Let's Fix MLB ...

[Bone3421 716]

If your comparing what astros/cubs did to want yankees did then no....yankees didnt lose 100 games for multiple years

Like i said before top markets not finding a balance is bad for mlb...you can't have 4 teams trying and rest sucking and waiting on prospects

Read the thread and quit thinking im talking about 1/2 specifically

[Beau Vine 54435]

1 hour ago, Bone3421 said:

And like you said they are still behind yankees while they have cheap young talent...everyone can hate the yankees all they want but its not them just buying players....they bring up a lot of greats thru the system

When they traded soriano to rangers they got arod and cano

Umm... WTF?

[Beau Vine 54435]

Double post.

Edited March 30, 2018 by Beau Vine

[Beau Vine 54435]

Triple?  

Edited March 30, 2018 by Beau Vine

[BigOrange1 6471]

i think it's dumb that the defending world series champ doesn't open at home.  

i do like the opening day they did this year where everyone was scheduled to play though.  astros just should have been at home.

[Bone3421 716]

4 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

Umm... WTF?

They received arod from rangers. They then promoted a young robinson cano to second base...im i speaking gibberish

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

9 hours ago, BigOrange1 said:

i think it's dumb that the defending world series champ doesn't open at home.  

This year's schedule was set before the end of last season.

[DanRydell 799]

14 hours ago, Bone3421 said:

If your comparing what astros/cubs did to want yankees did then no....yankees didnt lose 100 games for multiple years

Like i said before top markets not finding a balance is bad for mlb...you can't have 4 teams trying and rest sucking and waiting on prospects

Read the thread and quit thinking im talking about 1/2 specifically

I was referring to the Cubs, not the Yankees.

[henrygandorf 29195]

the main issue is that there seems to be only a handful of teams capable of winning the world series this year.  simply put, there are 23 teams fighting for 3 playoff spots, which kinda sucks for those teams.

that said, the nba has been very predictable for 20 years, and you basically know the 3-4 teams that could win the championship year in year out.  nfl because of the pats has been almost as bad, even though they've lost plenty of superbowls at this point.

the last 5 years there have been 5 different world series champs.  in the last 17 years there have been 13 different winners, including some long droughts ended (bosox, cubs, white sox, astros).  in the last 12 or so years, there have also been 7 world series losers for a grand total of 20/30 teams that have participated in recent history.  to me, that's the sign of a healthy league.  

if a casual fan can't appreciate this, and needs gimmicks to help him get engaged, then i put that on the fan.

[Helobious 9465]

 24 different MLB teams have won the last 40 World Series, and I believe 20 or 21 different NFL teams have won the last 40 super bowls. Meanwhile just 14 different NBA teams have won the last 40 NBA championships. In terms of parity the MLB is really unmatched among the major sports. 

[Pig Bellmont 8739]

OP sounds like he wants XFL for baseball 

[BigOrange1 6471]

7 hours ago, Seasick Sailor said:

This year's schedule was set before the end of last season.

yeah i know but there was no reason that had to be the case.

[wood 11269]

On 3/29/2018 at 1:56 PM, Valmy77 said:

Changing something to appeal to people who are not fans and taking for granted the support of the people who are is a dangerous game. It is likely to simply alienate your current fanbase and attract zero attention from people who are not. I see many industries kill themselves that way.

Baseball at every level is less popular than it once was, there is little MLB can do about that short of some sort of general pro-baseball charm offensive. This is not about some scheduling or lack of gimmicks deal.

 

Precisely. We see this shit - this pursuit of the casual fan for the benefit of the TV networks - ruining sport after sport after sport. 

 

Fuck the casual fan. 

Edited March 31, 2018 by wood

[Gut Wagon 8087]

Think about today’s potential audience for baseball. The average person’s attention span now seems to be under 10 seconds. That doesn’t bode well for the future of knitting or jigsaw puzzles, either. 

[Tim Beck 20]

On 3/29/2018 at 10:57 AM, Gut Wagon said:

Seriously, speeding up the pitch cadence and not letting every batter take five minutes between pitches, a la Mike Hargrove, has helped quite a bit.

https://sports.theonion.com/mlb-season-ends-over-200-days-early-after-new-rules-spe-1824210109

Has technology gone too far?

[Gut Wagon 8087]

2 minutes ago, Tim Beck said:

https://sports.theonion.com/mlb-season-ends-over-200-days-early-after-new-rules-spe-1824210109

Has technology gone too far?

Heh. This part was especially good:

“Sources confirmed that among those disappointed by the results of the season were the New York Yankees, who barely finished above .500 after slugger Giancarlo Stanton missed over 70 games while he was in the bathroom.”

[Majorcholas 508]

As a baseball fan, the simple truth is....

as the younger generations have even LESS attention spans and get more plugged in to their phones, the mlb will dwindle.

if the new generations no longer value what baseball has to offer (slow pace ambience, smell of the grass, appreciation of ritual/sportsmanship, past time respect, etc) then it will decline in popularity.

i unfortunately don’t see the values of today’s youth matching up with the values of baseball.

i worry for the future purity of the game.

[Beau Vine 54435]

22 minutes ago, Majorcholas said:

As a baseball fan, the simple truth is....

as the younger generations have even LESS attention spans and get more plugged in to their phones, the mlb will dwindle.

if the new generations no longer value what baseball has to offer (slow pace ambience, smell of the grass, appreciation of ritual/sportsmanship, past time respect, etc) then it will decline in popularity.

i unfortunately don’t see the values of today’s youth matching up with the values of baseball.

i worry for the future purity of the game.

I think you just described soccer.

[Tim Beck 20]

1 hour ago, Majorcholas said:

As a baseball fan, the simple truth is....

as the younger generations have even LESS attention spans and get more plugged in to their phones, the mlb will dwindle.

if the new generations no longer value what baseball has to offer (slow pace ambience, smell of the grass, appreciation of ritual/sportsmanship, past time respect, etc) then it will decline in popularity.

i unfortunately don’t see the values of today’s youth matching up with the values of baseball.

i worry for the future purity of the game.

[Hank Chinaski 6321]

I'd love it if they got rid of the wild card and divisions. 2 leagues, no interleague play (I know one team would have to change leagues - it's happened before). Balanced schedules. Teams with best record in each league play in WS. 

Get rid of all the ridiculous holiday uniforms/hats. They are all terrible. 

And yeah, I know this will never happen - it'll go the other way (more playoffs). I get it. But 162 games is a better sample to tell us who the best team is than 7 games. 

Edited March 31, 2018 by Hank Chinaski

[Majorcholas 508]

2 hours ago, Tim Beck said:

Funny thing is that was the first thing I thought of when I hit send. Hahaha.

[Majorcholas 508]

3 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

I think you just described soccer.

Communist kickball?

that games so boring, the fans are 2/3 the entertainment.

[Liquor and Poker 3659]

On 3/29/2018 at 1:56 PM, Valmy77 said:

Changing something to appeal to people who are not fans and taking for granted the support of the people who are is a dangerous game.

The Olympics model.

Baseball is fine.  20-30 years ago there was considerable panic because it was no longer the defining sport of America.  So the players roided up, they juiced up the ball, and voila - problem solved.

Seriously, I've heard this song since Monday Night Baseball left ABC due to ratings.  Yet revenues, salaries and attendance just keep chugging along upward.

FWIW, the owners submitted a ton of "pace-of-game" changes that the players rejected this winter.  Some seem OK (limiting mound visits, bringing back bullpen carts), some stupid (a 20-second pitch count could seriously fuck with pitchers' heads).  

[Godzillatron 292]

On 3/29/2018 at 2:47 PM, Mikegundy'sMullet said:

I understand. However, one season is not a trend. It's a start. 

And this will have no impact on ticket prices.

[hornian 5223]

The only “problem” with baseball is that it’s a rich kid sport for young kids in the US, so that lends to a self selecting group of fans.

 

You don’t see a lot of inner city baseball fields (for a number of reasons). Soccer and basketball on the other hand, you have all levels of income playing it in little leagues, and there are more casual fans of these sports is the younger generations (yes, believe it or not there are casual soccer fans) because they are growing up playing these sports more often. 

 

That said, an affluent fan base is not the worst thing in the world for a professional sports franchise.  

[David Dennison 18948]

Baseball is just fine.

 

[hookem48 4703]

On ‎3‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 10:35 AM, TheFlagship said:

The ASG no longer determines home field advantage

that stupid rule was there just long enough to fuck the Rangers

[NIUHuskies 504]

We need more 1970s and 1980s hair style to return:

 

 

 

[In10se 175]

The season is way too long and everyone knows only about 5 or 6 teams have a shot to win a title because of the 7 game series playoffs. 

People these days who arent hard core baseball fans just dont have the time or pantience for this shit. Way too many things competing for entertainment time now. I just watched the opening series and now I'm done watching any baseball until october as there's just no intrigue in any of it. 

The NFL is king because it perfectly fits the new millenium American to a tee. Only 16 games season so every game is crucial for your team. Playoffs are single game elimination so more teams have a shot to make noise in the playoffs. 

I'd change baseball (and NBA/NHL for that matter) to 20 game seasons with every team playing one game a week on Saturday or Sunday with no bye weeks. Playoffs are best of 3 series throughout. You can charge a lot more money per game since so few games and every game will be must see for your team. 

[Helobious 9465]

7 minutes ago, In10se said:

I'd change baseball (and NBA/NHL for that matter) to 20 game seasons with every team playing one game a week on Saturday or Sunday with no bye weeks. Playoffs are best of 3 series throughout. You can charge a lot more money per game since so few games and every game will be must see for your team. 

All 3 of those leagues would have to fold after 1 season if they switched to this model. Holy fuck what an impressively bad idea. 

[In10se 175]

53 minutes ago, Helobious said:

All 3 of those leagues would have to fold after 1 season if they switched to this model. Holy fuck what an impressively bad idea. 

Nope, scarcity of games causes demand for individual games to skyrocket meaning pricing goes up to compensate. I think tge NBA for sure could pull NFL ratings and baseball would be 3rd. Tv revenues would be similar if not greater at the next negotiation with increased ratings. 

 

The 21st century American doesnt have time for 162 games of boring shit. In 20 years when baby boomer demo is pretty much wiped out baseball will be in deep shit if it doesnt make drastic changes. 

[WBT 20670]

1 hour ago, In10se said:

The season is way too long and everyone knows only about 5 or 6 teams have a shot to win a title because of the 7 game series playoffs. 

People these days who arent hard core baseball fans just dont have the time or pantience for this shit. Way too many things competing for entertainment time now. I just watched the opening series and now I'm done watching any baseball until october as there's just no intrigue in any of it. 

The NFL is king because it perfectly fits the new millenium American to a tee. Only 16 games season so every game is crucial for your team. Playoffs are single game elimination so more teams have a shot to make noise in the playoffs. 

I'd change baseball (and NBA/NHL for that matter) to 20 game seasons with every team playing one game a week on Saturday or Sunday with no bye weeks. Playoffs are best of 3 series throughout. You can charge a lot more money per game since so few games and every game will be must see for your team. 

Jesus fucking christ.  Baseball isn't for you and that's ok.

[Beau Vine 54435]

I assumed/was hoping that was satire.

[BigOrange1 6471]

4 hours ago, In10se said:

The season is way too long and everyone knows only about 5 or 6 teams have a shot to win a title because of the 7 game series playoffs. 

People these days who arent hard core baseball fans just dont have the time or pantience for this shit. Way too many things competing for entertainment time now. I just watched the opening series and now I'm done watching any baseball until october as there's just no intrigue in any of it. 

The NFL is king because it perfectly fits the new millenium American to a tee. Only 16 games season so every game is crucial for your team. Playoffs are single game elimination so more teams have a shot to make noise in the playoffs. 

I'd change baseball (and NBA/NHL for that matter) to 20 game seasons with every team playing one game a week on Saturday or Sunday with no bye weeks. Playoffs are best of 3 series throughout. You can charge a lot more money per game since so few games and every game will be must see for your team. 

we've only been up and running for a week now, but this has to easily be the worst post in the history of this website.  congrats!

[Vic Mackey 47157]

Every sport is too long. NFL needs to only be 12 games. Scrap the out of conference games. 2 bye weeks. NBA and NHL only needs to be about 50-60 games. Baseball should be  in the 120s. 162 is way too fucking long. But neither the players or owners would ever want to do this.

Also, get rid of the goofy ass play in games you present as the playoffs. It's not the playoffs. You are playing to make your way into the playoffs. Same as the March Madness and their play in games. And it's a stupid money grab. I realize teams in those games have went on to win it all but still does not make it any less ignorant. 

And get rid of the unbalanced leagues to where you have to do interleague every single day. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea? No reason to have moved Houston to the AL after all these decades.

[Fudge Nuggets 19227]

On 3/31/2018 at 11:33 AM, Hank Chinaski said:

Get rid of all the ridiculous holiday uniforms/hats. They are all terrible. 

Oh hell yes.  The 4th of July crap all the teams wore for two weeks last year was awful.  The day teams wore uniforms with their nicknames on the back and uniform colors that had nothing to do with the team colors was stupid as well.

[Fudge Nuggets 19227]

17 hours ago, hookem48 said:

that stupid rule was there just long enough to fuck the Rangers

Thank goodness.

[Pig Bellmont 8739]

13 hours ago, In10se said:

The season is way too long and everyone knows only about 5 or 6 teams have a shot to win a title because of the 7 game series playoffs. 

People these days who arent hard core baseball fans just dont have the time or pantience for this shit. Way too many things competing for entertainment time now. I just watched the opening series and now I'm done watching any baseball until october as there's just no intrigue in any of it. 

The NFL is king because it perfectly fits the new millenium American to a tee. Only 16 games season so every game is crucial for your team. Playoffs are single game elimination so more teams have a shot to make noise in the playoffs. 

I'd change baseball (and NBA/NHL for that matter) to 20 game seasons with every team playing one game a week on Saturday or Sunday with no bye weeks. Playoffs are best of 3 series throughout. You can charge a lot more money per game since so few games and every game will be must see for your team. 

This is it. I’ve found the worst sports take I will read all year. 

[scottonian 36]

can we pretend it was an April Fool's joke?

[Hook'Em0608 96]

You young fuckers can wait until I die then do whatever you want with baseball. It's perfectly fine as is.

The only thing I support (which has already been addressed) is the mound visits just to go over what pitch to throw. I understand people steal signs, but get better signs or some shit. The playoffs last year were ridiculous. Man up pitchers. 

[tx ind 7013]

Edited April 3, 2018 by tx ind
Fuck how do you quote

[txhorns 2413]

Baseball is fine as it is right now and it will only get better.  In the next 10-20 years you will start to see the NFL crumble because of injury issues.  Those athletes will need somewhere to go and baseball will be one of the sports to benefit.  

[TexasHorn01 1]

Baseball's hardcore fan base is getting smaller by the year. Why do you think they keep trying to do dumb shit to speed up the game? I don't think the problem is the length of a game but the sheer number of games in a season. When so many of the games a team plays don't really matter it's hard to get people to stay plugged in. It'll be interesting to see if it's even a major player in 20 years

[TornACL 7722]

Let's start fixing MLB by fixing this god damn motherfucking MLB At Bat / MLB.tv app.

So last week I signed up for the MLB At Bat Premium which allows the streaming of out of market games.  I did this directly through the MLB website.  No problem.  All good.

Now from my Android phone, I try to log into the MLB At Bat app and it tells me I am not authorized to view anything. Bullshit. Go to the subscription section, I have a subscription. There is a link to restore your account, whatever the fuck that means. I click on that, and Google Play hops in and pops up a notification that Google Play can't find an active subscription for me.

When you go read the FAQs on the MLB site, it tells you that you should pay for all subscriptions through iTunes or google play. Then why in the fucking shit do you give me an option to log in directly through your site and enter my payment information and subscribe? And why can't I easily link accounts on your stupid fucktarded piece of shit site? Why is this so goddamn difficult. I just want to watch Giants-Mariners today.

The actual suggestion from these mouthbreathers is that I cancel my existing subscription and the re-subscribe through Google. A-ha, but the mlb site already says if you do that, you don't get the rest of the month pro-rated back to you...so I'll be buying two fucking subscriptions because these dumb dumbs hired Aggies to run their fucking IT dept.

I was going to write all this to Commissioner Manfred directly but I figured I should bounce it off you fine people first.

[Gut Wagon 8087]

Take me back to those good old days when there was no real predictability to which team would win a title in any given pro sport. Oh, wait...those days never existed.

 

Edited April 3, 2018 by Gut Wagon

[Beau Vine 54435]

1 hour ago, TexasHorn01 said:

Baseball's hardcore fan base is getting smaller by the year. Why do you think they keep trying to do dumb shit to speed up the game?

I guess that's also why the NFL and college football have made changes in the last 20 years to speed up the game?

[TexasHorn01 1]

16 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

I guess that's also why the NFL and college football have made changes in the last 20 years to speed up the game?

What would those changes be? If anything that changes to college football have made it much slower with all the replays and reviewing for targeting and all that crap. They aren't concerned at all about game times because they have a built-in rabid fan base tied to these universities.

[jkates 316]

• Shorten the season back to 154 games.
  • Each team plays 2 Sunday doubleheaders (1 home/away) over the season.
  • This allows more rest days and fits the playoffs to be finished in October.
• Robot umps for balls and strikes.
• Make batters stay in the box and enforce the 12-second rule on the pitchers.
• Use social media like the NBA and make clips readily shareable.
• Kill the blackout rules.
• All-Star Game needs to always be on July 4th. 
• Make the DH available to both leagues. Expand rosters to 26.

I could probably list more if I cared to think about it more. I'm sure these aren't super original. 

[Huckleberry 33100]

Fuck the DH

[elfenix 34333]

statcast isn't as accurate as we think it is, per a former neighbor who works in astros media relations.  not yet ready to call balls and strikes.