Your Most Controversial Baseball Opinion

[Vanimal46]

Let’s hear it. Mine is the death of the SP does more damage to baseball than 3 true outcomes, slow pace of play, and dramatic shifts combined. 

[Blyleven2011]

Mine is the FO has the plan and Rocco  is just a follower  not the manager  ,,,

I don't listen to Rocco's pre or post game talks cause it's all bs  ...

Also , FO leaving the fans wondering what the plan really is ,, never a straightforward  reply to questions  media will ask ... 

Im sorry We will not win with this combination  running the team , I've been in baseball to long to think differently ... they are ruining our talent  

[stringer bell]

Closers are overrated. Firemen are the key parts of bullpens nowadays, especially if they are capable of going more than one inning. 

[jimbo92107]

Robo Ump, right now! I see too many skilled pitchers getting screwed by bad calls. I also see too many hitters getting screwed by bad calls. 

They don't "even out," either. Bad plus bad equals more bad. 

[dxpavelka]

1 hour ago, jimbo92107 said:

Robo Ump, right now! I see too many skilled pitchers getting screwed by bad calls. I also see too many hitters getting screwed by bad calls. 

They don't "even out," either. Bad plus bad equals more bad. 

Sure.  But then look at the "box" that is supposed to represent the strike zone and then read the rule book for the definition of what the strike zone is actually supposed to be....

[wsnydes]

I dislike the DH.  While I'll admit that the strategy angle has been in decline due to a few reasons of late, I still prefer that style of game.

[Craig Arko]

Contraction should be on the table again.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

4 minutes ago, Craig Arko said:

Contraction should be on the table again.

Oooh…. Them’s fightin’ words!

please elaborate

[bighat]

The mound should be moved back a couple of feet. It's unfair to expect anyone to hit a 100MPH fastball, and as more pitchers start hitting 100, we're going to see more and more strikeouts. Move the mound back, implement a pitch clock and put in robot umpires. Make life harder on the pitchers, nobody wants to see a 1-0 pitcher's duel, even if they pretend they do.

[Brock Beauchamp]

3 minutes ago, bighat said:

The mound should be moved back a couple of feet. It's unfair to expect anyone to hit a 100MPH fastball, and as more pitchers start hitting 100, we're going to see more and more strikeouts. Move the mound back, implement a pitch clock and put in robot umpires. Make life harder on the pitchers, nobody wants to see a 1-0 pitcher's duel, even if they pretend they do.

I'm interested in doing this but it would be ill-advised to do this before the pitch clock is implemented, as that will also have an impact on velocity. We need to see what impact the pitch clock has before making more drastic changes.

[LewFordLives]

If you don't like the shift, then learn to hit the ball the other way. Teams get to put nine players on the field. Where they place them has been part of baseball strategy since the knickerbockers played the Highlanders.

[In My La Z boy]

Salary parity. Hard cap, hard floor and revenue sharing. Set the percentages. Total league player salaries are X% of total revenue - then a hard cap and hard floor - all excess funds equaling player percentage goes into a pool for playoff players, and league award winners. 

[Vanimal46]

7 minutes ago, In My La Z boy said:

Salary parity. Hard cap, hard floor and revenue sharing. Set the percentages. Total league player salaries are X% of total revenue - then a hard cap and hard floor - all excess funds equaling player percentage goes into a pool for playoff players, and league award winners. 

Yeah, I wonder if MLBPA regrets not negotiating for a floor. Oakland made no secrets pre-lockout they were going to cut $50 million from their payroll. And proceeded forward with the plan after the lockout. Once they offload Montas their payroll will be less than $30 million. Bad look for the league to have 100x difference between the highest and lowest payroll. 

[TheLeviathan]

Managers are mostly irrelevant.  They pretty much always have been.  They have a function, but people put WAY too much stock in them.

They're little more than college dorm RAs. 

[TheLeviathan]

I also think the death of the starter and the rise of the "throw 5 relievers a game" style of baseball has badly hurt the aesthetic of the game.  

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Too much is made of players with unique grooming habits (long hair, odd facial hair) and teams uniform rules (jewelry, shaving).

it’s all mundane

[MMMordabito]

Kent Hrbeks are more fun than Trevor Bauers (disregard Bauer's off-the-field adventures).

[Puckett34]

My toxic trait is thinking that baseball could benefit from a shorter season (154 games or less) or more scheduled double headers to get more days off.  With those additional days off, could work around weather issues more easily.  Also could start the season around April 15th or later.  

Balanced scheduling.  For it.  

 

[In My La Z boy]

9 minutes ago, Sconnie said:

Too much is made of players with unique grooming habits (long hair, odd facial hair) and teams uniform rules (jewelry, shaving).

it’s all mundane

Another reason to despise the dreaded Yankees

[chpettit19]

A couple people have mentioned these, but mine are that managers are vastly overrated and that front offices actually run the on field strategy which means firing managers really won't change the way the players are used like some fans think.

[Muppet]

After the obvious, baserunners on second in 10th inning, I can't stand that the AL and NL play each other during the regular season. It cheapens the World Series. Why not make it possible for the Royals and Tigers play each other in the WS? 

[Muppet]

8 minutes ago, Muppet said:

After the obvious, baserunners on second in 10th inning, I can't stand that the AL and NL play each other during the regular season. It cheapens the World Series. Why not make it possible for the Royals and Tigers play each other in the WS? 

Well I suppose these are complaints, not controversial opinions. How about move the TB Rays to San Juan, PR and move the Diamondbacks to Monterrey? 

[terrydactyls]

Three true outcomes is a crock.  A batter either makes an out or doesn't.  

[Eicemann]

To shorten game times & accelerate pace of play, foul balls should NOT be UNLIMITED.  Invoke a maximum limit of foul balls after which the pitcher would be credited with a K and the AB ended.

Also, the sacrifice fly should be eliminated.  The batter should be charged with an AB.  Rarely is a batter "sacrificing" their AB on a SF play.  They're trying to hit the ball as far as possible.  That's not even close to the same thing as laying down a bunt to advance a baserunner.

[Muppet]

Oooh. Another unpopular opinion. Baseball is NOT too slow. If you are bored, leave the game. Nobody will think less of you. 

[The Mad King]

I guess fielders should be able to play wherever the team wants them to play. Hey if you want to put 6 guys in rf against a certain batter that's your prerogative...

[Brock Beauchamp]

Unlike some of the above, this is actually controversial with baseball fans:

Baseball should start aggressively changing its rules and shouldn't stop until the product is as entertaining as it was in the 70s and 80s. And I mean aggressively. The pitch clock should have been here five years ago. The shift should have been banned before 2020 or 2021. At this point, we should be seriously considering moving the mound, changing the spacing between bases, and way more wild stuff than we're talking about right now.

[Vanimal46]

2 hours ago, Puckett34 said:

My toxic trait is thinking that baseball could benefit from a shorter season (154 games or less) or more scheduled double headers to get more days off.  With those additional days off, could work around weather issues more easily.  Also could start the season around April 15th or later.  

Balanced scheduling.  For it.  

 

I wouldn’t be opposed to shrinking the schedule even more. 100-120 game regular season with a hard stop on August 31. Leaving September to be a “March Madness” type playoff system. The WS champion crowned by the first week in October. As they continue to expand the number of playoff teams, the regular season will become less important. 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

1 hour ago, Eicemann said:

To shorten game times & accelerate pace of play, foul balls should NOT be UNLIMITED.  Invoke a maximum limit of foul balls after which the pitcher would be credited with a K and the AB ended.

Also, the sacrifice fly should be eliminated.  The batter should be charged with an AB.  Rarely is a batter "sacrificing" their AB on a SF play.  They're trying to hit the ball as far as possible.  That's not even close to the same thing as laying down a bunt to advance a baserunner.

That is an interesting twist, I like the idea of limiting fouls per at bat. Not sure the sac stat change would increase contact or reduce the number of fly balls, but I like the thought behind using that kind of approach to put more balls in play especially more infield balls in play. That type of change would reduce the shift and increase the number of plays per game (making it more exciting).

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Get rid of instant replay and bring back arguing and make up calls!!