OT: The Real Pace of Play Problem

Gustavus Adolphus

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https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/foul-balls-are-the-pace-of-play-problem-nobodys-talking-about/

The number of foul balls has increased by 11.98 percent from 1998, when baseball expanded to 30 teams, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis of Baseball-Reference.com data. There were almost 14,000 more foul balls last season than there were 20 seasons earlier. In 1998, 26.5 percent of all strikes were foul balls. That share increased to a record 27.9 percent of strikes in 2017 and 27.8 percent last season, the top rates since pitch-level data was first recorded in 1988.

Overall, there were 26,313 more pitches in baseball in 2018 (724,447) than in 1998 (698,134). That’s the equivalent of adding 88 games, or roughly a week, to the schedule.1 A record 3.9 pitches were thrown per plate appearance in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, according to Baseball-Reference.com, up from 3.73 pitches per plate appearance in 2002 and 3.58 in 1988. And about half of the growth in total pitches can be attributed to foul balls.

Later on in the article, they also talk about ballpark size:

An increase in foul balls and a decline in foul outs may seem paradoxical, but the reason is simple: Playing surfaces are shrinking. In comparing 21 current stadiums with their immediate predecessor, FanGraphs found that fair territory had decreased by 1.4 percent, but foul territory decreased by 20.5 percent, or about 5,500 square feet on average.

Here's the article they reference: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ballpark-playing-surfaces-are-shrinking-in-a-surprising-way/

We know that foul territory has shrunk — in particular as designers of new-age stadiums have been freed from the demands of multi-purposes considerations. The result, unsurprisingly, has been to push field-level seats closer to fair territory. At places like Dodger Stadium and elsewhere, teams/owners have added additional rows of lower-deck, luxury seating, further eroding foul territory. “Field boxes” have crept closer and closer, which is great if you have netting between you and the action. And with more and more teams taking up MLB on its recommendation to expand netting in front of lower-deck seats, it could allow for more premium seats to be added and for foul territory to diminish.
 

SilenceS

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anotheridiot

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Interesting. Wrigley has almost no foul space. The A's have a ton. Baseball is a weird game.

That is just part of it, look at the stadiums that have bigger outfields. Same distance between the bases but bigger outfields.

The weirder part, is that they are not worried about the fans that actually make it out to the ball park, buy the tickets, consume more food and beverages during longer games, its based on the people watching at home., because, they end up watching more commercials that make the station more money?

Might as well go to three balls and two strikes per at bat.

At least now we might see Lester in the position to retire if it comes in 2022.
 

CSF77

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Interesting. Wrigley has almost no foul space. The A's have a ton. Baseball is a weird game.

Ricketts are pulling 100M profit per year. Might as well start buying up the neighborhood and start making the park bigger.

City code be damned.
 

anotheridiot

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Ricketts are pulling 100M profit per year. Might as well start buying up the neighborhood and start making the park bigger.

City code be damned.

It is going to get worse before it gets better, they made a huge effort to get their guy to replace Tunney. Even though the cubs are building up his ward, the claws are coming out this year. Are either of the mayoral candidates cub fans?
 

zack54attack

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Ricketts are pulling 100M profit per year. Might as well start buying up the neighborhood and start making the park bigger.

City code be damned.

They are already adding seating down the left field line. Dunno how that view is going to look honestly, not much space there.
 

anotheridiot

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They are already adding seating down the left field line. Dunno how that view is going to look honestly, not much space there.

it looked like the right field corner was getting seats that were angled more towards the plate.

I am still waiting for the second deck in the bleachers.
 

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