So I love the sport of baseball.
However, the economics of the era has created a situation that is the complete opposite of the NFL. Whereas the NFL you can rebuild quickly, within 2-3 years max, the games remain exciting, and you can learn to love indiivudal players. In baseball, sustained success requires a massive planning and minor league investment strategy that can take a minimum of 5 years to fully realize the benefits of the strategy (the tanking strategy). And if you fail, you're in the whole for a decade. On top of that, without a salary cap and a salary floor, the good teams can buy there way through minor league droughts (see Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, Red Sox).
So here is my proposed changes to make baseball great again.
1. Increase Roster sizes from 25 to 28, this allows for greater flexibility, more off days, and more well rested players.
2. Decrease the number of games from 162 to 154, again, to increase the quality of the product on the field.
3. Increase the minimum age for MLB/MiLB to 20 years old. This allows for minor leaguers to move more quickly through the system and replenish the major league club. Plus the 28 man roster allows more time for players to develop at the ML level.
4. Contraction, the product is too diluted. Do we really need teams in Tampa Bay, Miami, Oakland, San Diego? These places are not baseball towns and draw extremely small crowds.
5. Salary Cap/Salary Floor. Teams need to spend.
6. Reduce service time needed to reach free agency. 6 years to 4 years. Again, gives team the ability to replenish and rebuild there teams through free agency. And with equal money across the board, teams will always be forced to compete. Allow for Franchise tags so teams can hold onto their stars longer and fan bases can stay attached.
7. Reduce the number of minor league teams. With age restrictions, you can really reduce the number of organizational filler players and make the minor leagues much more competitive. The amount of non-prospects in the minor leaguers is staggering. And do we really need 7 levels of minor league ball? (DSL, RK, RK2, A, A+, AA, AAA); Lets just reduce it to 3 levels. Let the players sink or swim quicker. If they still want to try, they can join independent ball and try out anytime. But lets make the minor leaguers more competitive too.
8. We have three discreet outcomes right now that has taken over the sport. Strikeout, Home Run, Walk. Lets standardize the bat sizes to require bats to be no more than a certain weight. Force = Mass x Velocity. Players have got to be using heavier bats to increase the mass. Lighter bats mean fewer strikeouts, and fewer home runs. Incentivises small ball.
9. Ban the shift. Again, the shift leads to more unexciting play.
They really shouldn't even be in the discussion.
They really shouldn't even be in the discussion.
Every little leaguer can do it. Pros should too.
Every little leaguer can do it. Pros should too.
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These players should know how to bunt. Rizzo has done it a couple times. Not sure why it isn't automatic.
Every little leaguer can do it. Pros should too.
It's not just bunting. It's simple bat control. Was it Martinez or someone else the other day that beat the shift for a big RBI single late in a game by simply hitting a ground ball to the vacated spot?
It's easier said than done with the average FB velocity is 3-4 MPH faster than it was in Tony Gwynn's time. There's something to this, sure, but the rise of the long ball as the sine qua non of hitting and the equivalent rise of the mid to high-90's FB as the expectation for top starters and back-end guys has made a whole fields approach a lot more difficult.
It is more of a by-product of Sabermetrics and the belief that singles are devalued. The difficulty in going the opposite way is almost exclusively technique-based. And actually the additional velocity would make the balls hit go harder in the direction. The problem is a guy who is a dead pull hitter would rather maintain his form and pull the ball, even if it is into the shift, because if he hits a HR or to the wall, he's basically rewarded for his productivity.
What is strange to me is that more manager's don't look for guys to situationally hit it the opposite way, even if they have players mired in slumps or suffering from poor form.
Dupe says what?
They really shouldn't even be in the discussion.
Quote:
It's easier said than done with the average FB velocity is 3-4 MPH faster than it was in Tony Gwynn's time. There's something to this, sure, but the rise of the long ball as the sine qua non of hitting and the equivalent rise of the mid to high-90's FB as the expectation for top starters and back-end guys has made a whole fields approach a lot more difficult.
It is more of a by-product of Sabermetrics and the belief that singles are devalued. The difficulty in going the opposite way is almost exclusively technique-based. And actually the additional velocity would make the balls hit go harder in the direction. The problem is a guy who is a dead pull hitter would rather maintain his form and pull the ball, even if it is into the shift, because if he hits a HR or to the wall, he's basically rewarded for his productivity.
What is strange to me is that more manager's don't look for guys to situationally hit it the opposite way, even if they have players mired in slumps or suffering from poor form.
Agree to an extent. But hitting a fastball coming in at 97+ is different than hitting 89-90, it almost requires cheating. Now you can lighten the bat or make some changes to technique that make it a little easier to make contact with 97+, but they're going to limit your ability to drive pitches (FBs, yes, but breaking balls too). Only a handful of players have really succeeded at doing both for any length of time (Mookie Betts and Altuve most notably, though Betts hasn't looked like a 40+ HR guy until this year, and Altuve is way off his '16 and '17 HR pace).
The only part I was addressing was the ability to slap the ball or making contact by going the other way. That's more of a technique issue than one about pitch velocity.
I'd bet they draw better than the Diamondbacks.
San Diego is the 8th largest city in the US. More people than SF and Oakland combined. So yeah, I'd say you need a team there. You have to look to the future and cities like San Diego have grown so much compared to places like Baltimore and St. Louis that you just need to be there if you want to thrive going forward. Probably should have a team in San Antonio-Austin as well.
Season is way too long. Should start in May and be done in September, World Series and all.
Games are too long and too often.
Too much down time between pitches. There should be a limit to time outs for the pitcher and the batter. Once you are out of time outs, you are out for the game no matter the player. The commentating makes this lapse in play even worse.
There should be a warning not to operate heavy machinery or drive a vehicle while the game is on. Will cause drowsiness.
Do away with the wild card and go back to the original format. Too bad if you had a great season only second to the division winner. You're out. Try harder next year.