Commissioner Rob Manfred and ESPN’s Buster Olney both have ideas to change the game in MLB. What changes could baseball make that would actually benefit fans and players alike?
On Thursday, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred indicated that MLB will be considering rule changes that will restrict the usage of relief pitchers, a puzzling idea as it will impede upon the very tactics and strategy that make the game what it is.
The idea is that pitching changes would be restricted, assumingly to speed the pace of play and ramp up offense in the late innings of games. As specialization and velocity in bullpens have increased, the argument goes, hitters are at a distinct disadvantage.
“You know the problem with relief pitchers is that they’re so good,” said Manfred. “I’ve got nothing against relief pitchers, but they do two things to the game; the pitching changes themselves slow the game down and our relief pitchers have become so at the back end that they actually rob action out of the end of the game, the last few innings of the game. So relief pitchers is a topic that is under active consideration. We’re talking about that a lot internally.”
So the argument is that big league bullpens have become too good, too big of a weapon at a manager’s disposal, and that this somehow hurts the game. This sounds eerily similar to the kind of arguments that have been made against defensive shifting.
“We’re gonna change the way you play the game and the way you try to win games?” New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi said on Thursday night. “I think that’s completely too drastic. If you want to shorten the game, make it seven innings.”
Manfred also spoke during the all-star break of the possibility of returning to a 154-game season, an idea that would certainly benefit players, but cut roughly five percent of the season.
“Can something be done? Yeah, things can be done,” Manfred said in speaking with the BBWAA. “There are ways to produce more off days in the schedule. Some of those have very significant economic ramifications that — if in fact we’re going down those roads — those economic ramifications are going to have to be shared by all of the relevant parties. You want to work less, usually you get paid less. But we are prepared to discuss the schedule issues and make proposals that are responsive to the ones that we’ve received from the MLBPA.”
Also on Thursday, ESPN baseball insider Buster Olney wrote a column ($) on nine changes MLB should consider making, most of which seemed either equally as peculiar as Manfred’s or just clearly ineffectual. Among them were also a suggestion on restricting bullpen usage, on shortening games to seven innings (that lacked Girardi’s sarcasm), and retiring Roberto Clemente’s No. 21 throughout baseball in the same way as Jackie Robinson’s No. 42, among others.
The average time it has taken to play a game in 2016 is just over three hours, which may be a bit too long. Baseball is a business, and it does need to take the fan experience into account. But to suggest that fewer games, shorter games, or handcuffing teams trying to win games is good for the fan experience seems shortsighted.
Part of the beauty of baseball, as opposed to football or basketball, is that there is no ticking clock. The game lasts as long as one team keeps avoiding outs, keeps hitting, keeps scoring runs. That said, there are subtle changes that could be made to cut down the length of games, increase “action,” and ramp up the fan experience, changes that do not infringe on the tactics or usage available to managers.
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