That's what baseball needs. A micromanager. Because the game can't ever adjust.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-l ... 29801.html

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

This is further evidence that Adam Dunn ruined baseball.

Also, this is dumb.

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

they could paint big circles all over the field where the defense player is not allowed to leave until the ball hits the ground.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

a shifting outfield is a dynamic part of the game. it adds a ton of strategy that can go right or wrong on any given play. i love it.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Why do they need to dumb down the game? This is extremely stupid.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Teach one of these big oafs to hit opposite field every once in awhile, and these shifts will go away on their own.

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I was just gonna say, how bout lifting the ban on hitting the ball to the opposite side?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Other than the pitcher and the catcher, fielders should be allowed to play wherever the hell they want.

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Absolutely... +1.

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."

the commissioner should do what I do with t ball players: Draw an X in the dirt with my foot and tell them that no matter where they run around to when the ball is hit, they better return to the x before the next batter is up

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

This

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Elections have consequences.

When I did coach pitch I had to write their first initial in the dirt because sometimes they would go back to the wrong "x"

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I think they are trying to increase scoring without juicing the ball (or the players).

If guys would bunt every once in a while, the shift would go away. Other good ways to increase scoring:

Get rid of the balk rules, more stolen bases, more excitement, more strategy, more emphasis on defensive fundamentals (catchers-pitchers), more scoring.

Get rid of the lefty strike 6 inches off the plate.

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Getting rid of balks would decrease stolen bases.

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This.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

the problem isn't lack of scoring, it's that the game is so long.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

And the answer to speeding up the game is simply to call the actual strike zone- letters to knees.

The fan doesn't want to watch his team's best hitter going up there looking to take a walk.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

If it leads to more runs, sure I do. The name of the game is winning.

If the opposing pitcher is giving Rizzo a walk, take the walk. Same thing with Abreu.

The pace of the game is fine.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

too many pitching changes. limit to 10 pitchers/roster.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Sorry, poorly written. Refine the balk Rules especially at the lower levels, so the running game is taught properly.

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

The pace of the game is not fine. The game cannot support the structure of salaries it has been able to establish by only appealing to the most hardcore fans like you and me.

And the strikeout-walk-homerun paradigm is boring as hell. If all runs were scored on walks and the Cubs had 9 Eddie Yosts I'm sure you'd be happy with your World Series, but baseball would be boring as hell and most people wouldn't want to watch.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

This is one of the reasons I enjoy (besides the obvious reason) watching the Cardinals. They don't hit HRs, They don't walk disproportiinately, and they rarely steal. Lots of emphasis on long counts and contact which can lead to some epic pitcher-batter battles. Might be one of the reasons they get in the head of certain pitchers like Kershaw. All the sign-stealing talk is also related to this.

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Agree. Drop down a bunt every once in a while. Even if it doesn't work, it could still affect the shift.

Also agree with spany.

Worry about more important things like speeding up the game, getting the replay/"challenge" system correct, and trying to do something to get salaries in check. Don't let the catcher go to the mound of an unlimited amount of times. If they can't get on the same page with the signs then that is their own fault.

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In office for about half a day, already looking to make a run at getting on the 'top dumbfuck commissioners' list.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

If you're including all sports, please put Bettman at or near the top. Thank you in advance.

I'll break it down like this. I hate things like 3 seconds and the process of the catch, baseball is a great game because the rules are simple. It's not hard to keep track of what’s going on, why a strategy is being used, and you don't have to explain to your mother-in-law some non-obvious stipulation intervening in the action too often. (And also, almost everything but the most complex strategies and interactions were taught to us in little league.)

Right now, baseball positioning grows from the basic nature of the game; if you want to defend the field well, you put guys in spots where the hitter has been proven to beat you. Get them to hit it where you are. Legislating in rules to punish teams for doing it differently, seems like a sort of collective finger to the analytics crowd. The bottom line is it clutters up the game and adds unnecessary interpretations for mentally-challenged umpires.


my $.02

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Somebody should tell the new commish that the "Boudreau Shift" was around long before he took office.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_shift

The infield shift is a generic term used in baseball to describe an extreme defensive realignment from the standard positions to blanket one side of the field or another. Used almost exclusively against left-handed batters, it is designed to protect against extra base hits pulled hard into the gaps between the fielders on the right side.

Originally called the "Boudreau" or "Williams" shift, the strategy is often associated with Ted Williams, but it was actually first employed against Cy Williams during the 1920s.[1][2] It was later used against Ted Williams during the 1946 World Series between the Red Sox and the Cardinals as a defensive gimmick by St. Louis manager Eddie Dyer to psych out and hopefully contain Boston slugger Williams. It was devised by Cleveland Indians manager Lou Boudreau on a blackboard between games of a doubleheader in July 1946 to halt Williams' hot hitting. "I always considered The Boudreau Shift a psychological, rather than a tactical victory," wrote Lou Boudreau in his book, Player-Manager. The shift has been employed since then to thwart extreme pull hitters (mostly lefties), such as Barry Bonds, Ryan Howard, Jason Giambi, David Ortiz, and Mark Teixeira.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

You were around a long time before Boudreau

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

No,but I read about it, maybe you should try it.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."