If you want to cut down on the K's, tell these guys quit swinging for the fences every pitch. When ya get 2 strikes, choke up and make contact. When they put a shift on, bunt.

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That's true, there are two players involved in every strike out.

Relievers need their own union. I'm not kidding. Someone needs to point out paying Hamels 20 million to go 5 innings every 5th day is STEALIN'! Meanwhile, Relievers are making 70-80 appearances.It really doesn't matter if it's 1 inning, they are up and throwing hard 4 days a week. 95% of them are washed up by age 30 if not younger.

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Wattabout Kodak Black?

World needs ditch diggers, too. If they don’t like it, be a starting pitcher. See how long their career is then.

I'd like to see a better way to get more out of them for a longer time. Johnny Blue Chip Starter needs to go 7 innings so Greg Counsell doesn't wreck every pitcher in the organization.

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Wattabout Kodak Black?

Craig Counsell pitching management is exactly what's going wrong with MLB right now.

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I said something similar to #1 a few pages ago:

1. Change the option system (to be known as the Iowa Shuttle rule)
a. If you get optioned before April 15, you can come back up after 5 days. Allows for screwed up situations with early season weather.
b. The first time you get optioned in a season after April 15, you can get called up after 10 days, or if there is a player that goes on the DL.
c. The next time you get optioned in a season, you can get called up after 14 days, or after 4 days if there is a player that goes on the DL.
d. The third and subsequent times you get optioned in a season, you can get called up after 30 days. If they want to call you up sooner, they have to expose you to waivers first.

2. Let the major league roster go to 27 players, but only 13 of them are allowed to have pitched more than 5 innings at either MLB or AAA in the previous 365 days.

3. Adopt the NHL rules about "burning a year towards free agency" - you get called up, you burn a year. None of this 7 is greater than 6, or Super Two bullshit.

4. Limited free agency choice for the player in the last arbitration year, but only a 2 year deal and team has right to match

5. Regardless of arbitration years, you get free agency in the offseason after you turn 31. If you were found to lie about your age, in either direction, you lose all free agency, permanent arbitration.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

2019: One trade deadline, All Star Election Day, and $1M HR derby winner
2020: 26 man roster, 3 batter minimum for pitchers

I wonder how the minimum works if there are less than 3 outs left in the game?

I believe it is 3 batter minimum or finish an inning. Whichever happens first.

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He has to start the next game, obviously.

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He's on the team for next year!

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I am dumbfounded that they are actually going with the 3-batter minimum.

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Me too. Seems a little ham handed in forcing the issue. On the other hand maybe there were others that were so inflexible trying to figure out what to do about shortening the games MLB said screw it. Basically, I can see managers not wanting to have hands tied in any way and this is a hammer on them. The right, left, right three pitchers in one inning sucks the life out of games at times.

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Elections have consequences.

Awful idea.


I wouldn't be surprised if they went back on that before next year.

If the goal is to shorten the game, making drastic changes to the rules is just stupid. There are ways to speed up pace of play without stupid changes like this.

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Well played.

3 batter minimum is dumber than RPB's idea to turn the NFL into the arena league

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

It's already the arena league. Did you watch Rams-Chiefs on MNF?

Dont fight it.


But yea, the 3 batter thing is terrible and it's taking away a job (loogy)

Did you see the Super Bowl?

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Have they said what the process would be for when a pitcher has only faced one or two batters and then says his arm hurts? I guess you'd have to either issue intentional walks to satisfy the minimum, or place the guy on the DL....otherwise you'd have rampant faking.

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I guess the pitcher would have to sit out a few games? See, this rule creates stupid sub-rules to support it.

Pitcher has to throw with his other arm for the remaining batters.

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The coach then comes out and pitches just like little league.

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See, I just don't think that's a tenable idea....I like how you focus on a diversity of arm-favoring, though. So politically, I agree with this post. Athletically, not so much.

This is going to be a disaster.

Who thinks that is a good idea?

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This 3 batter rule has me interested in baseball again.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The three batter rule is bush league little league baseball type shit. Takes strategy out of the game. Manfred is going to fucking ruing the game.

Its awful. I don't care if there are six pitchers used in an inning between both teams. The 3-4 minutes of downtime with every change is the problem. The reliever should jog in from the bullpen, get 10 seconds on the mound to speak with his manager or catcher, throw three warmup pitches, then the game resumes.

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The mentally challenged and people who wouldn't know a horsefly from an infield fly.

Never mind that stupidity in whatever minor-minor-minor league they're dicking around with mound distance during the backend of their season.

Selig looks better every day.

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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

It's very clear why the games are longer and it's not pitching changes.

Check this out: For SB Nation, Grant Brisbee watched a pair of extremely similar games from 1984 and 2014 to determine what accounted for the extra 35 minutes of game time. The post is hilarious, and the conclusion is definitive:

Time between pitches is the primary villain… 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.

As Brisbee notes, the overwhelming majority of people who have played in or watched minor-league games with pitch clocks in recent season report little difference in the baseball experience, beyond the initial adjustment for pitchers. If pace of play is really an issue for Major League Baseball, a pitch clock is the solution. A pitch clock has always been the solution. Not shortening games to seven innings, not outlawing mid-inning pitching changes, not eliminating home-run trots, not banning infield shifts in a misguided effort to bring back the seeing-eye single and entice hitters to put more balls in play. Just a clock to get everyone to move it along, and an understanding that hitters eager to operate on their own, slower schedules will be docked strikes.