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This is complete horse shit! I really hope this doesn't come to fruition. The baseball season is just way too long as it is. Just having the wild card is bad enough let alone this crap. Near the end of the season my attention wains. Then you have other sports starting up so it's then like who or what do you watch? Oh and the DH sucks! Sadly at the end of the day is all about money.

https://www.mlb.com/video/it-guys-talk- ... son-format

No. No. No.

I feel having all these extra wild cards (seeds) kinda cheapens the playoffs for the divisional winners. Why should a lesser team than the divisional winner get a shot at the prize? It's just mind boggling to me.

Manfred is destroying the game more than Selig. Pitch clocks that are just for show, three batter minimum for pitchers (unless coming in with one or two outs), forcing more netting to ruin views and foul ball souvenirs (this will be at every park in a few years- mark my words), and now this. Next thing he will push for the DH in both leagues, when it shouldn’t exist at all.

fuzzpower wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 11, 2020 9:10 pm

Manfred is destroying the game more than Selig. Pitch clocks that are just for show, three batter minimum for pitchers (unless coming in with one or two outs), forcing more netting to ruin views and foul ball souvenirs (this will be at every park in a few years- mark my words), and now this. Next thing he will push for the DH in both leagues, when it shouldn’t exist at all.

The netting is because too many people got hit in the face with souvenirs...

I can't stand the DH. The American League needs to follow suit with the National League and have pitchers bat. Some are quite good actually. Plus with interleague play you might as well do it all the time! I think the saturation of teams proposed to be in the postseason is bad for the game for the reasons I aforementioned above. By the end of the regular season people are ready to move on, perhaps to football and hockey. No need to drag out the season like that.

Pay attention to the field instead of your phone, and you won’t get hit. Simple as that.

fuzzpower wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 11, 2020 11:38 pm

Pay attention to the field instead of your phone, and you won’t get hit. Simple as that.

I don’t think that’s really the issue... that ball is THERE before you can think to look in the area they are newly protecting. They have consistently been line drive foul balls... short of holding a glove in front of your face...

Rate This wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 11, 2020 11:51 pm

fuzzpower wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 11, 2020 11:38 pm

Pay attention to the field instead of your phone, and you won’t get hit. Simple as that.

I don’t think that’s really the issue... that ball is THERE before you can think to look in the area they are newly protecting. They have consistently been line drive foul balls... short of holding a glove in front of your face...

I think you're both right. Those things come in fast, but attention spans have diminished so much in general. If you remove phones, there's STILL a hundred other distractions at the ballpark that didn't exist 25 years ago. Watching the game used to be the ONLY thing to do at the ball park.

Additionally, they should keep the playoffs the way they are now, and cut the season down to 150 games, which is still too many in my opinion.

It's a terrible idea. Manfred is an idiot. And the timing of this seems like it is meant to deflect from the Astros scandal.

fuzzpower wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 11, 2020 9:10 pm

Manfred is destroying the game more than Selig. Pitch clocks that are just for show, three batter minimum for pitchers (unless coming in with one or two outs), forcing more netting to ruin views and foul ball souvenirs (this will be at every park in a few years- mark my words), and now this. Next thing he will push for the DH in both leagues, when it shouldn’t exist at all.

I wonder what your take is on "Robot Umpires" (the ball/strike assist technology)?
Personally I think it might be one of the few things Manfred hasn't screwed up on. I saw a number of games using the system last fall in the Arizona Fall League and it will be used in Spring Training just a few weeks away.

Truth be told it just wasn't that noticeable. There were a few times the ump appeared hesitant in making the ball/strike call, kind of a pregnant pause, but that sometimes happens anyway without the TrackMan system used. In some sense it's a shame it came down to this but there are enough really horrible plate ump's making equally horrible calls without repercussions that something needed to be done. At least, from my observation, isn't very disruptive.

I think 150 regular season games is fair. The wild card should be scrapped. Why should a lesser team in a division have a shot? It kinda cheapens being a divisional winner.

TheForce wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 12, 2020 1:56 pm

I think 150 regular season games is fair. The wild card should be scrapped. Why should a lesser team in a division have a shot? It kinda cheapens being a divisional winner.

I have no problem with the one WC. I think it's one of the few things Selig got right. It keeps more teams in play thru September and accounts for the injustice if a good team happens to be in a stacked division. Also, the WC is still given the disadvantage of having to win the one game playoff, and then play a series with the other team having home field advantage.

How to not worry about the Wild Card: play better. Too many teams cheapen the playoffs. Look at the NBA and NHL where losing records can still make the playoffs. The CFL is even worse.

I think there should be better evaluation of umpires, but the fact they have a union means they can only do so much. The Angel Hernandezs of the world should have been fired years ago. I have always preferred humans to robots.

Netting ruins the view. I have sat behind netting, and it is distracting. I’ve never understood why people go to these events just to be seen or just to say they went. When I go to a game, I am there to see the action on the field/court/ice. I am not a basketball fan, but when my friend invited me a few years ago, I still watched the action on the court.

Goodness gracious! Why even play a regular season? This harebrained idea would ruin America's National Pastime by cheapening the value of regular season games, just like hockey. Besides, I absolutely HATE watching baseball played in a snow squall with the players wearing ski masks and the crowd dressed in multiple goosedown layers! Also, a first-round bye is NOT necessarily a good thing; just ask the 2012 Tigers.