Decade Of Change

I know we’ve been through the whole “steroids are illegal” crap, blah blah blah, but the bottom line is that MLB doesn’t have the authority to allow and regulate them. Something tells me that the feds would not appreciate it.

Thats where I draw the line, and why I don’t get your comparison to LASIK. LASIK is very much legal under the law of the land, steroids very much are not. If MLB doesn’t like it, they can try to get the law changed. If they can’t—tough.

but it’s probably amongst the least likely to happen. Also scrapping the mid-inning pitching change might be a tough sell to advertisers.

You’re not wrong on every single point, but you’re not usually wrong at all. And you are here.

Phase in replay and robots. – I agree. Let’s use it on the phantom tag. Every time.

Quicken pitcher pace on the mound. – You’re basically asking people to steal more bases. Throwing to first repeatedly is a tactic that arose as a result of Rickey Henderson, and it works. You don’t change the rules of the game just because the way people play has changed and now produces diffferent outcomes. Different eras and different players play differently.

Limit or penalize mid-inning pitching changes. – Again, you’ve always been allowed to change pitchers when you’d like. If you want to limit how the game takes place on the field, a better way to achieve this end would be to reduce roster sizes.

Penalize intentional walks. – I strenuously disagree. That the intentional walk exists is a wonderful facet of the game, demonstrating that under some circumstances an out is not the optimal objective of a plate appearance. Yes, Barry Bonds broke the game, but that should be celebrated, not avoided. Those walks only serve to highlight his greatness.

Even out the American League and the National League. – I’m indifferent.

Resolve the payroll problem. – No. Poorer teams have a greater incentive to innovate, and the richer teams a lesser incentive. Also, I’ve yet to see a plan to do this that doesn’t serve to transfer wealth from labour to management (typically a salary cap’s primary objective).

Condense the playoff schedule. – I agree entirely. I’d also like to see the regular season condensed a bit, too, with some regularly scheduled double-headers.

Resolve the PED problem. – I don’t really see a PED problem.

Take measures to reduce take-out slides and home plate collisions. – I sort of agree. In home plate collisions, often the catcher doesn’t even have the ball, so that’s just interference. Award the runner the base (home plate) a few times and catchers will stop getting in the way when they don’t have the ball. And if they do have the ball, intentionally throwing yourself at them isn’t meaningfully different from A-Rod’s slap on Bronson Arroyo, so just call the runner out every single time he does it. Pretty soon they’ll stop.

For take-out slides at other bases, just write a rule the clearly demarcates what’s allowed and what isn’t. I like the “touched the bag” standard – especially since there’s no real reason why a runner at second couldn’t just run through the bag (and through the fielder) and argue that he didn’t see the fielder touch the bag (which he often doesn’t). Really, the phantom tag is a way bigger problem.

Penalize the HBP. – I don’t have strong feelings on this. I don’t like the 2-base idea for reasons explained above (it would change the game too much), but I would like to see umpires not award the base to players who don’t make a visible effort to get out of the way (and spinning in place does not count). I like the idea of suspending beanball pitchers, though.

 Bill James’ suggested moving the batter’s box away from the plate one inch every four years, over sixteen years, for a total of 4 inches. Armor has reduced player’s fear of crowding the plate, and zealous enforcement of head-hunting has made pitchers reluctant to pitch inside, and yet players are getting plunked anyway and pitchers have lost the inside of the plate, tilting things in the batters’ favor. This came up in the “Fun Fact” thread regarding the explosion in HBP that nobody noticed).

Of course that would reduce offense, and if chicks dig the long ball and there’s less of those because of better PED enforcement….

Phase in replay and robots.

I agreed to an extend. Right now I only want them to get right what is obviously wrong, and I wouldn’t want to get into ta situation like the NFL where plays are constantly called back. Part of the enjoyment of the game is that we don’t have to wait until minutes after the play to find out whether our team did or did not score.

Quicken pitcher pace on the mound.

Yes yes yes. Enforce these rules with fascist enthusiasm.

Limit or penalize mid-inning pitching changes.

Terrible idea. I love when teams run out of pitchers.

Penalize intentional walks

I think two bases is too harsh of a penalty. However I could get on board with the penalty for a four ball walk being that all runners advance one base.

Even out the American League and the National League.

God damn this is asinine. The St. Louis Cardinals are lucky that their division is populated by some of the worst run teams in baseball.

Condense the playoff schedule

Selig says he’s on board

Resolve the PED problem.

They should define in the HOF whether or not PED use makes a player intelligible and be done with it.

Penalize the HBP.

I’m for the automatic ejection of any beanball above the neck, or any beanball that was intentional, and the suspension of any manager who has ordered their pitcher to bean a guy. This rule would have to be changed otherwise when team want to IBB a guy they’ll bean him instead.

Also, I think both leagues should be play by the same sets of rules. While I understand the appeal of two different types of baseball, the DH rule puts the NL at a great disadvantage during interleague and World Series games and it’s not fair. While I would prefer the DH be eliminated (because 9 guys should hit and field and also because watching a pitcher hit is loads of fun), I would also accept it’s universal adoption if it meant a uniform rulebook.

Too bad most of them will never happen, ever.

I do not want to limit pitchers to one pickoff. I think additional pickoffs should simply be penalized.

Something that I have thought was quite strange was the fact that they go from throwing warm up pitches in the bullpen to throwing more warm up pitches when they make it out to the mound. Did their arm cool off too much while they were walking from the bullpen to the mound? I’ve never really understood the point of it except to have more time for commercials during the broadcast. The worst is when a pitcher comes in and faces one batter. He ends up throwing more warm up pitches than actual pitchers to a batter. Get rid of that and it pretty much adds about 2 minutes (typical commercial break) for every pitching change.