Posted on 03/16/2021 1:09:45 PM PDT by be-baw
Some big changes are coming to professional baseball this season.
From Triple-A down, every level of the minor leagues will see a rule change implemented in 2021. These rules and changes have been talked about for a few years, and now they will be tested for the big leagues.
We should all be paying attention to what is going on because if these rule changes go smoothly, we could see them in the major leagues as soon as next year.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxsports.com ...
Nope.
They pander to the young hipster crowd who couldn’t care less. MLB tells guys like you and me, a fifty year fan, to take a hike. After a year of no MLB, I don’t really care anymore. I have a five year old grandson just starting T ball. That’s enough for me.
You know they deflated the balls....right?
LOL...Gay Family Nite!!! ROFLOL!!
This ain’t your fathers baseball
and a lot of others as well.
Of all of the sports I find baseball to be the most enjoyable. The fact that it takes a long time to play a game is a feature not a liability in my view. I find that it’s a great way to enjoy a summer afternoon. Gives me time to enjoy beers. Plus baseball is an extremely cerebral game combined with raw athletic talent.
‘I liked the laid-back slower pace of the sport.’
batters adjusting their gloves after every pitch, and pitchers staring for 10 seconds for a sign, then stepping off the rubber, do not fall under the rubric of ‘slower pace’...
it falls under being a monstrous pain in the butt...
I used to watch closely but free agency, the strike, woke culture, changing baseballs by juicing them, and arbitrary strike zones all had negative impacts. One large negative impact was when they made Marg Schott sell her team largely for saying Hitler did some good things (A stopped clock is right twice a day) but Ted Turner could say Christians are losers with no ramifications. I will never attend a game again nor watch on TV. I do monitor the cultural changes of the sport.
Only 3 years ago? I recall such nights at some places way further back. My interest fell off a cliff after that.
Add in a walk on three balls instead of four.
Most sports are boring....Soccer, Football, Baseball.., Rugby.., Cricket...come to my mind.
Hell Cricket matches last for days,,,,
For now they are administrative names. They will probably go to sponsored divisions like they now have in the NHL.
How about the new rule that the white players on the team at bat must genuflect before touching a base defended by an African-American player?
You’d love test match cricket then. Games can last 5 days, lunch and tea breaks, good batters can score 100 runs at an at bat. There are no foul lines so every batted ball is in play. It’s sort of like baseball unlimited.
I said so in the post. Read it.
“Sounds like the left-can’t leave well enough alone.”
Weird, but you’re right. It is somehow the left doing this.
Ok, one thing I agree with - the automatic ball and strike.
I thought often how to create an automatic ball and strike determination using sensors etc...
But it’s done. The radar that they have all over the parks that tells us speed of pitch, speed of ball off the bat, launch angles etc...can very easily tell if the ball is over the plate.
The height is the only thing I wonder about because that is a variable zone, unlike the plate.
Will players have to get measured in their stance to determine the strike zone for each batter to program in?
“I am constantly stunned that so many hitters have not made adjustments based on the shift—often leaving runners on base in scoring position when just making contact and hitting the ball to the opposite side of the infield would have driven in a run.”
I agree. People recall that the shift was used against Ted Williams, and often it is referred to as the Williams shift, but it started before that. Only in recent years has its use has been used so often. I think baseball analysts have so much data these days, that they’ll use it against certain players until the players start to spray the ball more.
Here’s info on the history of defensive shifting in the major leagues:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_shift
“The infield shift strategy is often associated with Ted Williams, but it was actually first employed against Cy Williams during the 1920s.[1][2] Cy Williams, a left-handed outfielder with the Chicago Cubs (1912–1917) and Philadelphia Phillies (1918–1930), was second only to Babe Ruth in major league career home runs from 1923 to 1928. Opposing defenses would shift “practically to the entire right side” when he batted.[3]
“The shift was later used against Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox during the 1946 World Series, as a defensive gimmick by St. Louis Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer to psych out and hopefully contain the Boston slugger. It was devised by Cleveland Indians manager Lou Boudreau between games of a doubleheader in July 1946 to halt Williams’ hot hitting.[a] In his book Player-Manager, Boudreau wrote, “I have always regarded the Boudreau Shift as a psychological, rather than a tactical, victory.”[4]:77
“The shift has subsequently been employed to thwart extreme pull hitters (mostly lefties), such as Barry Bonds, Ryan Howard, Jason Giambi, David Ortiz, Jim Thome, Adam Dunn, and Mark Teixeira.”
I read it. And disagree.....
I hate the shift also. I’ve seen too many runners out at first, on a throw to first from short right field, because a fielder is there due to the shift. Without the shift it would have been a clean single.
Yes, hitters should try to hit the other way to defeat the shift. Yes , managers have every right to position their defense as they see fit. But I would welcome a rule change to limit or discourage the shift.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.