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MLB Rule Change Suggestions · Foul Territory

0:05
Speaker 1: For the people.
0:05
Speaker 2: Perfect way to label this one, and he often does
0:08
Speaker 2: articles that are for the people because the people get involved.
0:11
Speaker 2: Stephen Nesbitt with us right now from the Athletic put
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Speaker 2: out an article to the people saying what rule changes
0:18
Speaker 2: should MLB make and it was a mailbag to analyze
0:21
Speaker 2: the suggestions. Stephen, great to chat with you, and I
0:24
Speaker 2: want to go right to the one that it listed,
0:25
Speaker 2: like the most response, the most fire. There's always that
0:31
Speaker 2: one right from your article. So what was the one
0:33
Speaker 2: that we should lead this conversation with.
0:39
Speaker 1: I mean there's like the realistic one and then there's
0:42
Speaker 1: the unrealistic one. Do you have a favorite?
0:45
Speaker 2: Oh, aj, what do you want?
0:47
Speaker 3: Well, it's just the realistic one first, because the unrealistic
0:50
Speaker 3: ones something so crazy, like a pitch cla yeah.
0:54
Speaker 1: Yeah. The realistic ones had to do with the pictures,
1:00
Speaker 1: and that always gets a lot of people going because
1:03
Speaker 1: it does feel like sixty feet six inches in some
1:05
Speaker 1: sort of gospel, but in reality it was just a distance.
1:08
Speaker 1: They moved the pictures mound two in nineteen eighty sorry,
1:12
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety three or something like that. They lowered the
1:15
Speaker 1: mound in nineteen sixty eight, as we know, after the
1:18
Speaker 1: year of the picture, and there was evidence that that
1:22
Speaker 1: worked right eras went up, batting averages went up, And
1:26
Speaker 1: the problem with that is that it wasn't really a
1:28
Speaker 1: clean body of evidence, I guess because they also changed
1:33
Speaker 1: the strike zone at the same time the walks went up.
1:37
Speaker 1: It was a more friendly environment for hitters in many
1:38
Speaker 1: different ways. So lowering the mound I think would help
1:42
Speaker 1: hitters certainly, but I don't think it is like really
1:45
Speaker 1: the one sort of end all, be all rule change
1:48
Speaker 1: that would fix the hitting environment completely. The other thing
1:51
Speaker 1: that sort of the other side of that coin is
1:54
Speaker 1: to move the mountain back, which was discussed at length
1:56
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. It was tested in the
1:58
Speaker 1: Atlantic League moved it back one foot in the Atlantic League.
2:02
Speaker 1: There have been talks about having it two feet back.
2:04
Speaker 1: A little bit further back you'd be at the true
2:06
Speaker 1: sort of geometric center of the infield diamond, but they
2:10
Speaker 1: really didn't see positive improvement in the Atlantic League experiment. Now,
2:15
Speaker 1: the problem there also is that guys can't throw strikes,
2:17
Speaker 1: and so this just made it worse. You had more
2:19
Speaker 1: movement from that far back, So if you couldn't already
2:21
Speaker 1: already couln't land your sinker or your slider or you're
2:24
Speaker 1: sweeper in the strike zone, then you have even tougher
2:26
Speaker 1: time from a couple feet back. So they've tested a
2:30
Speaker 1: number of different things, and it does feel like you
2:32
Speaker 1: guys can attest to this too, Like if you're going
2:34
Speaker 1: to make one change to the game that isn't going
2:37
Speaker 1: to radically change how the game looks, then moving the
2:40
Speaker 1: mound down further or moving it back farther certainly seems
2:43
Speaker 1: like a relatively minor fix from a just an aesthetic standpoint,
2:47
Speaker 1: and it could have a positive effect on the game.
2:50
Speaker 1: It also will make movement harder, and I'm just gonna
2:54
Speaker 1: keep guessing that pictures will continue throwing hard and harder
2:57
Speaker 1: no matter how far back you asked them to throw from.
2:59
Speaker 1: So I don't think that problem is going away, that
3:02
Speaker 1: the average velocity continues to climb. As far as more
3:05
Speaker 1: of an absurd thing that drew some attention, There is
3:12
Speaker 1: so much focus still on the extra innings rule to
3:15
Speaker 1: add a runner at second base, that one was probably
3:19
Speaker 1: two to one comments versus any other topic when I
3:24
Speaker 1: ask for people's favorite rule changes. Now, if you ask
3:27
Speaker 1: baseball fans, what's one rule do you want to change.
3:31
Speaker 1: Almost every single response is undoing a rule change that
3:34
Speaker 1: already happened. That's just sort of the way we are.
3:36
Speaker 1: We can't sort of getting our creative hats on and
3:38
Speaker 1: come up with something super zany. Like one person did
3:41
Speaker 1: on here, which I enjoyed, was why not make the
3:43
Speaker 1: infield dirt smaller to prevent them from backing up? Okay,
3:47
Speaker 1: that's interesting, that's new to me. But extra innings rule
3:50
Speaker 1: is not particularly popular. That Rob Manford has added a
3:53
Speaker 1: runner at second base, the Manford Runner or the ghost runner.
3:57
Speaker 1: Some people say incorrectly, that's a wuffle ball thing, that's
4:00
Speaker 1: really not a person on second base. But it's not
4:04
Speaker 1: popular to have that there. And yet it's successfully getting
4:07
Speaker 1: games over quickly. It's saving arms, it's saving bullpens, And
4:10
Speaker 1: so I understand the desire to have it look more
4:14
Speaker 1: like baseball. And for all the changes baseball has made,
4:17
Speaker 1: the League Office has made to try to make baseball
4:19
Speaker 1: look like baseball, right, don't let third basement lineup in
4:22
Speaker 1: shallow right field, ban the shift, A lot of things
4:25
Speaker 1: they want to make baseball look like baseball used to be.
4:29
Speaker 1: And yet that's one thing with the extra endings, like no, No,
4:31
Speaker 1: we just got to get the games over with. If
4:32
Speaker 1: we're going to restrict how many pitchers can be on
4:34
Speaker 1: a roster, then we want to not be burning guys
4:37
Speaker 1: in the extra innings. We don't want anymore's position players pitching,
4:40
Speaker 1: which is another rule change we can discuss, and so
4:43
Speaker 1: extra innings the one I went with. People had all
4:46
Speaker 1: sorts of you know, their version of their favorite extra
4:49
Speaker 1: inning plan. One of them, the simple one is play
4:52
Speaker 1: the tenth inning normally. Maybe you start a run around
4:54
Speaker 1: first in the eleventh, run around second in the twelfth.
4:57
Speaker 1: There are a lot of different ways you could do it.
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Speaker 1: This person had it sort of invented a showdown where
5:03
Speaker 1: the home team, I believe it was just gets to
5:06
Speaker 1: pick if they hit or if they pitch. There are
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Speaker 1: three outs to end the whole thing. You put your
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Speaker 1: picture out there, you put your five hitters with run
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Speaker 1: I think it was a run around first was the idea.
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Speaker 1: And if the pitcher gets three outs before a run scores,
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Speaker 1: then his team win. If he gives up a run,
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Speaker 1: his team was as simple as that, so it would
5:22
Speaker 1: get the game over quickly. Do I think it is
5:25
Speaker 1: going to happen? No? Do I think it's like as
5:28
Speaker 1: Mickey Mouse is, what's happening now? Pretty close.
5:32
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6:33
Speaker 3: Steven a couple of things. First of all, lower the
6:35
Speaker 3: mound all you want. Places like Toronto and other places,
6:37
Speaker 3: they'll figure out a way to make the mound still
6:39
Speaker 3: higher than it should. Because if you've ever sit on
6:41
Speaker 3: the rogersoner Round mound, it's like you're on top of
6:44
Speaker 3: Mount Everest and you're looking down.
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Speaker 5: I mean, hoseell.
6:46
Speaker 3: I remember you go up there and you stand up
6:48
Speaker 3: there next to your picture, and I always had to
6:49
Speaker 3: make sure I was at the top because otherwise I
6:51
Speaker 3: was like three feet shorter than the picture. And I'm like,
6:54
Speaker 3: this guy's not that tall. Why am I hurting my
6:56
Speaker 3: neck looking up at him? So there will still be
6:59
Speaker 3: people that skirt the rules. Also moving the picture, the
7:02
Speaker 3: mound back or whatever. How about we just learned to
7:05
Speaker 3: make strikeouts matter. If you want to cut down strikeouts,
7:07
Speaker 3: make the matter when guys get paid. That'll cut that down.
7:10
Speaker 3: And then the last one, I actually liked the Manford
7:12
Speaker 3: I wasn't a big Manford runner Manford man guy until
7:15
Speaker 3: now that I broadcast. I think it's great because it
7:17
Speaker 3: gets games over and we don't have these eighteen inning
7:19
Speaker 3: slog fests for I'm fine for it going back to
7:22
Speaker 3: the regular way in the postseason. And then the last
7:24
Speaker 3: thing you said was one of the dumbest things I've
7:25
Speaker 3: ever heard in my life. Because let's say your best
7:28
Speaker 3: picture is your closer and use them in the ninth inning. Well,
7:30
Speaker 3: guess what teams aren't gonna want to risk bringing in
7:32
Speaker 3: a starter or another guy to pitch that.
7:35
Speaker 5: So that that was a terrible idea.
7:37
Speaker 3: Now, if you want to say, do the home run
7:38
Speaker 3: derby or something like that, okay, I could deal with
7:40
Speaker 3: that a little more. But the pictures and the injuries.
7:43
Speaker 3: We already have too many injuries to pitchers.
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Speaker 5: So I don't know. Just my two cents.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, first of I definitely did not grade these
7:50
Speaker 1: on realisticness, and I'm not necessarily condoning many of the suggestions.
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Speaker 1: I want a creativity more than anything. But if aj,
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Speaker 1: if I give you this, we ended the all start
8:00
Speaker 1: the game last year with the swing off, and it
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Speaker 1: was fun, it was interesting. Would it make you mounts
8:03
Speaker 1: to borrow that phrase again? Totally? Would you if you're
8:06
Speaker 1: going to go to a sort of non baseball version
8:09
Speaker 1: of extra innings. If we say you could play the
8:13
Speaker 1: extra rings regularly, or you can have this middle tier,
8:16
Speaker 1: which is what they're doing now, of putting a runner
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Speaker 1: on base in scaring position, or if you're going to
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Speaker 1: go sort of zany to make it an entertainment thing
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Speaker 1: to make people really want to stick around almost root
8:24
Speaker 1: for extra innings. Would you ever go there where you
8:27
Speaker 1: want to swing off, where you want a quasi version
8:30
Speaker 1: of baseball, where it's three outs to end the whole thing.
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Speaker 3: I'd rather have the swing off what It'd be more exciting.
8:36
Speaker 3: It'd be over quicker than the three out thing. I
8:38
Speaker 3: think a swing off. The problem with the swing off
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Speaker 3: is teams aren't built the same, so your three best
8:42
Speaker 3: hitters for the swing off might not be equal on
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Speaker 3: every team. Now on the All Star Game, they were
8:46
Speaker 3: supposed to be. But it would have been so much
8:47
Speaker 3: cooler if it was Judge and Otani and the rest
8:50
Speaker 3: of the starters that had already jumped on their private
8:51
Speaker 3: planes and flown home. Yeah, but I think it'd be cool.
8:57
Speaker 3: It won't happen. I actually, I think the best umpermise
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Speaker 3: of what you have in order to keep the game
9:02
Speaker 3: shorter and to keep him from going twenty innings is
9:04
Speaker 3: what we have now most games. I mean, I mean, heck,
9:07
Speaker 3: we I don't think we've had a game go to
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Speaker 3: the was it past the fourteenth inning since this rule
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Speaker 3: came into play, So I mean, I think that's all right.
9:15
Speaker 3: I'mbout one hundred percent sure, But I think that's the
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Speaker 3: longest one I've seen. I mean, I remember going eighteen
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Speaker 3: nineteen innings, not regularly, but every once in a while
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Speaker 3: it would jump up on You can't have that in
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Speaker 3: today's game. There's too many injuries already, and we're trying
9:27
Speaker 3: to keep people's attention. So let's keep people's attention, all right.
9:33
Speaker 4: So the runner at second is called the zombie runner
9:37
Speaker 4: because he died and came back to life, the resurrected runner,
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Speaker 4: whatever it is. It's not a ghost runner. Definitely not
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Speaker 4: the Manford Runner. That sounds weird because Manford never played,
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Speaker 4: so that's not going to happen to me.
9:50
Speaker 5: Why are all the rules Why are all.
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Speaker 4: The rules to increase offense when the or that not?
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Speaker 4: Why are the rules that are like gimmicked about to
10:01
Speaker 4: increase offense?
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Speaker 5: Why is that?
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Speaker 4: Because is that more fun than watching a pitcher dominate?
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Speaker 4: Is that more fun than or is it because of
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Speaker 4: the fact that some of your rules that you came
10:12
Speaker 4: up with here, could we have, you know, more injuries
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Speaker 4: to pitchers. If we have less injuries to pitchers, then
10:20
Speaker 4: maybe we can have just a better product completely out
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Speaker 4: on the field.
10:28
Speaker 1: Pretty hard to reinvent the product though, And so what
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Speaker 1: the league is left with interesting here, if you guys agree,
10:35
Speaker 1: is if the league is going to force something, it
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Speaker 1: can only force certain things. It can't force contact, it
10:42
Speaker 1: can't necessarily force the strike out right down. It can
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Speaker 1: really encourage it. But who's to say that they make
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Speaker 1: any of these changes that are recommended by fans here
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Speaker 1: that are intended to bring strikeout rates down and intended
10:54
Speaker 1: to put the ball and play more, bring like stuff
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Speaker 1: and velocities down. I guess PEG and how dominant they
11:01
Speaker 1: are in today's game, the game would continue to evolve
11:05
Speaker 1: in the way that incentivizes the players. Then the clubs,
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Speaker 1: like teams won't be like you know what, the league
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Speaker 1: really feels like. It feels like they're really trying to
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Speaker 1: get some more runs across the board. Interest fans, they
11:16
Speaker 1: don't like three true outcomes, but TIEF are still going
11:20
Speaker 1: to operate the way they always do. We have a
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Speaker 1: set amount of money to score the most amount of
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Speaker 1: runs and allow the fewest amount of runs possible to
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Speaker 1: win the most games, and so they're going to play
11:27
Speaker 1: the most efficient brand of baseball in the league doesn't
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Speaker 1: necessarily want that. So our rule change. Is that intended
11:34
Speaker 1: to fix something that's broken in the game from a
11:38
Speaker 1: competitive standpoint, or are they intended to fix something that's
11:41
Speaker 1: sort of broken from a fan perspective? Was the shift
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Speaker 1: moved out of the game because it was ruining gameplay? No,
11:47
Speaker 1: the shift that moved out of the game because it
11:48
Speaker 1: looked bad and people didn't like the way that it
11:50
Speaker 1: looked compared to the game they're used to. And so
11:52
Speaker 1: you walk through each rule change, and I would challenge
11:55
Speaker 1: most people to think through the rule change and think
11:57
Speaker 1: who was this or actually endings rule was not for fans.
12:01
Speaker 1: Fans kind of dug the game that won on eighteen innings.
12:03
Speaker 1: Even as a beat writer when I was missing like
12:05
Speaker 1: a date night with my wife, it was kind of
12:08
Speaker 1: fun to sit through those and see I remember like
12:11
Speaker 1: a pitcher playing left field randomly and pictures having to
12:14
Speaker 1: hit the in extra innings in the National League game
12:16
Speaker 1: that zany stuff was cool. It's like awesome to write
12:18
Speaker 1: about afterward too. And so this was done for fans
12:21
Speaker 1: because fans they wanted to sorry. This was done for
12:23
Speaker 1: teams because they wanted predictability. And when is the game
12:26
Speaker 1: getting over? And do I need to make four roster
12:28
Speaker 1: moves before tomorrow's game? And it's rare. I think that
12:32
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball is going to make rule changes for
12:35
Speaker 1: teams and for players. I think most of the rule
12:37
Speaker 1: changers are going to be what does the fan want,
12:40
Speaker 1: which the league has said is the driving force of
12:42
Speaker 1: what the league wants to do.
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Speaker 4: How does baseball compare to other leagues changing their rules?
12:47
Speaker 4: I followed Baseball way more, but the other major leagues,
12:51
Speaker 4: you know, obviously, big rule change in hockey was the
12:55
Speaker 4: blue line. You know, they don't have the center line anymore,
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Speaker 4: so you couldn't go. So there was changes in there
12:59
Speaker 4: to aid more open offense. Football has changed a ton,
13:03
Speaker 4: but mostly around safety. How is Major League Baseball done
13:06
Speaker 4: compared to the other four leagues?
13:10
Speaker 1: It was interesting. We wrote a story a couple of
13:12
Speaker 1: weeks back with Mike Borkanov, who is our one of
13:15
Speaker 1: our basketball writers, and it was sort of the story
13:18
Speaker 1: was like all the juice that baseball has right now
13:20
Speaker 1: compared to basketball, and it was the premise was like
13:23
Speaker 1: his baseball sort of reovertaking basketball as the numbers two
13:26
Speaker 1: sport in the US, and that it's interesting. It's fascinating
13:31
Speaker 1: for me, as someone who's covered baseball for a long time,
13:33
Speaker 1: for like the prevailing narrative to be that baseball is
13:35
Speaker 1: doing things right. For a long time, that was not it.
13:38
Speaker 1: That was not the conversation that was being had around baseball.
13:41
Speaker 1: And yet the conversation and now is, Hey, these rule
13:43
Speaker 1: changes came in and they've really interested a lot of people.
13:45
Speaker 1: There are some stars at the top of the game.
13:47
Speaker 1: There are some interesting teams. You may not like the Dodgers,
13:50
Speaker 1: but I think they're certainly interesting, and so compared to basketball,
13:55
Speaker 1: I think basketball people look in like this is a
13:56
Speaker 1: game that needs some innovation. This is a game that
13:59
Speaker 1: is running to little defense, happening way too much scoring,
14:04
Speaker 1: way too much three point like efficiency. Same conversation, and
14:08
Speaker 1: they haven't yet made big sweeping rule changes to fix
14:11
Speaker 1: a lot of that. Hockey has done a lot of
14:13
Speaker 1: messing around that. You mentioned the blue line of too
14:16
Speaker 1: I pass all that sort of stuff, but they've been
14:19
Speaker 1: I think most of their messing around has been in
14:21
Speaker 1: like overtime and extra extra any the shootout at the
14:25
Speaker 1: end of it. Football field like changes a bunch of
14:27
Speaker 1: things every year, but is it so consequential that it
14:29
Speaker 1: truly changes the nature of the competition.
14:32
Speaker 5: Not really.
14:33
Speaker 1: It's like tickoffs and things like that that you mentioned
14:35
Speaker 1: as far as safety. So Baseball, I think these rule
14:39
Speaker 1: changes were pretty radical once you consider the landscape of
14:42
Speaker 1: like these leagues. How often do they change something as
14:44
Speaker 1: big as the pace of play? You know, we've talked
14:47
Speaker 1: about the shot clock or the play clock. That's a
14:49
Speaker 1: long time ago that these were implemented, And so baseball,
14:52
Speaker 1: it does feel like, is the sort of most recent
14:54
Speaker 1: sport to make big changes like that. And so I
14:56
Speaker 1: don't know that the premise. I think of our previous story,
14:59
Speaker 1: which was about the infield shift and sort of the
15:02
Speaker 1: lack of impact that has had on truly bringing back
15:04
Speaker 1: base hits, which is pretty predictable. But I think fans
15:08
Speaker 1: so other way. Other ways they thought that the game
15:11
Speaker 1: was sort of some parts of the game we're fixed
15:13
Speaker 1: in some ways by these rule changes. That conversation around
15:16
Speaker 1: the game still is that they've they're going in the
15:19
Speaker 1: right track. So I don't think that necessarily the league
15:21
Speaker 1: is open to these massive, sweeping, real changes that we're
15:25
Speaker 1: that we're suggesting in this story.
15:28
Speaker 3: But by the way, you mentioned that the player, the
15:30
Speaker 3: rule changes aren't made for the players. Tommy has his
15:33
Speaker 3: own rule. They made him rule change for him, right,
15:36
Speaker 3: Should we.
15:37
Speaker 5: Take that.
15:39
Speaker 3: A little bit to allow other guys to get to
15:42
Speaker 3: that possibility?
15:42
Speaker 1: That's the rule change in the scheme of But no,
15:45
Speaker 1: it's not.
15:45
Speaker 5: No, I disagree. That's a huge rule.
15:49
Speaker 3: Hold on, that's a advantage for the Dodgers.
15:52
Speaker 1: It isn't. It is an advantage, but it's not a
15:54
Speaker 1: thing that fans care about one iota. Right, there is
15:57
Speaker 1: a roster construction rule. That's that's all it is, right,
16:00
Speaker 1: So it's not something like you would never you would
16:03
Speaker 1: never ask fans like, hey, how do you guys feel
16:05
Speaker 1: about this roster construction rule? Or when this guy can
16:08
Speaker 1: come on? Whatever. They don't care enough for that to
16:10
Speaker 1: be a consequential le chain, is what I was trying
16:12
Speaker 1: to say.
16:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, OK, that's.
16:14
Speaker 3: Fair, it's pretty conch it's pretty qut consequential when it
16:17
Speaker 3: comes to.
16:18
Speaker 4: Sure fans gripe. Fans gripe about their payroll. They're not
16:24
Speaker 4: going to be like, oh they got an extra pitcher.
16:27
Speaker 4: No actual like players and other teams complain about it.
16:31
Speaker 5: More.
16:31
Speaker 2: Thans are pretty smart. Yeah, fans are pretty smart. I mean,
16:35
Speaker 2: I remember since I was a kid hating September call
16:38
Speaker 2: ups because I'd be like, why are the games all
16:40
Speaker 2: of a sudden? I have all these extra players and
16:41
Speaker 2: they take an extra.
16:42
Speaker 4: I don't say that. You don't say that September callups
16:46
Speaker 4: made some people's careers.
16:47
Speaker 2: Okay, Scott, it was hurting my fan experience.
16:53
Speaker 5: Eric, it was hurting your fantasy team, That's what it
16:55
Speaker 5: was doing.
16:56
Speaker 2: Soine, I'm fine with an extra catcher, nine more pitchers. No,
17:00
Speaker 2: I'm good. Okay, we can bring up an extra catcher compromise, Steven,
17:05
Speaker 2: great article, though, thanks for joining us to go over
17:08
Speaker 2: all of it. I encourage everyone to check it out
17:10
Speaker 2: in the Athletic. It's posted. There's a lot more in there.
17:13
Speaker 2: Appreciate you man, good catching up.
17:16
Speaker 1: Thanks guys.
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18:19
Speaker 6: The best nickname in the minor leagues is now the
18:21
Speaker 6: best nickname in the Major League. Just Nixon Garcia. The
18:24
Speaker 6: password is up with the Pirates. He came up because
18:27
Speaker 6: Ryan O'Hearn has gone on the injured list and this
18:30
Speaker 6: is a newfound thing for the Pirates. Hey, a back
18:33
Speaker 6: goes down and you have the depth to replace with
18:35
Speaker 6: someone who should give you a capable fill in. Garcia
18:39
Speaker 6: was acquired in the off season four situations like this.
18:42
Speaker 6: He is triple a depth who should in the long
18:44
Speaker 6: run be potentially an everyday regular in a corner outflot spot.
18:48
Speaker 6: I would not expect him right now to provide the
18:50
Speaker 6: same thump that Ryan O'Hearn was before his injury, but
18:53
Speaker 6: at the same time, he's also going to be significantly
18:55
Speaker 6: better defensively in right field, so there's gonna be a
18:58
Speaker 6: little bit of a trade off here. Garcia had an
19:00
Speaker 6: injury of his own back tightness that kind of sidelined
19:03
Speaker 6: him a little bit. In April. He's back and full speed.
19:06
Speaker 6: Now there's I would say solid power here, but he
19:09
Speaker 6: does a really good job of getting to it and
19:12
Speaker 6: there's not a ton of swing a miss for a
19:13
Speaker 6: guy who does have the ability to kind of go
19:15
Speaker 6: on a home run bingch solid replacement. I don't expect
19:18
Speaker 6: him to be, all of a sudden a game changer
19:21
Speaker 6: for the Pirates, but hey, the Pirates have for years
19:24
Speaker 6: struggle to fill in when they have an injury. This
19:26
Speaker 6: is an example of a guy who should be able
19:28
Speaker 6: to come up and if not miss a beat, he
19:31
Speaker 6: should be able to provide a very capable replacement for
19:34
Speaker 6: Ryan Hurr.
19:36
Speaker 2: That's Baseball America's JJ Cooper on the pass word. I
19:39
Speaker 2: think that was the key for me. Aj. Yeah, he's
19:41
Speaker 2: not necessarily going to be the star spark right from
19:44
Speaker 2: the jump for a Pirates team that actually needs a
19:46
Speaker 2: little jump start. Again, but they used to replace their
19:50
Speaker 2: injuries with guys that you know would be instantly to
19:53
Speaker 2: the bottom of the lineup and maybe not ready for
19:56
Speaker 2: the big leagues. This is helpful depth.
19:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, but that's not Losing a Hearn is a big
20:03
Speaker 3: deal for the Pirates. I mean he was better hitters,
20:05
Speaker 3: so that that's a big deal. We just need to
20:07
Speaker 3: be replacement level. This is where I love War because
20:10
Speaker 3: War is like Ryan O'Hearn, Well, who's replacing Ryan o'harn.
20:12
Speaker 3: It was like when Mike Trout, who's replacing Mike Trout.
20:15
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, of course he's not going to be
20:16
Speaker 3: as good well the pass word, I'm not even trying
20:18
Speaker 3: to say his name, but yeah, you can be somewhat
20:22
Speaker 3: serviceable until Hearn comes back. That would be a big
20:24
Speaker 3: win for the Pirates. And yes, this is something nice
20:26
Speaker 3: that the Pirates now have the ability to do is
20:28
Speaker 3: have major League ready people in the minor leagues that
20:31
Speaker 3: can come up and actually help them.
20:35
Speaker 2: Red Sox Yeah, Jose Tinson, Okay, you'll handle it from.
20:43
Speaker 5: The Red Sox. And this is where the Pirates have
20:46
Speaker 5: to he has to step up.
20:49
Speaker 4: He has to be able to be somebody that not
20:52
Speaker 4: only contributes offensively, because then they're just going backwards when
20:57
Speaker 4: they have injuries. They have injuries like that's that's the
21:01
Speaker 4: reality of it. And they played some tough games this
21:04
Speaker 4: weekend against the Phillies team that was hot.
21:11
Speaker 2: Hey, we asked the Knights and simple question on Twitter
21:14
Speaker 2: over the weekend, and let's do rapid fire reactions to
21:18
Speaker 2: responses from fans. We said, how would you critique your
21:21
Speaker 2: favorite team up to this point in the season. We
21:23
Speaker 2: used a photo of a Mets fan with a brown
21:25
Speaker 2: paper bag over their head, but probably about a third
21:28
Speaker 2: of the league has fans with brown paper bags over
21:30
Speaker 2: their head at games sometimes throughout the year. So let's
21:33
Speaker 2: roll it. Let's just read and react here for the
21:35
Speaker 2: next few minutes and see what we have. And I've
21:37
Speaker 2: been told we're going to start with a photo. That
21:41
Speaker 2: photo is somebody happy and sad? Eric replied, the Reds
21:50
Speaker 2: so far? What was the wind streak for them? Does
21:52
Speaker 2: anyone remember? Was it nine? It is at least eight?
21:57
Speaker 4: They were rolling, Yeah, they weren't. Then they hit the
22:01
Speaker 4: Then they hit the Cubs. Chicago's a place right now.
22:10
Speaker 4: Up and down, up and down, op and down.
22:12
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Next up, Tigers. Dana lifelong Tigers fan, not
22:17
Speaker 2: gonna lie this year is making me crazy. Lots of injuries,
22:19
Speaker 2: no excuse to the poor play, too many nights.
22:23
Speaker 5: There you go. That sums it up right there. That's perfect.
22:27
Speaker 3: Poor play, bad, bad fundamentals, whatever it is. They've they've
22:30
Speaker 3: had everything, injuries, everything, they've they've bad hitting, bad pitching.
22:33
Speaker 5: They've kind of seen it all in and motown this
22:36
Speaker 5: year since the second half of last year. Like let's
22:40
Speaker 5: this could be a scary trend for this team.
22:45
Speaker 2: Next up, William bleeping destroyed any hope or belief in
22:53
Speaker 2: this team with letting Pete and Edwin walk without giving
22:56
Speaker 2: all out max offers to keep them. Oh he was
23:00
Speaker 2: talking about Stearns. A Mets fan here not happy with
23:04
Speaker 2: the decisions made by the team this offseason. A lot
23:08
Speaker 2: of people were questioning it and now they're questioning it
23:10
Speaker 2: even more. Actually to play to that. We didn't cover
23:13
Speaker 2: this earlier, but Jorge Polanco seems to have one of
23:15
Speaker 2: those issues that's not going to go away this year.
23:17
Speaker 2: They just keep getting the news that spills out as
23:20
Speaker 2: guys are hurt that it's going to be worse. So
23:22
Speaker 2: it's up to the Baby Mets. Maybe the Baby Mets
23:24
Speaker 2: have it. Got to see the prospect shine.
23:29
Speaker 5: I'll see a tough division though, with two solid teams.
23:32
Speaker 2: Yes, Braves are great. Phillies look really freaking good right
23:35
Speaker 2: now too. Next up, Oh, another photo. It's Mark contributing
23:43
Speaker 2: a dumpster fire and writing red Sox. That would be
23:48
Speaker 2: their offense.
23:49
Speaker 5: Ajay, Yeah, did you see? I was on Twitter today
23:55
Speaker 5: and I saw Veritec's wife wrote something. It was interesting.
23:58
Speaker 5: If you guys haven't seen it, go will or go
24:01
Speaker 5: on Twitter. It was something like.
24:03
Speaker 3: Something about Jason, why Jason wasn't instill in the organization
24:07
Speaker 3: and she wrote something along the lines of smartest guy
24:09
Speaker 3: in the room in quote, smartest guy in the world
24:11
Speaker 3: or smartest guy in the game in quotes, knows what
24:13
Speaker 3: he's doing or something like that. I forget exactly what
24:16
Speaker 3: she how she worded it, but it was it was interesting.
24:19
Speaker 3: So yeah, they've already fired their manager, and yeah it's
24:24
Speaker 3: been interesting in Boston. Dumpster fire would be a mild
24:26
Speaker 3: way to put it.
24:27
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Well played, and I will go look for
24:30
Speaker 2: that tweet after this one. More raise? Yes, let's finish
24:36
Speaker 2: on a fun note. Raise thirty and fifteen, and they're
24:39
Speaker 2: showing wedding crashers partying, So what.
24:44
Speaker 5: Does that mean?
24:45
Speaker 2: Is that?
24:45
Speaker 4: Is that more what that fan truly thinks? It is
24:49
Speaker 4: like wedding crashers, like just oh, we're gonna enjoy it
24:52
Speaker 4: whileunteer because I don't know if it's gonna continue, or
24:56
Speaker 4: does that mean like, hey, we celebrate it because we're
24:59
Speaker 4: celebrating everything.
25:00
Speaker 2: You go to something bougie and you crash it with
25:04
Speaker 2: something that is rugged, and that is the raise.
25:10
Speaker 5: Do they keep it? Do they keep it going?
25:12
Speaker 4: That's whether their pitching as healthy.
25:18
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, they're not gonna win one hundred twenty games,
25:21
Speaker 2: but can they win ninety two games?
25:24
Speaker 5: Sure?
25:25
Speaker 4: But where did this pitching? Where does pitching come from?
25:28
Speaker 4: They find pitching everywhere, so why couldn't they just keep
25:32
Speaker 4: finding pitching?
25:32
Speaker 5: Hurt them? Send the next one in