Tom Verducci Shift Article

I think that for the money the make, hit the ball to the opposite field a few times.  That will take the shift away pretty quick. 

I don't have anything nice to say about Verducci.

Hare brained schemes don't usually make it to print.  Someone should tell his boss.

The defense's job is to get outs any way they can. Verducci? Who cares what he says.

As a Phillies fan I have watched Ryan Howard vs the shift for years. if he and the the Phillies are to dumb to realize he needs to change his approach then he deserves to hit 200.

They are giving you a base hit to left every plate AND Howard will hit 12 to 15 HR to left if he would be willing to drive the ball the ball that way...when he was the MVP he used the whole field - of course that would assume he cares.

Honestly it isn't that hard learn to be a complete hitter and the shift goes away - and it goes away very fast!!

NBA has illegal defense and no goaltending to make sure the game has sufficient offense to stay interesting.  Most team sports have some sort of offensive sided rules regarding penalties for illegal defensive play.  Baseball really doesn't short of the spitball, interference and balk rules.  Only the spitball really makes a big difference although it might be interesting to see guys have to fight their way around the bases.

Purists will scoff out of hand at any tinkering with the rules but I think the game can be improved, particularly the speed of it with some rethinking of how things are now.

Would anybody argue that football would be a better game without the forward pass as the original rules of the game were drawn up?  Or the change in the shape of the ball 60 -70 years ago to make it easier to throw?  I doubt it.

Here are some stuff I think baseball should consider:

1)  Smaller gloves - These guys are so superior particularly in the outfield, that what used to be exceptional is now routine.

2)  Changing the Base on Balls and Strike out from 4 and 3 pitches to 3 to walk and 2 to K.  Make 2-1 the new 3-2.  How much faster would that make things.

3)  Pitch clock - pitcher has to move the ball 15 seconds after getting it back.  Get an at bat down to 45 seconds to a minute.

4)  Liven the ball up a little to compensate for the steroids disappearing

5)  More severe penalty for the base on balls like 2 bases instead of 1 that only moves forced runners.  Treat it like a ground rule double.  Everybody moves two bases.  Imagine what 2nd and 3rd situations become.  Make the pitchers hammer the zone and batters swing the bat.  The best hitters come up 4 or 5 times a game...why on god's green earth does the games rules make it easy to take the bat out of their hands in key situations?  Would the NBA put a rule in that Labron can take 15 shots a game and no more?  Or in the NFL Tom Brady can throw only 25 passes. 

6)  Allow the offense to "reset" the batting order once a game.  At any point during the game the offense can start an inning at the top of the batting order.  So in the 9th inning down by 1 run...if a team has 6,7,8 due...they can opt to start the inning at the top of their batting order and then complete the game under the normal rules. 

7) 90 seconds between innings.  Only pitching changes are excepted.  Pitcher doesn't get 8 warm ups?  Tough crap hustle more and keep it moving. 

I know some of this stuff is "crazy" and will probably never happen but I think baseball needs to consider things like this to do two things....speed up the pace of the game and shorten the duration. The 2 hour 15 minute baseball game is a thing of beauty, but the 3 hour 15 minutes slog is not.  Start the World Series games at 7:30 and get them over by 10.  Kids can watch them. 

None of this would be more crazy than the DH which has been there 40 years.  It is now the National League that is considered having the odd rules by making those lousy hitting pitchers get in the box. 

Ridiculous is the second word that comes out of my mouth on this topic  Life is like baseball, it is about adjustments.  Learn to adjust or they will find someone who can.  Too many of these LH power hitters that Verducci uses as examples are not taking what the defense is giving them.  I'm not sure if it ego or stubbornness, but they could be taking advantage of the situation much better especially with empty bases.  Are there going to be rules about where the outfield plays too or where the catcher is allowed to set his target?  When the defense makes an adjustment then the offense has to make a counter-adjustment.  This is how sports is supposed to work.  Seriously, it time for these players to stop whining about their declining averages and figure it out.

There is three rule changes/enforcements I'd like to see.

1) I'd like to see the first base bag widened for safety reasons.  Half of the bag would be in foul territory a la softball.  This is a safety issue.

2) Umpires enforcing struck body parts in the strike zone.  If the pitched ball is a strike, it doesn't matter if the batter is hit by the pitch.  I see this more in the college game than the pro game.  Umpires need to get some cojones to tell coaches they will be enforcing this before the game starts.

3) If an MLB manager is going to challenge a call,  It must be done within 15 seconds period.  No exceptions.  Let's move on with our lives.

luv_baseball - I enjoyed reading your rule changes and thinking about them.  I like 'out-of-the-box' thinking.

For me however, too many of those would disrupt parts of the game I love.

I like Tom Verducci, but fenway is right, the game is like life, full of adjustments.  The game will adjust and move on.  And BTW, I cannot stand the replay rule this year.  It looks ridiculous to me having a manager coming out to argue (a part of the game I loved) while looking over his shoulder for the thumbs up or down.  Absolutely hate it.

Several of the examples Verducci used are aging or injured players. Most have had exceptional years hitting against the shift. Yet he takes one down year to make a point. So I see a lot of his argument as anecdotal. Then again, I've never cared for Verducci.

The players Verducci noted are power hitters. Obviously the research has been done on how much damage these hitters can do slapping the ball to left versus driving the ball or teams wouldn't shift on them.

Has Verducci done any research on balls hit to the right side that would have been outs rather than hits had the infielders been positioned in a normal position? Of course not. Verducci doesn't do research. He just assumes he's always right.

Just a note on the replay rule: The way it exists now slows down the game too much. It's not just the replay itself. It's the possibility of a replay. Catchers and managers delay the game to give their team a chance to review the play to decide if they should appeal. I expect playoff games this year to run an extra thirty minutes with delay tactics to see if a play should be reviewed.

I don't think I've ever seen a batter get hit in the strike zone at the professional level.

The answer here I think is NFL style replay.  Two coaches challenges per game and you keep getting them if you win them all.  But to avoid the stalling the umpires will have to make sure they keep it moving.

MLB has a rule. If you are right on the appeal the team still has one. If wrong, you're done for the night. It's all the delays leading up to deciding to appeal that annoy me. Baseball has become so slow I have to read while I watch. Last night there was Clay "Human Rain Delay" Buchholtz on the mound. 

Then we need Luvbaseball's cure #3 - The pitch clock!  I really think that is something whose time has come and would do exactly what it is supposed to do.  Pick up the pace of the game without changing "the rules"  although the penalty of a ball for delay's might get some getting used to.

How about a five yard penalty for delay of game? The pitcher would have to move back five yards to pitch.

Probably lops off like 5 minutes a game

Teams should not be in the business of challenging plays and getting calls right should not be part of strategy. There should be an umpire or people up in the press box or whatever and he should just let the umpires on the field know the call is wrong and they should switch it. Solves everything.

Such a rule change regarding the shift is one of the dumbest ideas I've heard in a long time. Other situational shifts including the corners moving in in bunt situations, and outfielders adjusting in and out and left/right have been a part of the game for decades. Why do the power pull guys need to be coddled? It's baseball, a game of skill like no other. These guys need to learn how to do more at the plate than just yank it.

I'd say you are wrong by a factor of 5 or more.  300 pitches in a game +/- if it takes 5 seconds off of each pitch...which would be low I think we are talking 1500 seconds....which is 25 minutes.  With games running close to 3 hours this move alone might bring back the 2 1/2 hour game.

Even if I am wrong by 2X it is still nearly 15 minutes and the game would be infinitely better with the ball being put in play every 10-15 seconds.  Biggest and easiest to implement no brainer there is for the sport. 

Getting the number of pitches per game down too and we are getting somewhere.

If 5 seconds, yes. I'm not sure you can realistically knock off more than a second or two per pitch league wide. So you're looking at 5-10 minutes and that's before MLB teams realize they have 5 more minutes of ad time to sell.

Here's one that will never happen. Give every player a pay cut and eliminate one minute of ads each half inning. That would eliminate seventeen minutes. There are far more ads between innings than there were years ago. When I watch games on mlb.tv there's just a screen stating there's a commercial break between innings without any audio. The between inning break seems like an eternity.

I think a pitch clock is a great idea.  First problem needing correction is getting the batter into the box so he can be pitched to though.

Stay in the box and be ready.  If not...pitcher chucks it down the middle.  STRIKE!  Pitcher screwing around BALL!  Now it is a 10 second clock after a violation.

I might be wrong but given there are nearly 3 hours in a game and 300 pitches that means that the elapsed time per pitch is running close to 30 seconds.  A 15 second clock theoretically cuts that in half.  Realistically the between innings and pitching changes do not make it that linear.  If you put a 15 second clock in the ball will not be delivered at 15 seconds it will be at 10 or 12 especially with runners on base so they cannot time up steals.

I would wager that it would really change the pace of the game for the better and thinking that they could shorten games by 10-15% is very likely if not more.  This website is replete with whining about the batters stepping out and scratching themselves, and pitchers taking too long with the ball.  Stop talking about speeding games up and do something.  Try it in the minors if nothing else. What is the worst thing that happens?  Shorter games in Pawtucket or Scranton- Wilkes Barre.

Just do it!  It should be the first initiative of the new commissioner IMO.

I think it's about 23-24 seconds per pitch. The problem with the clock is when do you start it? Even if it's a 15 second clock, you're realistically looking at averaging 20 seconds. It's just not going to move the needle too much.

Limiting mid inning pitching changes and pick off throws are other ways and my preferred ways to shorten games (if that's your goal).

luv,

I doubt you’d find anyone who wouldn’t like to see baseball games take less time, but ya gotta be real careful about how you do that. There is already a 12 second rule in OBR, and I’m betting even the pitchers and hitters who waste the most time are not violating it very often.

OBR 8.04 When the bases are unoccupied, the pitcher shall deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds after he receives the ball. Each time the pitcher delays the game by violating this rule, the umpire shall call “Ball.”

The 12-second timing starts when the pitcher is in possession of the ball and the batter is in the box, alert to the pitcher. The timing stops when the pitcher releases the ball.

The intent of this rule is to avoid unnecessary delays. The umpire shall insist that the catcher return the ball promptly to the pitcher, and that the pitcher take his position on the

rubber promptly. Obvious delay by the pitcher should instantly be penalized by the umpire.

The problem is twofold. The 1^st part of it isn’t that the pitchers aren’t staying within the 12 second limit. The problem is when the clock starts running. The 2^nd part is that there’s no clock running when runners are on. I’ve only scored 25 complete ML games this season so far, and 42.4% of the pitches have been thrown with runners on. That means the 12 second rule only applies to 57.6% of all pitches. I have a much larger sample for HS, and it’s about 5% higher with runners on. IMHO, what would happen immediately if the rule was applied to ALL pitches is, you’d see an explosion in the running game, with the pitcher rushing to deliver the pitch to avoid a penalty.

So I’m thinking that rather than mess around with stopwatches, a rule change could be made that would make more of a difference than any rule about a clock. Ban batting gloves. From all appearances, batters playing with their gloves is the main reason batters aren’t in the box and ready which takes up more time than pitchers not ready to deliver the ball.

“Ban batting gloves. From all appearances, batters playing with their gloves is the main reason batters aren’t in the box and ready which takes up more time than pitchers not ready to deliver the ball.”

I have been saying for years that Velcro should be banned from the sport, it shouldn’t be used on men’s shoes and should have never have been allowed on a baseball field! 

THIS is the problem. Not the game, the business end of it. Don't change the game because the teams are greedy.

I think OldSkool2's 23-24 seconds is about right.  Stats, quotes the rule book but the rule is vaguely defined because of the everybody has to get set element.  My suggestion is putting definition to the intent of the rule which will force an adjustment by players but is not outrageous.

The solution isn't that tough and shouldn't be over analyzed.  Ball crosses plate without being put in play....Click pitch clock resets to 15 just the same as the NBA shot clock resets when a shot goes in or hits the rim.  If OldSkool is right then my 5 seconds per pitch holds and is on the low side.  It could shorten games by 35 or 40 minutes. 

As for runners on base problem...maybe bump clock to 18 and nothing says the pitcher can't throw over 10 times, he just has to do it by the pitch clock.  Either way the ball is moving around faster.

Cutting back between innings is also a great idea.  Maybe go to 5 warm ups instead of 8.  

Originally Posted by ironhorse:

THIS is the problem. Not the game, the business end of it. Don't change the game because the teams are greedy.

ironhorse,

here’s where PERCEPTION can easily be seen to be different than reality. The program I use to score games also tracks the time from 1 pitch to the next, and I can tell you in the MLB games I’ve score this season, it’s rare for the time between innings to be longer than 210 seconds or 3.5 minutes. Not counting the top of the 1^st inning, there’s been 251 half-innings started. Only 16 have taken longer than 3.5 minutes, and none were more than 4 minutes. I checked our HS team’s last season and out of 171 half-inning started, not counting the top of the 1^st, only 5 were more than 3.5 minutes, and the longest was 221.2 seconds.  

What I’m saying is, I know people may PERCIEVE that its taking forever to get the players in, out and get the inning started, but it really isn’t. Does it take less time for a HS game to switch over? Of course! But I haven’t seen many MLB games where some coach is screaming at the players and threatening them with something to get them going faster.

Could it be done faster? Of course! The quickest I have an MLB switch is 105.1 seconds, and the fastest I have a HS game is 99.4 seconds, so there certainly could be improvement. So maybe you could shave off a few minutes every game which would definitely be a great thing, but it wouldn’t be anything like it would be in BB of FB where they actually stop the clock for business.

luv,

I’ve been doing this for 3 years now, and I tell you, counting from one pitch to the next, with no runners on, it’s very likely pitchers will deliver a pitch between 10 and 20 seconds, trending more toward 15. But there’s no way to control things as simple as a pitcher asking the catcher to rerun the sign, asking for a new ball, the catcher or umpire getting drilled, the catcher going out to the mound, or any of a hundred other things that delay the game.

And it’s even worse with runners on! It’s currently the rage for the pitcher just to hold the ball or step off to control the running game. It works, so I don’t see that ever getting changed.

And BTW, only new pitchers get 8 warmup throws, and it’s been that way for as long as I can remember.