# MLB Regular Season March/April 2023 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** baseball-mlb\ **Created:** [March 27, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730 "2023-03-27T19:51:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/81 "2023-04-01T13:45:36Z")
Absolutely. Let players honor Robinson by wearing his number. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/82 "2023-04-01T14:29:54Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Let players honor Robinson by wearing his number. Nah. I think it’s a pretty cool thing for baseball to have retired the number. Having everyone wear 42 on Jackie Robinson Day is incredibly touching and meaningful. You lose that when one guy on the team gets to wear it every day. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/83 "2023-04-01T15:13:46Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Not really intending on arguing with you – if you don’t like the current game, you don’t like it – but the average game time that they’re likely to wind up with this season (around 2:35 or so) is comparable to what the average game time was in those old games from the '80s. If they were interested in saving time they should never have started in with instant replay. It brings everything to a halt and has everybody standing around. Sounds like an awful time to be an umpire: > **[It’s a Really Weird Time to Be an Umpire](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/magazine/umpires-replay-cameras.html)** > > With replay cameras watching every call, it has become an increasingly stressful job — and baseball’s new rules will just make it harder. As for changing the game’s pace… I’m sure the new rules do. And I also realize this isn’t the first time major rules changes have taken place. But for me it’s a bridge too far. The clock changes a fundamental aspect of the game, and for me it’s a part that I enjoyed. I really dislike the pace being dictated in this way. As for the game being comparable to the 80s, I don’t see it. There may have been less shifting, but let’s remember that big defensive shifts go back at least to Lou Boudreau as a tactic against Ted Williams (and very likely before that, I’d be unsurprised to learn). Game time being similar? Who cares? At least I don’t. MLB’s monkeying with the rules is their prerogative. But I think this iteration is foolish, unnecessary and I won’t be hanging around for it. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/84 "2023-04-01T15:14:52Z")
They’ve sped up Instant Reply also, though I would prefer if they dumped it all together. I don’t think it is worth it. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/85 "2023-04-01T15:24:54Z")
The purists are going to hate any change. They are more concerned with getting the youngsters into the game so it has a future ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/86 "2023-04-01T17:05:34Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > They’ve sped up Instant Reply also, though I would prefer if they dumped it all together. I don’t think it is worth it. I know they sped up reply in theory, but I dunno. There was a reply on a call at first base during last night’s Mets game that went on and on for much longer than you’d expect (those of us watching from home got to see the play around 10 times from five different angles), and they wound up upholding the call on the field (which I think was wrong!). I love all of this year’s changes, and if they dumped replay I’d be so so happy. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/87 "2023-04-01T17:07:41Z")
The few times it reverses a really bad call doesn’t seem to balance the delay of game the huge bulk of the time when it is over a bang-bang play. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/88 "2023-04-01T19:19:56Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > If they were interested in saving time they should never have started in with instant replay. It brings everything to a halt and has everybody standing around. The difference between the very few delays you get with instant replay and batters just wasting time is that getting calls right improves the game, and guys wasting twenty to thirty minutes a game fucking around with batting gloves worsens the game. It’s okay to have some things take time. No one is saying the games have to be completed in an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/89 "2023-04-01T19:38:26Z")
One unintended consequence of the speed-up will be the announcers having to pick up the pace. How will we ever learn about the next 17 promotional giveaways if the announcers can’t talk about them between pitches? How will the next generation of Vin Scullys and Harry Carays be able to talk about the magical creeping of the shadows across the infield in late afternoon, or the time so-and-so hit a home run so hard it hit the scoreboard and bounced all the way back to second base? It’s as if someone took Hitchcock’s _Psycho_ and used only the scenes where Norman Bates was dressed as Mother. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/90 "2023-04-01T19:40:58Z")
Quite the imperfect game the Cards’ Jack Flaherty is pitching against the Blue Jays. Through five innings - no runs, no hits, _7_ walks. At 95 pitches he might be done for the day, not having a chance to challenge A.J. Burnett’s record for most walks in a no-hitter (9, in a 2001 Marlins win over the Padres). ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/91 "2023-04-01T22:04:39Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Oddly enough, the new rules are bending today’s game to look more similarly to the game I grew up watching in the 80s. No shifts, lots of base stealing, small ball strategy. That’s not an accident either. The game has changed on the field due to the way that coaches and players strategize and train. These rules are a reaction and rather than trying to change the game away from tradition, it’s bringing it closer to how it was. Lately, the game has been about strikeouts and homeruns. Players don’t just “bat” as much. They don’t steal bases. Pitchers and hitters both delay and dink around and waste time. The shift made it even more likely that a hit will lead to an out if it doesn’t go out of the park, enforcing the importance of homeruns. Now, they are forced to speed up pitches. Pitchers have fewer opportunities to throw out a runner, which encourages stealing again. The shift is banned, so hitting it out of the park isn’t as necessary. Even increasing the base sizes encourages stealing and getting more people on base. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/92 "2023-04-02T01:34:33Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > One unintended consequence of the speed-up will be the announcers having to pick up the pace. How will we ever learn about the next 17 promotional giveaways if the announcers can’t talk about them between pitches? How will the next generation of Vin Scullys and Harry Carays be able to talk about the magical creeping of the shadows across the infield in late afternoon, or the time so-and-so hit a home run so hard it hit the scoreboard and bounced all the way back to second base? Vin Scully and Harry Caray learned how to announce baseball games in the 1940s and 1950s, when the average 9 inning game lasted less than 2 1/2 hours. It certainly can be done; the glacially slow pace of MLB games for the past couple of decades isn’t how it always was. (And, yes, I do realize you are probably being a bit sarcastic. 😉 ) > [@Jaycat.again](#): > > For example, somebody is probably going to break Ricky Henderson’s stolen base record which he earned while having to deal with limitless pickoff throws to first base. Now, you basically get a free base after the first two throws. I’m not as sure that this is going to happen. Stats from this spring training, and from having the pitch clock (and limited throws to first) in the minors, indicate that the stolen base success rate, and number of steal attempts per game, do go up, but not _tremendously_ so. [This ESPN article](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35992899/pitch-clock-shaved-26-minutes-mlb-spring-training-games) shows that, in this year’s spring training, steal attempts per game went from 1.6 per game to 2.3 per game, and the steal success rate went from 71% to 77% – so, no, it doesn’t appear that it’s “you basically get a free pass.” What hasn’t changed is the knowledge that managers now have, that shows that getting a runner from first to second via a steal isn’t as valuable as they used to think it was, especially when counterbalanced against the downside of the possibility of being thrown out. Yes, the percentages favor it a bit more now, but it doesn’t look like they have dramatically changed it. Henderson stole 130 bases in 1982, and he essentially had a green light to steal at will. The last time that anyone has stolen even _half_ that many was 13 years ago (Juan Pierre with 68 in 2010); no one has stolen even 50 bases since 2017. My suspicion is that we’ll see more guys in the 40 to 70 SB range now, but I’ll be surprised if anyone even gets particularly close to 100, much less 30. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/93 "2023-04-02T01:39:42Z")
As I recall, Henderson announced at the beginning of the season that he was going to try to break the record which exempted him from the unwritten rules. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/94 "2023-04-02T04:04:26Z")
If you literally took away every stolen base he got that year - 130 total, in 1982, which blew away the old record of 118 - he would still be the all time career stolen base leader by a margin of 338. 338 is a good career itself. As it is, he is further ahead of second place than second place is from 46th. Henderson’s exploits are so far ahead of anyone else it’s practically a Nintendo number. If they DOUBLE stolen bases, his records would likely never fall. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/95 "2023-04-02T10:09:17Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > As for the game being comparable to the 80s, I don’t see it. There may have been less shifting, but let’s remember that big defensive shifts go back at least to Lou Boudreau as a tactic against Ted Williams I don’t see your argument. The game is most certainly changing towards the direction of the game you say you remember from the 80s. Yes, the shift dates back to at least the days of Williams, but watch your 80s games on YouTube and report back how often you notice a shift. Stolen base attempts will more closely resemble the 80s, a focus on defensive specialists will emerge up the middle like the 80s. The differences is that bunts will remain down (thank god), a lower enforcement of the bullshit unwritten rules (thank god), and pitching will remain a marvel to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/96 "2023-04-02T13:28:06Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I don’t see your argument. The game is most certainly changing towards the direction of the game you say you remember from the 80s. I’m not really making an argument. I just don’t like the clock and the limits on throws to first, so I’m not watching anymore. Whether it resembles a game from the 80s in terms of pace and such is not that important to me - I enjoy watching games from that era for nostalgia. If people like these changes, great. It’s not for me. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/97 "2023-04-02T21:31:18Z")
Watching Cle - Sea last night, I really noticed the change in pacing. Not sure I’m totally on-board with the pitch clock yet, but it did move the game along at a goodly clip. Vin wouldn’t be disturbed by the sped-up game a bit. He could handle anything. It’s most of today’s motormouths who will get thrown. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/98 "2023-04-02T21:38:26Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Vin wouldn’t be disturbed by the sped-up game a bit. He could handle anything. It’s most of today’s motormouths who will get thrown. Absolutely. Announcers use to let the game breathe. Over the last 35 years they feel they have to fill every second on air. The stadiums themselves pump in a lot of recorded sound. I liked the sound of the game in the 70s much better. I really like the pitch clock and feel it is long overdue. This should have happened back in the 90s when this crap really got started. I know players like Mike Hargrove was doing the game delaying garbage back in even the 70s, but those jerks were rare. Sometime in the 90s, it became common. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/99 "2023-04-02T21:52:58Z")
Game 1 - Blue Jays 10, Cardinals 9 Game 2 - Cardinals 4, Blue Jays 1 Game 3 - Cardinals 9, Blue Jays 4 37 runs in three games. Looks like they took care of that offense problem. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730/100 "2023-04-02T22:11:59Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > 37 runs in three games. I couldn’t tell whether to attribute that to a good job by the offense, a bad job by the pitchers (who didn’t look particularly sharp) and/or the defense, or a natural consequence of the new rules. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-regular-season-march-april-2023/981730.md?page=6)