I think they need to do a few things:

Try to get the average game to 3hrs or under consistently.

Get the younger fans engaged more. Not sure how that is going to look.

Open up batting practice to the public. I am pretty sure it is limited at the moment. Maybe allow the hitters to use aluminum bats during it?

I would install a ring of fire on the mound and in the batter's box that expands inward ever so slightly. The more time an at-bat takes the closer the fire gets to engulfing the pitcher and batter. Now they can stop wandering all over the mound or taking time outs to play with their bat and just get down to business. Or die.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

That's an intriguing idea, but it's probably not realistic, what with the price of gas and everything. Plus, unless you are in the Astrodome, all teams will in a drizzle.

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There was a time when I would have been more concerned about the "integrity" of the records, but with the steroid era, fucking around with the ball, etc., I don't think that should be a primary concern anymore.

Incidentally, I didn't see any discussion of the "pick your baseball" scam MLB ran last season wherein premier television games e.g. Yankees/Boston Sunday night, would often feature the more lively ball while "lesser" games e.g. Royals/White Sox Wednesday afternoon, used the new deader ball that they supposedly switch to. Talk about the integrity of the records! We can't even be sure who had the best actual power numbers within a season anymore.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

Right Burhrle was a guy who almost distained K's. If you want to guys to pitch more like Burhrle and less like Pete Fairbanks, you've got to incentivize that. Right now there is zero incentive to be anything other than a max effort guy who sells out for Ks. You can only use 4 pitchers in a game and you'll see a fuck ton of pitchers pitching into the 7th inning.

Not commenting specifically on anybody in this thread, but a lot of the solutions to what ails baseball seemed designed by people who don’t like/never will like baseball.

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Such as?

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I suggested a while back that a called strike should count as two strikes...that would really push batters to swing at strikes and not take so many borderline pitches. But I would also predicate that on having an automated strike zone.

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I'm not assuming your talking about me, but if you are, I'm certainly not clamoring for some of those changes for myself personally. The length of the games isn't really a problem for me. In fact, I can remember as a kid hoping games would get tied so they could go extra innings. But the game is losing entire generations. If we want it to survive as more than a niche sport, changes probably need to be made.

As far as the strikeout/walk/home run game that has been created due to the examination of statistics, that isn't really the baseball I grew up loving. We have a very unbalanced game right now and it isn't good.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

Freddie makes some good points here, as he always does, but every now and then with him, the mask slips and you remember that he always wanted to be accepted by the Gawker in-crowd but they didn't let him in. Hence, balancing off fair criticisms of baseball with honking off to the NBA as if they have no problems of their own.

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what in the world, that sounds like something Hawaii would suggest

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Well now I’m forced to comment on specifics, so I’ll modify the original to note the changes are designed to please people who don’t like the sport (rather than by those who don’t like it) such as:

- less baseball…fewer games, shorter games, etc.
- worse baseball…expand rosters (diluting talent), capping the number of people who can enter the game at certain positions, executing pitchers or batters mid-AB with fire irrespective of talent level
- longer baseball…scheduled double headers tend to have at least one game played by a bunch of minor leaguers and are a slog for the fans (unless you shorten them, which goes back to point 1)

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I know, it's radical. But it would speed things up and remove the biggest issue -- too many takes.

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That's a problem here, too.

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ok, I'll address since some of these I'm FOR.

Baseball is and always has been #1 for me....and I still watch a lot of baseball.
- Less games. April and October games suck. For most of the country, the weather is utter shit and the seats are empty in April.
- Worse baseball. I don't want expanding the playoffs or expansion teams. We will get exactly as you state....diluted product and worse baseball. I don't have a problem with expanded rosters to allow teams to rest players and work around schedules. If anything...that contributes to BETTER baseball.

Rule changes MLB has tried have been laughable (runner on 2nd in extra innings, replay, 7 innings on Double header. I don't like any of those.

I love baseball. My biggest gripe is the overuse of bullpen small strike zones, and the the time wasted on replay.

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I have no issue with 162 games. The issue isn't the length of season, it's the pace of play, and I don't know how we unring that bell. Enforce a pitch clock, don't grant time, that can help, but turning baseball into trying to get a 15-pitch walk or striking out, I don't know how we unteach that, and knocking 42 games off the year doesn't fix that.

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162 is fine. just make the games shorter. I liked the double header 7 innings and also the extra runner in extra innings. i thought id' hate both but they worked fine.

get these fucking games done in 3 hours at the most. not 3.5 or 4.

Right, because you're a dunce.

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Robot plate umps with consistent strike zones would help.

The grip rule from last year may help if enforced.

I’d get rid of the infield shift, which doesn’t do anything for Ks/BBs but is very annoying.

I’m ok with the 3 batter rule, provided there’s no other help to get teams through games if they decide to waste a full bullpen in one game (e.g., expanded rosters).

Stop fucking around with young guys’ service time. People will happily watch prospects suck rather than guys like Adam Eaton they know are hopeless.

Don’t promote nationally; put all your marketing dollars into supporting regional advertising for teams. Baseball fandom is more team driven than player driven (if that makes sense). I don’t care enough to watch Angels games when I can see Mike Trout’s full game in a 10 second highlight. I do care enough to watch the team I like, go to their games, buy their overpriced merch, etc.

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I know what you are saying in terms of viewership but I see more families plunking down way more money for kids to play baseball than in my youth. Warehouses are being converted to indoor facilities across the suburbs and its difficult to find an open field from May-July

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

15 years ago I noticed almost no one in junior high cared about baseball and that hasn't changed. Those kids from 15 years ago are now starting to have kids who will also not care about baseball. Gambling is what has saved the NFL and what MLB needs on a higher level for long term survival.

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I don't see how you can dictate where players set up defensively. Seems to me the answer is to teach hitters to take advantage of the situation. The fact that they rarely do has always baffled me.

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“How do you get to be president and you’re stupid?” Donald J Trump - 4/10/25
When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus. - Turkish Proverb

That is because parents have ruined everything. Instead of house leagues you have travel ball for 7 year olds. Which in turn burns most of these kids out on baseball by high school.

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I believe they are going to go that way. It's a simple rule. Two infielders on each side of second. I don't really agree with it. But the problem has become that instead of "hittin' 'em where they ain't" the answer to the overshifts has been to try to park it in the seats. And that's contributing to the boring game we're seeing.

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General Jim wears Fort Bragg down... to get it!

To me it would seem just like having illegal defense and defensive 3 seconds in basketball.

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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!

Yes. The NBA has it’s own Sabermetric problems. Chucking up threes is the NBA’s answer to swinging for the fences. And the regular season doesn’t matter. But there was a LeBron gif so it’s fine.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

My post wasn't clear, but I didn't mean there was literally no way to regulate that (such as JORR noted), rather that I don't feel like baseball benefits from those types of rules. Part of what makes baseball great is that it's not like the other sports in so many ways.

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“How do you get to be president and you’re stupid?” Donald J Trump - 4/10/25
When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus. - Turkish Proverb

So just because people think something can be improved they can't/don't like that thing? And/or because the changes they might want aren't they changes you might want these people can't/don't like that thing?

Are you this pretentious in real life or is this just a bit for the message board?

Id like to see no more mound visits from pitching coach or manager, the catcher can go out tgere 2x a game..if you wanna make a switch, do it from the dugout.. no warm up pitches, you get loose in the pen. Automatic k zone.. these umps suck anyway and they get hit by a ball once a fame and slow it down.

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148-154 games, real strike zones, pitching clocks and more daytime games wouldn't hurt as well.

Plus letting the kids play like they do in Latin America and Asia would attract the kids. I've said it before, but kids get amped with the music, noise and expressions of joy playing the game.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.