Baseball shifts are as bad as Free Speech?

freerepublic.com ^ | 6/23/2018 | a little elbow grease

[bitt]

p

[frog in a pot]

See post #4.

I saw #4 and #5 but, notwithstanding the well-known adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words.", nothing clicked until I got to Jack's narrative in #10 and my first cup of coffee had kicked in. {;^)

[Mr. Jeeves]

Any thoughts on this, baseball fans?

I think it's a very good idea. Probably way too radical, especially for National League fans. But really worth trying out in some Spring Training games to see what happens.

[Ransomed]

It would devalue relief pitching as it is used now. It would put more value on relief pitchers that can get both righties and lefties out. Runs scored would go way way up, as would era’s. This would be more drastic than lowering the mound as far as increasing offense. It would devalue bench players, especially pinch hitters in NL. Complete games, no hitters and perfect games would become even more rare.

I might be OK with it. The problem I see is it might actually cause teams to carry less extra bench players and more pitchers. If it made the game faster with less pitching changes I would be for it, the problem is what if they actually start use more pitching changes because they can carry more pitchers on a staff?

Freegards

[PGalt]

Thanks for the ping; post. As a pitcher, I would have liked the idea of a defensive strategic shift behind me although back in my day none were used in high school and college...besides I would have figured I could get the hitter out regardless.

[So Cal Rocket]

A bunt towards third base would be an easy double.

[a little elbow grease]

"The shift is working now because there is a generation of players playing at the highest level that didn’t have to deal with it on their way up. Now they are having a hard time making the adjustment at the highest level. The owners can’t do anything because they are tied up in contracts, so it makes for ugly baseball until the adjustment is made. It might take years and years, hope they don’t panic and change the rules."

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Good points ......... and they won't panic. I won't allow it.

[a little elbow grease]

"That's because advanced analytics were used to determine that it rarely ever made sense in the long run to give up an out just to move a runner up one base."

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[a little elbow grease]

Think about your playing days. How many times did you exhort your teammates to “make that hurt” or “make them pay” for a mistake (error, missed cutoff, failure to keep the force play intact, walk, etc.). Mistakes. Turn the opposition’s risk into a mistake by hitting against the shift.

However, the game is no longer about “get ‘em on, get ‘em over, get ‘em in. Manufacture of runs is no longer in vogue during the age of launch angle.

And yes, it is an attempt to get millenials interested in a what they perceive as a boring game.

Why don’t millenials like the game? Partly, it has become inaccessible. Gone are the days of pickup games with the other kids in the neighborhood. Everything is organized with travel teams, etc. Highly competitive and excludes the marginal players who’ll be not be likely to develop skills with age and physical ability improvements if they’ve already been told they don’t make the cut.

Additionally, and particularly on the big stage of playoffs, games start late - no more day games. Most playoff games last until after midnight. Baseball would rather sell advertising during prime time than during an afternoon game. Good for the bottom line, not so much for cultivating young fans.

Finally, IMHO, baseball is a thinking man’s game. However, we live in a culture that no longer rewards “thinking”. Just my two cents - thanks for posting. Placing the bags ninety feet apart is one of man’s greatest accomplishments.

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Perfectly said.

*****

ps ---- lol, there was a poster a while back on this thread who actually suggested that baseball would be better if they took 2 feet off the distance between bases.

LMAO!!!! (I'll try to find it if I have time.)

[a little elbow grease]

ps ---- lol, there was a poster a while back on this thread who actually suggested that baseball would be better if they took 2 feet off the distance between bases.

*******

It was post # 86

LOL

[Mariner]

“That’s because advanced analytics were used to determine that it rarely ever made sense in the long run to give up an out just to move a runner up one base.”

Bunts and steals from first take away the double play.

If you have more than one above average batter coming up, it’s still a good play in the NL.

Get a runner in scoring position, take away the DP.

Of course NOBODY in the AL (except maybe Houston, who plays like a NL team) even THINKS about this. They think only of hitting the ball over the fence.

Of course they don’t get the LOW strike the NL lives on. That low strike, more often than not, results in a ground ball.

When all pitches are between the gonads and the belly button, why not swing for the fences?

[a little elbow grease]

Most starting pitchers could go 150 pitches if they could have the next 9 days off. Hell, most of them could go 150 with 5 days off.

Unless they had to do it 31 times in 6 months.

There are even a few that could do that. But they would not be able to do it for 10 years in a row.

_________________

Please...............

See the stats on complete games for pitchers in my day .... the late 50's, 60's and 70's.

The pitching coaches now and all the "experts" are ruining these pitchers.

[a little elbow grease]

"I would support a rule that says every pitcher must record 3 outs (one inning) before they can be relieved."

_________________

wrong

[a little elbow grease]

Unfortunately, I think the trend in baseball is going the opposite way. I believe the whole concept of a "starting pitcher" is going to disappear, and the general approach to a pitching staff will be to have a series of pitchers lined up to throw no more than 2-3 innings in a game. Even a well-pitched game will use a minimum of three pitchers per team.

__________________

That has been talked about for about five years. It would be the end of the game.

[Rome2000]

That shift is ridiculous and should be banned.

Third base should be on the left side, SS too and he is required to stay on the left side of 2B unless he is going after a ball in play, he cant set up on the right side of 2nd before the pitch.

Don’t need to see the SS and 2B in short right field, BORING.

[a little elbow grease]

Beautiful!

[Mariner]

“The pitching coaches now and all the “experts” are ruining these pitchers. “

Again, most human beings cannot sustain the physical stress of modern pitching.

Most pitchers “back in the day” were not throwing a consistent 95mph fastball, which had to be backed-up with a curve, slider and change-up.

It’s a much tougher, more physical game today.

Oddly, played by a bunch of prima donnas and pussies lol

[a little elbow grease]

but some will say you are still beating him by not letting him hit with power if he is a power hitter

________

They will say that.

[a little elbow grease]

If you don’t appreciate that, you should find another sport.

THAT is exactly why I did.

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What? Curling?

[a little elbow grease]

"Hopefully, the MLB Commissioner will abandon this idiocy as soon as a few actual baseball fans are polled, whereby this patently asinine notion will be laughed out of the room... "

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Yes!