re: These new MLB rules have Made Baseball Great Again!!!!!

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I was listening to Theo Epstein on the Ryen Russillo podcast and he said that with the evolution of pitching (everyone seemingly throwing 95+ with wicked sliders) and analytics dictating that singles and stolen bases aren’t nearly as valuable as swinging for the fences at all times the average time between a ball is in play was over 4 minutes.

That’s a long freaking time to have virtually no action happening except pitching. It’s boring and is a huge change from the way baseball was played as recently as 10-15 years ago.

The new rules are almost universally favored by players, managers, and fans alike.

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You have shown no evidence to say that this is universally liked by anyone. I don't think anyone likes having strikes or balls called on them because of a clock violation.

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Young people love it because their Ritalin-addled brains can't grasp the strategies and nuances of a thinking game. If it doesn't move at the flash-bang speed of ESPN clips the mind wanders.



Yeah because there is so much strategy and nuance to power pitching for strikeouts and only swinging for the fences every pitch and never adjusting your approach based on balls and strikes or players on base.

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This isn't even my quote, so I don't know why you threw this in there.

But your comment shows that you don't know much about baseball. And that's the point. If you don't like the game, you won't like the game. It's either for you, or it's not. Baseball isn't for everyone, just like chess isn't for everyone. You have such a narrow view of the game, that you think it's just about throwing hard and hitting home runs. Every single pitch is a chess game between the pitcher and hitter, as they try to out think the other. And the coaches are doing the same thing. Everyone is tracking each other's tendencies and trying to anticipate what or where the next pitch will be, or what pitch the hitter is sitting on. You don't just throw and hit. There is so much thought that goes into every pitch.

And how you match up hitters and pitchers, and how long to leave a pitcher in, as you try to win the game while keeping an eye on the next game, and trying to manage the loads of your pitchers. But you don't think about that when you come into the game looking for non stop action, and expecting everything to happen at your pace. You don't consider the game within the game. Because you're not a baseball fan, from the sound of it. You watch when you have nothing else to do, I would guess.

And as for the swinging for the fences? Tell that to the SABER club, who started this launch angle BS, and making everything about hitting fly balls. I've been complaining about that for over a decade. But that has nothing to do with the pace, it has to do with the quality. No matter how many times a ball is NOT put in play, it doesn't change the pace of the game. I've said for years, if you really want to bring a few fans in, don't try to speed up the natural pace of the game, just stop teaching the philosophy of all or nothing hitting, and there will be more excitement. But no one listens to people like me when it comes to that. They are convinced that hitting home runs is the best way to score runs.

Which, yeah, it helps to hit home runs... as long as it happens within the flow of the game, instead of forcing it, leading to a lot of pop outs and strike outs, and solo home runs.