Current state of MLB is getting worse

[CF DolFan]

I was reading an article about how HOFers are complaining about the current state of baseball and these statistics showed up. It certainly seems like baseball is headed in the wrong direction and for many more reasons than 4 hour games. Too many teams if you ask me.


• The ball is not put in play in roughly a third of all plate appearances, 31.6 percent of which end in a strikeout, walk or hit batter.

• The .248 MLB batting average is the lowest since 1972, the season before the American League instituted the designated hitter, when it was .244.

• There were more strikeouts than hits in a month for the first time in MLB history in April and, through early August, MLB had accumulated more strikeouts than hits overall. The race is on for whether it will happen in a full season for the first time.

• Through Saturday, the combined rate of strikeouts, walks and home runs across the game was 33.6 percent. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since strikeouts were first recorded in both leagues in 1913, there have been only six seasons in which strikeouts, walks and home runs have accounted for at least 30 percent of all plate appearances, and all of them have occurred since 2012.

[Tenshot13]

I wish I had a team to root for, but the "minor league" team that plays here decided to get rid of their now World Series winning manager and all of their best players.

[Dave Gray]

Gotta fix the economics.
Gotta get rid of the unwritten rules and fighting.  Charging the mound, hitting players on purpose, etc...that's assault and should be treated as such, with enormous suspensions and fines.  Not only is it unprofessional, a stupid time waster, but it puts policing the game in the hands of the players.  If you don't want to have a guy hit 4 home runs on you, pitch better -- don't bean him.
Cut the time it takes to play a game.
Cut the number of games.

I'm probably too far gone to give a crap, regardless of what they do.  But these are just some of the reasons that the sport lost me over the years.

[Cathal]

I've never been a fan of baseball, ever. It's just way too slow. If you were going to get someone like me to watch, you need to make it so the ball gets hit by everyone a majority of the time. Or turn it into Blernsball, that would work too.

[Sunstroke]

We have a league full of Joey Gallos these days...swings and missed most times, but when he does hit it, it goes 450, at least.

Maybe we should swap out the All Star Game HR Derby and have a skills competition? 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

In peewee hbp often occurs because the pitcher has bad ball control in MLB, there is no excuse for it.  Change rules of game first team Hbp for a team is a single with anyone one base advancing (ie guy on third goes home). Second HBp is a triple.  Third and subsequent are runs.  Any pitcher with a second HBP in a game is ejected.  Any pitcher with 10 in a season is suspended for the rest of the season.  Don’t bean  a guy cause he hit a home run, strike him out.

[Phishfan]

I gave up on the game too long ago to ever come back. I didn't even watch a single pitch in the last Word Series.

[BuccaneerBrad]

I wish I had a team to root for, but the "minor league" team that plays here decided to get rid of their now World Series winning manager and all of their best players.

That's why baseball needs a salary cap just like the other sports do.  We can't have teams like the Yankees and Dodgers throwing money around and gobbling up all the talent.

[DaLittle B]

I admit,I hate the shifting,and constant pitching changes to play the match ups in the bullpen.

I agree with the lack of fundamental ability to make contact,or flat out understand the game situation (IE runner on third with less than 2 outs).

[Spider-Dan]

The unwritten rules are not only dumb, but they're actively counterproductive to creating excitement for the game.

Example #1: bat flips.  The Korean League has some of the most spectacular bat flips in the sport.  But showing that kind of joy and excitement in MLB would get you seriously injured.  Case in point: Joey Bats had one of the greatest bat flips of all time in a situation where emotion was clearly warranted.  And what was the result when TOR and TEX met the following season?




I mean, baseball is boring and slow-paced enough as it is, without retrograde knuckleheads enforcing unwritten rules that somehow tell you that if a guy is playing really well against you, you are honor-bound to throw a 97 MPH fastball at him.

[Tenshot13]

So you want to make a boring game more boring... Awesome.  Do you want to get rid of fighting in hockey too?

[Phishfan]

So you want to make a boring game more boring... Awesome.  Do you want to get rid of fighting in hockey too?

I know a lot of people do. Fighting in hockey is way down from what it used to be anyway.

[DaLittle B]

The bat flip,he stared at his home run to long, unwritten rules...showing up the hitters ...So We're gonna plunk you over it,Is such horseshit.

  I also love when the announcers say some thing like the lines of..."I don't remember any incidents or bad blood between these two clubs this year,this could stem from some thing last year...When player A, was with the Dodgers,and Player B was with the Giants..." Type of statement....

This was an article written a few years ago after the Batista about playing Winter ball...It's kinda funny if you have a few minutes to read it...(The story I'm referring to starts below the video.)
https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/playing-baseball-right-way-depends-three-factors-when-who-where-061615

I think the game should change,and evolve be less golf like...

I admit to have strange views when it comes to Baseball,No DH,I'd be fine with automated strike zones,telling the Home plate umpire Ball and strike,there should be an onsite video review umpire...

[Sunstroke]

Either write down the unwritten rules, or erase them completely...

[Dolphster]

The unwritten rules are not only dumb, but they're actively counterproductive to creating excitement for the game.

Example #1: bat flips.  The Korean League has some of the most spectacular bat flips in the sport.  But showing that kind of joy and excitement in MLB would get you seriously injured.  Case in point: Joey Bats had one of the greatest bat flips of all time in a situation where emotion was clearly warranted.  And what was the result when TOR and TEX met the following season?




I mean, baseball is boring and slow-paced enough as it is, without retrograde knuckleheads enforcing unwritten rules that somehow tell you that if a guy is playing really well against you, you are honor-bound to throw a 97 MPH fastball at him.

Leading with the face is never a good fight tactic.  Odor threw a nice right but then went sissy with the glove slap.  Not bad for a baseball fight though since most of them are just 20 dudes hugging each other around the mound.