{"id":10215,"date":"2015-01-27T10:29:36","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T15:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10215"},"modified":"2015-01-27T10:33:33","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T15:33:33","slug":"one-day-on-the-job-three-dumb-things-already-said-or-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=10215","title":{"rendered":"One day on the job … three dumb things already said or done"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ManfredSelig\"<\/a>

Out with the old, in with the … same? Photo via nydailynews.com<\/p><\/div>\n

So, I see that new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred <\/strong>is picking up right where the oft-clueless Bud Selig<\/strong> left off.\u00a0\u00a0 On his first week on the job, he was quoted as saying two rather ridiculous things and doing something even dumber:<\/p>\n

1. He’s open to “banning defensive shifts<\/a>”<\/p>\n

2. He thinks baseball will eventually return<\/a> to Montreal.<\/p>\n

3. He appointed Fred Wilpon<\/strong> to be the head of the sport’s Finance committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I need to go deeply into why #1 is a ridiculous statement; plenty of others in the blogosphere have done that already.\u00a0 I’ll just say this: there’s a reason defensive shifts work, and its because batters have become far, far too one-dimensional at the plate.\u00a0 There’s a very simple, easy method for defeating defensive shifts; bunting.\u00a0 Watch Robinson Cano<\/strong> bunt for a casual double<\/a> against a shift in Boston: he barely tried to get the bunt down, just essentially punching the ball towards a vast gap left open by the too-clever Boston infield.\u00a0 There’s not even a fielder in the camera’s field of sight by the time the ball runs by the bag.\u00a0 I didn’t see this game live, but i’ll bet Boston didn’t try this shift on him again.\u00a0 If they didn’t, and I’m the starting pitcher … I’m probably not throwing another pitch until I see a conventional infield again.\u00a0 As far as Cano goes … its a line-drive in the books right?<\/p>\n

And that’s all it will take.\u00a0 If every pull hitting lefty would just punch a couple of bunts towards the vacated third base position, the defensive shifting probably would drastically reduce.<\/p>\n

If you’re *for* the banning of defensive shifts … how exactly would you do it?\u00a0 Put dotted lines on the field and make players stay in their positions until the ball is pitched?\u00a0 We’re talking about a game that’s existed for decades without such a need.\u00a0 How would you police it?\u00a0 How would you account for players running out of position to cover bunts?\u00a0 When the pitcher is up, is the 3rd baseman allowed to creep in?\u00a0 How much?\u00a0 What if someone fake-bunts and suddenly players are out of their “zones?”\u00a0 If someone cheats out of position, do you just give the player a ball or a base?\u00a0 How does that change the decades-old score keeping?\u00a0 That’s just a few of the implementation questions that would make this a non-starter to realistically force-feed into the game.<\/p>\n

Look; if you want to tilt the power back to batters (and that’s what this is really about, right?\u00a0 Offense is down, strikeouts are up), then do what they did back in the late 60s.\u00a0 Lower the mound.\u00a0 Shrink the strike zone (actually … don’t shrink it, just frigging call it like it should be called and stop giving guys who throw 100 a ball off the outside corner).\u00a0 Or work the ball a little bit so that it plays better (wind it tighter, make the seams lower, etc).\u00a0 I don’t think you’re going to be able to turn back the clock on match-up relievers, power arms out of the bullpen, etc, but there are things you can do to keep the game on a level playing field.<\/p>\n

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As far as baseball returning to Montreal … I just can’t see how it would work given the current state of finances in Baseball.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes Montreal is a huge city (Just to mention a couple of non-insignificant barriers:<\/p>\n