I enjoy going to a ball game on occasion. I went to one yesterday. We were losing (Astros) and in the last inning, while we were at bat, the catcher left home plate to talk to the pitcher. The crowd BOOOOOOOOOOOOED. I mean REALLY BOOOOOOOOOOED.
Is the catcher and pitcher talking strategy a bad thing?
It is if they’re winning. It’s like calling a time out when you’re ahead. Hardly any strategy is discussed in those mound visits. They’re just an opportunity to give the pitcher a chance to compose himself.
IMHO, this depends on how much the lead is.
If a team is up by 10 runs, it may be bad sportsmanship. But if leading by only 1 or 2 runs - and especially, if, say, there are runners on base, it is perfectly reasonable for the pitcher and catcher to do everything they can to maximize their performance.
Looking at the box score, I see that the Giants had a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the ninth. In no way is the game out of reach for the Astros. Get a runner on base, and the tying run is coming up to the plate. It might be prudent for the Giants to take a moment to talk about how to deal with the current batter.
Yeah, if that’s the case then it was totally reasonable.
It’s a minority opinion, but I have come to feel rather strongly opposed to any and all timeouts in baseball–stepping out of the box, managerial (or teammates’) mound visits, strategy sessions in general. I think it enhances the athletic qualities of the game to force players to do their thinking as the game progresses (or beforehand) rather than to slow the game down at all to compensate for players’ inability to figure out on their own what they need to try to do.
Only when the other team does it?
This is the correct answer. In particular, when the away team does it.
I went back and watched. With one out, Doval started the count out 0-2 against Bregman, then threw 3 straight balls to make it 3-2. With 1 second left on the pitch clock, the catcher called time to go talk to Doval. The crowd was clearly reacting to the delay tactic.
Ah, so it was a tactic to avoid a pitch clock violation that would have walked the batter. Yeah, I would be looking askance at that.
I don’t think that that’s a minority opinion – it’s the primary reason why MLB finally instituted a pitch clock this year (and instituted a limit on mound visits a few years ago).
Baseball games had gotten substantially longer (averaging over three hours a game as of last year), with no increase in the amount of actual action; the pitch clock has improved pace-of-play dramatically this season, and served to limit the number of times a batter can step out of the box, cut down on pitchers wandering around off the rubber, etc.
No, it wasn’t - Doval was clearly about to start his pitch. It just appeared to be a tactic to avoid a violation.
The degree to which I want the game sped up is a minority opinion. I think it’s a more exciting and better spectacle for fans to watch if the action is set at an almost breakneck speed, Batters forbidden to leave the box for any reason other than injury (for which they’re allowed one time-out per game–and if the time out lasts more than a minute, they must leave the game and miss the next one, too), pitchers forbidden to dawdle, catchers and infielders forbidden to huddle on the mound, managers absolutely verboten on the field. etc/
OK, yeah, that is definitely a minority viewpoint. 
Fans boo balls and strikes calls even though they can’t see shit. I wish I could say that Houston fans are the idiots, but it’s universal. For instance, fans boo when the opposing pitcher tosses to first, but they don’t when their own pitcher does it. It makes sense, but it’s still stupid.
Definitely zanier. More madcap.
Yakety Sax walk-up music.
I dig.
I’m with you on that minority opinion. I would also like to see pitchers being allowed to throw pitches when the batter is not suspecting - that as soon as the umpire signals that the batter has arrived and his feet are set, then any time the batter is distracted, the pitcher would be permitted to throw, and if the batter is caught off guard, too bad.
Booing the opposing pitcher’s throws to first is a long-standing fan stupidity. Booing visits to the pitcher’s mound and the prospect of a reliever coming in must also be booed, because we’ve got the current pitcher on the ropes and gee, it’s not fair to give him a moment to compose himself to take him out just when we were going to score runs. 
On the other hand, booing your team’s star player(s) when they’re going through a slump makes great sense, because it gives them incentive to try harder. 
Yes! Much greater chance of death. That’s what baseball is missing.
You’re not seriously proposing that MLB batters, having stepped inside the batter’s box, should safely be blithely unaware that a pitch might be directed towards them at any moment? I think that is Lesson # One taught in Little League.