2021 MLB Season Thread

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It's literally impossible for me, as one who lives in Pittsburgh, to care about baseball.  We have nothing to hope for here.

At least you have the Steel--oh. Wait.

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https://twitter.com/TalkinBaseball_/status/1376624451148775430

I refuse to believe that there are Rays fans in SE Georgia. There are barely Rays fans in the Tampa area.

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https://twitter.com/TalkinBaseball_/status/1376624451148775430

I refuse to believe that there are Rays fans in SE Georgia. There are barely Rays fans in the Tampa area.

There are also apparently no White Sox or Angels fans.

To be fair, this is a "most popular team" map. I believe that the Dodgers and Cubs are the most popular teams in their respective areas, moreso than the Angels or White Sox. I believe SeatGeek uses market data and ticket purchases to get this information anyway, which is a flawed way of measuring how many fans are in one area. For instance, I'm a Red Sox fan in Lancaster County, PA, but I will only buy tickets to Phillies and Orioles games. Does that mean I measure as a Phillies or Orioles fan? I only buy those tickets because they are the most convenient for me to drive to.

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Three cheers for being a Red Sox fan living in the Orioles market so I'm blacked out from Opening Weekend! And I can't even watch Phillies, Nationals, or Pirates games because I'm in their markets as well!

Reds-Cardinals might be a good one though.

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Three cheers for being a Red Sox fan living in the Orioles market so I'm blacked out from Opening Weekend! And I can't even watch Phillies, Nationals, or Pirates games because I'm in their markets as well!

Reds-Cardinals might be a good one though.

PAIN.

https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1377608716292341765?s=20

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It's clear that the balls have been deadened, but I think this is indicative of a wider issue with baseball as a whole. The game is no longer fun and the extraordinary has become ordinary. Between the La Russa/Mercedes blowup, the constant no-hitters, and the umpires becoming a hindrance on the game, we're about to see a reckoning in major league baseball. If I was Rob Manfred, I would begin to put forth ideas to radically change the game. Just a few ideas I have that are both never going to happen but also would probably make baseball more fun and more accessible to wider audiences:

-Shorten the game to 7 innings or shorten the season to ~100 games
-Robot umps NOW.
-Fix the damn baseballs
-Ban the shift
-Harsh penalties for retaliatory throws/encourage players to have fun/let dudes batflip when they hit monster tanks whether it's off a position player in a blowout or a walkoff to win the World Series
-MARKET YOUR STARS. Seriously. Baseball has the most marketable class of young talent it has ever had (Trout, Tatis, Betts, Degrom, Bellinger, Robert/Jimenez, Flaherty, Devers/Bogaerts, etc) and no one knows who they are outside of the core fans. Mike Trout should be on every billboard in every corner of the country. He is arguably the most talented player in baseball history.
-Players Weekend more than once a year, but improve the jersey concepts because the past two years have looked like they were designed by children. The nicknames on the jerseys is cool though.
-I would like to see the league sponsor more initiatives in inner cities and minority-heavy areas so we can engage children of color in the game. Baseball is the 2nd whitest pro sport behind hockey and there's no reason for that because baseball has always had black superstars. More of that would be great.

Just spitballing and this is not a fully comprehensive list, but even doing a handful of these would markedly improve the game. This has been a very weird baseball season and it's been making me think excessively.

[Lambsbread]

It's clear that the balls have been deadened, but I think this is indicative of a wider issue with baseball as a whole. The game is no longer fun and the extraordinary has become ordinary. Between the La Russa/Mercedes blowup, the constant no-hitters, and the umpires becoming a hindrance on the game, we're about to see a reckoning in major league baseball. If I was Rob Manfred, I would begin to put forth ideas to radically change the game. Just a few ideas I have that are both never going to happen but also would probably make baseball more fun and more accessible to wider audiences:

-Shorten the game to 7 innings or shorten the season to ~100 games
-Robot umps NOW.
-Fix the damn baseballs
-Ban the shift
-Harsh penalties for retaliatory throws/encourage players to have fun/let dudes batflip when they hit monster tanks whether it's off a position player in a blowout or a walkoff to win the World Series
-MARKET YOUR STARS. Seriously. Baseball has the most marketable class of young talent it has ever had (Trout, Tatis, Betts, Degrom, Bellinger, Robert/Jimenez, Flaherty, Devers/Bogaerts, etc) and no one knows who they are outside of the core fans. Mike Trout should be on every billboard in every corner of the country. He is arguably the most talented player in baseball history.
-Players Weekend more than once a year, but improve the jersey concepts because the past two years have looked like they were designed by children. The nicknames on the jerseys is cool though.
-I would like to see the league sponsor more initiatives in inner cities and minority-heavy areas so we can engage children of color in the game. Baseball is the 2nd whitest pro sport behind hockey and there's no reason for that because baseball has always had black superstars. More of that would be great.

Just spitballing and this is not a fully comprehensive list, but even doing a handful of these would markedly improve the game. This has been a very weird baseball season and it's been making me think excessively.

Don’t kill baseball, thanks

Killing baseball more than having star pitchers constantly need TJ? Killing baseball more than having 3 hour games because the pitch clock and mound visit counters do nothing? Killing baseball more than umpires regularly missing blatantly obvious calls and replays failing to correct those calls? I understand all of that is supposed to be part of the game, but baseball is inherently a slower sport than basketball and football and if it wants to compete with those sports, you're gonna need to give people with short attention spans more incentive to watch. You and I might be cool with watching a 3 hour pitching duel where the score ends up being 1-0, but not a lot of people are going to want that. Hell, soccer is on pace to overtake baseball in popularity in the states and if that happens, pack it in. MLB won't be able to turn a profit once that happens.

I'm willing to try whatever it takes to make the game more fun and more appealing. I like the tradition and the purity, but you can only have a tradition for so long before it becomes a fossil.

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Here's a really radical idea that would undoubtedly juice up offense in baseball: eliminate the force out, i.e. require runners to be tagged out before reaching base.

Yeah, nothing will make baseball more fun like watching dudes get spiked on routine ground balls.

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My proposals to fix baseball (and keep some balance between the pitcher and hitter)

-Eliminate Extra innings, and reinstate tie games.
-Make any play that results in a hit, baserunner or out reviewable by video
-Ban the shift
-Increase the number of strikes required for a strikeout from three to five.
- Slightly juice the ball consistently
-Hold the World Series in a neutral venue every year.
- Foul Balls would no longer be counted as strikes
- Limit Home Runs to inside the park Home Runs only. All other balls hit out of play are treated as Foul Balls.
- Market stars better
- Market the game better in inner cities. Apply a similar rule to the NFL's Rooney Rule at all levels of professional baseball, including players.
-Eliminate the Wild Card Round, reduce the playoffs to eight teams.
-Expand Inter-league Play. Every team should have at least one series with every other team every season (with two for traditional rivals, such as Red Sox/Yankees, Dodgers/Giants and Cubs/Cardinals)
-Expand overseas play. There's no reason there shouldn't be multiple series every season in Japan, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba (when relations with the United States improve) and South Korea.

[Lambsbread]

My proposals to fix baseball (and keep some balance between the pitcher and hitter)

-Eliminate Extra innings, and reinstate tie games.
-Make any play that results in a hit, baserunner or out reviewable by video
-Ban the shift
-Increase the number of strikes required for a strikeout from three to five.
- Slightly juice the ball consistently
-Hold the World Series in a neutral venue every year.
- Foul Balls would no longer be counted as strikes
- Limit Home Runs to inside the park Home Runs only. All other balls hit out of play are treated as Foul Balls.
- Market stars better
- Market the game better in inner cities. Apply a similar rule to the NFL's Rooney Rule at all levels of professional baseball, including players.
-Eliminate the Wild Card Round, reduce the playoffs to eight teams.
-Expand Inter-league Play. Every team should have at least one series with every other team every season (with two for traditional rivals, such as Red Sox/Yankees, Dodgers/Giants and Cubs/Cardinals)
-Expand overseas play. There's no reason there shouldn't be multiple series every season in Japan, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba (when relations with the United States improve) and South Korea.

You can't swing the balance too far towards the hitters, otherwise the game will remain broken. More or less taking away the Home Run makes the game more balanced.

As for the foul balls, they'd simply balls hit out of play, neither balls nor strikes.

Banning the shift inhibits the necessity for hitting home runs, though. It will encourage guys to be natural hitters instead of specialized power hitters. Also, absolutely no one will watch baseball ever again if moonshots don't count anymore.

The foul balls thing will destroy pace of play as well.

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The problem with increasing the number of strikes needed for a strikeout is that it would make the game, which is often too long, even longer.  As an alternative, how about reducing the number of balls needed for a walk to 3?

That seems reasonable too.

My proposals to fix baseball (and keep some balance between the pitcher and hitter)

-Eliminate Extra innings, and reinstate tie games.
-Make any play that results in a hit, baserunner or out reviewable by video
-Ban the shift
-Increase the number of strikes required for a strikeout from three to five.
- Slightly juice the ball consistently
-Hold the World Series in a neutral venue every year.
- Foul Balls would no longer be counted as strikes
- Limit Home Runs to inside the park Home Runs only. All other balls hit out of play are treated as Foul Balls.
- Market stars better
- Market the game better in inner cities. Apply a similar rule to the NFL's Rooney Rule at all levels of professional baseball, including players.
-Eliminate the Wild Card Round, reduce the playoffs to eight teams.
-Expand Inter-league Play. Every team should have at least one series with every other team every season (with two for traditional rivals, such as Red Sox/Yankees, Dodgers/Giants and Cubs/Cardinals)
-Expand overseas play. There's no reason there shouldn't be multiple series every season in Japan, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba (when relations with the United States improve) and South Korea.

You can't swing the balance too far towards the hitters, otherwise the game will remain broken. More or less taking away the Home Run makes the game more balanced.

As for the foul balls, they'd simply balls hit out of play, neither balls nor strikes.

Banning the shift inhibits the necessity for hitting home runs, though. It will encourage guys to be natural hitters instead of specialized power hitters. Also, absolutely no one will watch baseball ever again if moonshots don't count anymore.

The foul balls thing will destroy pace of play as well.

There was this time called the Dead Ball Era, when no one hit home runs. You try to tell me the Polo Grounds wasn't packed for every Giants home game during the glory days of John McGraw's pennant winning teams. I dare you.

You must be trolling.

[Lambsbread]

It's clear that the balls have been deadened, but I think this is indicative of a wider issue with baseball as a whole. The game is no longer fun and the extraordinary has become ordinary. Between the La Russa/Mercedes blowup, the constant no-hitters, and the umpires becoming a hindrance on the game, we're about to see a reckoning in major league baseball. If I was Rob Manfred, I would begin to put forth ideas to radically change the game. Just a few ideas I have that are both never going to happen but also would probably make baseball more fun and more accessible to wider audiences:

-Shorten the game to 7 innings or shorten the season to ~100 games
-Robot umps NOW.
-Fix the damn baseballs
-Ban the shift
-Harsh penalties for retaliatory throws/encourage players to have fun/let dudes batflip when they hit monster tanks whether it's off a position player in a blowout or a walkoff to win the World Series
-MARKET YOUR STARS. Seriously. Baseball has the most marketable class of young talent it has ever had (Trout, Tatis, Betts, Degrom, Bellinger, Robert/Jimenez, Flaherty, Devers/Bogaerts, etc) and no one knows who they are outside of the core fans. Mike Trout should be on every billboard in every corner of the country. He is arguably the most talented player in baseball history.
-Players Weekend more than once a year, but improve the jersey concepts because the past two years have looked like they were designed by children. The nicknames on the jerseys is cool though.
-I would like to see the league sponsor more initiatives in inner cities and minority-heavy areas so we can engage children of color in the game. Baseball is the 2nd whitest pro sport behind hockey and there's no reason for that because baseball has always had black superstars. More of that would be great.

Just spitballing and this is not a fully comprehensive list, but even doing a handful of these would markedly improve the game. This has been a very weird baseball season and it's been making me think excessively.

Don’t kill baseball, thanks

Killing baseball more than having star pitchers constantly need TJ? Killing baseball more than having 3 hour games because the pitch clock and mound visit counters do nothing? Killing baseball more than umpires regularly missing blatantly obvious calls and replays failing to correct those calls? I understand all of that is supposed to be part of the game, but baseball is inherently a slower sport than basketball and football and if it wants to compete with those sports, you're gonna need to give people with short attention spans more incentive to watch. You and I might be cool with watching a 3 hour pitching duel where the score ends up being 1-0, but not a lot of people are going to want that. Hell, soccer is on pace to overtake baseball in popularity in the states and if that happens, pack it in. MLB won't be able to turn a profit once that happens.

I'm willing to try whatever it takes to make the game more fun and more appealing. I like the tradition and the purity, but you can only have a tradition for so long before it becomes a fossil.

Yes those two suggestions are far far far worse than bad calls and Tommy Jon. Fearmongering is all this is, and a laundry list of ideas to make baseball, well, not baseball.

Baseball won't be baseball pretty soon if we keep the status quo because it can't compete with other leagues in its current state. I'm sure we all agree that the forward pass in football and 3 pointers in basketball did not ruin their respective games. In fact, it made it a lot better and a lot more interesting. I think shortening games or seasons is slightly more radical than robot umps. There's no legitimate argument behind why someone like Angel Hernandez should have the authority to determine the outcome of a game from behind the plate. There are literally countless examples of umpires making game ruining calls in baseball. That shouldn't be viewed as a feature of the game.

[Lambsbread]

It's clear that the balls have been deadened, but I think this is indicative of a wider issue with baseball as a whole. The game is no longer fun and the extraordinary has become ordinary. Between the La Russa/Mercedes blowup, the constant no-hitters, and the umpires becoming a hindrance on the game, we're about to see a reckoning in major league baseball. If I was Rob Manfred, I would begin to put forth ideas to radically change the game. Just a few ideas I have that are both never going to happen but also would probably make baseball more fun and more accessible to wider audiences:

-Shorten the game to 7 innings or shorten the season to ~100 games
-Robot umps NOW.
-Fix the damn baseballs
-Ban the shift
-Harsh penalties for retaliatory throws/encourage players to have fun/let dudes batflip when they hit monster tanks whether it's off a position player in a blowout or a walkoff to win the World Series
-MARKET YOUR STARS. Seriously. Baseball has the most marketable class of young talent it has ever had (Trout, Tatis, Betts, Degrom, Bellinger, Robert/Jimenez, Flaherty, Devers/Bogaerts, etc) and no one knows who they are outside of the core fans. Mike Trout should be on every billboard in every corner of the country. He is arguably the most talented player in baseball history.
-Players Weekend more than once a year, but improve the jersey concepts because the past two years have looked like they were designed by children. The nicknames on the jerseys is cool though.
-I would like to see the league sponsor more initiatives in inner cities and minority-heavy areas so we can engage children of color in the game. Baseball is the 2nd whitest pro sport behind hockey and there's no reason for that because baseball has always had black superstars. More of that would be great.

Just spitballing and this is not a fully comprehensive list, but even doing a handful of these would markedly improve the game. This has been a very weird baseball season and it's been making me think excessively.

Don’t kill baseball, thanks

Killing baseball more than having star pitchers constantly need TJ? Killing baseball more than having 3 hour games because the pitch clock and mound visit counters do nothing? Killing baseball more than umpires regularly missing blatantly obvious calls and replays failing to correct those calls? I understand all of that is supposed to be part of the game, but baseball is inherently a slower sport than basketball and football and if it wants to compete with those sports, you're gonna need to give people with short attention spans more incentive to watch. You and I might be cool with watching a 3 hour pitching duel where the score ends up being 1-0, but not a lot of people are going to want that. Hell, soccer is on pace to overtake baseball in popularity in the states and if that happens, pack it in. MLB won't be able to turn a profit once that happens.

I'm willing to try whatever it takes to make the game more fun and more appealing. I like the tradition and the purity, but you can only have a tradition for so long before it becomes a fossil.

Yes those two suggestions are far far far worse than bad calls and Tommy Jon. Fearmongering is all this is, and a laundry list of ideas to make baseball, well, not baseball.

Baseball won't be baseball pretty soon if we keep the status quo because it can't compete with other leagues in its current state. I'm sure we all agree that the forward pass in football and 3 pointers in basketball did not ruin their respective games. In fact, it made it a lot better and a lot more interesting. I think shortening games or seasons is slightly more radical than robot umps. There's no legitimate argument behind why someone like Angel Hernandez should have the authority to determine the outcome of a game from behind the plate. There are literally countless examples of umpires making game ruining calls in baseball. That shouldn't be viewed as a feature of the game.

Why don't you make the entire season simulated on MLB the Show 21?

Human error is a part of the game, and manipulating an umpire's strike zone is key.

There is literally no other sport where you're supposed to expect blatantly wrong calls with no recourse throughout a game. At least in the NFL, the challenge system exists and actually overturns calls that matter from time to time.

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I LOVE UrinatingTree.

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the red sox are good

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THE RED SOX ARE GOOD

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THE RED SOX ARE GOOD

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Boston haven't been to Wrld Series since 2018 that's we the Dodgers have Price and Betts

It's going nna be between Dodgers, Padres, Astros and Giants at the end

No

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THE RED SOX ARE GOOD

.
Boston haven't been to Wrld Series since 2018 that's we the Dodgers have Price and Betts

It's going nna be between Dodgers, Padres, Astros and Giants at the end

No

What, DODGERS ARE THE WRLD CHAMPS YOU CANT BE SERIOUS, NO0 DODGERS HAVE WILL SMITH DOING THE CORY SEAGAR IMMITATION AND RED SOX FALTERED BADLY LAST YR

Tampa Bay have proven they can beat Astros or the Red Sox too

Red Sox will win due to MA supporting Biden on Super Tuesday over Warren, whom is from Oklahoma not MA and cannot relate to AA voters. Dodgers did not sign Manny Machado whom with Fernando Tatis JR will save Newsom in recall due to neutral environment.

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The Red Sox are good

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I hate the Yankees.

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That was the most fun trade deadline ever even though the Red Sox pretty much whiffed. Very excited for the playoff push.

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The Red Sox cause me great pain

I'm on the Reds bandwagon now

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The Red Sox cause me great pain

I'm on the Reds bandwagon now

Sounds like your ox was gored.

Excellent work.

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The Red Sox are going to win the World Series.

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Sox blew it