Twins GFP

The bunting was an example. If the MLB higher ups that that more bunting would appease what they wanted to see, they would institute rules to make bunting easier. All I can tell you is expect to be floored, stunned, any other adjective you want to put in describing your disagreement with me. Watch any game when shifts where allowed, the 3rd baseman is playing 15 feet from 2nd base. and the batter was still trying to pull the ball. They did that because of their inability to bunt. Instead of forcing the batters to learn how to bunt and let the game adjust organically, they force through changes covering for inefficiencies. Every left-handed pitcher balks on pickoff attempts. Instead of enforcing the rules in place, or making a simple adjustment like putting a 45 degree line helping the umpires determine foot placement, they make a massive rule change limiting PO attempts. Lastly, your statement about players trying to maximize every area of improvement comes from an (evidently) lack of understanding of the nature of professional sports. Players do not maximize all of their abilities, they maximize the ones that will make them the most money. Right now that is pitchers throwing hard, not pitching, and batters hitting home-runs, not hitting. When the cost-benefit of those items change (and they will because they always do), they will focus on other areas. In EVERY professional sport, technology is changing how athletes and teams prepare. The NBA has seen huge rise in 3 point shoots because of the shot value. The NFL has seen less reliance on the running game for similar-type reasons. Those leagues are not making changes every year to "fix" those perceived issues. They are letting the game adjust and change before making massive changes. The MLB has been much quicker to use new rules to fix perceived problems then other sports in letting the athletes and teams work through these changes on their own. (The NFL makes dozens of rule changes every year, but most of those revolve around player safety and technology usage).

Sorry Brock: Eliminating the shift - 100% due to lack of hitting ability Changing the pickoff rule - Enforcing the rules on the books would have gone a long way towards encouraging more SB. But this is very arbitrary. Why not make it easier to bunt by forcing the 3B/1B to stay back? Full-time DH - Pitchers chose not to work on their hitting. It also eliminated a huge portion of situational strategy that takes away from the game. Lots of decent hitting pitchers out there. The three-hitter minimum (yes, reduces pitching changes) would not be needed if hitters were better at matchups. More so than any other sport, situational strategy was one of the strongest points in baseball. By taking away team's situational advantages, the game has become very homogenized. Throw hard, hit HR. Look at that state of the NBA for proof that eliminating strategy from your game does not work in the long run. Every team runs the exact same offense, the exact same sets. The skill set is uniform across the board. Winning is about being more athletic, manipulating the officials, and having more popular players. The product is horrible.

Or just keep doing what they are doing. The extreme specialization that baseball has fallen into is kind of sad: - Don't like pitchers being poor hitters? Instead of forcing pitchers to learn how to hit, implement a new universal DH rule! Unless you are Ohtani, then you get a special rule just for you! - Don't like the defense shifting? Instead of forcing batters to learn how to hit, implement a new defensive position rule! - Don't like situational pitching? Instead of of forcing batters to learn how to hit, implement a new 3 hitter minimum rule! - Don't like the drop in stolen bases? Instead of forcing runners to learn how to steal and enforcing balks against LHP, implement a rule limiting pickoff attempts! I am not curmudgeon wanting a return to the 1970's. Pitch timers, ABS, catcher protection rules, replay... all awesome. But MLB needs to force it's players to learn how to play instead of changing rules to accommodate lesser quality players.

One of the top five most quotable movies ever made.