Time for expansion?

[Villain]

Just add the DH to both leagues. Although I like the idea of players having to play both sides, it is a little stupid that one major sports organization has two different sets of rules.

:no:

 

[Youk]

Just add the DH to both leagues. Although I like the idea of players having to play both sides, it is a little stupid that one major sports organization has two different sets of rules.

One major sports organization that is really two different leagues. I enjoy having the pitcher bat in the National League. It adds an extra element of strategy that you just don't see with the DH.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Speaking of that. The Orioles and Nats on MASN extend all the way down into NC so it would not only affect The Barves but also the O's and :natsplayoffs:

On second thought, no team in Charlotte.

Well, there is precedence in the NFL for that at least. The Redskins territory used to extend down NC and plenty of folks would come up for games and were fans of them. Some still do. Given that Angelos already gave up DC/VA to the Nationals, I can't see MLB asking him to do this before asking someone else first.

So far as what was mentioned in the original tweet about diluting the pitching, there are other ways to combat that. Force teams to spend money, or give them different ways to retain their players. Some teams are already doing that with extensions to take out arbitration years, but there has to be other ways to do that.

 

[NAHSTE]

The idea behind this proposal, from Zimmerman's perspective I think, was to dilute the pitching a bit. Adding a DH to the NL isn't going to correct what has happened to the run environment. A surplus of power arms has sent the league wide K rate skyrocketing over the past few years, and 50% of post-7th inning plate apperances now result in a strike out.

That's way too predictable and makes for some anti-climactic :flaccid: games.

Everyone loves seeing strike outs and home runs, but when you go 4 innings without seeing a runner on base the game can feel a bit stale. Three true outcome baseball is less appealing than seeing baserunners in action, fielders making diving catches etc.

We need to strike more of a balance between the TTOs and actual baseball plays being made. If you spread the pitching talent that much thinner across the league, perhaps you get a few less starters and high leverage relievers on each team firing 95-99, and perhaps the run environment jumps up a quarter of a run per game.

 

[Woy]

One major sports organization that is really two different leagues. I enjoy having the pitcher bat in the National League. It adds an extra element of strategy that you just don't see with the DH.

And it can bring some humor to the game too.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

The idea behind this proposal, from Zimmerman's perspective I think, was to dilute the pitching a bit. Adding a DH to the NL isn't going to correct what has happened to the run environment. A surplus of power arms has sent the league wide K rate skyrocketing over the past few years, and 50% of post-7th inning plate apperances now result in a strike out.

That's way too predictable and makes for some anti-climactic :flaccid: games.

Everyone loves seeing strike outs and home runs, but when you go 4 innings without seeing a runner on base the game can feel a bit stale. Three true outcome baseball is less appealing than seeing baserunners in action, fielders making diving catches etc.

We need to strike more of a balance between the TTOs and actual baseball plays being made. If you spread the pitching talent that much thinner across the league, perhaps you get a few less starters and high leverage relievers on each team firing 95-99, and perhaps the run environment jumps up a quarter of a run per game.

I'd lower the mound to fix this before i'd expand, but with that said I don't have an issue with the current run scoring environment. The game constantly evolves, and for most of us this is the first evolution happening in front of our eyes because the majority of us knew nothing but post 1987 home run baseball which bled into the steroid era. I like the balance as it is currently. I will say I don't want to see runs go any lower.

Let baseball adjust on its own, which aside from lowering the mound in the 60's, is exactly how things have always evolved. Teams are already starting to exploit the stolen base again, as its value has increased as home runs have gone down. Teams will likely start to employ players with good bat control who make better contact over some one dimensional sluggers, in order to combat the K's. Pre Ruth every team had several players who were great at chopping the ball into the ground between the holes or slapping soft liners the opposite way. If they could do it then, they can do it now. It just wasn't efficient to employ too many David Eckstein's in the last 25 years.

Expansion seems like an overreaction to something that really isn't that much of a problem, and can probably be corrected on the field.

 

[MVPete]

I don't mind the two separate sets of rules, just make sure when you smug pricks are pulling your dicks out and discussing NL pitchers to tack on at least a half run to their ERA/Increase their H/9/lower K/9/ etc etc etc.

We all know what the dominant pitchers in the AL would do if they got to face the pitcher and all the only useful in double switch-empty bat shit bums that are on most NL teams 25 man.

The scary part is most pitcher's velocity will go up slightly over the next few months, and those that are having trouble locating will have corrected it to some degree(Unless you are Robin Ventura and let your young stud pitcher throw a career high in pitches in April). If you did what I've been wanting and opened up the scheduling a little more that also might lower scoring even more, because you wouldn't have pitchers facing the same lineups so many times throughout the year. I don't even like Interleague but at least it prevents more inter division games. How many times do people want to see Mariners-Astros, White Sox-Twins, Rockies-Dbacks, etc. Even the big matchups get old fucking quick, Yankees-Red Sox every week and guess what IT'S ON ESPN.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

A good example of my previous post re:evolution, is how 3B used to be a bat control position manned by agile, smaller slap hitter types who could deftly field bunts and choppers. A bi-product of the explosion in home runs post Ruth saw teams change that position into a power position, as the fielding requirements changed with less infield balls in play, including a severe drop in bunts, so as a result teams took bigger, stronger guys who could hit for power and stuck them there, sacrificing defense to keep up the home run pace.

 

[MVPete]

You also have to factor in that players are more athletic now and making unreal plays on defense, and teams are employing shifts this year more than they ever have.

 

[NAHSTE]

If you don't like pitchers batting you are a fucking communist.

 

[Slateman]

The DH is the last thing differentiating the AL from the NL. That's a good thing. If it were up to me, i'd dump interleague except for natural rivals (NY, CHI, LA, CIN/CLE, maybe a few others), bring back the league offices, and use separate umps again, too.

9-man baseball should be preserved at all costs. I don't mind the DH in the AL, but leave my 9-man baseball alone.

There is nothing that differentiates conferences and leagues in other sports. Why does there have to be one in baseball

As for Montreal having it's own team, they had one. It failed. Move on. Personally, I think Vegas should get a team.

 

[NAHSTE]

 

[Palooza]

There is nothing that differentiates conferences and leagues in other sports. Why does there have to be one in baseball

As for Montreal having it's own team, they had one. It failed. Move on. Personally, I think Vegas should get a team.

Nats suck give us our fucking team back.

 

[Slateman]

Does the league average starting pitcher have an ERA of 2.91?

Nats suck give us our fucking team back.

At least more than 4k fans show up to a game.

 

[NAHSTE]

To say the Expos failed is like saying the king in MacBeth passed from natural causes. And how many chances is Washington DC going to be afforded? They've had more "failures" than Montreal.

 

[Palooza]

Does the league average starting pitcher have an ERA of 2.91?



At least more than 4k fans show up to a game.

It's only April, once they continue to suck through May, not even buttheads like you will wind up at games.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

There is nothing that differentiates conferences and leagues in other sports. Why does there have to be one in baseball

Because history & tradition matters in baseball more than in other team sports. Nobody cares about history, numbers, or tradition in the NFL or NBA. I get the sense the NHL is closer to baseball in that regard, but i'm not a hockey guy and can't definitively say.

 

[Slateman]

It's only April, once they continue to suck through May, not even buttheads like you will wind up at games.

I rarely go to games as it is.

But even when the Wiz were awful, they drew more fans than the Expos. Heck, even when the Nationals were a 100 loss team (twice!) they still pulled in over double what Montreal did its two of their last three seasons and close to it.

There are too many people in the DMV area with too much money for the Nationals to even approach the numbers Montreal had at the end.

Because history & tradition matters in baseball more than in other team sports. Nobody cares about history, numbers, or tradition in the NFL or NBA. I get the sense the NHL is closer to baseball in that regard, but i'm not a hockey guy and can't definitively say.

It's a reasonable answer, but baseball has made rule changes before along with massive changes to parks and it hasn't messed with the "tradition."

 

[Goober]

I rarely go to games as it is.

But even when the Wiz were awful, they drew more fans than the Expos. Heck, even when the Nationals were a 100 loss team (twice!) they still pulled in over double what Montreal did its two of their last three seasons and close to it.

There are too many people in the DMV area with too much money for the Nationals to even approach the numbers Montreal had at the end.



It's a reasonable answer, but baseball has made rule changes before along with massive changes to parks and it hasn't messed with the "tradition."

The Wizards average attendance this year was 17k, from 1977 to 1997, the Expos had a higher average attendance in all but three years.

Do you think that maybe the Expos bad attendance in the early 2000's could have something to do with it being announced the team was leaving?mg6:

 

[MVPete]

I don't even care what the numbers say, there is so much fucking trash ball going on daily that it counters the low scoring games. Fuck expansion, got enough teams that are absolute dog shit already.