Fifth Avenue Forum

Holy crap

I watched most of the game Saturday and I like it although I'm not crazy about having to see that big countdown clock.

I think Brett Verlander tweeted a similar video, but it was "How many times can Jose Altuve score an inside the park homerun before Baez throws a pitch".

on Facebook I’ve seen a few “suggested posts” of people posting anti pitch clock stuff

for example, one of them is a screenshot of this




kind of funny that people hold these opinions were are idiotic and kind of annoying that Facebook things I want to see this ****. Fix your algorithms

Jeff Passan put it pretty well. The pitch clock gives you everything baseball already is, but in a more digestible package. It brings game times back to what they were several decades ago.

I watched spring training games each of the last 2 afternoons and it was nice to see constant pitching rather than the stepping in and stepping out and calling time and stepping off the rubber. Get it back from the catcher and let it rip again. And it's a big difference when I then go umpire behind the plate of a HS varsity game that took 2:50 for 7 innings and there is all the time-consuming minutiae that occurs without a pitch clock. My game ended on a walkoff grand slam...first time in 19 seasons of umpiring for that to happen.

Jeff Passan put it pretty well. The pitch clock gives you everything baseball already is, but in a more digestible package. It brings game times back to what they were several decades ago.

Like Baseball Digest:

“I hope we get to the point where, on the digital side, when you go to MLB.tv, you can buy whatever the heck you want,” Manfred said. “You can buy the out-of-market package. You can buy local games, you can buy two sets of local games, whatever you want. I mean, that is, to me, the definition of what is going to be a valuable digital offering going forward.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/forget-the-new ... 39854.html

Sing it!

This whole thing is going to create quite the mess. Too many teams right now are tightly tethered to their RSN deals that blowing them up would destroy them. And teams without an RSN are going to fall even further behind in revenue compared to the big markets.

In a way I'm kind of happy this is happening. RSN's have been a major issue with competitive/market balance in baseball for a long time. It's about time they blow up the model and come up with something better. Although my faith in them finding a better alternative is pretty low.

Watching spring training games i keep thinking of all kinds of nonsense ways to manipulate the rules like this and i hate it

Meh

I don't see a single thing wrong with that.

Love it.

I'd like to expound on that but for now just want to clarify i don't hate what scherzer does there specifically but that there will be all sort of things like that happening throughout the year (especially dealing with runners) and i hate that some teams will exploit them before some of the rules get tweaked and i know it won't be the pirates. I love that scherzer is exploring that now in spring training.

I did always hate how some pitchers would quick pitch like that after entering the box though. Because you could push it to a stupid level. It should have to be the same pause they force you to do when winding up. That's nothing to do with the new rules. I love how he holds the position i think that's fun which seems contradictory

I don't understand why the batter has to be facing and aware at 8 seconds. Why not just let the pitcher throw at 8 no matter what

Let's be honest: the clock will get extended because of lower concession sales before player health

I'd like to expound on that but for now just want to clarify i don't hate what scherzer does there specifically but that there will be all sort of things like that happening throughout the year (especially dealing with runners) and i hate that some teams will exploit them before some of the rules get tweaked and i know it won't be the pirates. I love that scherzer is exploring that now in spring training.

I did always hate how some pitchers would quick pitch like that after entering the box though. Because you could push it to a stupid level. It should have to be the same pause they force you to do when winding up. That's nothing to do with the new rules. I love how he holds the position i think that's fun which seems contradictory

I don't understand why the batter has to be facing and aware at 8 seconds. Why not just let the pitcher throw at 8 no matter what

The one thing I loved about the late 80s/early 90s Pirates was how Gene Lamont always got his pitchers to pitch very quickly. Give me more of that.

Watching spring training games i keep thinking of all kinds of nonsense ways to manipulate the rules like this and i hate it

I hate just about everything the pitch clock does, save for shaving a few minutes off of each game. It's just so...unnatural and unnecessary. Every game i've seen using it seems rushed. Pitchers and hitters both look uncomfortable, which, in turn, lowers the quality of the product on the field. Then you're gonna have dadholes like Scherzer manipulate the rules to take advantage...but it's an advantage that hasn't existed through the first 170 years of baseball. And penalizing a ball or strike for violations? Now it's not about just the matchup between pitcher talent vs. hitter talent. You've added a rule that rewards or penalizes. Dumb.

Before I get 'okay, boomer'ed, I understand that we live in an instant gratification society that wants everything now. I'm not against something that may shorten the overall time of games, but not at the expense of the competitive nature of the game. This feels like it may do that. Maybe if the clock was like 10 seconds longer? Maybe if the umpire holds the pitcher until the batter is set in the box? I dunno, but I agree with the point being made in the video. Hitting is already really hard, and asking a batter to hold his stance for 5 seconds without being able to call time is just dumb.

Also, on the 'okay, boomer' front...who in the world is this appealing to? How many people are out there that weren't willing to watch a 2hr 30min game, but are jumping all over a 2hr 15min game? And if that 15 mins is that important to you, my bet is you weren't going to be watching anyway.

Well the average time was over 3 hours last year, not 2:30. Also, what Scherzer did was already illegal, and still is illegal. The MLB issued a clarification on quick pitching. It's a balk if someone is on base or an illegal pitch and a ball if not. Also, these rules have been in the minors for a couple of years, they all survived, and on top of that many of the younger players have now "grown up" with this rule and should be used to it now. But other than that, sure, go off

That video makes me insane, repeats himself so many times

I think there is a spectrum between 'instant gratification' and 'bloat avoidance' where a happy medium resides. Baseball has been a slog and viewership is down. It needs a change and I for one welcome our pitch clock overlords. If you want to have a picnic with a sporting event happening nearby there are cricket clubs around that would love to have you.

Also, on the 'okay, boomer' front...who in the world is this appealing to? How many people are out there that weren't willing to watch a 2hr 30min game, but are jumping all over a 2hr 15min game? And if that 15 mins is that important to you, my bet is you weren't going to be watching anyway.

I go to 20 games a year. It appeals to me. There is a certain kind of pain that only a STH experiences when it's a 5 run game in the 8th on a Tuesday night. You've got Manny banuelos or some other mope pacing around the mound rubbing the ball while some guy from the cardnals is taking two extra cuts outside the batters box. All you want as a fan is to get this fu king game over with and instead you have some guy calling time because banuelos is taking to long to deliver the pitch.

weird take from genoscoif. I don't even think it's an "ok boomer" thing because I think a lot of boomers agree that the games are taking way too motherf*cking long.