MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

He’s gonna get some licks from Don and O’Banion after the game.

 

Exactly. He was a great manager who won a ton and was ahead of his time.

 

Easiest first step: Mandated minimum field dimensions, moving many fences back.

 

I can’t describe how much I hate that idea.

 

Highly unlikely because that would require actual costly construction work and remove some relatively higher priced seats. Also, some of the most egregious examples, ie Fenway, would probably be grandfathered in on historical grounds, making the situation permanently unfair.

Much more likely I'd guess: lengthening the pitching distance a couple of feet, deadening the ball by some quantifiable degree.

The easiest first step, of course, would be strict enforcement of the pitch clock, already in progress in the minors. They could do that tomorrow if they wanted.

 

Those are worse options. They've been playing with the ball all the time without admitting it and look silly doing so. Lengthening the pitching distance is counterproductive in some ways (more walks & HRs) and screws up half the players in the league who trained forever at 60'6".
If you're willing to do something drastic like that, I'd love to see the NBA experiment with a higher basket.

 

The reason they've looked silly fiddling with the ball resilience is they've never publicly admitted doing it; whatever they did with the balls simply had to be guessed at. If they set specific standards for what they did, it would cut down all the vague speculation.

 

Raising the NBA basket would be a disaster. I think anyone who has ever played for more than five minutes can shoot and tell if the basket is an inch too high or low. The eye, the muscle reflexes, everything trains your brain how to shoot at a 10-foot goal. The number of missed shots the first season on an 11-foot goal would shatter records.
Similarly, I think moving the pitcher's mound would screw with both batters and hitters more than you think. For hitters, it'd probably throw off the timing a split second and change the outcomes of a lot of at-bats. Pitchers would have to figure out how to alter their breaking pitches to break a tick later so they don't bounce in front of the plate every time. Like the basketball players, I'm sure they'd adjust relatively quickly. But it'd be painful to watch for a while.

 

I don’t know. Leon and Duane Martin look like beasts on 9-foot rims.

 

Limit the roster to 10 pitchers. That'd make the current idea of "throw as hard as you can for an inning and two thirds" nonviable. Starters would HAVE to relearn how to pace themselves.

 

Someone check @ChrisLong blood pressure. Angels led the White Sox 6-0 entering the bottom of the ninth and barely held on 6-5 as the Pale Hoes had the bases loaded with two outs.

 

Ho Lee Fuk. We went to lunch, then drove to another part of the shopping center for our first visit to Amazon Fresh market. Got there just as the Angels finished batting in the ninth. We checked out the whole store, going through slowly since it was our first time there. Got back to the car and THE GAME IS STILL GOING. Last batter grounded out, ending the game. SHEESH. Using Iglesias in day games after night games is going to come back to bite Maddon in the ass.