The Reign of Commissioner Rob Manfred

[Party]

Rob Manfred has been in a charge for less than a month now, but he had made some of his priorities clear.

First on his agenda has been the pace of game issue.

But he is also open to banning defensive shifts: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-bi...172529801.html

Still, MLB forwarded to the players union a list of radical ideas, Fox reported Monday, such as tinkering with the ball, mound, fences and strike zone, and extending the designated hitter to the National League. Manfred said he doesn’t see a DH change happening, but the height of the mound could be open to debate.

He does want to push ahead with international play, saying, “I’d like to play on a more sustained basis outside the United States if that’s possible.” But games in Asia and Europe are difficult because of travel.

“The Western Hemisphere is probably more realistic in that regard,” he said.

http://www.statesman.com/news/sports...ssible-/njxcP/

As a mentioned in the ASG thread, I am interested in seeing how he addresses the ASG determining HF in the World Series. It's unfair to determine HF if the game is in three consecutive NL cities through 2017. Washington is likely a heavy favorite for 2018 too. He has stated he would like to award the game based on a bidding system similar to that used in the Super Bowl.

[Bobbob1313]

the banning defensive shifts thing seems so incredibly stupid to me.

[Mainge]

What's the reasoning for wanting to ban the shift?

[Bobbob1313]

Boosting offense.

[Namaste]

Awful idea.


Also heard they are entertaining idea of reducing the size of the strike zone to promote more offense.

Ok. But don't they also want to speed games up?

[Nick]

yeah I really hate the defensive shift thing. I think it's provided a new interesting bit of strategy to the game in recent years.

[Jay]

Personally I hate all of those ideas.

I'd love to bring MLB to an international level but unless that is done by having exhibition games in different countries or league expansion, it'd be poorly implemented.

I hate the DH and would prefer to see it eliminated rather than expanded.

I don't understand the mound height change. Is he thinking about raising or lowering it?

Shrinking the strike zone just seem dumb. It's like let's just play 9 innings of batting practice.

What's he talking about doing to the ball? Again completely confused with that.

The pace of the game I can understand after looking at average game times but like the article someone posted it should be implemented in the minors for a few years before it is introduced in the majors.

ASG changes I could really care less about. I'd like to see home field go to the team with the best record rather than the league which wins the ASG. I don't see a big problem with fairness of who gets HF with the game being consistently held in the NL like it will be for a few years because the crowd is not mostly local fans and the team is not that team. I can understand the argument for it just don't see it as a big deal.

Banning defensive shifts sounds unrealistic. Like are they going to have circles for every position to stand within? As long as the shift doesn't slow the pace of the game it shouldn't matter where players set up.

The one thing I wish he would implement is more use of technology. Like we should have a consistent strike zone measured by a computerized solution which is calibrated before each game. I think we should be moving toward consistency of calls by using technology and relying less on the eyes of old men. It's not like there would be a big cost to start implementing these into the stadiums because they already record all this data.
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double posted

[Mainge]

I'm sure offense is down because of the less than 1% of the time there's a pull shift put into play, and not because of the fact that batters are striking out in almost 20% of their AB's.

But I can't wait until the NL has a DH.

[Beef]

How do you even police that? You tell people where they're supposed to play and they can only move so much to either side prior to the pitch?

[Nick]

Yeah I don't understand it.

[nny]

If you want more offense, end the ridiculous moral ban on steroids.

[BigGameFish]

How do you even police that? You tell people where they're supposed to play and they can only move so much to either side prior to the pitch?

this is why I question the potential ban. Plus is there even a rule that sets out the positions of defensive players? It seems to me that where players play now developed from determining what the best "defensive shift" was - 3 OFs, 4 INFs, and a catcher out of necessity. How those 7 guys lined up historically was to be in the best position to field the ball. If a team wanted to play 7 OFs they should be able to do that. Or play 7 INFs. It may be dumb but the idea is the defenders should be able to stand wherever they believe is the best place to field the batted ball.

[HUGG]

If you want more offense, end the ridiculous moral ban on steroids.

WE GOTTA CLEAN UP THE GAME




oh shit, where'd all the runs go?

[emkayseven]

I feel like baseball should be doing the opposite and embracing defensive shifts. In football and basketball there are players known for their defensive prowess to the general public. In football there are defensive packages that have names that are mentioned by the announcers. Baseball should embrace defensive shifts this way. Instead of banning defensive shifts, come up with a list of acceptable defensive shifts. Give them names. Use the names in broadcasts. It adds an element to it and one of the major discussions this offseason has been pace of play/lack of fan interest. MLB Network and the radio channel talk about it every day. I think it'd be an awesome way to increase fan interest.

[BigGameFish]

^ good idea.

I think what MLB lacks the most is the ability to market it's players. To make them "characters" in a sense. That's what basketball has done an amazing job on for the past 10 years. I don't feel really anything about any players except those on our team and Arod. Maybe Big Papi. Trout not even. That's why interest in waning (for the most part). I also think shortening the season and expanding the playoffs would help. I have a lot of ideas I've thought of over the years. Game clocks, strike zones, relief pitcher rules, shifts all seen like the absolute most horrible ideas that would not make even one more person watch baseball.