MLB messing with the game once again

[fan_since79]

On the same day the powers-that-be messed with the game once again by making intentional walks automatic, Texas A&M's baseball team won a game with a walk-off wild pitch on an intentional pass.

Irony with a message. Leave the game of baseball alone, Commissioner!!

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/on-day-mlb-tweaks-walk-rule-texas-a-m-wins-on-wild-pitch-during-intentional-walk/

 

 

 

[Troll Daddy]

No bueno 

[fan_since79]

Aren't they also floating some crazy idea to have a runner placed on second base leading off the 11th inning??

 

[Homebrewer]

5 minutes ago, fan_since79 said:

Aren't they also floating some crazy idea to have a runner placed on second base leading off the 11th inning??

 

They should do that every inning, add a designated runner to the starting 9, who starts every inning on the bases.

That's the ticket.

[Troll Daddy]

4 minutes ago, Homebrewer said:

They should do that every inning, add a designated runner to the starting 9, who starts every inning on the bases.

That's the ticket.

Better yet ... have nine designated batters/fielders/runners. Let's watch the best of the best!

 

[fan_since79]

Guys that have a sub .600 OPS, like Mathis, should be given some runners on base when they come up to bat.

Nobody should be made to feel bad about their lack of production. It's not easy to drive in runs. Major League Baseball cares!

 

[Second Base]

There really won't be too many changes. Done are coming for sure, but they shouldn't change the game experience.

Intentional walks automatically taking the bag speeds the game up. Giving managers less time to challenge plays, again speeds it all up. A pitch clock is coming in the next year or two, and they'll limit mound visits, and that's really about it.

There won't be a runner starting on second base, and probably not a mandatory three batters faced from RP.

[yk9001]

1 hour ago, fan_since79 said:

On the same day the powers-that-be messed with the game once again by making intentional walks automatic, Texas A&M's baseball team won a game with a walk-off wild pitch on an intentional pass.

Irony with a message. Leave the game of baseball alone, Commissioner!!

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/on-day-mlb-tweaks-walk-rule-texas-a-m-wins-on-wild-pitch-during-intentional-walk/

 

 

 

Hilarious

[Junkballer]

57 minutes ago, Scotty@AW said:

Intentional walks automatically taking the bag speeds the game up. Giving managers less time to challenge plays, again speeds it all up. A pitch clock is coming in the next year or two, and they'll limit mound visits, and that's really about it.

Just to piggyback off of your comments Scotty, these are all going to improve the the viewing experience for most fans except perhaps some die hards.  Baseball, as great as it is, only has the ball in play for less than 20 minutes over the course of a game.  That ball in play time doesn't get affected by these changes, but the filler needs to come back down to more traditional levels.

1 hour ago, Scotty@AW said:

There won't be a runner starting on second base, and probably not a mandatory three batters faced from RP.

The runner starting on second base seemed aimed at limiting extra-innings at the minor league level where limits make a lot of sense even if the runner idea may not.  I seriously doubt that will be ever seriously considered for MLB.  I'm pretty sure the minimum batters thing was a fan proposal not an actual league proposal.

[WeatherWonk]

What are the specifics of the 20 second rule, with regards to pitchers? Does it apply if runners are on base?

[Troll Daddy]

1 hour ago, Scotty@AW said:

There really won't be too many changes. Done are coming for sure, but they shouldn't change the game experience.

Intentional walks automatically taking the bag speeds the game up. Giving managers less time to challenge plays, again speeds it all up. A pitch clock is coming in the next year or two, and they'll limit mound visits, and that's really about it.

There won't be a runner starting on second base, and probably not a mandatory three batters faced from RP.

It's good to know I will hit the freeway a couple minutes sooner. 

[Angel Oracle]

At this rate, I am going to refer to him as Manlessfred.

Leave important elements to the game alone.

Instead, tell those freaking Red Sux and Skanks catchers to stop going to the mound every other pitch!

Just STOP it! 

[eaterfan]

2 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

On the same day the powers-that-be messed with the game once again by making intentional walks automatic, Texas A&M's baseball team won a game with a walk-off wild pitch on an intentional pass.

Irony with a message. Leave the game of baseball alone, Commissioner!!

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/on-day-mlb-tweaks-walk-rule-texas-a-m-wins-on-wild-pitch-during-intentional-walk/

 

 

 

Yeah, the skill level of players in college is probably below that of A ball. Things like that almost never happen in MLB. How many wild pitches, stolen bases, errors, or hits have their been on IBB attempts in MLB over the last two decades? I'd imagine the combination of all those things is less than I have fingers. Although to be fair, I have a normal amount of fingers. 

It's not really going to speed up the game that much. There aren't that many IBBs. But it will keep me from flipping channels when there is a runner on 2nd the catcher stands up to send four wide. 

[Angels#1Fan]

2 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

On the same day the powers-that-be messed with the game once again by making intentional walks automatic, Texas A&M's baseball team won a game with a walk-off wild pitch on an intentional pass.

Irony with a message. Leave the game of baseball alone, Commissioner!!

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/on-day-mlb-tweaks-walk-rule-texas-a-m-wins-on-wild-pitch-during-intentional-walk/

 

 

 

This is completely unnecessary.

[the dude abides]

Stupid rule.

If North Valley Little League had implemented this, we wouldn't have had one of the most exciting at-bats in baseball history, compliments of one Kelly Leak.

 

[HaloFan85]

There's a few things here and there that tend to "lag" a game from time to time, but are mostly having to do with specific teams and players.  It's by far the exception and not the rule.  If they want to save some time, they should start by eliminating the singing of 'God Bless America' and also getting rid of the 7th inning stretch.  They may even want to consider getting rid of the national anthem.  Save that stuff for the playoffs and holidays.  Don't need it sung before every single darn game.

The irony of it all is they say they want shorter games while at the same time wanting more offense.  More offense means more visits to the mound, more pitching changes, and much longer games.  Do they not see the contradiction of what they're trying to do?

[m0nkey]

How much time will actually be saved by not throwing four balls for an intentional walk?

[eaterfan]

14 minutes ago, m0nkey said:

How much time will actually be saved by not throwing four balls for an intentional walk?

It's not going to save much. It will basically save like half a minute per game. 

The point of these rules isn't to shorten the game. It's to shorten the inactive time spent during the games. If baseball could offer 4 hours of dynamic television action then advertisers would love that. And this accomplishes that a little. It just keeps the momentum of the game going after a double in the 8th inning in a tie game. This way we don't spend a minute or a minute and a half throwing 4 wide ones after a really exciting play. 

Does anyone get enjoyment from watching an intentional walk? Is anyone going to miss seeing that? I know we're only at Angel's moment #39, but I'd be very surprised if any of the AW top 50 moments in Angels history are an intentional walk.

[Stradling]

4 hours ago, HaloFan85 said:

There's a few things here and there that tend to "lag" a game from time to time, but are mostly having to do with specific teams and players.  It's by far the exception and not the rule.  If they want to save some time, they should start by eliminating the singing of 'God Bless America' and also getting rid of the 7th inning stretch.  They may even want to consider getting rid of the national anthem.  Save that stuff for the playoffs and holidays.  Don't need it sung before every single darn game.

The irony of it all is they say they want shorter games while at the same time wanting more offense.  More offense means more visits to the mound, more pitching changes, and much longer games.  Do they not see the contradiction of what they're trying to do?

Take me out to the ball game happens between innings so it doesn't add to the game time.  The National Anthem happens before the game.  So each Sunday they add a minute or so for God Bless America.  As for offense leading to longer games, well it doesn't have to.  The highest scoring game ever was 26-23 and it took 3 hours and 1 minute.  

[arch stanton]

Every pitch, especially with a runner on is a live ball in action. If you start attempting to interpret intent you get asinine rules like the NFL. They still won't change the perception that walks are crucial and strikeouts don't hurt which means taking pitches no matter what they do with a clock. Allowing a team to opt out of executing the play doesn't make anything better.

 

[CaliAngel]

14 hours ago, Scotty@AW said:

Intentional walks automatically taking the bag speeds the game up.

This is the stupidest reasoning behind changing the rule that I've ever heard. You know what else speeds the game up? Not changing pitchers one out after the other, which we see continuously happen game after game and it's annoying as hell. How about pitchers relentlessly throwing over to first time and time again not even trying to get the runner out, just delaying the pitch to the plate? How about mound visits to delay the game to give the relief pitcher more time?

If a team is going to decide to "skip" a player there should at-least be some sort of task for the pitcher to have such a privilege. I'm sorry, but those "rare" situations where someone actually gets intentionally walked is not going to speed up the game at all. And those "rare" situations where the pitcher throws wild, or the ball is over the plate and the batter hits what's supposed to be an intentional ball? Those "rare" moments are what make this game great.

What's next? Batters going up to the plate and after 2 strikes just go "eh, I'm pretty much out. Just mark it on the scorecard as a strikeout, thanks" and walks back to the dugout?

Of so many things they could have changed to speed up the game this is by far the lamest. Stop f**king with the basic fundamentals of the game, or pretty soon it's going to be a laughingstock like the NFL. I 100% hate this rule change. 

 

[bloodbrother]

7 hours ago, m0nkey said:

How much time will actually be saved by not throwing four balls for an intentional walk?

Exactly. Useless rule change that saves at best 20 or so seconds on something that isn't even used often in games

[Rico]

They should add ghost runners so we don't ever have to see Pujols run the bases.

[eaterfan]

2 hours ago, CaliAngel said:

This is the stupidest reasoning behind changing the rule that I've ever heard. You know what else speeds the game up? Not changing pitchers one out after the other, which we see continuously happen game after game and it's annoying as hell. How about pitchers relentlessly throwing over to first time and time again not even trying to get the runner out, just delaying the pitch to the plate? How about mound visits to delay the game to give the relief pitcher more time?

If a team is going to decide to "skip" a player there should at-least be some sort of task for the pitcher to have such a privilege. I'm sorry, but those "rare" situations where someone actually gets intentionally walked is not going to speed up the game at all. And those "rare" situations where the pitcher throws wild, or the ball is over the plate and the batter hits what's supposed to be an intentional ball? Those "rare" moments are what make this game great.

What's next? Batters going up to the plate and after 2 strikes just go "eh, I'm pretty much out. Just mark it on the scorecard as a strikeout, thanks" and walks back to the dugout?

Of so many things they could have changed to speed up the game this is by far the lamest. Stop f**king with the basic fundamentals of the game, or pretty soon it's going to be a laughingstock like the NFL. I 100% hate this rule change. 

 

The intentional walk is a fundamental of the game? This is absurd. No one likes watching a pitcher throw an intentional walks and nothing ever happens except the runner goes to first. Just get it over with. And it slows the game at the most critical times.

Also, just because they make this change doesn't mean they can't do other things that would save real time like a pitch clock. People are acting like this will be the only change that is made to save time. I'm sure there will be more. A pitch clock would be a great next step. I'm for any change speeds the game up that doesn't mess with the fundamentals of the game. And this is one of those rules.

This rule change isn't a slippery slope to runners on second to start an inning. This isn't a 7 inning game. Hell they didn't even raise the strike zone. This is like getting a vistigeious tail removed, not getting an arm amputated.

[Stradling]

I don't know what changes should be made other than umpires encouraging pace of play by calling more strikes.  I just looked it up and the average game in 1970 was 2:30 long, it's now over 3 hours.  Now you could look at it and say it's only 30 minutes or you could say it's 20% longer.  Regardless the game is a slow paced thing of beauty but it doesn't lend itself to new fandom because it can be slow or boring to some. Just watch a game from the 70's, it's an entirely different game.