Also, maybe the top few teams in each division get a bye to the 5 game series.
Which schedule was that? Now, the Yankees will play 19 games each against the other four teams in the AL East. Back when there were two divisions, they would play 13 games each against the other six teams in the AL East, and 12 games each against the seven teams in the AL West. I like that sort of distribution much better.
Let’s speed up the game and cut down on pitching changes. RickJay helped me make this into a real looking rule:
With the overall intent being to not change pitchers for every batter late in the game.
I apologize, your grace, but I am slow of wit. I don’t understand this proposal (that is, I literally can’t visualize the system you’re suggesting). Can you clarify, perhaps with specific examples, for those of us not able to fully apprehend the Royal Vision?
If I were king?
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Realignment. Baseball expands by one team in the AL and one in the NL - specifically, we’re resurrecting the Montreal Expos and adding a brand new team in Latin America. Interleague play is eliminated entirely. Within each league, there will once again be two divisions of eight teams each. Each team plays a total of 6 games each against each of the 8 teams in the other division, and 16 games each against their seven division opponents (the season is now 160 games long, rather than 162). No wild cards. Four teams make the playoffs - the four division winners.
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Playoffs are in the 2-3-2 format. There are no off days, and the series run concurrently, such that the entire series is over in 7 actual days (unless there is a rainout).
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This is minor, but the King hereby decrees that the excruciatingly stupid scheduling thing wherein a team has an off day immediately following their first game is eliminated forever. Also, whoever came up with that idea is fired, if (s)he is still around.
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Every major league park will have the left- and right-field foul poles moved 10 feet further from home plate, with corresponding increases in the distance to the wall throughout the park.
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I would institute only one new rule that directly affects the play on the field. Specifically: any player who is used as a pinch hitter or pinch runner is eligible to be used in that capacity as often as desired (though the player replaced is still ineligible to return). Once a player is used as a fielder, he is subject to the usual substitution rules.
I have no idea what his “tournament” is designed to accomplish, or–more importantly–how it would be conducted. I get the World Series, and I get that there are different ways to design a system that gets two teams into the WS.
I think you’re suggesting a completely independent tournament that would be “we didn’t win the World Series but we won some other games” trophy. If those other games are not part of the regular season for w/L calculations and don’t matter for the post-season, I doubt anyone would care very much. They seem like a type of exhibition game. And they would really throw off the pitching rotation.
Every game has a replay umpire, on site. His only job is to review every close play, immediately after completion, and inform the umpire if he needs to overrule an incorrect call. No fuss or dramatics, he signals correct call to umpire earpiece and the umpire changes call if necessary.
Pitch tracking technology gets some big funding to improve even more than what is currently available- Home plate umpires wear an earpiece and are instantly sent audio signals for pitches that MUST be called balls or strikes; “gray area” pitches are left to the umpire to decide. (I don’t think technology can more accurately determine those few pitches better than a human any time soon, since the strike zone is defined by continuously variable parameters)
Infield fly rule changes to be treated like a foul ball- defense must catch it to record an out, if they drop it, it is a dead ball, batter gets a strike if he has less than 2 strikes.
Only 1 pitching change allowed during an inning, unless due to injury. To discourage cheating this, pitchers who leave due to injury during an inning are ineligible to pitch in the next 5 games.
No DH rule, no interleague play, no Yankees.
Ok, that’s the second time a king tried to ban the Yankees. :mad:
Keep it up, and I’ll make every team the Yankees. The Boston Yankees, the Los Angeles Yankees and the Chicago Yankees. Every minor league team too. Pinstripes for everyone.
I support this idea.
I suggested this in a past thread. Institute a system of double-away games. In addition to the games each teams plays at home and as a visitor in the opposing team’s home, there would be games played in neutral cities. Say thirty games with each team having to play in two apiece. Play them in cities like Austin or Indianapolis or Vancouver or New Orleans that don’t have a major league team. It would bring major league baseball to a lot of people who don’t normally have a chance to see a game in person. I think it would help build up the fanbase for the sport.
That’ll work as soon as someone invents the portable major league baseball stadium.
Those cities have perfectly good AAA stadiums that work for a couple games per year.
Lemme see what I can do.
So. I am going to run with your proposed set up of 2 leagues with 16 teams each and 2 divisions per league.
The winner of each division plays the other winner of that league’s division in a series (ideally 7 game but I’m open to 5) to determine who goes to the world series and wins the league Pennant.
The world series plays out as per usual.
(detailed rules being implemented now as I think this through)
Now. For everyone else. In the order of the whole 32 team mlb standings you create a March madness style playoff bracket. The top three teams in each league based on total wins are given a bye for the initial round. Could be that the winner of the NLCS (sat the Mets) doesn’t get a bye because they won fewer games than anyone in the NL West. Tough. They did go on to win the world series against the Yankees though so, good for them.
The byes may not exactly work in terms of timing. I am hoping to use them to buy me one extra round of play but those details would need to be worked out.
The tournament is played concurrently with the following season. So the 2017 standings are used to create the 2018 tournament bracket.
It’s a straight knockout tournament and is played in the last week of the month INSTEAD of regular season baseball that week. The deeper into the tournament you go the longer the series gets. It starts with 3 game series and the final series is a 7 came series to be played the week following the world series (or the week immediately before.)
Teams would be allowed to carry a totally different 25 (or 27) man roster for these games and change it every round.
In a perfect world I would actually have this instead of the world series but I am pretty sure I would be murdered by my subjects.
As to why, because it would be fun. People love playoffs. People love March Madness. People live the champions league. People love multiple wild card teams I baseball. But… These tournaments inherently devalue the regular season. This is my attempt to have my cake and eat it too.
It actually works very well in pretty much every soccer league in the world. They all do a variation on this. I’m trying to adapt the concept to baseball, though, I will admit there might be better ways to do that adaptation. As added incentive give the players a bonus based on how deep they go in the tournament like they do for the current playoffs. Also, with no other interleague play this would serve that function.
Also it would give teams that typically do well but screwed up this year (the giants) something to play for. It would give teams that can never quite compete with the big boys (the As, Tampa Bay) something to win. If would give teams with deep farm systems a place to test their prospects against major leagues competition without committing them to a full grueling mlb schedule and maybe getting them hurt (a la Julio Uriah).
I think this is a brilliant rule.
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You’re going to interrupt the “real” baseball season one week per month, every month, for this?
The season has a rhythm to it. There are win streaks, hitting streaks, etc, that will all be thrown off. Your proposal will *dramatically *change MLB, and in my opinion, not for the better.
This is easy. Get rid of the DH. Everything else pales by comparison.
Otherwise, get rid of all the teams except the 16 that were in existence when I was a kid, and no playoffs, just the series. That way the pennant means something.
In general, return everything to the way it was when I was eight years old (1960).
Oh, and
I take it this means that you favor the status quo of DH for some, miniature American flags for others?
Agreed. Not even one foot only. Game takes too darned long these days. :mad:
Time to institute promotion and relegation. Because I want to see the Rochester Red Wings playing in MLB.
Yes. And if the AL is progressive and wants robot umps and the NL wants only one umpire on the filed and the honor system for the rest they get to implement those rules.
NO. Pinstripes are EARNED. The Cubs, the Yankees and no one else get them to start. Anyone else who wants them has to earn them, by being class baseball teams with some history worth mentioning. 