Less Appreciation for Baseball

[Gentlegamer]

It's almost as bad as when Buck Showalter was manager for the O's and late in the game he would change pitchers for every batter to get the righty/lefty or lefty/righty match up. That was my signal to change the channel.

https://youtu.be/abq9Y7YVDWA?si=IfZjw9Vd5a7i0ea8

[jon]

At the very least, the starter should be obligated to pitch the whole 1st inning. But now that I think about it, I don’t think there will be rules enforced like that to force a pitcher to pitch to a certain amount of batters. They can always say what if someone gets injured.

What I’ve noticed, and it’s taken some time as this is the first time in a long time that I’ve been watching a lot of games, is that balls are jumping off the bats these days and homers are being hit so easily. This would be surprising considering a ton of pitchers are routinely pitching into the 100’s these days. Either the bats are corked or the balls got juiced again. It doesn’t even resemble baseball 10-15 years ago last time I watched this much.

And also, batting averages are way down. Guys hitting .230 are getting multi hundred million dollar contracts.

[Tron]

I only watch games on YouTube from the 70's, 80's and 90's. When I was playing MLB Power Pros <Wii & PS2> I watched some games from 2008 just to see some of the players from the game.

DH rule sucks. I never liked it in the American league even when I was a kid. I think they put it in the National league now too.

Pitch timer sucks. That's a lousy way to try and speed up the game. So much of every sport is psychological. It was fun watching a pitcher lollygag on an impatient hitter or change it up hurling right away at a batter that likes to take his time.

The whole internet analytics thing sounds awful. Now that every batters tendencies are universally known id imagine the fielders are making crazy shifts on every batter. I remember a game in which Sparky Anderson shifted his fielders all to the left side of the field. I was scratching my head and even the announcers were joking and not sure what Sparky was doing. Sure enough ball went to the left side that should've been a base hit, but since Sparky shifted them it was an out. That was cool, because Sparky had that knowledge. Now EVERYONE has it.

[jon]

MLB actually banned the infield shift a couple years ago. Now, there must be 2 infielders in the dirt on each side of 2nd base.

The main problem now is that strikeouts are way up as batters aren’t brought up to have discipline at the plate. They’re all frantically trying to hit home runs bc that equals money.

Pitchers now routinely pitch into the 100’s and it’s never been like that before. They must be eating a bunch of spinach. And one would think bc of that, homers would be down obviously. But the opposite is happening. Balls are flying off the bats, and players are setting records for longest home runs in a lot of ballparks it seems lately. And, that’s the biggest issue. It’s extremely obvious that something has been done to the bats to make it so easy to hit long home runs. As always, MLB is doing everything they can so a lot of home runs are hit.

[jon]

No matter what MLB does to claim games are shorter, like the pitch clock, it’s still a long bore to have a million pitching changes.

There were so many pitching changes in game 3 of the World Series last night that the game, which started at 8:00, was just entering the 9th inning at 11:45. The game lasted 18 innings so no harm in not watching the whole thing.

On a positive note, tonight Ohtani is the starting pitcher, and since the Dodgers (and the Blue Jays) used every pitcher last night, he will be asked to pitch deep into the game.

[HawgWyld]

No matter what MLB does to claim games are shorter, like the pitch clock, it’s still a long bore to have a million pitching changes.

There were so many pitching changes in game 3 of the World Series last night that the game, which started at 8:00, was just entering the 9th inning at 11:45. The game lasted 18 innings so no harm in not watching the whole thing.

On a positive note, tonight Ohtani is the starting pitcher, and since the Dodgers (and the Blue Jays) used every pitcher last night, he will be asked to pitch deep into the game.

After that game, I am a major proponent of extending the "man on second" rule we see in the regular season in extra innings to the playoffs. 18 innings was just too much.

[Tron]

MLB actually banned the infield shift a couple years ago. Now, there must be 2 infielders in the dirt on each side of 2nd base.

The main problem now is that strikeouts are way up as batters aren’t brought up to have discipline at the plate. They’re all frantically trying to hit home runs bc that equals money.

Pitchers now routinely pitch into the 100’s and it’s never been like that before. They must be eating a bunch of spinach. And one would think bc of that, homers would be down obviously. But the opposite is happening. Balls are flying off the bats, and players are setting records for longest home runs in a lot of ballparks it seems lately. And, that’s the biggest issue. It’s extremely obvious that something has been done to the bats to make it so easy to hit long home runs. As always, MLB is doing everything they can so a lot of home runs are hit.

Didn't know they banned the shift, but how would i; i don't wantch anymore.

I'm sure players are using chemical enhancing supplements still. Not the 8os cocaine or 90s+ roids, but something else.

I used to play baseball & was pretty good. I liked really good fastball pitchers because the faster they threw it the further I could hit it. So if guys are pitching consistently well over a 100 then I would presume that there would be a lot more homeruns.

[Voor]

Great World Series! I love the strategy!

[VideoGameCritic]

I have to admit last night game 7 was the best baseball I've seen in ages. Two very closely matched teams. Every pitch was monumental.

[matmico399]

Great World Series! I love the strategy!

With almost all the great players and unlimited cash the Dodgers if they don't win a world series every year it's a failure. With what they have they should be ashamed that they let the series go past game four. Of course they won.