If you could change ONE rule...

[Speedy]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

Limit the amount of cather/pitcher meetings.

Fixed.

There's way too many (Hello, Posada! ) so I believe it should be linked to pitching coach meetings...the catcher can go out once by his own but after that the pitching coach/manager must accompany him. The same rule with the 2nd meeting of the pitching coach/manager would still be in effect, in that the pitcher must be replaced.

Problem...



...solved.

[SPTO]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

Yes, get helmets off the damn base coaches.

Better to look silly then lose a life like that minor league 3B coach.

[Blzer]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

Better to look silly then lose a life like that minor league 3B coach.

I remember we had this discussion years ago, but even now... I don't remember anyone saying this in the nineties. Why do we have to wait for someone to die to institute it? They were fine with it before when this was possible, they should be fine with it now.

That's why I say they aren't required to wear it (I suppose we can say "Hey, it's their life"), but I'm guessing that most of them still will anyway as it can be optional.

It actually surprises me that more fans aren't injured by foul balls. With all of those arms reaching up, it could easily go right through all of them and nail someone in the dome. So when a fan dies, should I expect that there is going to be netting around the entire park? We might as well do it now to prevent such an incident.

But... we I suppose we can save this for that old thread if we revive it.

[CWood2]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

Get rid of the unbalanced schedule with the insane amount of games to be played w/in the division.

BINGO.

That's my only requested change ... that I don't have to see the Yankees, Rays, Orioles and Jays a million times a season.

As far as "rules," I'd change nothing. Baseball is sacred, people, don't touch it!!

[wang_chi7]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

This ties to the re-alignment thread but...

Two divisions per league, no wildcard. Oh, and a balanced schedule again (or close as its not possible with 14 and 16 teams in respective leagues without totally changing amount of games played.)

AL plays 13 games against teams in same division (I know that creates a home/away oddity) and 12 games against the teams in other division. That or 12 games against all and the other six games are interleague. Or 11 games against all leaving 19 interleague games. I'd prefer the no-interleague option slightly.

NL would play 10 games against other division (80 games) and 11 games against teams in same division (77 games.) That leaves five games left so would have to do some tweaking (hey that's close to the AL's extra six games in option two above, maybe NL just misses one game against a non-division team on a rotating basis to make it work.)

Could always move Brewers back to AL so everyone plays 11 games versus rest of league in both leagues. Of course having odd number in each league would make things too hairy. If two teams contracted though, problem solved

[pietasterp]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

Very unpopular...and I am fully ready for the insults...but I really think there should be a uniform, technology-enforced (i.e. laser) strike-zone, so that we can finally rid ourselves of the games being at the whim of the home-plate umpire. If baseball were being invented today, I believe that's how they'd define a ball vs a strike - the homeplate umpire calling them only exists because the game was invented 100+ years ago.

I'm all about taking "judgement calls" out of the officiating of sports (which is why I respectfully disagree with Blzer's #2 and #4 points in the initial post), as much as reasonably possible without unnecessarily intruding on the flow of the game. I realize that's a grey area in and of itself (what constitutes "intrusion on the flow of the game"?), but within reason, I think technology can only help enforce the rules.

Also, as an added bonus, all Greg Maddux strikeouts would immediately be stricken from the record-books...

[Bellsprout]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

4) Batter does not have to make an attempt to avoid a hit-by-pitch (however it's different if they lean into one).

That was actually enforced tonight during the Brewer game. Gregg Zaun got beaned but the ump deemed he didn't make an effort to get out of the way and brought him back into the box. When it happened, I immediately thought of this thread.

He then got a hit, so the whole thing didn't matter, but up until then I'd never actually seen that enforced.

[Blzer]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

That was actually enforced tonight during the Brewer game. Gregg Zaun got beaned but the ump deemed he didn't make an effort to get out of the way and brought him back into the box. When it happened, I immediately thought of this thread.

He then got a hit, so the whole thing didn't matter, but up until then I'd never actually seen that enforced.

Well then... there you go.

[JEM]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

That was actually enforced tonight during the Brewer game. Gregg Zaun got beaned but the ump deemed he didn't make an effort to get out of the way and brought him back into the box. When it happened, I immediately thought of this thread.

He then got a hit, so the whole thing didn't matter, but up until then I'd never actually seen that enforced.

I like the rule.. It isnt enforced enough IMO.

My change would be the DH with both leagues using it or neither.

[ryan36]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

I just thought of one... do like they do in HS , where you can issue the intentional walk without having to throw pitches.

I know about official at bats and people still swinging at the ball when they're being walked, and hitting it, and sometimes pitcher throws the ball away, but to me if you wanna award someone first, you should just get it over with.

[Blzer]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

I just thought of one... do like they do in HS , where you can issue the intentional walk without having to throw pitches.

I know about official at bats and people still swinging at the ball when they're being walked, and hitting it, and sometimes pitcher throws the ball away, but to me if you wanna award someone first, you should just get it over with.

I'm kind of the opposite here. I believe that the intentional walk isn't "real" in a way, and in doing so that way you would actually be forcing it to be real (that is, as it stands the intentional walk only exists as four balls thrown with zero intention to face the batter, and the deliberation is shown by the catcher standing and extending his arm.

Putting someone on that way has no such repercussions, which is something that I enjoy about baseball. You never know what may happen, and it requires pitchers to actually throw the pitches as well.

If they ever did have that, then I'll have to say that there should be a limit on the number of intentional walks, like someone said in the thread earlier but I shot down the idea because of the idea that, like I said, the intentional walk isn't really "real". Your idea would make it real, so I believe there should then be a limit, like one or two per game. The rest would need to be balls out of the zone if you want to walk him.

[ryan36]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

why limit it?

[Blzer]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

why limit it?

Again, because it's outside of the norm of actually playing to get results. That's like the pitcher coming up and requesting to take an out to move the runner over. Not exactly the same because it's not as successful, but it's essentially asking for a trade-off without actually just playing it out. QB's have to kneel (in a legal formation) to run down the clock and end the game, basketball players have to dribble in play until the time runs down, etc. Four balls is just a part of the game.

I'd prefer that they just have it as is, making all legal pitches to put the guy on. It's bad enough that this has been abused since Bonds starting getting put on by Bochy in 2001 (let's not forget Showalter's stunt back in the 90s with the bases loaded), and now it's just borderline annoying to see. Fans don't like it, they like every pitch to count. "Putting them on" in high school felt so embarrassing just watching it in the outfield and made our team look like sissies.

And again, you have to enjoy the repercussions. If you want to walk him, you have to earn walking him. Throw perfect balls, no strikes or wild pitches. If you mess up, it's on you. You're doing this to try and gain an advantage for yourself and skip by the bigger guys by giving them free passes... you might as well have to make the pitches to do so.

[ELDoro]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

1. limit pitching visits/changes per inning.

2. get rid of DH

3. get rid of elbow guards

4. enforce batters not being able to step out of the box in between pitches.....slows the game down way too much which is often one of the arguements for people not liking baseball

[Antec]

Re: If you could change ONE rule...

What's your reasoning for getting rid of Elbow guards? I don't see how you can tell players that they can't wear safety equipment.