Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Just make the goddamn fields bigger. It's clear as day.
Make the fields bigger and you'll take away those cheap moonshots that are mis-hit and sneak out anyway. Push CF out to about 435 and LF/RF to about 360.
You've encouraged two things: 1) Hitters who aren't power hitters will stop overswinging because suddenly 205 lb guys won't be accidentally hitting opposite field bombs anymore. They'll have to take sound approaches and actually put bat on ball. 2) Hitters will have a TON of grass to hit at. There will be doubles and triples all over the place out there because outfielders will have a ton more ground to cover.
As a result, you know what happens? ATHLETES MATTER AGAIN!!! You'll suddenly care about having fast guys in your OF who can cover those massive gaps and get themselves far enough back to not have to play at the wall and cede singles in front of them. And then once you reward athleticism again, you'll have rosters full of fast, agile guys. And the majority of fast, agile guys aren't Mookie Betts or Mike Trout. They're 15 HR threats who's body styles should have them hitting liners and looking for extra bases or steals.
The game will be so much more exciting. You can still have guys throwing 100 mph, you'll still have genuine power hitters who can still take aim at the extended fences. But you won't have every damn utility infielder in the league with a shot at 10 bombs in a season of part-time ABs while looking like they'd struggle to hit a ball hard in slow pitch softball.
You'll have fewer homers so suddenly walks are not as critical because its still gonna take effort to get that guy on 1st home. You'll have fewer guys with short stops through the hitting zone because now a flat path through the zone rewards you with a really good chance at a single, double or even triple.
The game will just be better.
Teams move fences all the time. Only the Bosox can physically not do so because of Landsdown and even that I'm not 100% positive of. They can't get to 360 in all likelihood but if you yank the damn monster seats out of there, you can probably push it back to 340 or so.
Deadening the ball is another possibility but doesn't encourage the addition of speedsters to fill in gaps in the OF.
Obviously this will never happen because ownership thinks kids and chicks dig the long ball. But the dirty little secret is that kids and chicks largely don't give a shit about baseball unless and until they're introduced to it by their dad/boyfriend. Y'know, the crusty old 'traditionalists' like me.
You lose people like me and you can forget about the kids and women you're trying to pull in around the peripherals. And for baseballs owners, it's high time they realize that loss is closer than they think.
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Individual teams in small markets should try this, the Royals among them.
Move the fences back out. Build your team around speed, pitching, and defense. Have a significant home park advantage, while providing an entertaining product that's fun to watch and reliant on a less sought-after type of player.
You'll take lumps on the road, of course, if you have a team really keyed and geared this way. But athletic players who hit line drives can adapt a lot better to playing in smaller parks than unathletic teams who rely on HR can adapt to playing in a cavernous field.
I think the extreme overshifting is also an issue. It further decreases the value of the speedy contact hitter because teams can position their entire IF to minimize the value of that hitter unless they have superb bat control. I don't like the idea of taking away the shift, but placing some sort of limit on it would make the game more exciting and strategic, too.
If I have a limited number of shifts to call, I'm probably not going to use one of them to cover the 5-hole on a RH contact hitter, or cover the 3.5 hold on every LH hitter.