Off-Topic Forum

I'm dead against it.  I don't like it, never will.  As a previous post mentioned, no way will this speed up the game.

While they are at it why not give the batter the choice which base to start with? Hit the ball and run to third like the late great Max Patkin used to do.

Is this proposed rule coming about because pitchers and catchers don't seem to care when there are no runners on base? I'm not a fan of it but I don't love the number of wild pitches / passed balls that are happening now either. Still, seems like they are inventing solutions to things that are not problems. 

My sentiments exactly

I hate all these “fixes” for speeding the game up. One of the beauties of baseball is that it doesn’t have a clock. If they were truly intent upon speeding it up, they’d decrease the advertisements. Trust me, it doesn’t take over 2 minutes to get ready for a new inning. Pitcher comes out, throws 5-6 pitches, and you’re good.  Doing the math, even subtracting out 30 seconds for an extremely slow trot to the mound, that would mean the pitcher has 95 seconds in the regular season (115 for a nationally televised game and 145(!!!) for postseason games) which for 6 pitches is about 16 seconds per pitch, which when the pitcher is throwing whatever he wants to the catcher (no signs being given, not really worried about location) should be absolutely no problem. In fact, he could probably go 10 seconds per pitch.  The exception of course is if a new pitcher comes into the game to start an inning (8-9 pitches required, extra time to jog in from the pen at most fields.) So, why won’t the MLB only extend those commercial breaks for new pitchers? Money, they are more concerned with money than their futile attempt to speed up the game. So instead they are starting to relying on gimmicks to speed it up. 

Now, to rant about the “stealing first” thing: just no, stop it. That’s not baseball. I’ll admit it’s an interesting idea that if it was in the rules since the beginning of baseball wouldn’t be noticed, but it wasn’t. It adds nothing really to the game except yet another slight disadvantage to the pitcher (say goodbye for good to knuckleballers, don’t want to risk a wild pitch/passed ball every pitch!) Really, what I dislike is not the idea itself, but the intent. The MLB is thinking of adding gimmicks to attract “new fans” (the same ones who will flip on first two innings of the last game of the World Series when the Yankees or Dodgers play) in hopes they will pay attention for more than a week (they won’t), while completely changing the game for baseball purists. Just stop it, not even the NBA makes up gimmicks like this. 

...I feel better now

Slug03

Well stated!  Your rant made me feel better, too