Speed up the game:

1) Eliminate replay.
2) Second mound visit- BY ANYONE- pitcher must be removed.
3) Call real strikezone- letters to knees.

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

Extra innings should start with bases loaded, 3-2 count and 2 outs.



Or

Limit mound visits (catcher or coach) to one per inning and drop reliever warm ups from 9 to 3.

And split screen ads.

First team to get a hit or walk wins. I like it!

Every extra inning you need to remove one player from the field until you are left with 3. The fences will be moved in 20 feet each inning. If they are still tied, then it goes to HR with each team choosing their best HR hitter to swing at 10 pitches thrown by the bullpen coaches. If they are still tied, the game will be decided by timing one lap around the bases by each teams bat boy.

I’d be happy with limiting mound visits and requiring each pitcher pitch to at least 3 batters. Nothing is worse than 3 pitching changes in an inning. I loathe seeing a pitcher come in for one batter, see him walk that batter, and then another pitching change.

I’d be happy with limiting mound visits and requiring each pitcher pitch to at least 3 batters. Nothing is worse than 3 pitching changes in an inning. I loathe seeing a pitcher come in for one batter, see him walk that batter, and then another pitching change.

No pitching changes during the inning except for injury. If a change is made due to injury, that pitcher must go on the DL immediately after the game.

I’d be happy with limiting mound visits and requiring each pitcher pitch to at least 3 batters. Nothing is worse than 3 pitching changes in an inning. I loathe seeing a pitcher come in for one batter, see him walk that batter, and then another pitching change.

Are you stoned or pissed off, or both, when you create these postings?

Willing to say that goes to far. I don’t want a DL stint from a guying throwing 45 pitches in an inning.

Or even if you start an inning, or come in during an inning you go three batters or finish the inning. Any pitcher can be pulled between innings.

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

Let Kyle Schwarber use a Rascal to get on and off the field.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

Speed up the game:

1) Eliminate replay.
2) Second mound visit- BY ANYONE- pitcher must be removed.
3) Call real strikezone- letters to knees.

I apologize to The Hawk

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

Come on Brick you are better than that

Speed up the game:

1) Eliminate replay.
2) Second mound visit- BY ANYONE- pitcher must be removed.
3) Call real strikezone- letters to knees.

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

These are the most reasonable and doable suggestions. The mound visits are the biggest thing that needs to be nipped in the bud.

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

Completely agree, but would revise #2...it's not the mound visits...it's the ridiculous number of pitching changes. I absolutely cannot stand the use of RH / LH specialists. More than 4 pitchers in a 9 inning game is ridiculous.

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

Time between pitches is the primary villain. I tallied up all the pitches in both games that we’ll call inaction pitches — pitches that resulted in a ball, called strike, or swinging strike, but didn’t result in the end of an at-bat or the advancement of a runner. These are the pitches where the catcher caught the ball and threw it back to the pitcher, whose next step was to throw it back to the catcher. Foul balls didn’t count. The fourth ball of a plate appearance didn’t count. Stolen bases didn’t count. Wild pitches didn’t count. Just the pitches where contact wasn’t made, and the pitcher received a return throw from the catcher.

There were 146 inaction pitches in the 1984 game.

There were 144 of these pitches in the 2014 game.

The total time for the inaction pitches in 1984 — the elapsed time between a pitcher releasing one pitch and his release of the next pitch — was 32 minutes and 47 seconds.

The total time for inaction pitches in 2014 was 57 minutes and 41 seconds.

This is how a game can have an almost identical number of pitches thrown, batters faced, baserunners, hits, walks, strikeouts, and runs scored compared to another game, yet take more than a half-hour longer. This, plus the modest difference in commercial breaks, explains nearly everything. It took nine seconds longer for a pitcher to get rid of the ball in 2014.

In the 1984 game, there were 70 inaction pitches that were returned to the pitcher and thrown back to the plate within 15 seconds.

In the 2014 game, there were 10.

In the 1984 game, there were 32 balls, called strikes, or swinging strikes that took 20 seconds or more between pitches

In 2014, there were 87 balls, called strikes, or swinging strikes that took 20 seconds or more between pitches.

That’s it. That’s the secret. It isn’t just the commercials. It isn’t just the left-handed pitchers coming in to face one batter, even though that absolutely makes a huge difference in the games when that does happen.

It’s not like every at-bat in the 2014 game was rotten with hitters doing a Nomar Garciaparra impression between pitches, either. It was a marked difference in the modern players doing absolutely nothing of note. The batter taking an extra breath before he steps back in. The pitcher holding the ball for an extra beat.

There was a video review that took four minutes in the 2014 game, but that wasn’t the biggest problem. There were extra commercials, but that wasn’t the biggest problem. The difference between the two games, 30 years apart, was that baseball players are lollygagging more. Or, at least, taking their sweet time to collect their thoughts.

The good news? There’s an easy fix. Baseball is already experimenting with pitch clocks in the minors, and I haven’t heard or read a complaint about them from anyone who regularly attends minor league games. They’re in the background. You get used to them. That’s it.

Baseball will keep trying different ideas, from limiting pickoff throws to limiting mound visits. They’ve already messed with intentional walks, and umpire reviews are going to be less accurate but shorter. The 2014 game didn’t feature the new rules preventing hitters from stepping entirely out of the batter’s box on inaction pitches, which has already helped a bit.

Based on one unscientific deep dive into a pair of similar games, though, the biggest problem with the pace of play is, well, the pace of play. Pitchers don’t get rid of the ball like they used to. Hitters aren’t expecting them to get rid of the ball like they used to. It adds a couple minutes to every half-inning, which adds close to a half-hour.

Fix that, and you have a head start on what Major League Baseball believes is its biggest problem.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.