04-30-2019, 04:53 PM
1. I would institute DH in NL tomorrow.
Watching the pitcher bat is dumb and artificially inflates the already rampantly growing Strikeout numbers in the game right now. It creates the occasional interesting scenario where the pitcher's slot is coming up in the next inning and you have to decide if you want to use him for one more inning or if you want to pinch hit him and then have to change pitchers the following inning, but the negative consequences aren't insignificant. I remember a game several years ago where Aaron Harang actually got a hit and had to run the bases. He didn't even know what to do out there and you could tell he was winded from it all (he was a big dude) and it affected his ability to pitch the remainder of the game. And that's not even getting into the danger of your pitcher getting injured doing stuff that they aren't really good at (As their practice time is much better invested in their pitching than their hitting and base running), especially if they signed from an AL team to an NL team.
It also adds value to aging players who you don't want fielding every day. Or players like Jesse Winker who is very gifted at the plate but just can't seem to get this whole defense thing under control.
2. I'd also get rid of these damn juiced balls. Home runs are supposed to be an accomplishment. There shouldn't be 1.31 HR per game. It's just incentivizing guys to press, like you can see all of our players are doing right now. Baseball is about pitch counts and the mental battle between pitchers and hitters. Launch Angle is a dumb thing to focus your hitting coaching on.
3. Re-work service time to eliminate this whole 14 day nonsense. It's not a perfect solution, but I think every year should be rounded to the nearest year. That way a team would have to hold a player down for 83 games in order to steal a year of service time from them. Teams will still do it, but it'll actually come at a cost.
4. Establish a lottery system for the draft. Tanking is, quite frankly, out of control in MLB.
Watching the pitcher bat is dumb and artificially inflates the already rampantly growing Strikeout numbers in the game right now. It creates the occasional interesting scenario where the pitcher's slot is coming up in the next inning and you have to decide if you want to use him for one more inning or if you want to pinch hit him and then have to change pitchers the following inning, but the negative consequences aren't insignificant. I remember a game several years ago where Aaron Harang actually got a hit and had to run the bases. He didn't even know what to do out there and you could tell he was winded from it all (he was a big dude) and it affected his ability to pitch the remainder of the game. And that's not even getting into the danger of your pitcher getting injured doing stuff that they aren't really good at (As their practice time is much better invested in their pitching than their hitting and base running), especially if they signed from an AL team to an NL team.
It also adds value to aging players who you don't want fielding every day. Or players like Jesse Winker who is very gifted at the plate but just can't seem to get this whole defense thing under control.
2. I'd also get rid of these damn juiced balls. Home runs are supposed to be an accomplishment. There shouldn't be 1.31 HR per game. It's just incentivizing guys to press, like you can see all of our players are doing right now. Baseball is about pitch counts and the mental battle between pitchers and hitters. Launch Angle is a dumb thing to focus your hitting coaching on.
3. Re-work service time to eliminate this whole 14 day nonsense. It's not a perfect solution, but I think every year should be rounded to the nearest year. That way a team would have to hold a player down for 83 games in order to steal a year of service time from them. Teams will still do it, but it'll actually come at a cost.
4. Establish a lottery system for the draft. Tanking is, quite frankly, out of control in MLB.