Opinion: Speeding Up Baseball to Save It

Re:Opinion: Speeding Up Baseball to Save It by bostonpete on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @08:08PM (#20640569)

I agree, but he doesn't really propose a solution. I guess he kind of hints that batters shouldn't be able to step out... but that only really works when the pitcher has a time limit... and that only works with no runners on. Am I missing something?

A magic bullet to speed up games would be welcome by all, but if they start making drastic changes (like 2 strikes for a strikeout and 3 balls for a walk, which I've seen proposed), I suspect they'll lose fans even faster

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Re:Opinion: Speeding Up Baseball to Save It by ryanhuff on Wednesday August 07, 2019 @08:21PM (#20640644)

Drastic changes aren't needed. The rules just need to be tweaked to encourage efficient play.

Not allowing batters to step out is one good idea. Excessive pitcher changes is a huge problem. Each change adds 3-5 minutes to a game. One thing I haven't heard mentioned is providing a way for catchers (teams) to call pitches in a more secure manner. Catchers go through so many signs just to communicate a pitch type while a runner is behind the pitcher. Each pitch could add an 5-10 seconds to hide the sign from the runner, depending on the scenario.

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