (or it ties the game/takes the lead). If the trailing team takes the lead during this time, it shall finish the half inning that it is in and the other team would resume it's offensive at-bats where they left off.

 

 

It wouldn't have to be an "option" either...You could mandate that a team will not bat unless it is losing or it is winning by fewer runs than the number of innings it has left to bat.

 

So, if a team is up by 6 after 4 innings, it stops batting until the other team scores enough runs to make it a closer game (obviously still clearing the bases after 3 outs), at which point it would pick up again by batting in it's 5th inning (even if the other team is in the 8th inning of it's ABs)

 

Blowouts are really boring for both teams and it is mostly a waste of time for the team that is ahead to bat. The other team would still get it's 27 outs to make a miraculous comeback--and should that happen then the team that was originally ahead by a lot would also still get it's full 9 innings/27 outs to come back again.

[young guns]

The only issue I could see with that is let's say you score 10 in the first, now your pitcher doesn't get the normal breaks of when your team is batting. A lot of stress on arms. And it's still an issue with less severe examples too.

[jerichoholicninja]

Alex Cora's ideas are stupid. I won't even post them they are so stupid. Go look them up if you are so inclined.

[Oxy]

The only issue I could see with that is let's say you score 10 in the first, now your pitcher doesn't get the normal breaks of when your team is batting. A lot of stress on arms. And it's still an issue with less severe examples too.

 

A team can have 2 "active" pitchers, so that one can sit on the bench and rest-however, if you "rest" a guy he has to stay on the bench until the next half inning--and any mid-inning pitching change will permanently remove the pitcher from the game.

[clancyphile]

That is a good prospect 365 article.

 

I don't have a problem with more guys hitting home runs when the situation calls for it (which is basically what has happened...There isn't an increase in HRs from the top tier of guys like there was in the steroid era, there is just an increase in 2B, SS, CF, and catchers hitting for power when in the past those were mainly defensive and/or speed guys).

 

However, it does really bug me when there are certain situations where swinging "to do damage" as the article states results in more Ks when simply a single or even just a BIP will likely do the trick (scoring 1 run late to take the lead....getting guys in from 3rd...getting the lead off guy on base, etc.).

 

Still, as Danzig said, shifting is a bigger problem than hitting philosophy, since it's just plain a lot harder to hit singles against the shift.

 

The way to get teams to stop shifting is to get players who have high rates of contact, and who are good at spraying the ball to all fields. That is what I'd have my scouts look for - mostly in the later rounds.

 

If you have hitters like that, teams will not shift.

[Patrick425]

The way to get teams to stop shifting is to get players who have high rates of contact, and who are good at spraying the ball to all fields. That is what I'd have my scouts look for - mostly in the later rounds.

 

If you have hitters like that, teams will not shift.

 

 

Yes, thank you! It's maddening to me to watch players (mostly lefties) go up to the plate with basically no one on the left side of the infield and just go about their AB like business as usual. Learn to bunt!! Learn to hit the other way! Change your approach! When I see those shifts, I imagine me going to a game in the 80's and Ben Oglivie comes to the plate and the other team does this wild shift (like they do now). The announcers are puzzled, the crowd is puzzled, Ben Oglivie is puzzled....really, your going to just not have anyone on the left side of the infield? Ok? I'll bunt.

[sveumrules]

I think the least intrusive way to speed up games is to just go to three ball walks, two pitch strkeouts.

 

Plus, it would add a nice wrinkle when singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame...

 

...for it's ONE, TWO, (silence) strikes yer out, at the old ballgame.