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Make Baseball Better

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Steve_424

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It's the offseason (for Tribe fans anyhow) and we won't get hot stove news until the World Series is completed. I thought it'd be fun to discuss how you, if you were commissioner, make baseball better. Here's a few of mine:

1. Universal DH

It ends issues like the Indians faced in their final series (losing a DH in crucial games), it improves interleague, for the same reason, it gives more hitters a starting gig, and allows NL players longer longevity.

2. Expansion, Relocation, and Realignment


The Tampa Bay Rays move to Montreal and become the Expos while Portland and Charlotte get expansion teams. We move to eight, four-team divisions.

AL East - Baltimore, Boston, New York, Toronto
AL Central - Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota
AL South - Colorado, Houston, Kansas City, Texas
AL West - Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, Seattle

NL East - Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
NL Central - Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St. Louis
NL South - Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Washington,
NL West - Arizona, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco

Wild Cards are no more, with each division winner reaching the Playoffs. ALDS moves to a 7 game series along with the ALCS and World Series.

3. Minimize the shift

I'd allow the shift to be somewhat maintained, but infielders have to stay in the infield, outfielders in the outfield. I think it can be a part of strategy without getting extreme.

4. Franchise Tagging

You're never going to have a salary cap, so let's use the NFL-style franchise tag. Teams can only use the franchise tag once every off-season, and it only guarantees a player's salary for the following year. A player can be tagged up to three times by their team.
 
1. Absolutely

2. Why not? Let's move Houston back to the NL while we're at it.

3. No

4. Doubt the players association likes that too much.

Here are some of mine:

1. No bat flips.

2. No player from bench can come on field (i.e. fighting).

3. If you do a bat flip - the pitcher has an option to throw once at you below neck next AB or said player takes a big fine.
 
Love the idea of expanding teams and fine with Portland & Charlotte

I’m fine with the DH as is but absolutely hate interleague play especially how’s its done now... If they kept it relegated to say June or July I’d be more inclined to keep it...

My #1 pet peeve in the game today is the rule of whether or not the player came off the bag at anytime with the glove touching him on a stolen base...

Yes I’d like for them to get the call right... Replay used to see if the ball/tag beat the runner or if they slid past the bag— but using it to see if they elevated slightly off the bag is just terrible... IMO..
 
Love the idea of expanding teams and fine with Portland & Charlotte

I’m fine with the DH as is but absolutely hate interleague play especially how’s its done now... If they kept it relegated to say June or July I’d be more inclined to keep it...

My #1 pet peeve in the game today is the rule of whether or not the player came off the bag at anytime with the glove touching him on a stolen base...

Yes I’d like for them to get the call right... Replay used to see if the ball/tag beat the runner or if they slid past the bag— but using it to see if they elevated slightly off the bag is just terrible... IMO..

Oh my god yes...I wish I would have thought of this. I agree 100% - absolutely hate when a guy clearly beats the throw but gets called out on these types of plays.
 
Interesting ideas.
The question of inter-league play remains. After that the questions of how the schedule is created - division weighted or league balanced as well as schedule length remain.

I struggle with the idea of the DS series moving to 7 game set while keeping season at 162 games. Really dislike the idea of games starting before April 1 and playoffs going beyond Nov 1. In many parts of the country, games in March or November are not really a good idea.

I prefer playing more games head to head in your division (especially if no wild card), but I don't know if 19 per in division vs 6 per out of division is right mix either
 
Fun topic idea! If I was an all-powerful being who could do whatever I wanted in baseball, funding be damned, here's what I'd do:

1. Allow all teams to use the designated hitter
I'm a purist, so I do really love watching pitchers that can also handle the bat pretty well. So what I'd do here is allow the NL teams to also use a designated hitter, but, teams in either league can also choose to forgo the DH spot in a starting lineup in favor of the pitcher, pretty much doing what NL teams have to do now. I realize this would rarely, if ever, be done, but pitchers like Greinke, Bumgarner, Strasburg, and Lorenezen who can handle the bat would still have the opportunity to hit if the team wanted.

This would also help offset the severe disadvantage that AL teams have in interleague play and the World Series, since their pitchers very rarely see plate appearances.

2. Force all teams at or north of Chicago/Cleveland to have some sort of retractable roof
Hey, I said funding be damned here. Too many early season games either suck ass for fans or get cancelled because it's 12 degrees out or literally snowing. A lot of teams that would be affected by this (Milwaukee, Toronto, Seattle) already have retractable roofs or play in a dome, but either these northern cities need roofs, or they need to not play home games until April 20th at the earliest.

3. Send Tampa Bay to Montreal, hold off on expansion teams for now
Tampa's fans are trash and Montreal should get the Expos back. I do think we should expand to 32 franchises soon, but not at this exact moment. Portland, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Nashville, New Orleans, and Vancouver would all be on my radar.

4. Limit inter-league play to June/July only
I don't think I was the only one who hated that the Indians had to go on the road to Washington in late September. Keep inter-league play in the middle months, and reduce it altogether. I honestly wouldn't care if teams only had two inter-league series per year against their rivals (CLE vs. CIN, NYM vs. NYY, etc.).

5. Institute some sort of NBA-like salary cap or NFL-like franchise tag
I don't know a ton about the financials of the MLB, but I do know that Boston is paying out roughly 3x the salary this season of Tampa. I know that's a bad example since Tampa made the playoffs and Boston kind of sucked, but I think spending needs to be reined in a bit so that teams like Baltimore, San Diego, Arizona, etc. compete more than once every 25 years.

Some sort of luxury tax system would be fine by me, but you'd have to find somebody who understands that stuff far better than me to institute it.

6. Ban Aroldis Chapman
He's a douche.

7. Take away the "one representative per team in the All-Star Game" rule
Minor qualm here, but I hate how every team has to have a representative in the midsummer classic every year. Teams like Seattle send some scrub (I think it was Dan Vogelbach) and screw over a more deserving player. I don't like participation trophies. If you're not good enough to make the team, then kick rocks.

8. Make pitchers have to pitch the intentional walk
I get they took this away to save time, but I don't like it. Once in a while, you'd have a pitcher float a lazy pitch in and a guy would step over and smoke it the other way, a baserunner would swipe third on an eephus, or a pitcher would get wild and throw a wild pitch, allowing guys to move up.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
 
Fun topic idea! If I was an all-powerful being who could do whatever I wanted in baseball, funding be damned, here's what I'd do:
...
2. Force all teams at or north of Chicago/Cleveland to have some sort of retractable roof
Hey, I said funding be damned here. Too many early season games either suck ass for fans or get cancelled because it's 12 degrees out or literally snowing. A lot of teams that would be affected by this (Milwaukee, Toronto, Seattle) already have retractable roofs or play in a dome, but either these northern cities need roofs, or they need to not play home games until April 20th at the earliest.

3. Send Tampa Bay to Montreal, hold off on expansion teams for now
Tampa's fans are trash and Montreal should get the Expos back. I do think we should expand to 32 franchises soon, but not at this exact moment. Portland, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Nashville, New Orleans, and Vancouver would all be on my radar.
.....
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
I'm not against the idea of retractile roofs. I like the concept. Just remember setting the line in Chicago (2 spots including Wrigley)/ Cleveland means roofs in those places along with Boston/ Detroit/ Minnesota/ the proposed Montreal (or Portland)..

I think roofs in places Wrigley and Fenway would create more headaches then solved issues..
 
I'm not against the idea of retractile roofs. I like the concept. Just remember setting the line in Chicago (2 spots including Wrigley)/ Cleveland means roofs in those places along with Boston/ Detroit/ Minnesota/ the proposed Montreal (or Portland)..

I think roofs in places Wrigley and Fenway would create more headaches then solved issues..
Maybe at least for new ballparks? Can’t see roofs for Wrigley and Fenway as feasible.
 
I'm not against the idea of retractile roofs. I like the concept. Just remember setting the line in Chicago (2 spots including Wrigley)/ Cleveland means roofs in those places along with Boston/ Detroit/ Minnesota/ the proposed Montreal (or Portland)..

I think roofs in places Wrigley and Fenway would create more headaches then solved issues..

Yeah, I know that would never happen. Any new ballparks in those regions though really should have a roof of some kind.

Can't believe the Twins built a new stadium recently and didn't stick a roof on it.
 
.... Can't believe the Twins built a new stadium recently and didn't stick a roof on it.
I can believe it. The good weather periods are so limited people want to be outside as much as possible when they can.
When I lived in Wisconsin years ago (I was about 90 minutes from Minni) I found almost everyone was outside/ camping all spring/ summer. It seemed people rarely were indoors.

And the cost addition for the retractable roof is HUGE!
 
1. Eliminate interleague play.

2. Make the DH universal. Of course teams wouldn't have to use one, as I don't think they need to now.

3. Cleveland's stadium must have a retractable roof.

4. No to expansion and to another Canadian franchise.

5. I'm probably the only person who thinks the player control situation is better in MLB than with the fake salary caps of the NFL and NBA. What I'd like to see is some way to extend arbitration to allow teams to control a player up to a given age, say 28 or 29 even if that means four or five arby years (with ever increasing salaries of course). Would never happen but maybe if owners agree to allow players with fewer than three years hit arbitration at a certain age, say 25 or 26. Would allow teams to get the best players to the show as soon as they're ready rather than with an eye on the clock, which improves the fan experience.
 
1. Yes. DH in the NL.

2. Yes. Limit interleague play to June/July like they used to.

3. Yes to a franchise tag...or something to lessen the gap between large/small markets.

4. Make the All-Star Game decide home-field in WS again. Or least make it count for something. Otherwise I probably won't watch it ever again.

5. I think a few years ago there was a rule that didn't allow batters to leave the box in between pitches. Obviously wasn't enforced. I can't think of a rule that would work well off the top of my head, but anything that could prevent pitchers from stepping off/batters from calling time excessively would really help with the pace of the game, especially in the playoffs.

6. Make the Divisional Series a best of 7. Regular season should probably be shortened a tad regardless.

On a related note, how long before the robot strike zone is used in MLB?
 
I am actually for a salary cap, but set it up this way...

The league will slowly over the next few years setup a minimum and maximum cap and also add in the ability to essentially cut a single contract, but the player still gets paid, but it’s setup like a buy out and the player ends up maybe with a Bobby Bonilla clause in a sense.

So eventually the league will setup the minimum cap at lets say 100 mil and max like 150 so every team in a sense has a better playing field. If a team is under the minimum cap, they will disperse per game extra money to every player currently on the roster so that by the end of the season the team reaches the 100 mil mark.

Relocation of Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays will be setup if they are not able to get new stadium within a certain time as well and also have new locations of possible expansion teams. This off season cities should start bidding/showing why they could host an MLB team. Which then the league can start to setup design two new teams and either keep Oakland and Tampa in their current location or set up a relocation plan if their current cities do not wish to help out the franchises anymore.
 
1. Yes. DH in the NL.

2. Yes. Limit interleague play to June/July like they used to.

3. Yes to a franchise tag...or something to lessen the gap between large/small markets.

4. Make the All-Star Game decide home-field in WS again. Or least make it count for something. Otherwise I probably won't watch it ever again.

5. I think a few years ago there was a rule that didn't allow batters to leave the box in between pitches. Obviously wasn't enforced. I can't think of a rule that would work well off the top of my head, but anything that could prevent pitchers from stepping off/batters from calling time excessively would really help with the pace of the game, especially in the playoffs.

6. Make the Divisional Series a best of 7. Regular season should probably be shortened a tad regardless.

On a related note, how long before the robot strike zone is used in MLB?

Did you see that call the robot ump made the other day? I think we need to keep the human element in play. I get why do the robot umps for certain things but I feel we are starting to take too much from the game if we take out too much human element
 

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