Decade Of Change: The 10 Step Program To Improving Baseball

I really like the article and the ideas but the PED discussion in comparison to Lasik eye surgery doesn’t really match up. Getting your eyes corrected allows one to catch back up to the standard and in theory back to the set of eyes that you were born with – 20/20 vision. PED allow one to artificially build muscle and hence engineer one’s body into something that isn’t natural in the first place. In this comparison PED use as compared to Lasik surgery would only make sense if a player had some sort of condition that led to the destruction of muscle and he needed to steroids to build it back up to where one would normally be without the condition.

I also fail to see the analogy between Lasik surgery and PEDs. As far as I know, Lasik surgery does not have any life threatening side effects. It’s not the same with many PEDs. Also, I’ve always thought home plate collisions should have been outlawed years ago.

Why does noone ever talk about establishing a floor for payroll? It would create more parity by forcing teams to spend revenue (maybe an exemption could be built in if a team can prove it had an exceptionally bad year financially), while maintaing the spirit of free agency that fosters competition and raises player salaries.

You’d think a salary cap would be good for all, but it suppresses salaries without bringing down the price of anything else. Even with a cap, beers are going to be $7 and lower level tickets are going to be at least $40.

Nice article, and some innovative ideas. However, I can’t resist putting in my two cents’ worth on a few six or seven of your points….

Limit pickoffs? So you’re proposing that once a pitcher has thrown to first in an at-bat, from that point on the runner can take as big a lead as he wants, with no fear of being picked off? That’s crazy talk.

Penalize mid-inning pitching changes? You’re really tinkering with the “thinking man’s” aspect of the game here. Strategic pitching changes and the countering changes in the batting lineup are part of the fascination of the game. If you take that away, you’re transforming the game into something else.

Penalize intentional walks? They already do. They put the guy on base. Sorry, but the intentional pass is a time-honored tradition and an established part of baseball strategy. If you don’t want your guy getting a free pass, put a good hitter behind him.

Parity problem? What parity problem? As a Yankees fan, I don’t see a parity problem. ;-)

Condensing the playoff schedule would do more harm than good. For one thing, it’s ineffective. If you sweep, you get extra days off before the next round, and you get to rest your ace. There’s no way to avoid that. And although the one reason the schedule is stretched out is to generate more TV revenue, the benefit to baseball fans is that we get to see more games. I’m not sure I’d be in favor of hastening the onset of the winter break. Heck, I can barely stand to wait out the All-Star break!

Take-out slides and home plate collisions should be penalized when seen as deliberate and excessive, but I don’t like the proposed home-plate rule. Let’s not ignore the fact that a lot of home plate collisions are occasioned by the catcher setting up camp in the base path before he gets the ball. Penalize unnecessary roughness, yes; but don’t stack the deck in favor of the catcher.

Finally, ditto to what Alex said about PEDs. A player should not be forced to choose between his body and his career – most PEDs carry serious medical risks with them, and if you allow their use, there will always be guys who will abuse them in order to bulk up. That puts “clean” players at a huge disadvantage.

This is one that I think should be done, but I know why they don’t. If there are 15 teams in each league, then you’ll have seven matchups in each league at most on any given day. It would leave one AL team and one NL team not playing every day.

I would be in favor of just allowing the AL and NL to play each other any time during the year—much like AFC and NFC teams play each other during the regular season in the NFL—but without being ok with that, 15 teams in each league won’t work. The other thing is, some teams may spend more games playing with or without the DH than other teams, another unfair disparity. Of course, just adding the DH to the NL would eliminate that problem…

1) You can’t even out the NL and AL right now. If you had 15 teams each, there would always have to be an interleague series going on, or one team per league would always be sitting out for 3-4 day stretches.

The only way to even them out would be to add 2 expansion teams to the AL or contract the NL by 2 teams. The former I wouldn’t mind. You could move the Rangers to the Central (where they belong) and add two teams to the AL West. Or you could put one in the AL West (say Portland) and one in Montreal or something. I think they’d like to have baseball back.

2) Nothing should be done about IBBs, homeplate collisions, etc. These things are part of the game and serve a purpose. If a guy gets walked, it’s his team’s fault for not getting another hitter to protect them. You can’t punish teams for exploiting their opponents’ weaknesses.

Home plate collisions and sliding collisions happen because players are trying to score/defend their base. This is simply part of the sport and sports sometimes get physical. Their grown men, they can handle it.

I agree with you on salary reform (a cap AND a floor) and PED’s as well as replay to an extent.

Lasix != PED. Lasix just restores your vision as does contact lenses and glasses. Should we ban them too? You’d knock out around 30% of MLB players. If lasix allowed you to build muscle mass at an astonishing rate, then I’d agree.

All plays at home are force outs? or slide? This sounds like coed softball. Or worse! Here’s the problem, the catcher is blocking the plate, often without the ball or as the ball has just arrived. The catcher should not have any more right to the plate than the runner. More players are injured crashing into walls than into catchers. Next thing you will want the players to all wear dresses.

I agree with the payroll cap and floor. Must go both ways, max cap and floor cap, similar to what the NBA has in a sense.

vr, Xei

The hubub over PEDs is somewhat arbitrary. I don’t much like your lasik analogy, but others can be made. Someone mentioned cortisone shots above, and I think that’s more on the mark. Hell, Gatorade is a performance enhancer.

Steroids, if used responsibly, are not necessarily harmful for adults. They are for kids though. I think they should be banned for that reason alone, since young kids will abuse them if pro athletes use them.

Let’s just ban steroids and set up a strong testing program. I don’t want to see a bunch of Hulk Hogans playing baseball. Draw a line limiting the chemicals you can take that build muscle and leave it at that.

You have two guys. Player A is born with 20/40 vision. Player B is born with 20/60 vision.

Player A gets Lasik or contacts or whatever and sees 20/20. Player B gets Lasik or contacts or whatever and sees 20/10.

Why is this allowed?

I think a two-base penalty is two extreme. What if runners are in scoring position with one out in a close game? It is in the pitchers best interest to walk the batter to set up the double play. Yes, it can ruin the games excitement, but it is a part of a defensive strategy to better your chances for a double play. To some, that can be exciting.

As for mid-inning relief changes, mound visits, etc, I could not agree more. Being from Chicago, I’ve had to deal with the long, slow walk to the mound from Lou Piniella. The only thing I wonder is what happens during the time when the pitcher is warming up. Could this be a time for announcers to do in-game interviews with players and coaches?

A very good read.

It’s like you don’t even watch baseball. Penalize intentional walks? Hit by pitches? Why do you think the hitter is going to first for? Timing pitchers? The home plate umpire can (and they have) issue balks for pitchers who take too long.

Baseball has a lot of problems off the field, but on the field, the game is nearly perfect.

And the Lasik analogy makes a ton of sense. Last year I suggested to a group of friends that glasses be banned from baseball. I nearly got crucified. Using anything to enhance performance seems like it should be disallowed equally. Baseball’s a game few are gifted enough to play, yet players are allowed to bring their sight up to par? Seems a little inconsistent.

I find the comparison poor on a few levels:

1. You’re comparing a one-time (or handful-of-times) event to continual use. Lasik happens in the care of licensed physicians who have been properly trained. As stated previously, there are risks, but all surgery carries risks just as all medicine carries risks.

2. Frankly, the situations under which a player could legally have Lasik done and illegally acquire steroids are not comparable. Even though steroids can be acquired through prescription, I think we can all admit that there’s a great deal of gray area when it comes to the medical need here. We can’t infer anything about the quality of care athletes receive in these situations.

My point here is that the doctors work to make Lasik procedures safer, reducing medical risk, while the current state of drug law in the US makes anabolic steroids far less safe.

Do I think we should review the drug law and truly determine the long-term risks and benefits of anabolic steroid use? Sure. Do I think it’s possible for an adult athlete under a doctor’s care to use them safely throughout their career? Probably. Do I think athletes currently use them in the safest possible way? Hell no. And that’s where the comparison between the two breaks down for me.

I’ll add that I spent a good many years of my childhood on corticosteroids for a chronic illness, and I really want to reinforce just how much they screwed me up as a kid, and that’s my biggest concern with anabolic steroid discussions.

I respect your opinion, but some of these ideas are complete sacrilege. Your suggestion that there should be a limit on throws to 1st, and there should be a time limit for pitchers between pitches and such are a disgrace to the game. There should never be any penalties or time limits in baseball. Football is the game with the timer and penalties. Baseball is a beautiful game, with no time constraints or flags.

I’d also have to disagree with the idea of a majority of calls being made via computer/replay. I think that would slow the game down significantly. Baseball isn’t as easy to judge as you think. Sometimes I have to watch a replay 7 or 8 times to see that the ball was in the glove or that the ball just barely skimmed the ground. Also, balls and strikes should not be debatable. Maybe managers could get one challenge a game or something like that.

Also, the intentional walk needs to stay. Pitchers would just do one of those unintentional intentional walks, and you shouldn’t be able to penalize a pitcher for that. I’ve seen pitchers that have AB’s where they literally don’t have control and can’t get even one strike, and they shouldn’t be penalized for that. Plus, the intentional walk puts the bat in someone’s hands that may not be great, but it certainly does put the spotlight on him and give him a chance to become a hero.

I agree with the mid-inning pitching changes. It’s annoying when a manager brings in the lefty to face the lefty, then the righty to face the righty, and then back to the lefty to face the lefty. I think the way to fix that is to let the manager make the change, except the pitcher doesn’t get any warm up pitches. He just gets right on the mound and starts pitching immediately.

I completely agree with everything you said about parity. The divisions and leagues need to be even, the payrolls need to have a cap or something, and so on and so forth.

I also completely agree with the take out slides and especially home plate collisions. I’ve seen it where the catcher doesn’t even have the ball yet and the guy just takes him out unsuspectingly. Take out slides should be allowed, but of course, with boundaries.

I disagree with the HBP rule, except I do agree that pitchers that hit a guy in the head or above should be thrown out. It’s too risky for the next batter.

I have to say that I completely disagree with this entire article, save the part about moving a team from the NL to the AL. I’m a traditionalist, so many of these issues are things I see no problem with.

I love bringing in a pitcher to face one batter. It tests depth in the pen.

I hate PED’s. Hammerin Hank didn’t use them. The Babe didn’t use them. Barry, Mark and Roger shouldn’t use them.

Yeah, speeding up the pitcher would be nice, but I think the pickoff is a great tool that keeps the mental aspect of the game more present.

Umpires are as old as the game itself. I love to hate them. They get the call wrong often. Remember Twins/Braves in the 91 Series? We get pulled off the bag and get screwed. If the computer called it an out, who do I get to scream at? You’re still going to have some calls that no one can get right. I love having an ump to yell at.

IBB – Chipper Jones got walked sooo many times the last two years. It got old, but I wish we’d walk Ryan Howard every time he comes up. If the batter is so superior, then walk him. Or, get Tommy Hanson and Jair Jurrjens to pitch.

The Yankees outspend everyone. Its the Golden Rule of baseball. I guess I’ve just come to accept it. The Sox have sellouts. The Cardinals have the best fans. My Braves can’t get people into the seats because Atlanta is a crappy sports town and its a 2.5 hour drive for me. The Yanks have the $ and they spend it. I wish my team wasn’t owned by Liberty, but Ted Turner again. Then maybe we’d have better attendance and a higher payroll.

HBP and the take out slide are just part of the game. What stops people from doing those? When risk/reward goes too far to risk. Ryan Church hasn’t been the same since his head was introduced to Yunel Escobar’s shin. I don’t think he will be sliding into 2nd like that anymore. As for HBP, maybe if Nolan Ryan hadn’t taken Ventura out back in the day, maybe pitchers would fear the guys with the bat and anger issues. Let Prince Fielder go after a pitcher or two. That’ll solve the HBP issue.

Like most everyone else, I agree with some parts and disagree with some. Here’s some thoughts:

- I’m a fan of phasing in automated strike zones, and anyone worried about umpires losing their jobs need not do so, because the HP umpire still has to make other calls at the plate, the crew still needs a crew chief and of course if the system isn’t working for some reason, the umpire needs to be there to manually call balls and strikes in a pinch.

- You can address take-out slides and catchers blocking the plate with two simple rule changes that won’t fundamentally alter the game all that much. For example: 1) If a player slides spikes-high in a double play situation, both the sliding baserunner and the batter are automatically out, an auto double play. 2) If a catcher’s foot impedes an oncoming baserunner’s path to more than half of home plate, the umpire calls time, the runner is automatically safe and a run will score. Any baserunner in transit to another base before time was called will automatically be awarded that forthcoming base.

- Automatic ejection/suspensions (with lengthy suspensions, like at least 10 games) for HBPs deemed to be intentional would probably cut down on HBPs, headhunting and beanball wars quite a bit by themselves. No warnings if it’s deemed intentional… just an automatic dismissal and 10 games off, and the ump can just wave it off if it seems accidental. You can even double the suspension for throwing at a guy’s head. Giving extra bases for IBBs and HBPs at best turns the current game into something else and opens up a few cans of worms. In the case of beanball wars, most of them happen during the tail end of a rout so giving a runner an extra base likely won’t affect the outcome and won’t mean much.

As for IBB’s, I don’t think they’re that common, and most managers often hurt their chances of avoiding run damage anyway by putting an extra baserunner on. So if they feel they need to give a guy 1st base, let them do so at their own risk.

- Some like baseball’s pacing and some don’t, but I say there’s a lot of needless downtime with the justifiable downtime, and it’d do MLB good to slice a few minutes off the average game time.

How about a pitch clock? Akin to football’s play clock and basketball’s shot clock, just give a hurler something like 20 seconds to deliver the ball. Pickoff throws won’t reset the clock but will add 5 seconds back to the existing time. If you don’t get the pitch off in time, it’s an automatic ball regardless of the count.

Time mound meetings too: The catcher gets 30 seconds and dugout personnel get 60 unless there’s a pitching change. Better yet, do like other sports and give each team a finite number of time outs. If you run out of time outs in a game and you need to talk to the pitcher, the pitch clock’s running and every time it expires that’s another ball for the hitter so make it quick!

Lasik can be used to repair your eyesight, but as many people have already noted, often Lasik is used on athletes who never had good eyesight to begin with and therefore they are enhancing their natural abilities. If Lasik did not exist for these athletes they may never have been able to be competitive enought to play.
 
Similarly, PEDs enhance the natural abilities of athletes. In some cases this enhancement makes a good player great. But in other cases this allows players with natural abilities that wouldn’t be sufficient to be competitive to be competitive.

So, both Lasik and PEDs allow some athletes that wouldn’t have the natural ability to play, to be able to play. While in other cases it allows good players to be great players, such is the case when a player with 20/20 vision gets Lasik to have 20/10 vision.

They seem comparable to me, except of course when we are dealing with legality, but this seems like a seperate argument all together.

But the only change that really moves me at all is parity.

Without some legitimate form of revenue sharing, baseball will always be kind of a joke, and titles less meaningful.