Baseball no-pitch intentional walk

[Ryand877]

At Easter yesterday, myself and a bunch of family members were debating the new no-pitch intentional walk in baseball. Everyone likes it except for me. I honestly can't stand it. I'm all for speeding up the game with clocks between pitches and shorter trips to the mound, but this actually changes the game. My argument was something can go wrong with the pitches or a player can reach over and swing (Sanchez did last year for the Yankees). My cousin said, yeah, but how often does that happen, one or two percent of the time? I said yes, and that is enough to warrant not changing the rule. Maybe I'm just old fashioned and don't like change, but I love watching and listening to baseball. Just curious what other baseball fans think of this new rule. Good day.

 

[donniesyracuse]

I'm not a huge fan of it either. This change seemingly got rushed through and it does change the game. I love that MLB is taking action to speed up the game, but this accomplishes very little towards that goal.

 

[OrangeFoo]

I think its okay... but again if they really want to speed up the game they should just enforce the rule that batters can't leave the box and put a time limit on pitchers.

 

[donniesyracuse]

I think its okay... but again if they really want to speed up the game they should just enforce the rule that batters can't leave the box and put a time limit on pitchers.

A pitch clock with no runners on base is fine. The biggest problem is that the game screeches to a halt when a runner gets on base. Enforcing a pitch clock with runners on base would create a huge advantage to the runner. I don't know how one fixes that.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I went to my nephews high school baseball game Saturday(7 innings) and that took 2.5 hours. Painful. The score was only 6-4.

 

[Cowtown]

I'm not a huge fan of it either. This change seemingly got rushed through and it does change the game. I love that MLB is taking action to speed up the game, but this accomplishes very little towards that goal.

I'm interpreting it as a big first step in the right direction, as in acknowledging that games are taking far too long. A few years back the Bosox/NYY games were taking up to 4 hours to complete. I was losing interest, which at one time I thought would never happen.

 

[Toga]

I completely took the last two years off from watching any baseball. Now I'll watch the Yankees but couldn't remotely come close to watching the entire game. I think my attention span has shrunk in general.

 

[Knicks411]

I have no problem with this rule, but let's not act like it's going to meaningfully shorten games

 

[Ryand877]

I have no problem with this rule, but let's not act like it's going to meaningfully shorten games

If it is not going to meaningfully shorten games, why change it? Past balls, bad pitches happen. To me, the frequency of such is irrelevant. The intentional walk is part of the game. The whole point of the rule change is to save time, and as you said, it really won't shorten games much. To me, a similar analogy is if a team is going to take a knee at the end of a football game, to save time, why don't we just let the QB say end the game-I'm just going to take a knee. The reason is its part of the game, and there is that small chance the snap could be fumbled, etc. Maybe I am just resistant to change.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

A pitch clock with no runners on base is fine. The biggest problem is that the game screeches to a halt when a runner gets on base. Enforcing a pitch clock with runners on base would create a huge advantage to the runner. I don't know how one fixes that.

Have a run clock as well.

 

[upperdeck]

1% is too generous in things that happen that are bad on intentional walks at the pro level. I cant remember the last time i saw something and i watch 2-300 games a year. 1% means every 25 times and its way less than that.

 

[Ryand877]

1% is too generous in things that happen that are bad on intentional walks at the pro level. I cant remember the last time i saw something and i watch 2-300 games a year. 1% means every 25 times and its way less than that.

Last year Gary Sanchez hit a sacrifice fly.

 

[dasher]

I love it. In no other place in sports is someone asked to do something that is 100% against their training. The only thing that comes close is being asked to miss a free throw. But at least there is strategy for that. It is a complete waste of time. The fact that someone can name a time it wasn't. makes the case.

 

[Ryand877]

Guess I'm in the minority on this. That's okay. Still love baseball, just resistant to change perhaps.

 

[donniesyracuse]

1% is too generous in things that happen that are bad on intentional walks at the pro level. I cant remember the last time i saw something and i watch 2-300 games a year. 1% means every 25 times and its way less than that.

I think after a pitcher delivers four odd throws to walk the bases loaded, settling down and immediately throwing a strike could be a challenge.

 

[donniesyracuse]

Have a run clock as well.

How would that work?

 

[sabach]

I love it. In no other place in sports is someone asked to do something that is 100% against their training. The only thing that comes close is being asked to miss a free throw. But at least there is strategy for that. It is a complete waste of time. The fact that someone can name a time it wasn't. makes the case.

You bring up an interesting point. I wonder how often college basketball teams practice the intentional missed free throw in case you need to make one, miss the second and get a put back. For the life of me I do not understand any coach that does not intentionally foul under 5 seconds while up 3 in a college game.

 

[kirbivore]

These challenges are killing the pace. In the urge to get it right, now every close play is challenged. The teams are like F it, let's give it a shot and maybe the call gets overturned. The intent was to overturn obvious mistakes. Take the challenges away from teams and instead have an MLB umpire watching every game who can buzz the crew chief to review egregious errors. Bang bang close plays don't need to be freeze framed and analyzed for 5 minutes. Make the call and move on.

 

[Bayside44]

Baseball games tend to zip along til the 7th inning. Once it's pen time then forget it. Matchup pitching and hitting takes forever

 

[Chip]

Baseball games tend to zip along til the 7th inning. Once it's pen time then forget it. Matchup pitching and hitting takes forever

Especially nowadays with enhanced bullpens and starter pitch counts.

Complete games (and the time it took to button up those games) are a thing of the past.

I don't see how you shorten it. Less warmup pitches and have them be ready to go from the bullpen? Bring back the bullpen car? (please!).

 

[Hoo's That]

It's the proliferation of "Buddy Groom"s! A typical day for Buddy was to sit in the bullpen all day. Warm up. Come in to pitch to one batter (usually a righty). He strikes the guy out on 3 pitches, out he comes and another reliever comes in. And how much time does that take? He walks the guy unintentionally on 4 pitches, out he comes and another reliever comes in. And how much time does that take? He gets the guy on a routine grounder to 2nd, out he comes and another reliever comes in. And how much time does that take? He gives up a homer, ...

Now nearly every team has at least one Buddy Groom. This happens in just about every close game from, say, the 6th inning on.

"A day without lacrosse is like 9 innings of baseball." - t-shirt slogan.

 

[br801]

Especially nowadays with enhanced bullpens and starter pitch counts.

Complete games (and the time it took to button up those games) are a thing of the past.

I don't see how you shorten it. Less warmup pitches and have them be ready to go from the bullpen? Bring back the bullpen car? (please!).

 

[MSOrange]

Baseball games tend to zip along til the 7th inning. Once it's pen time then forget it. Matchup pitching and hitting takes forever

That's a really good point. Would it be fair to see that Tony LaRussa really was the manager who really developed the specialized relief role?

 

[br801]

That's a really good point. Would it be fair to see that Tony LaRussa really was the manager who really developed the specialized relief role?

Yeah, he was the pioneer that led us here. But if it wasn't him, it would have been someone else eventually.

But as I've said many times, just eliminate a minute of advertising time between each half inning, and there's 18 minutes. How about it, Mr. Commissioner?

 

[Ryand877]

MLB umpires may soon take the microphone to explain replays (report)