The Brewster

Moving the mound back a foot is heresy to me but I wonder if it's only because it would cast a cloud over virtually every pitching stat. And I'm old, too.

"The extended pitching rubber, hotly contested in clubhouses and barely noticeable to fans, is part of a wave of experimentation that Major League Baseball executives are hoping will drag their sport into the 21st century. Since 2019, MLB has been using the low-profile Atlantic League, whose players aren’t unionized and have little power to object, as a test lab for rules changes aimed at making games shorter and more exciting. These tweaks have included letting batters try to steal first base, making the bases bigger and easier to reach, strictly limiting visits to the mound by coaches, and using an Automated Ball-Strike system—robot umpires—to call pitches at the plate. MLB has already adopted some of the changes at the big-league level. If they work as intended, others will follow."

MLB Testing Changes in non-unionized Atlantic League

We do need to "catch up" so to speak, but I feel like an automated "ball-strike" machine would take too much drama from the game. If they are really adamant about fixing ball-strikes just fire Angel Hernandez.

i endorse robot umps for balls/strikes, and also the bigger bases. The last one is a safety thing too.

Personally, I find it amazing the perfection that "sports fans" require from professional sports officiating...It purely exists for entertainment....that said, most professional sports aren't particularly entertaining to me anymore (MLB in particular).

Why dont we just make the games 3 innings...

I dont get the fascination with shorter games. Its no longer that a football game. Its not the duration - its the product that is causing issues.

I used to be a baseball watcher. Watched almost every game. Now I hardly watch any - except the few a year i actually go to. Why? its not because it takes 3-4 hours. Its partly because i have kids now. But its also partly because its boring. There is no suspense except for maybe a few times a game. There is nobody chasing records. There is instant replay which I despise in all sports (needs to be there for critical calls and obviously wrong stuff - but we dont need to do it every single time there is a close call on a groundout in the 4th inning).

Where is the passion? Where is the energy? Its just not there. MLB needs to do a better job of marketing their players, and making the game more fun to watch. Frankly I'd take watching a home run derby over a regular baseball game anyday...which is symptomatic of the issue. To be fun, MLB needs conflict. it needs suspense. It needs rivalries. It needs a story people care about.

I don’t like the robo umpires idea. I like the idea of human error.

I would like to see only 2 infielders on one side of the diamond because the shift hurts the game.