Opening Day - MLB games on average, 26 minutes shorter

[andyhdz]

so glad that finally pitchers and batters are finally forced to move away from treating every...single..pitch..like it was game 7 of the world series.

[zappa1]

Originally Posted by BIG17EASY

Did this happen again yesterday? I saw it when Alonso walked back to first with McNeil at the plate in the Marlins' series.



Agreed. This belongs in Talk Sports.

I guess I'm getting my info late. Don't know why that is. Didn't even hear about this on opening day. I wonder why? Sorry. It's talk sports. After all I'm spacey, remember?

[OutS|der]

Baseball sucks today for a number of reasons. #1 Being little to no action makes it boring as he'll when it lasts for 3+ hours. The pitch clock is one of the best additions made ever to the game.
Watching a batter step out of the box 30 times is not exciting and causes people to change the channel, do that enough times and you don't change back.
Anything that makes the slog quicker and creates more action is a plus in my book

[Dr Naysay]

Machado being struck out whilst adjusting his gloves for the 10th time was beautiful.

[progen]

Originally Posted by OutS|der

Baseball sucks today for a number of reasons. #1 Being little to no action makes it boring as he'll when it lasts for 3+ hours. The pitch clock is one of the best additions made ever to the game.
Watching a batter step out of the box 30 times is not exciting and causes people to change the channel, do that enough times and you don't change back.
Anything that makes the slog quicker and creates more action is a plus in my book

I think in the end, the true test will be in the ratings. Is viewership up. And yes, ratings, can always be skewed (massaged), but for MLB, obviously they weren't happy with the numbers they were seeing. And I think they did go about it in the right way by doing the testing at the minor league level first.

And a buddy of mine, whose friend works for MLB, mentioned the other day, that while still the majority of players like "human" umps calling balls and strikes, that number is slowly changing to them wanting "robo umps." Not enough yet to make that change.

[rodgerdavies]

Originally Posted by Dr Naysay

Machado being struck out whilst adjusting his gloves for the 10th time was beautiful.

Agreed, that was what made me think "this is exactly what I used to spend ages 'watching' that they're getting rid of".

Obviously a small adjustment period whilst players push those rules, but better for watching along.

However, I would like to hear more from people who are lucky enough to go to games and their feelings about it.

When I have been in the US (worked in Florida a bit) I much preferred the stadium experience of college games than the pro sports, because of the quicker pace (watching the Miami Dolphins killing time in the stadium between plays whilst waiting for ad breaks to end sticks with me).

As a Brit, most of my stadium-going is sports that only have a half time break (rugby, football), so I'm not the sort to go fetch concessions between innings or plays or anything, but the new pace means there really isn't any sort of obvious break at any point (like half time is in football/soccer), so intrigued to hear from more regular goers about their MLB experiences.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by rodgerdavies

Agreed, that was what made me think "this is exactly what I used to spend ages 'watching' that they're getting rid of".

Obviously a small adjustment period whilst players push those rules, but better for watching along.

However, I would like to hear more from people who are lucky enough to go to games and their feelings about it.

When I have been in the US (worked in Florida a bit) I much preferred the stadium experience of college games than the pro sports, because of the quicker pace (watching the Miami Dolphins killing time in the stadium between plays whilst waiting for ad breaks to end sticks with me).

As a Brit, most of my stadium-going is sports that only have a half time break (rugby, football), so I'm not the sort to go fetch concessions between innings or plays or anything, but the new pace means there really isn't any sort of obvious break at any point (like half time is in football/soccer), so intrigued to hear from more regular goers about their MLB experiences.

As a Kinks fan, I just have to ask. Do you pronounce your last name like brother Ray -Davis, or do you pronounce it like brother Dave-Davieees?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by BIG17EASY

Did this happen again yesterday? I saw it when Alonso walked back to first with McNeil at the plate in the Marlins' series.

League HQ also admitted that the call by the umpire was wrong, which makes it a non-topic.

[rodgerdavies]

Originally Posted by David Watts

As a Kinks fan, I just have to ask. Do you pronounce your last name like brother Ray -Davis, or do you pronounce it like brother Dave-Davieees?

Ha, not the question I was expecting! I use "Dave-ees", it's the Welsh version rather than the English one (one of the most common Welsh last names), though there's a lot of overlap there obviously.

I mean, my parents couldn't even spell "Roger" correctly so anything's good.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by rodgerdavies

Ha, not the question I was expecting! I use "Dave-ees", it's the Welsh version rather than the English one (one of the most common Welsh last names), though there's a lot of overlap there obviously.

I mean, my parents couldn't even spell "Roger" correctly so anything's good.

Lol, I love me some Ray Davies, but I always sided with Dave on the way to say it.

I at times thought my name was Davit, not David, as my dad would call me that when he was mad at me. Of course, this turned things in my favor, as it drove my mom nuts.

[drksd4848]

Originally Posted by zappa1

Creates anxiety for the players for no reason but for people who can't stand the game.

Did you just say... anxiety? Really? Causing anxiety? Seriously? For the poor players? Seriously? Are you worried that the most detested athletes in pro sports are getting stress out and anxious? You're probably also afraid of it upsetting their self esteem too. Godforbid.

These rules are not for people who can't stand the game. They are for people who - rightly so - can't stand the players.

MLB is hemorrhaging fans.(they lost me a long time ago) Usually, MLB has just punched itself in the face while the game goes down in flames. I'm just impressed that for once they made a change that, rather then benefit the owners or benefit the players, actually benefits the game

[Syd Thrift]

Jeeez, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I or most fans detest the players. I think the time wasting is a Tragedy of the Commons situation where, classically, pitchers are supposed to benefit by keeping up a good rhythm and hitters want to stop and break that. I don’t think there’s a lot to that but that just kept creeping up. No one player is really to blame but over time at bats just started taking forever. Couple that with some pitchers wanting to hugely slow the game down with runners on base and we got to where we are.

It seems like most players like the rule, as it’s enforced on both sides and dramatically speeds up the game. They have families they’d like to get home to as well…

[drksd4848]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Jeeez, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I or most fans detest the players. I think the time wasting is a Tragedy of the Commons situation where, classically, pitchers are supposed to benefit by keeping up a good rhythm and hitters want to stop and break that. I don’t think there’s a lot to that but that just kept creeping up…

I'm not sure it's something that crept up though... I think it's something that started intentionally. As the game started to rely more and more on analytics, the analytics people (I'll refrain from what I really want to call them) determined that the longer you hold the ball, the more velocity you'll get on the next pitch. Batters started to rely on launch angle as the analytics people determined that it was more useful to strike out and hit home runs than put the ball in play. They determined that the most efficient play in baseball was the home run. Don't make contact unless you can hit the ball five rows deep into the outfield bleachers. All that adds up to an insufferable product on the field.


Look, if I shlould blame anyone, I would blame the nerds (there, I said it) Analytics nerds are not just ruining baseball, but most if not all sports in general.

[Syd Thrift]

I’ve yet to see any study that indicates that velo increases the longer you hold onto the ball. Care to cite that?

[drksd4848]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

I’ve yet to see any study that indicates that velo increases the longer you hold onto the ball. Care to cite that?

TA DA!


https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...n-to-speed-up/


I will back that up with a confirmation from Tony Massarottie who covered the Red Sox for years and now is a sports talk show host for 98.5 the Sports Hub in Boston. Take it for what it's worth: Mazz has contacts in the Red Sox who indeed say the pitchers were instructed to hold the ball longer to increase their velocity.


So yes, analytics nerds are ruining baseball. The pitch clock rule is designed to combat just that.

[Syd Thrift]

OK, I'll stand corrected. Still very, very, very happy they enforced the end of time-wasting.

[Rain King]

Originally Posted by drksd4848

Look, if I shlould blame anyone, I would blame the nerds (there, I said it) Analytics nerds are not just ruining baseball, but most if not all sports in general.

It is ridiculous to blame anything on "analytics". You can't blame baseball teams for becoming more efficient at playing baseball. It isn't their job to make the game exciting. This is exactly a situation where rules need to be changed.

[drksd4848]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

OK, I'll stand corrected. Still very, very, very happy they enforced the end of time-wasting.

It was incredibly necessary. It bugs me that it had to come to that (using a pitch clock), but still necessary. It is also highly entertaining to hear how the players are grappling with it.

Originally Posted by Rain King

It is ridiculous to blame anything on "analytics". You can't blame baseball teams for becoming more efficient at playing baseball. It isn't their job to make the game exciting. This is exactly a situation where rules need to be changed.

Really? It isn't their job? Isn't sports entertainment? Wouldn't the Baseball players be... entertainers? Wouldn't it be their job to... I dunno... Put an ENTERTAINING PRODUCT on the field?

You see, this is the kind of mentality that created this problem. Baseball teams and players sniffing their own farts because their heads are so far up their own asses:

Originally Posted by Stupid A*S Major League Baseball player

Blah! We're just going to play the game the way WE feel like it. Screw the fans. It's not OUR problem if you think OUR game boring

Funny, I always thought the game was for the entertainment of our viewing audience. The... um... the FANS. HELLO?!

Again, this is why analytic nerds are so destructive to pro-sports and why they should be kicked out of the universe.

They. Don't. See. People.

They have NO feeling for the human element. Everything is just a value or a number. They don't and will never grasp that the game is played by PEOPLE and the game is watched by PEOPLE and PEOPLE are nuanced and cannot be broken down into a number or value.

Seeing a game played by PEOPLE who are nuanced and have character and are flawed and make mistakes is ENTERTAINING. And when you try to turn everything into a number and suck all the nuance and character out of it and replace it with BABIP, WERP and WOR and HERP and whatever, it becomes REALLY REALLY boring, and REALLY UN-entertaining. and that is why analytic nerd are the bain of modern society. And why MLB has to institute things like a pitch clock.

[Rain King]

Originally Posted by drksd4848

Really? It isn't their job? Isn't sports entertainment? Wouldn't the Baseball players be... entertainers? Wouldn't it be their job to... I dunno... Put an ENTERTAINING PRODUCT on the field?

You see, this is the kind of mentality that created this problem. Baseball teams and players sniffing their own farts because their heads are so far up their own asses:

Nobody gives a **** how entertaining a team/player is if they don't win. So, they are going to find every edge they can.

This is why teams for years held the ball in basketball and even now are doing things like letting the ball roll before they pick it up after a basket to delay the shot clock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyW66QMDfVI

It is why football teams go into the "4-minute offense" to close out a game they are leading late.

Those things aren't entertaining, but they are winning strategies.

In baseball, you want to strike guys out and hit home runs. Those are the most efficient ways to succeed.

It isn't up to the teams to use lesser strategies to be more entertaining. The players and coaches try to win, that is how they get paid. It is up to the league office to adjust the rules to encourage more entertaining strategies.

[itsmb8]

As someone who originally hated the inclusion of the pitch clock... Watching games on TV have become great. You can finally watch a 9 inning game and not feel like you just missed half your day. I can get home from work at 7:30, turn on the Brewers game in the 2nd inning, and finish watching at 9-9:30. Before it would last until 10-11.

Now, this is all before going in-person. Spending 2 hours driving and 3 hours there (1 hr tailgate, 2 hr game) might suck.