Major MLB changes coming?

[BrewCity83]

So the laws of supply and demand don't impact entertainment revenue? Baseball, basketball, and hockey have too much game inventory....doesn't make the individual games important or rare and it means teams are totally out of it with months to go.

I like the post season changes  if you also couple it will a reduction in the regular season schedule to 120 games but played from April 1st to September 30th. That spreads the inventory out, saves wear and tear on the players, minimize the tv revenue erosion, etc.

Yes I get its radical but we live in a different era the game needs to adapt

NO!!!  One of the best parts of the baseball season is the fact that there's a game every day, all summer long.  A new box score to read every morning, a new game to watch or listen to every night.  I don't want to go to an NBA-type schedule where you never know when the next game is.  In baseball, the next game is always tomorrow.  I love that.

[Silent Verbal]

NO!!!  One of the best parts of the baseball season is the fact that there's a game every day, all summer long.  A new box score to read every morning, a new game to watch or listen to every night.  I don't want to go to an NBA-type schedule where you never know when the next game is.  In baseball, the next game is always tomorrow.  I love that.

And how.  The "marathon" aspect of the season, with guys grinding every day, is what makes baseball so great.  Few things are more satisfying than looking at the back of a player's baseball card and seeing that he played in 150+ games for multiple years in a row.  I'd be sad to see it drop even to 154, but 120?  No way.

[WI inferiority Complexes]

Sounds like they don't need to change anything.

[The Sultan]

And how.  The "marathon" aspect of the season, with guys grinding every day, is what makes baseball so great.  Few things are more satisfying than looking at the back of a player's baseball card and seeing that he played in 150+ games for multiple years in a row.  I'd be sad to see it drop even to 154, but 120?  No way.

You're not the guy baseball is trying to keep interested. Or get interested in the first place.

[MUBurrow]

You're not the guy baseball is trying to keep interested. Or get interested in the first place.

This is true, but I'm torn between two sides here - does baseball need to fundamentally change to keep people interested, or does it just need to do a better job marketing what it already has?  It seems crappy that baseball is willing to fundamentally change the structure of its playoffs and season, but hasn't been willing to put guys like Ronald Acuna on huge ad buys.  Imagine the playoff advertising push that featured the young, passionate players x10.  If MLB was willing to shift marketing efforts toward the audience they think these major changes will attract, would those changes even be necessary?

[Silent Verbal]

You're not the guy baseball is trying to keep interested. Or get interested in the first place.

And that's true.

[The Sultan]

This is true, but I'm torn between two sides here - does baseball need to fundamentally change to keep people interested, or does it just need to do a better job marketing what it already has?  It seems crappy that baseball is willing to fundamentally change the structure of its playoffs and season, but hasn't been willing to put guys like Ronald Acuna on huge ad buys.  Imagine the playoff advertising push that featured the young, passionate players x10.  If MLB was willing to shift marketing efforts toward the audience they think these major changes will attract, would those changes even be necessary?

I don't think so. I think baseballs fundamental problem is that the season ends one month too late.

[Pakuni]

This is true, but I'm torn between two sides here - does baseball need to fundamentally change to keep people interested, or does it just need to do a better job marketing what it already has?  It seems crappy that baseball is willing to fundamentally change the structure of its playoffs and season, but hasn't been willing to put guys like Ronald Acuna on huge ad buys.  Imagine the playoff advertising push that featured the young, passionate players x10.  If MLB was willing to shift marketing efforts toward the audience they think these major changes will attract, would those changes even be necessary?

MLB built its 2018 postseason marketing campaign (Rewrite the Rules) around guys like Acuna and then followed up with a similar campaign (Let the Kids Play) to launch the 2019 season.

[Jockey]

MLB built its 2018 postseason marketing campaign (Rewrite the Rules) around guys like Acuna and then followed up with a similar campaign (Let the Kids Play) to launch the 2019 season.

MLB has a marketing campaign?????

They are light years behind the NFL and NBA in this regard. They are also led by an entirely incompetent, lying commissioner. That is why they come up with the "gimmick" of an expanded playoff.

When Trevor Bauer sounds like the good guy, we should all know that something is wrong. And I say that despite Bauer probably changing MLB and its direction more than any player alive.

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/02/12/trevor-bauer-warpath-against-mlb-commissioner-rob-manfred-stupid-decisions/

BOSTON (CBS) — It's not often that an All-Star athlete sits down to record a video specifically to rip the commissioner of his sports league and send it out to the world. It's also not often that an All-Star athlete like Trevor Bauer comes along.


Bauer has gained a notable reputation for being extraordinarily online over the past few years, often engaging in never-ending Twitter beefs and occasionally going too far. Multiple times he has become a human meme, like when he had to leave a playoff start due to excessive bleeding on his pitching hand from an injury suffered while tinkering with his drone, or when he stood behind the mound and chucked a baseball over the center field fence in frustration last summer.

Clearly, Bauer is a little different. It should come as no surprise that if any baseball player was going to sit in front of a white background specifically to rant against MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, it would be Bauer.

In a video for Momentum (a venture co-founded by Bauer), the pitcher used his popular tweet from Monday as a springboard to sit down and rail against Manfred for his failure to understand media, his failure to connect with the younger generation of potential fans, and much more.

Inspired by the leaked potential playoff changes, Bauer revved himself up by pointing out what he considered to be obvious flaws. Then the direction turned toward Manfred personally.

"I just am so beside myself with Rob Manfred and his ridiculous rule changes that he keeps proposing," Bauer said. "We're going to move the mound back two feet, we're going to have a three-batter minimum, we're gonna, oh, get the games under three hours because that's what fans want. Fans don't care if the games are two hours and 57 minutes or three hours."

He added: "You should probably know something about media. You should probably understand what people are connecting with. Since those are the people that voted you in as commissioner, you should probably understand something about media."

Bauer said unlike the NBA, which connects extremely well with younger fans via social media, MLB still lives in the dark ages in terms of allowing content to be posted and shared online.

"[Fans] can't even go to Twitter, where all the young people hang out. You can't even go to social media and see anything about the game," Bauer said. "Steph Curry throws a bounce pass in an NBA game, and it's trending with 1.5 million views five minutes later. And Mike Trout goes and launches himself and robs a homer or something, and you can't find the highlight anywhere online. It's ridiculous."

Bauer took aim at MLB Advanced Media — or BAM — as being a short-sighted business venture where MLB remains in control of all online content.

"Great, you made a lot of money up front, but you centralized all this content and you made people pay for it, you know what you get? You get a missing generation of fans," Bauer said. "You make some money up front, great. And you miss a generation of fans, and the game is losing popularity, especially among young people."

Bauer also expressed frustration at the fact that many people in the Los Angeles area have been unable to watch Dodgers games for years, due to a cable deal.

"Rob, if you understood media, maybe as the commissioner of baseball, you could solve some of these things. Like how in one of your biggest markets, half the fans can't even watch the damn game because of TV deals," Bauer said. "How are we supposed to spread the game, how are we supposed to get people interested — young people, the missing generation of baseball fans — how are we supposed to get them interested in the game when they can't even see the damn game?"

Bauer also said that MLB fails to allow players to express themselves, specifically noting the time MLB enforced what Bauer referred to as "a stupid cleat policy" against Mike Clevinger, who had the audacity to wear cleats with flowers on them during a game.

"I mean, what does it even matter?! Just let the players express themselves! Let them have some personality. You wanna market the game? Don't change it. Don't make the mound 62 feet. Don't make playoffs where you have to pick your opponent and frickin whatever. Don't change the game. Market the players," Bauer urged. "You have more players in baseball than any other league, which much more diverse backgrounds worldwide, more so than any of the other major American sports. And it's the least marketable. It's because you make stupid decisions about how you market the players."

Certainly, insisting that the commissioner does not understand the media industry while also plainly stating that the commissioner makes "stupid decisions" is sure to get Manfred's attention. Nevertheless, Bauer pressed further.

"You don't open it up. Let content go, get it out there. Quit with the stupid cleat policy, the stupid BAM policy, blackouts all over the place — and that's just dealing with content that we already have available. Like, where's the innovation in content? Where's the next thing that's going to draw fans in? Who's innovating? Who's creating something new? Who's trying to identify with the young fans?" Bauer asked. "Instead we're going to have a game, if the game is three hours and one minute, no good. But two hours and 59 [minutes] is good, and that's going to make it more appealing. Move the mound back. Or three-batter minimum. Whatever else other stupid ideas are coming out. I don't know."

Just to drive the point home, Bauer closed his rant by sending one more message directly to Manfred.

"So, Rob, if you're watching this video, — you probably won't, because you don't even have a pulse on the game that you're commissioner of," Bauer said. "But if you're watching this video and you wanna talk about some stuff, you want some recommendations, hit me up. I'm sure you can get in contact with me. I'm sure you'll probably be fining me or something like that. So that's it. That's all I got to say. Frickin ... "



Manfred is currently still trying to wrap up his investigation of the Red Sox. Meanwhile, as new reporting emerges about the Astros, his Houston investigation appears to have had some holes. He and the league have expressed a desire to implement and enforce new policies regarding the use of video during games, in an effort to curb players' use of video to try to decode sign sequences during games. It's a whole significant matter that's seemingly taken priority for Manfred this offseason.

But now, Manfred has this to deal with. And if he knows anything about Bauer's history, he should know that this won't be a one-time thing. A philosophical battle with the sport's most outspoken player is probably not something Manfred is eager add to his list of duties. But Bauer's video was so direct, so blunt, and so personal that the commissioner will ultimately have no choice but to address it.

It's almost as if ... Bauer has proven ... that social media can be used ... to generate loads of attention ... for a sport that desperately needs it. Interesting.

[MUBurrow]

MLB built its 2018 postseason marketing campaign (Rewrite the Rules) around guys like Acuna and then followed up with a similar campaign (Let the Kids Play) to launch the 2019 season.

Exactly - I'd like to see this kind of marketing focus take hold for awhile before instituting major changes to the game to capture that audience.  These panicked moves infer that there isn't anything for that audience to like about the current game, and I just don't think that's true.  What if MLB put 1/100th as many resources in establishing footholds in American youth baseball, for example, as they do overseas?  That's always seen as only a player development strategy, but it also serves to really boost the popularity of the game too.

[Uncle Rico]

Nobody hates baseball more than the people in charge of baseball

[The Sultan]

It's almost as if ... Bauer has proven ... that social media can be used ... to generate loads of attention ... for a sport that desperately needs it. Interesting.

I mean, I get all that.  But the issues with baseball are deeper than letting Mike Trout's great catch trend on Twitter. 

[Jockey]

I mean, I get all that.  But the issues with baseball are deeper than letting Mike Trout's great catch trend on Twitter.

You're right up to a point. But sports is about generating excitement and MLB lags way behind. Social Media is even more important because of the fact that MLB doesn't have as many "exciting" plays as the NBA or NFL. They need to push excitement when they can, but can't do it because the upfront money they got was more important to billionaires than the future of the game.

As Rico said, "Nobody hates baseball more than the people in charge of baseball".

Furthermore, integrity matters - even to young people. And we can all see that Manfred is nothing more than a lying grifter. But. of course that goes back to Rico's point about the owners since Manfred works for them. He is simply an apt extension to Selig.

[The Sultan]

You're right up to a point. But sports is about generating excitement and MLB lags way behind. Social Media is even more important because of the fact that MLB doesn't have as many "exciting" plays as the NBA or NFL. They need to push excitement when they can, but can't do it because the upfront money they got was more important to billionaires than the future of the game.

As Rico said, "Nobody hates baseball more than the people in charge of baseball".

Furthermore, integrity matters - even to young people. And we can all see that Manfred is nothing more than a lying grifter. But. of course that goes back to Rico's point about the owners since Manfred works for them. He is simply an apt extension to Selig.

I don't agree with what Rico said.  Social media strategy is a problem, but where Bauer is mistaken is that the biggest problem is that eyeballs stop watching when the game is supposed to matter the most - the post-season.  This is the essential problem that baseball is trying to solve.

And that's where the national television money plays a part.  And they want to make sure to keep generating that money by having more product (more games) and giving more people a reason to watch the games (because their team is involved.)  It doesn't help that it has become a very localized product - which has been great for the wallets of some of these teams but not great for the development of the game.

[Cheeks]

Nobody hates baseball more than the people in charge of baseball

NFL and NBA are centralized in control.  MLB is not which has hurt them for a long time..When I worked for the Angels we had to rally support from the Yankees, Dodgers, While small market teams were wildly suspicious to get things done. 

With so much revenue coming from local RSN deals that do not go into a central bucket, it is often every team for themselves.


John Skipper spoke to us yesterday and had some interesting comments about the leagues and their ruling power.  MLB's setup is in trouble and not just because the game is boring to a generation that cannot sit still for 2 minutes.  They have structural problems in revenue sharing and tv deals that leave them very vulnerable.

[CTWarrior]

I don't agree with what Rico said.  Social media strategy is a problem, but where Bauer is mistaken is that the biggest problem is that eyeballs stop watching when the game is supposed to matter the most - the post-season.  This is the essential problem that baseball is trying to solve.

And that's where the national television money plays a part.  And they want to make sure to keep generating that money by having more product (more games) and giving more people a reason to watch the games (because their team is involved.)  It doesn't help that it has become a very localized product - which has been great for the wallets of some of these teams but not great for the development of the game.

As far as the regular season, baseball has long been a local sport.  I have 162 games of my favorite team I can watch.  I am not going to watch a random regular season game on ESPN.  After all, how many freaking baseball games can I watch?

For the postseason. if I am an East Coast casual fan with no rooting interest, why am I going to watch a postseason weeknight game that ends at 1 in the morning, with two more coming later in the week?  Personally, I watch most of the postseason and all of the World Series because I love baseball.  But I have a limit of what I will put up with, though I haven't reached it yet.  I have a lot of friends who love baseball but have stopped watching the postseason except when their team is involved just because the games end too late. 

I like the idea of MLB trying to speed up the game, but their moronic ham-handed attempts are ridiculous.  It is easy as pie.  Just don't let the batters take a stroll between pitches.  You don't want to step in the box, let the pitcher pitch without you in it.  They used to call Mike Hargrove the human rain delay for the time he took to get ready between pitches.  All nine guys do that now and a lot are worse.

Finally, when you're at the ballpark, the length of games don't bother me at all.  But when I'm watching on from home I find myself thinking "Pitch the f'in ball already!" all the time.

[The Sultan]

As far as the regular season, baseball has long been a local sport.  I have 162 games of my favorite team I can watch.  I am not going to watch a random regular season game on ESPN.  After all, how many freaking baseball games can I watch?

Back in the day you didn't watch 162 games though right?  Growing up in Wisconsin, I probably got to see 50 or so Brewer games, almost all on the road.  I watched the Saturday afternoon game, Monday night game, and stuff like This Week in Baseball.  So I knew who the national players were.

I watch WAY more baseball now than I did back then.  But they are 99% Brewer games.  If Mookie Betts or Mike Trout walked into my office right now, I would have no idea who they were.  I think that's the problem that Cheeks is referring to.

I watch other NFL games.  Pretty much every weekend.  I watch other NBA games.  But mostly during the extended playoffs.

This is what MLB is trying to fix.

[Spotcheck Billy]

So the 3 batter rule is a go and no expanding the rosters in September.

[Cheeks]

I've been able to watch 150+ games for decades out here.  Angels or Dodgers.


8 official rule changes for 2020


https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2876002-mlb-announces-rule-changes-for-2020-season-including-3-batter-minimum-for-rps

[CTWarrior]

Back in the day you didn't watch 162 games though right?  Growing up in Wisconsin, I probably got to see 50 or so Brewer games, almost all on the road.  I watched the Saturday afternoon game, Monday night game, and stuff like This Week in Baseball.  So I knew who the national players were.

I watch WAY more baseball now than I did back then.  But they are 99% Brewer games.  If Mookie Betts or Mike Trout walked into my office right now, I would have no idea who they were.  I think that's the problem that Cheeks is referring to.

I watch other NFL games.  Pretty much every weekend.  I watch other NBA games.  But mostly during the extended playoffs.

This is what MLB is trying to fix.

Exactly, I had access to maybe 40 games a year.  So I would watch the Game of the Week on Saturday and the Monday night game and TWIB if I didn't have anything else to do.  You know an NBA game is going to take 2 1/2 hours, you know a football game is going to take a little over 3 hours.  But baseball games, especially postseason games, take forever.  And most of that time is spent waiting for someone to get in the box, which is horrible to watch.  They have to fix it.

[The Sultan]

Exactly, I had access to maybe 40 games a year.  So I would watch the Game of the Week on Saturday and the Monday night game and TWIB if I didn't have anything else to do.  You know an NBA game is going to take 2 1/2 hours, you know a football game is going to take a little over 3 hours.  But baseball games, especially postseason games, take forever.  And most of that time is spent waiting for someone to get in the box, which is horrible to watch.  They have to fix it.

Yep.  I agree with that. 

[WI inferiority Complexes]

you know a football game is going to take a little over 3 hours.  But baseball games, especially postseason games, take forever.  And most of that time is spent waiting for someone to get in the box, which is horrible to watch.  They have to fix it.

The average NFL game lasts 3 hours and 12 minutes, (with 11 total minutes of game action).  The average length of a MLB game was 3 hours and 5 min.

[Benny B]

The average NFL game lasts 3 hours and 12 minutes, (with 11 total minutes of game action).  The average length of a MLB game was 3 hours and 5 min.

I assume that's 11 total minutes from snap (or kick) to the whistle?

What's the equivalent for baseball?
(And what's defines game action... does it start at every pitch, or only when the ball is put in play?)

[WI inferiority Complexes]

I assume that's 11 total minutes from snap (or kick) to the whistle?

What's the equivalent for baseball?
(And what's defines game action... does it start at every pitch, or only when the ball is put in play?)

According to the WSJ, it's 11 minutes for a NFL Game, and 18 minutes of a MLB game.  (I'm not sure what they use to determine "game action."

https://www.nationalsarmrace.com/?p=475

[The Sultan]

According to the WSJ, it's 11 minutes for a NFL Game, and 18 minutes of a MLB game.  (I'm not sure what they use to determine "game action."

https://www.nationalsarmrace.com/?p=475

But football is all about the anticipation building between plays and the intensity of the play once it starts.  The entire team is involved.  Baseball is different in that way.  The "action" can oftentimes involve very few people.  This is why when people claim that soccer has 90 minutes of action, and a great deal of that action is a bunch of short passes that don't lead anywhere, that I think these kind of stats are bogus.  And I like soccer!

Put it this way, pace of play is brought up repeatedly as a problem in baseball.  The length of games has grown over the course of the last few decades which means it slower than its "natural" pace.  Football games take basically the same time now as they did 40 years ago.