A CRAZY idea to "improve" baseball

[Castor76]

One of the complaints you hear about baseball is how few times the best players in a line up can get an actual chance to affect the game, especially later in the game. This is due to the fact that you have 9 players on the field and you have to go through the line up to get back to the top. What if everybody didn't have to have an PA? We already changed the game to allow one player to hit for a position player, typically a pitcher. What if with each game two positions were designated "defense only" and the lineup had 6 position players and the DH?

Does it destroy the game as we know it today? Absolutely. Would anybody but pitchers, purists, and agents for defense first players really mind? I don't know. What it would do is really increase offense and get the top players more PAs. Teams average around 5800 PAs last season. That would put average PA per hitter going from 640ish to 825ish if not more. It would average out to just over one more PA per hitter per game.

So, on a scale of "It's something to think about" to "You should die horribly just for thinking this", what do you think?

 

[Raskolnikov]

One of the complaints you hear about baseball is how few times the best players in a line up can get an actual chance to affect the game, especially later in the game. This is due to the fact that you have 9 players on the field and you have to go through the line up to get back to the top. What if everybody didn't have to have an PA? We already changed the game to allow one player to hit for a position player, typically a pitcher. What if with each game two positions were designated "defense only" and the lineup had 6 position players and the DH?

Does it destroy the game as we know it today? Absolutely. Would anybody but pitchers, purists, and agents for defense first players really mind? I don't know. What it would do is really increase offense and get the top players more PAs. Teams average around 5800 PAs last season. That would put average PA per hitter going from 640ish to 825ish if not more. It would average out to just over one more PA per hitter per game.

So, on a scale of "It's something to think about" to "You should die horribly just for thinking this", what do you think?

You should probably die horribly as you know.

How about 1?

Are you factoring in your calculations every center fielder will run a 4.27 40 yard dash and can be built like Michael Jordan and snatch 12 foot high line drives, and every short stop will be Venezuelan?

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

Or, they can have 9 players in the batting order, but only 8 players in the field? Maybe only 7? Or 6?

Maybe no defense and they just put circles on the ground that awards an amount of runs?

Or maybe, stop tinkering with it?

 

[Raskolnikov]

I thought pitchers batting was an essential part of baseball.

Every night 25 National league pitchers would remind us 3 times each how damn hard it is to hit a baseball even for a professional athlete.

2 or 3 more pitchers would show us even the hopeless can get lucky if they stand in awkwardly and give it a try.

These lessons were a big part of the show. Double switches and the pinch hit dilemmas all gone. The game is too simple and stagnant without pitchers hitting.

But it was time.

 

[Bronek]

Or, use the automated strike zone that call strikes and balls. It would make the strike zone consistent ,that in turn increase run scoring and make the game more entertaining.. Stop defensive shift. Lets those athletic dudes perform.

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

How about three pitchers pitching all at once?

 

[knoxville7]

How about three pitchers pitching all at once?

Or how about a hitter in each batter box to take on the pitcher. It’ll increase runs!!!

 

[PickSix]

Use the NFL model of revenue sharing and hard salary caps and bottoms.

 

[Diehardfan]

Baseball really has a lot of options they've never looked into....to hell with the shift or lowering the mound. If you want to increase scoring just let the hitters call balls and strikes.....if you want to decrease it, have the catchers make the calls.

 

[Castor76]

Use the NFL model of revenue sharing and hard salary caps and bottoms.

I don't disagree with that, but it doesn't make the product more watchable necessarily. I know my idea is radical to say the least, but it does address a major thing brought up when people talk about why they don't watch more. Fans want to see the best players be able to affect the game when it matters most. By having only a 7 person batting line up, you increase the PAs of the better hitters which gets them back around even more. It also is enough batters so even if the bases were loaded, only the announced hitters would even get to the on deck circle in any one inning before a run could be scored.

An average, normie fan wants to see the best hitters up in the 8th and 9th innings. With the current rules, it's maybe 50/50. My change, it's almost 100%.

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

I thought pitchers batting was an essential part of baseball.

Every night 25 National league pitchers would remind us 3 times each how damn hard it is to hit a baseball even for a professional athlete.

2 or 3 more pitchers would show us even the hopeless can get lucky if they stand in awkwardly and give it a try.

These lessons were a big part of the show. Double switches and the pinch hit dilemmas all gone. The game is too simple and stagnant without pitchers hitting.

But it was time.

25 national league pitchers per night? Are you on drugs again? Also pitchers rarely got 3 at bats.

 

[Gustavus Adolphus]

Glow in the dark baseballs and bases.

Every sixth night game has no stadium lights on.

 

[Bearcub13]

You should probably die horribly as you know.

How about 1?

Are you factoring in your calculations every center fielder will run a 4.27 40 yard dash and can be built like Michael Jordan and snatch 12 foot high line drives, and every short stop will be Venezuelan?

I have to agree with the " Die Horribly" part, but I think Louie DePalma (Danny Devito's character on the Taxi tv show) put it best "Die Die Die, With Festering Boils, Die!". By the time the MLB money grubbers get done with baseball it will be nothing more than a video game. I was born in 1956, If I had a time machine I would go back to see a baseball game before tv mucked it all up. I would love to see some spikes flashing at second base, and a full on collision at the plate instead of the mamby pamby way its done today. Enough bitchin', have a great day. Aslo, if I had a time machine I would love to see dinosaurs live, meet Abraham Lincoln, and have a hot dog and beer with the Babe (I'll skip the hookers).

 

[MDB111™]

I don't disagree with that, but it doesn't make the product more watchable necessarily. I know my idea is radical to say the least, but it does address a major thing brought up when people talk about why they don't watch more. Fans want to see the best players be able to affect the game when it matters most. By having only a 7 person batting line up, you increase the PAs of the better hitters which gets them back around even more. It also is enough batters so even if the bases were loaded, only the announced hitters would even get to the on deck circle in any one inning before a run could be scored.

An average, normie fan wants to see the best hitters up in the 8th and 9th innings. With the current rules, it's maybe 50/50. My change, it's almost 100%.

What about random balls filled with minor explosives? Nothing too crazy, just like a m80 or something?