Re: General Discussion

6304
What do people here think of the latest changes to "speed up the game?"
Next year they plan to raise the bottom of the strike zone, and eliminate throwing 4 pitches for an intentional walk.
I don't think the strike zone change will have much of an effect, since umpires seem to call whatever zone they please, regardless of the rule book.

I'm opposed to the walk rule, though. Sometimes a pitcher will throw a wild pitch, and often it seems to affect his ability to find the strike zone after throwing 4 deliberately wide ones. I remember once when I was a kid, somebody, maybe Vic Power, was angry at being walked, and swung at a pitch. I can't remember if he got a hit, though.

Here's an article about others who did that, but Power isn't mentioned:

http://sabr.org/research/surprise-swing ... onal-balls

Re: General Discussion

6313
Didn't Byrd have to pee in a cup before we gave him that lucrative 1 year deal? Base salary was only 1 mil. No big deal! We can afford it.
“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is.”
-- Bob Feller

Re: General Discussion

6314
Byrd took the only offer on the table. Nobody else wanted him.

If they really want to clean up the juice problem, they're going to have to drastically increase the penalty.

80 game suspensions don't scare anybody. Major league salaries make it well worth the chance.

If they added a substantial fine along with the suspension, juicers might not be so dismissive of the rules. Make them return some of the money they took while pretending to be clean.