Baseball Needs a Jui Jitsu Move

Point is the anecdotal evidence writ large is something doesn't jive with audiences and fans. So they can keep trying to find data that predisposes support for their current trajectory, or they can take a critical look at the systemic state of things based on actuals, as in actual fan popularity.

By some objective accounts, the game's relative popularity as an entertainment choice in sports or otherwise, is waning, and they are busy adding new menus and more expensive boxes at the ballparks.

Regardless of time spent, the game is still largely not about tactics. The number of runs scored--predominantly via the long ball, which is indisputable--make those nuances meaningless.

I loved the game it used to be, which is maybe why I now almost exclusively play ATG and can't even sit through a live game for more than an inning or two. The days of anticipating the joy watching Mel Allen's This Week in Baseball--that is long gone. Or watching any random ballgame on NBC on a weekend with Garagiola, Scully, etc. Long gone. Playing pickup games after school (heck in my county we now have as many cricket and soccer fields as baseball). Gone.

I don't think that is an old guy reminiscing--first because I am not that old--second because clearly baseball has lost ground in people's lives in a relative sense.

What is clear--is everyone here loves the game...I guess we agree on that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axRDHCK34HA
Sep 22, 1984
The days!

Of course--they still did not draw big crowds in small markets...but I don't think they ever addressed that problem.

Life has speeded up. Other sports have more action. I dont think these are fixable issues. Even if baseball went back to the way it used to be, I doubt it would regain its former preeminence. It's football, basketball...and everything else.

Anyway, the fix is fairly easy: lower the mound. That will reduce strikeouts and put more balls in play.

I would have also thought that we would have better camera technology by now to give viewers more of an experience of what the batter is seeing or what the fielder sees. It still feels rather detached from the action.

True

There is one thing that perfectly sums up why major league baseball isn't as much fun to watch as it used to be.

If the infield shifted around to thwart a pull hitter, all you'd need to do to beat the shift is lay down a bunt the opposite way. What we get now is a heavy dose of infield shifts, and yet no one tries to take advantage of it. Why?

It's almost as if the players would prefer to go down swinging or ground out to a guy in short right field than square around and tap one halfway down the third base line. Do they even teach them how to bunt, or try to use this as a tactic anymore?

I always ask....why don't they just hit it to the opposite field lor bunt...the answer i get is always its not that easy...of course it isn't just that easy...you have to work hard on it and practice it....but everyone is so worried about launch angle and plate dicipline and no one takes pride in not striking out.

The 3 true outcomes of baseball are truly boring...though i am a fan of home runs

It's not slo-pitch softball where you can easily direct where the ball is going. It's a 95 mile plus fastball. If youre going to bunt, you got to make sure it gets past the pitcher and you got to hit it fairly hard and keep it fairly close to the line. It's one thing to just deaden the ball in around the plate for a sacrifice. You got to direct it pretty well and not deaden the contact too much. If you havent been doing this a lot, this would take a lot of effort to get decent at. And you dont get big contracts by spending a lot of time working on bunting. I am sure the defense would just love for one of the other team's good hitters to be trying to bunt to get on. The article below indicates bunting when done has not been effective.

Messing with the swing is even more problematic. They have worked endlessly on it. It's been their meal ticket to the big leagues. Theyre now going to tinker with it and try to hit it the other way? I still play Geezer baseball (well, until recently) and it's one thing to hit the other way to move a player to third baseball. That's still done in baseball. But timing it so you dont hit it foul or to the shortstop (played by the third baseman) for left-handed batters is problematic. The type of player who has that kind of bat control is not getting shifted against, anyway.

Interetingly enough, it's not even clear that the shift is working. Batters appear to be adjusting to try to put even more focus on putting the ball in the air. One more point: pulling the ball in the air has extremely productive outcome for hitters while hitting the ball in the air the opposite way has very bad outcomes on average.

Hitters keep pulling against the shift not because they're stubborn but because pulled fly balls are effective at producing runs. The defense has sort of won if they get a hitter to go away from that...unless they are a very good bunter OR they have extremely good bat control. And, again, those kinds of players are not being shifted against, anyway.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/fivethirty ... r-own/amp/

I'm not really sure I agree that batters are ok with striking out. You cannot survive in the big leagues unless you have a good idea of the strike zone, ability to lay off breaking pitches, ability to have decent at-bats where you are fouling off pitches and taking tough pitches. The type of batter who goes down easily when there are two strikes on him is not going to last. There certainly is a willingless to trade power for striking out more but every hitter hates striking out. It's one of the worst feelings in sports. But pitchers are really good and power has been the counter to that and you got to take big swings to generate power. And that leads to more ks.

Bunting is not an extremely difficult skill to learn for these gifted athletes. If a pull hitter demonstrates the willingness to beat the shift by laying down a bunt, the opposing team will be forced to stop employing a defensive shift against him. It's a win-win for the batter. He gets a few gifted bunt singles at the beginning, and no defensive shift afterwards.