Man prime Ichiro vs a shift

@@ryanquinn1257 that would've been glorious

You could have added two infielders for Tony Gwynn or Rod Carew and they still would've found a hole to put it through

@@norman9291 True but Gwynn and Carew are extremely special players. The precision of spray charts, hitters graphical weak spots and 100Mph 7th inning guys has drastically changed in favor of the low scores. I am fine with them giving some back to hitters. Also if we are being completely fair imagine defenses parking a guy in Gwynn’s favorite hole to hit. Sure he could have adjusted but who knows how difficult it would have been. They had very tractional style defensive structures in the 1980’s.

@@ryanquinn1257 Prime? He could still hit .345 against it today.

Yes, ban commercials. Next, we should grt all baseball players a pony and ice cream as well, right?

Ban the DH if they want to speed up the game.

@@vinceinman7832 What is so speedy about watching a dufus pitcher try to lay down a bunt?

baseball has actually decreased commercials, both in shortening the amount of time between innings and in reducing the number of possible pitching changes

@@sethh5106 they could even do better by having during t6he mid inning change have the announcers read commercial ad copy for 4 ads and institute a half time in which there would be 11 30 second ads and 1 45 sec. ad followed by a game(s) recap etc.

It sure is exciting to watch a guy go for a 30 second jog, do a little dance and point to the sky

yep

imagine dealing with 100 mph splitters

But for the most part only the guys who can hit or pitch well are getting the big money now days.

It starts in college.

That’s literally the majority of MLB batters otherwise this wouldn’t even be a conversation.

yes I like the pitch clock and the other thing get rid of most tv commercials please.

Hitters I think would love it and most pitchers would dislike it expect the ace pitchers.

I get a kick out of how they justify the replays by saying 'we want to make sure we get the call right'. Then use it for the strike zone? 'Well, it's not that important'

Exactly! I was hoping Rich would say that. Pace of play is what he was describing.

The pace of play sucks in the NFL, too, and you never see anyone complain. Hypocrites, all of ya!!

True, but is it the batter or the pitcher that takes longer to get ready? Most batters will step out of the box, readjust their gloves and pads, even if they didn't swing the bat.

@@Vic-Vega plenty of people complain about the speed/length/pace of football games.

@@blackhawk8920 Who? Where??

Baseball is and always has been a leisure sport, and it's better that way.

All three sports you are very different and people love them for different reasons besides most Football games do not end in overtime anyway , I love Hockey but not a fan of the shootout but it is just for regular season games and causal fans seem to like it so no big deal.

cricket now that is a leisure team sport.

Baseball isn’t a hitting contest it’s a scoring contest

I’m a Mariners fan and BEFORE Ichiro was the lead off hitter who batted .350+ … now our lead off hitter is Julio Rodriguez batting .275 with a high OPS

Exit velocity and launch angle don’t mean much if you can’t hit the ball. Exit velocity and launch angle are fake stats invented by agents in order to get more money for their clients who have average or below average ability.

That’s the point though. The shift basically ruined the vast majority of players ability to hit for average because with analytics all the normal holes in the defense are gone. Instead of driving the ball they went to uppercut swings in fields that got smaller and smaller. I agree with Rich, this very well could be the single best thing to happen to baseball. I can’t wait. Hopefully this brings back stolen bases, hit and run, and everything else that made baseball fun to watch.

@@mattbattey4515 The shift doesn’t prevent anyone from hitting for average. Any player who hits for average can beat the shift by sending a base hit down the opposite side of the plate. The shift just lowers the average of power hitters who can only pull the ball to their side of the plate; that is to say, batters who don’t try to hit for average in the first place. In fact, the shift actually challenges these batters to hit for average by laying down a bunt to beat the shift instead of swinging for the fences. Banning the shift will increase the batting average of those power hitters who pull the ball in one direction. But that isn’t the same as batting for average. In fact, it has the opposite effect: making power hitters even more viable than contact hitters.

or any non fast ball pitch.

"I can't hit a ball high and away. Make the strike zone smaller"

What an idiotic comment

@Chris Davis I’m just now getting into baseball, and I’m so confused. I keep seeing people say “the hitters should just hit it where the opposing players aren’t?” Doesn’t that combat the shift effectively? Why did the mlb feel the need to ban it

@@spencbeats4694 It’s just to make the game more exciting. I’m personally against it, because the rule is purely manufacturing action as opposed to it coming naturally. Same with limited throw overs to first. Other than the pitch clock, I think these new rules are stupid. If baseball is fun, you don’t need to change it. If baseball sucks, rules limiting players potential and strategy won’t make it better.

It’s been dreadful to watch

@@cato256 most years of being a 40 something mariners fan.

would anybody really care about that in a positive way.

Also he said the inning lasted 10 minutes 😂 that's an at bat

They already required to face 3 batters

Same for hockey and basketball. Only football airs their games for free.

@@rkid727 Yup. My OTA antenna gets 4-5 NFL games per week. Premiere League 1-2. Sometimes FOX airs MLB, but not always.

Every game is free to watch, as long as you know which websites to go to

You're obviously a Yankee hater, bcuz there's no reason to believe what you're yapping about.

It's all about homeruns brother. Bunch of ego maniacs.

Hey, ya think it could be because professional pitchers are just a lil bit more difficult to hit off of? Jus sayin...

@@RyTrapp0 it's only certain hitters that they play the shift against, because there are many other batters that are capable at the professional level to get a base hit if a huge gap is left open. Your argument is flawed. Banning the shift is the first example of participation trophy mentality entering professional sports.

@@ryanbeckett1175 You literally compared it to batting in little league - get real with that comparison

Well they also played in giant astroturf stadiums with guys throwing 87mph.

The pitch clock will only complicate things and will reduce an insignificant amount of time from the game

I think it reduces like 30 min...

Every game wasn't 10-9

@@kevinrehak7373 it reduced games significantly in the minors

steroids was a part of the increased runs.

As a Mariners fan I with they had done that for every ichiro suzuki game.

Yes you can. Infielder cannot lineup in the outfield & vice versa. Analytics caused this crap.

@@fmbbeachbum8163 nope limited player's caused this and good managers.

It would be like saying you can't blitz anymore in football because the QB might get hurt Ironically...the NFL did change the rules to protect the qb. They adapted to what would be better for the sport ( star qbs not injured) Your example is terrible

@@josereyes1148 They still blitz.

@@ChadKnasinski My point is that they changed the game for what they felt was the betterment of the product. They still blitz but they changed what a legal tackle is in many ways. Its not anything goes and unchanged like you painted.

no ban blitzing schemes.

if homeruns are better then learning to hit singles in a shift keep it. It lead to quicker out and quicker games which is what these people seem to want anyways.

@megatunnage1 oh yeah? How come you can't make money doing it? Asking for a friend?

@megatunnage1 "not that hard to beat the shift" is such an asinine statement. It's very hard at the professional level, not like hitting off a tee smh

Cause pitchers are throwing harder and with more movement than ever despite the mound staying in the same place. The fact is, even at the professional level...it's extremely difficult to do with any amount of consistency, so it's been more competitively viable to keep training to launch the ball out of the stadium rather than hit it opposite field.

If that's your argument when it's harder to hit a baseball than it is to catch one. Why can't the SS or 2B just have better range going forward?

If you’re saying it’s easy to just hit it a certain direction, then you’re not very bright as a baseball fan.

Nah. It’s nothing like that. This is more like removing the holding beyond 5 yards

That’s a bad analogy when football had rules for “illegal formations”.

When defenses change in football, coaches and players adjust. Baseball players have been given a few years to adjust. For whatever reason, they have refused to do it.

@@noelv1976 Not really. His analogy is a pre-snap rule and yours is a post snap rule. It'd be more like banning the zone defense, like basketball did.

The defense dictates the game tho in baseball. The pitcher decides where the ball is thrown

That is natural part of the game

​@@Matthew456E No it isn't. The game was never like that for years. It was 2.5 hours in the 1980's and ballooned up to 4 hours thirty years later. Bloated, boring, and unwatchable.

@@Yeomannn there could been other ways to speed up the game without the use of a clock. There should be no clock in baseball.

@@Matthew456E I agree.

We did just fine without you. Didn't even notice that you weren't watching....

@@dme1016 We? So you own a team? I didn't think so. Because baseball has sure as hell noticed declining ratings and attendance.

@@stevejohnson6248 Welcome back to good ole baseball!

Yeah, he can give myopic, garbage takes all day. And he does.

Facts

Nine defenders. Stick ‘em anywhere you want them. Batters need to stop swinging for the fences, and learn how to hit it where they ain’t.

The problem is baseball is a business. Players get paid to hit HR not bat for average. I agree that the batters should learn to hit them where the fielders aren’t. But HR is what sells tickets and pays the bills so guys are gonna swing for the fences every at bat.

@@bradbennett923 "Chicks dig the long ball."

Automatic ball

And automatic strike if its the batter who isnt ready

Hitters need to practice the skill. This rule is basically is catering to the hitters that are amateurs at one skill. I understand outfield shifts being banned but infield shifts can be practiced being beaten.

Half the pitchers in the league can't throw strikes consistently, never mind pitch where they want too. But to indulge you, If I pitch a pull hitter low and to the outer half of the plate, he is going to pull it weakly into the shift. If he had the brains to poke it the other way, the shift would stop.

That's kinda the point. 🤣

So in your opinion baseball should go extinct like the dinosaurs or dodo? Adapt or die, if these new rules become an abject failure then go back to the old ways, no harm no foul.

Baseball has changed the rules since the beginning of time. You realize they played with a dead ball til 1920? Then some guy named Ruth came along hitting Homeruns and they realized fans loved it, so the whole game literally changed in the 1920’s. Then in 1968, scoring was at an all-time low as Bob Gibson had a 1.12 era. Baseball could feel NFL right behind them so they lowered the mound in 1969 to increase scoring. It’s time for the game to get rid of the nonsense like the shift so it can be entertaining again. Every sport changes to keep entertaining, Baseball is the only sport that gets crap for it.

You're completely missing it... no one said that "baseball" is or needs to change - the MLB is what needs to/will be changing. When the NFL changes their rules - like every damn season - it doesn't impact "all of football". It doesn't impact anything but the NFL. The NCAA doesn't blindly adopt NFL rules, grade school football doesn't blindly adopt NFL rules. These are 2 completely different segments of the sport, frankly there's the professional level - aka the for-profit consumer entertainment side of the sport where the best of the best go - and then there's everything else. 'Purity' is killing the MLB(and the decline of the MLB is hurting baseball...) - if you want purity, go to a college game. The mass general public is watching professional sports for the entertainment, not for the 'purity'. We have a pretty clear relationship with, say the growth of the NFL as they've evolved their rules for entertainment purposes vs the relationship between the MLB not changing a meaningful thing and declining over years and years and years. Evolve or die, there's no other way to put it

@@RyTrapp0 thank you, I misspoke when I generalized "baseball" I meant Major League Baseball.

Lol okay

The problem here is you think these guys can hit the other as if pitches aren’t spinning faster than before and hitting velocity not seen consistently before. It’s hard to hit it the other way when pitchers are purposely hitting their spots to make the hitters pull pitches

@@97NikeSb you might be making too much sense for him bro

@@The_Real_Kal-El Mfs are dumb. These guys are throwing inside to lefties with speed and they want them to slap it the other way when batters have to speed their swing up to even make contact

Honestly I think its more complex than that. Its not just they can't hit to the opposite field. They can if that was their goal. Nowadays with the big velocity and strikeouts, teams can't string hits together, so sure you hit it to the opposite field for a single. Now your teammates have to get probably get 2 more hits to score you. Its much easier to go for power against these power pitchers (that most pitchers are now) where you only need to string together one or two hits, which is more manageable. When you go for power, you generally need to pull it. MLB certaintly incentived this approach with the juiced ball era

@@mistaTVD3199 yep good points for sure. Although unfortunately it just makes me feel like they’re fixing the issue with the wrong solution when it comes to removing shifts. Pitch timer is a much better step in the right direction

no commercials.

Starting pitchers went for 7 innings. It was a better product.

You're boring. Being a troll won't change that.

They get 2. Then you can just walk to second.

If you can't hit the other way, maybe you should learn how instead of pulling the game down to your level

@R L sadly that's what it is.

Baseball was never intended to be played with a third baseman in right field. The defense has nothing to do with it. The analytics team is the one that tells them where to stand. That never used to be the case back in the day. And don’t you think batting averages would be a lot higher than .300 for really great players if they could just aim where they wanted to hit the ball?

@@joshuaevans6065 Whether a player hits an outside pitch the other way is primarily a matter of hitting technique, not aim.

@megatunnage1 I'm sure you realize that Ted Williams was not your typical hitter.

They want more money in their contracts for that.

no it only screws some hitters and it helps the pitchers and defense.

If they can adjust to the shift, why do you think they haven't? You make good points, but these are also the best pitchers in the world throwing ridiculous speeds with crazy movement.

There is such a MASSIVE difference between college and the pros that this comment is just down right silly 😂

I think major league pitching is harder to hit.. just guessing..

Exactly

I agree with everything you said to an extent. You forgot one more thing though ... Cheerleaders!

Nah, I agree with most except the reduce innings and the bats.

@@xaviercopeland2789 Well, increasing the pitchers mound distance will allow more hits, so longer innings. 9 innings would take too long.

@@xaviercopeland2789 Corked bats might be a great idea, instead of aluminum.

@@jeffs4483 that's what I was thinking.Aluminum bats might actually kill some one. To much power. I disagree with salary cap. A league needs historic teams like the yankees and Money Ball braniacs that try to combat them.