MLB 2018-19 Offseason Thread

Serious question: A baseball diamond is pretty proportional, so if they were to move the pitcher's mound back wouldn't they have to move the bases back as well?
Maybe a couple of feet wouldn't make a big difference, but if they move it back say 10 feet it would almost feel like the pitcher is standing on second base. It's the baseball equivalent of raising the rim to 12 feet. Yes you get fewer dunks, but it also screws up everybody's jump shot after they've spent a lifetime learning to eyeball it a certain way.

 

The DH will. Eventually. But Manfred is going to come at it as something that benefits the players, so they'll have to give something to get it.

Doesn't matter. We might lose a whole season if the MLBPA has the sand. And I hope they do. Ownership has been fucking them up and down for a while now.

 

I'm a DH guy, which is probably the most radical sports opinion I have relative to the rest of the universe. The culture of the sport is such that pitchers don't merely suck at hitting; they try to suck at hitting. The last thing they want to do is get on base because that means they'll have to risk injury by running the bases.
While all hitters have become more prone to the strikeout and less prone to the hit in recent years, the decline among pitchers is especially precipitous.

 

They really haven't. Ownership just isn't getting its ass kicked as badly in the current CBA. When you compare it to other sports, baseball is still far more friendly to the players than the others.

I've heard and read comments from agents who are saying the current issue isn't any kind of collusion. The teams are simply playing things more intelligently by avoiding the massive, long-term contracts that pretty much always became albatrosses.

 

Those massive, long-term contracts should be coming much sooner in a career, which would be possible if ownership didn't have a stranglehold over players until they're in their late-20s/early-30s.

No one is saying (anymore) that guys like Albert Pujols or Miguel Cabrera should get a megadeal when they're 32 (or thereabouts). The problem is, they're not getting megadeals at younger ages either. So when are they supposed to get paid?

 

They are getting paid. They just aren't getting guarantees for eight or 10 years anymore when everybody knows they won't be worth anything close to that level of money by the end of the deal.

 

They would be worth that if they were able to sign a 10-year deal at 24 or 25 (probably not pitchers).

 

Ownership bore the risks of long term contracts for far too long. There was no downside for the players.

 

Which is why Harper and Machado are still unsigned with a week to go until pitchers and catchers.

 

MLB Network reported that the considered change is three inches, to 60'-9". Not so drastic, but the hitters on the panel all agreed the split second difference would help them recognize pitches better. Michael Lorenzen said pitchers would probably end up relying on breaking balls more, as the action would be more pronounced on them with the extra distance.

 

The mid-inning pitching changes are the biggest time inflator causing game times to balloon.

 

Even worse - the trips to the mound that don't result in pitching changes.