Some interesting rules changes are coming to baseball in 2023.

[JRHawk2003]

The new bases are a total joke. Pizza boxes.

I am close to giving up on baseball after nearly 50 years. I am going all in on soccer. The geeks cant ruin it as bad.

 

[JRHawk2003]

Real Baseball...this was in an ALCS no less.

 

[TJ8869]

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Votto was just emulating Jonny Gomes.

 

[TJ8869]

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Real Baseball...this was in an ASG no less.

ASG?

 

[JRHawk2003]

ASG?

My bad. It was ALCS...I was thinking All Star Game

 

[Ray Kinsella]

Try to appreciate the purpose of the rules; it's actually trying to make baseball look like it once did, which was far more entertaining, IMHO. There weren't these crazy shifts swallowing up tons of singles, and base stealing was far more prevalent. And batters used to not step out every pitch, and pitchers used to not walk around the mound after every pitch.

 

[hawkifann]

Try to appreciate the purpose of the rules; it's actually trying to make baseball look like it once did, which was far more entertaining, IMHO. There weren't these crazy shifts swallowing up tons of singles, and base stealing was far more prevalent. And batters used to not step out every pitch, and pitchers used to not walk around the mound after every pitch.

Yeah, it’s been really weird to watch the old head reactions. I’ll give the throw-over rule, that’s weird and I’m trying to hold judgment on it, but I’ve seen so many people complain about so many things that have made baseball not look like the game they grew up with…but now these rules are going to ruin it? We won’t even notice the pitch clock 2 weeks in and we won’t notice the bases either, but the reduction in base-to-base distance of 3” from 1B-2B and 2B-3B should increase stolen bases and the 1.5” reduction in distance between home and 1B will mean a few more infield hits. I think it’s much ado about nothing.

 

[JRHawk2003]

Try to appreciate the purpose of the rules; it's actually trying to make baseball look like it once did, which was far more entertaining, IMHO. There weren't these crazy shifts swallowing up tons of singles, and base stealing was far more prevalent. And batters used to not step out every pitch, and pitchers used to not walk around the mound after every pitch.

I cant stand Rob Manfred and this endless tinkering. I cant stand what the stat geeks have done to baseball.

"Wins don't matter". What a bunch of F'in nonsense. Herm Edwards said it best " You play to win the game". Its not an abstract statistical exercise.

Some of these "fans" would be better off running regressions on Excel instead of watching a baseball game.

 

[THE_DEVIL]

 

[THE_DEVIL]

As an older baseball fan I admit I harken back to an early day of pure baseball and wish that baseball could return. However, change can not be stopped so we have what we have. You can yell at the kids to get off your lawn but it won't stop the lil' bastards from wearing out path on the Kentucky Bluegrass

 

[chalupa81]

Who doesn’t want to watch the pitcher walk around the mound and take off his hat and comb his fingers through his hair after every pitch. And I love watching batters get out of the box after every pitch and adjust their helmet, batting gloves, and take a stare into the stands. Yeah that was so enjoyable to watch for 3 1/2 hours.

 

[HawkRugged17]

 

[Ray Kinsella]

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Good. Enforce the heck out of it during Spring training so that it becomes second nature by opening day.

 

[TJ8869]

Instead of calling an automatic strike if the batter isn’t ready, why not just allow the pitcher to throw at any time after the hitter’s clock expires?

For example, give the hitter 20 seconds to be ready. At 20 seconds the pitcher can throw whether or not the hitter is ready.

 

[Thunderlips71]

Love the pitch clock. One of the main reasons I quit watching baseball is I grew tired of watching the batters step out of the box to preen, primp, and pose after every pitch.

 

[DFSNOLE]

 

[bhawk24bob]

This is not a competition to see how fast we can get the game over with once it's begun.

You know what would make this game even more exciting? Let's juice the balls for certain hitters in certain situations in games to produce more home runs. Oh wait, they already tried that and it turns out that nobody gives a shit about Tim Anderson hitting a HR in Iowa or how many HR's Judge can hit in a season.

And let's make the game more difficult for people to have access to. The lights were on at O's Park on Friday, and I could see them from a few blocks from my house. Guess what I won't be able to see on tv all season because I won't pay for a Comcast tv package?

 

[hawkifann]

This is not a competition to see how fast we can get the game over with once it's begun.

You know what would make this game even more exciting? Let's juice the balls for certain hitters in certain situations in games to produce more home runs. Oh wait, they already tried that and it turns out that nobody gives a shit about Tim Anderson hitting a HR in Iowa or how many HR's Judge can hit in a season.

And let's make the game more difficult for people to have access to. The lights were on at O's Park on Friday, and I could see them from a few blocks from my house. Guess what I won't be able to see on tv all season because I won't pay for a Comcast tv package?

Baseball needs to fix the blackout crap. Entire states shouldn’t be blacked out of all vaguely nearby teams.

 

[SoDakHawk]

These rule changes suck. Manfred sucks. Destroying the game.

There is no clock in baseball. That's one of the beautiful things about the game.

Ruined with these beer league softball rules.

 

[ANYCHawk]

This is not a competition to see how fast we can get the game over with once it's begun.

You know what would make this game even more exciting? Let's juice the balls for certain hitters in certain situations in games to produce more home runs. Oh wait, they already tried that and it turns out that nobody gives a shit about Tim Anderson hitting a HR in Iowa or how many HR's Judge can hit in a season.

And let's make the game more difficult for people to have access to. The lights were on at O's Park on Friday, and I could see them from a few blocks from my house. Guess what I won't be able to see on tv all season because I won't pay for a Comcast tv package?

So you're being cheap is ruining the game?

(And Aaron judge and his home run chase raised tv ratings, but hey don't let facts get in the way of a made up rant)

 

[ANYCHawk]

These rule changes suck. Manfred sucks. Destroying the game.

There is no clock in baseball. That's one of the beautiful things about the game.

Ruined with these beer league softball rules.

And now there is a clock. It's still the same game we just reduced the time outside the box or dicking around behind the mound.

The game was played for a lot of years that way and now we're stealing it back. But hey playing the game like 1880-1989 is ruining the game apparently.

 

[JRHawk2003]

Real Baseball

 

[ANYCHawk]

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Real Baseball

Gonna laugh at the irony of you picking highlights from the year that caused the league to make a massive rule changes that increased offense and attendance because the game had gotten stale and boring

 

[bhawk24bob]

So you're being cheap is ruining the game?

(And Aaron judge and his home run chase raised tv ratings, but hey don't let facts get in the way of a made up rant)

We've seen how shortlived tv ratings over manufactured HR counts plays out over time......

fwiw the O's have their hand out looking for $1B in public money to renovate O's Park. The least they can do is make the games available to their market as the market wants to consume it, which I believe extends down to Charlotte. I'm fairly certain that the Nationals have the same problem since they're on MASN as well. If I really wanted to get on a soapbox, I'd argue that any private club that takes public money should have its games available over the air on public access in the local market.

 

[ANYCHawk]

We've seen how shortlived tv ratings over manufactured HR counts plays out over time......

fwiw the O's have their hand out looking for $1B in public money to renovate O's Park. The least they can do is make the games available to their market as the market wants to consume it, which I believe extends down to Charlotte. I'm fairly certain that the Nationals have the same problem since they're on MASN as well. If I really wanted to get on a soapbox, I'd argue that any private club that takes public money should have its games available over the air on public access in the local market.

It is available, you said so. You're just cheap and refuse to pay for it.

And lots of things require public money and aren't free. Why should baseball just give away its product for minimal revenue?

(And sure tv ratings might not hold up. Who knows. But you literally said no one cares about judges homerun chase and that's blantely false. You didn't say nobody will care long term. You said nobody cared and that is just wrong.)

 

[JRHawk2003]

Gonna laugh at the irony of you picking highlights from the year that caused the league to make a massive rule changes that increased offense and attendance because the game had gotten stale and boring

1972?

 

[JRHawk2003]

So you're being cheap is ruining the game?

(And Aaron judge and his home run chase raised tv ratings, but hey don't let facts get in the way of a made up rant)

No. What's ruining the game is that it lacks personality. It has the charm of Insurance underwriting. No Earl Weavers. No Billy Martins. No Harry Caray's.

Mostly it's the stat geeks. The most statistically efficient is boring. Walks, Strike Outs, and Home Runs. No bunts, no steals, no hit and run. Most of the guys today can't make contact consistently to do hit and run.

 

[ANYCHawk]

No. What's ruining the game is that it lacks personality. It has the charm of Insurance underwriting. No Earl Weavers. No Billy Martins. No Harry Caray's.

Mostly it's the stat geeks. The most statistically efficient is boring. Walks, Strike Outs, and Home Runs. No bunts, no steals, no hit and run. Most of the guys today can't make contact consistently to do hit and run.

Right and you picked highlights from 1972 to show that.

A season when the league got tired of lack of offense, lack of contact and no steals and instituted massive rule changes to get those going.

Now it's called the pitch clock. Back then it was the DH.

 

[bhawk24bob]

It is available, you said so. You're just cheap and refuse to pay for it.

And lots of things require public money and aren't free. Why should baseball just give away its product for minimal revenue?

(And sure tv ratings might not hold up. Who knows. But you literally said no one cares about judges homerun chase and that's blantely false. You didn't say nobody will care long term. You said nobody cared and that is just wrong.)

We can call me cheap I guess, though I have 110 games paid for to attend in person right now.....so I'm not sure it sticks. The Mets and O's both give me the MLB package. I can't watch the Met road games from Brooklyn over it, and I can't watch any O's games over it while in Canton. So I should get Comcast in Baltimore City and something with SNY in Brooklyn? Blackout restrictions is a man-made problem, fix it.

It's fair to pick apart my statement on Judge, though I thought the comparison to Anderson in 2021 would indicate that I'm speaking historically.

 

[hawkifann]

These rule changes suck. Manfred sucks. Destroying the game.

There is no clock in baseball. That's one of the beautiful things about the game.

Ruined with these beer league softball rules.

There’s still no clock on the game. When people say there’s no clock in baseball, they’re saying you can’t just run out of time in baseball, you have to run out of outs. Pitch clock changes none of that, it just ups the pace a bit.

For years, I’ve heard people hearken back to the Greg Maddux games and his efficiency and how quickly the game moved. There was no pitch clock, but he (and many others) kept the game moving at a nice clip.

I remember dreading Steve Trachsel starts back in the 1990s, The guy was a human rain delay. If he was on his game, he was fully capable of throwing a 4-hour 2-hitter. Let the action dictate how long the game is, not the inaction.

 

[JRHawk2003]

I have never sat there and thought a baseball game was too long.

Somehow baseball is but the mind numbing NFL replay laden games are not?

 

[JRHawk2003]

Right and you picked highlights from 1972 to show that.

A season when the league got tired of lack of offense, lack of contact and no steals and instituted massive rule changes to get those going.

Now it's called the pitch clock. Back then it was the DH.

The pitch clock isn't going to change the 3 outcome stuff.

The pizza box bases are comical. I can't take Rob Manfred seriously.

I will watch games, but I don't care like I did.

 

[hawkifann]

The pitch clock isn't going to change the 3 outcome stuff.

The pizza box bases are comical. I can't take Rob Manfred seriously.

I will watch games, but I don't care like I did.

They aren’t pizza box bases. It’s 3 inches. It’ll matter on a few bang-bang plays and otherwise, it’s not big deal. I was at a game yesterday and if I didn’t know the bases were bigger, I don’t think I would have noticed. I certainly won’t notice in a month.

 

[bhawk24bob]

I have never sat there and thought a baseball game was too long.

Somehow baseball is but the mind numbing NFL replay laden games are not?

I can't watch a Yankee/Red Sox game as the two teams that would be AA teams for actual Yankee or Red Sox teams tinker for hours on end but generally your point stands.

 

[SoDakHawk]

Just cancelled my autorenew to MLB.TV. I may revisit subscribing later this summer but I can't support giving MLB more money. I'll watch games I already get on cable but I'm not sure about more.

They'll probably suck me back in mid-May when they run a subscription deal. We'll see.

 

[HawkRugged17]

 

[RushProbst]

The pitch clock isn't going to change the 3 outcome stuff.

The pizza box bases are comical. I can't take Rob Manfred seriously.

I will watch games, but I don't care like I did.

Yea but the no shifts should increase hitting for average rather than your 3 outcomes.

 

[bhawk24bob]

Moving the walls back and putting in a minimum distance, coupled with some integrity in baseball manufacturing, would eliminate the 3 outcome problem that's turned most games into 3+ hours of home run derby

 

[SoDakHawk]

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This is just dumb. So dumb.

Can't wait for this to happen on a 3-2 count.

 

[SoDakHawk]

Moving the walls back and putting in a minimum distance, coupled with some integrity in baseball manufacturing, would eliminate the 3 outcome problem that's turned most games into 3+ hours of home run derby

I've been saying this for years. Deaden the ball making HRs less likely and these guys will stop swinging for the fence and put balls in play.