As Baseball Debates Its Rules, Players Suggest Trying Harder to Win

Some of this has to be laid at the feet of the MLBPA who approved a deal with a soft cap and no floor on team payrolls. No Duh some teams are going to tank. It’s bad enough that teams aren’t rostering the ‘best’ players but then the incentives are perversely pushing 2/3 of the league to tank in any given year, certainly after the July 31 trade deadline. Commish/Owners/MLBPA...Please please speed up the game. As a lifelong baseball fan, why does a relief pitcher need warmup tosses once brought in? What was he doing in the bullpen, singing Karaoke? In NO OTHER SPORT does a substitute during the game get practice time ON THE FIELD prior to the real thing. And now that we are subject to the Mickey Callaway/Dave Roberts school of pitching management where apparently their comp is tied to the much underrated Pitchers Used stat, this is KILLING the game. Especially in the late innings just as whatever tension the game has is building.

Bringing the DH to the National League is a mistake. They should get rid of it in the American League. The game is much more interesting without the DH. Managers have to manage. Do you pinch hit for a pitcher who is going well or do you let him bat with runners on base? Elite players would already be signed if they were not looking for such outrageous salaries. 10 year contract for someone almost 30 or older? That is a fools errand. I am glad to see clubs wising up. What you need is a faster game. I don't go to games anymore because often by the 7th inning I am bored. Watching at home I can do other things while the game is being played.

When Major League Baseball is no longer protected from the anti-trust laws all of these problems will be eventually solved. A troop of boy scouts can do a better job running professional baseball than these rich clowns.

The players complaining about un-signed free agents seem shocked to find that owners' are not so willing as before to spend outrageously for star players, or even average players. I'm glad to see some sanity in baseball again. By the way, the Astros had miserable teams for years because the team was for sale. The owner wanted to keep salaries to a minimum, to make the team more attractive to buyers. Anyone who showed real talent was promptly traded for cheaper and inferior players.

Oh yea, the numbers are very telling. People don't want a spectacle. People don't want tailor-made Disneyland baseball. People resent the $14 cans of beer and $5 hot dogs. Just focus on baseball and not on the side show that every stadium has now. And "Sweet Caroline" is a horrible baseball anthem.

When the Lerner's built their new stadium and priced seats behind home plate at $300 each one of the Lerner's were interviewed asking wouldn't this prevent the average fan from buying a choice ticket. His response: "We've done the math and this formula works for us." When pressed that isn't it better to sell 10 $30 tickets and the concessions that go with it his response was, "We've done the math and this formula works for us." The Lerner's are billionaires They're far better at that sort of math than the rest of us. MLB knows full well why attendance is going down. They can do the math too.

Attendance is predicated on winning, or at least a concerted effort to win. When KC went to the World Series in consecutive years, they sold out. Now as they make no real effort to retain their best players, the attendance dropped. Same with the Marlins who have decimated their team after giving Stanton a ridiculous contract that he could never live up to. Fans are the lifeblood of any team. If you thumb your nose at them, you do so at your own peril

Loved baseball but it has evovled in bad ways. Entitled babies as players Overpaying players tickets too high. Baseball is the common mans (women too) game Relief pitchers- no complete games Strategy like"the shift" $5 hot dog Too many games Too much advertising - no running on to the field and playing ball - no running period Specialized Players Hows that for starters....

I don’t know about other teams , but the ny Yankees Got stiffed pretty big with the massive money long years contract to jacoby elsbury. He didn’t even play last year at all. And Alex Rodriguez was signed for way too long and for way too much. I really hope they stick with the plan and don’t get Machado or Harper. They have the Judge. Homegrown. Young. That’s the way to go.

How about requiring batters to hustle to first base? And start Yankee-Red Sox games at 6PM so they end before midnight.

I guess I’m one of those old-timers that used to passionately love baseball and no longer does. I live in a town whose team tanks annually, a quadruple A franchise. I find the blaring sight and sound assault that makes conversation or even thinking about the game at the park impossible to be prohibitive to going to games. And the devolution (IMHO) of the great game to home runs and strikeouts bores me. I like doubles and triples, great defense, and plays at the bases. I know these things are not on a path towards change, so our breakup appears to be permanent. Thanks, though, for the wonderful memories.

Consider me a cynic if you will, but I am convinced that the purpose of multiple pitcher changes is to produce more commercial breaks.

Baseball salaries have come to mirror the toxic income and wealth inequality in the rest of our economy. There are many very good baseball players - team players who aren’t ‘too important’ to play small ball and who can perform plebian tasks like executing a bunt or diving for a fly ball without worrying about doing damage to a two-legged, $300 million commodity. In many cases, they do it for $1 million a season or less - which is still a pretty rich payday for someone in his mid-20s or early 30s for playing a game part of the year. It offends many of us that hedge fund managers drag home $100 million a year - with more favorable tax treatment than the 50 grand a kindergarten teacher earns, no less. It also offends us that a guy will be paid 100 grand for sitting out nine innings; or worse, for walking to the plate, swinging for the fences and whiffing three times in a row, each time with runners in scoring position — while playing a few innings of sub-mediocre defense. It also offends us that a player like Manny Machado can act out like an juvenile delinquent on the diamond and expect to become the richest man in baseball. I’m all for fair compensation to reward people with rare talent who work hard to utilize that talent. But come on now. Great baseball players used to work selling cars and insurance in the off season. They even went off to fight in our wars. Now they’re like our investment banks - too big to fail, too valuable to break a fingernail. Enough of that.

I work at MLB games...so I see about 70 up close....here's my two cents. Greed is killing the game. Players want to milk every at bat even if the game is hopeless, because those stats pay off in huge contracts. Very boring to see a batter take pitches and work the count rather than swing. Owners want home run baseball. Casual fans fill the stadiums and like it. So, many games are 14 to 9 or something like that and they go on and on for over 3 hours...sometimes 4. Endless pitching changes with walks, strikeouts and home runs...a very dull combination. Power pitching at 100 mph from most young players is a show but not related to winning. There is a generic feeling about this and pitchers are interchangeable. Fans want access to players for autographs and pictures. Players are mostly not interested and their contracts restrict this so they can make more money selling rather than giving away. Owners are giving out insane contracts to feel like they've "won" bidding wars for stars. This doesn't lead to winning. Good fundamentals do. $12 for some beers. Very little attracting kids and families to the game. Less action, no access to players, alcohol all around, expensive, slow, and too late into the night for school kids. Sorry to be so negative, but it all goes back to making money , or at least what consultants tell owners makes money. It seems like they're off track.

Sounds like the corporate mentality that has pervaded the rest of the economy for at least a decade now (priority number one being put labor in its place and drive down wages above all else, until they come back to work on their terms) has reached MLB.

Finally, we have arrived after a dreadful winter of discontent - to baseball. And of course, another good piece of writing by Mr Kepner. I can't wait. I share sentiments expressed below about try NOT making baseball MORE enjoyable - it is fine as it is. Though, I share suggestions of limiting a shift and please do NOT add a DH to NL. The word "expectation" as in what players expect their salaries to be caught my eye. If expectations have to be met everytime - millennials will become millennials when they are toddlers. What players need to realize is you price a product that a market will bear. And a player is indeed a product if he demands life time guaranteed salaries. I agree with a sentiment below that long terms contracts are finished. Bryce and Machado are victims of wrong timing. In real estate, it is location, location and location. In free agency - it's timing, timing and timing. Let's play ball.

Major league baseball will never fill it's stadiums until it makes going to a game affordable for fans. How does it make sense to pay a player $30 million dollars a year and then charge $200 for a premium seat? As for the players, remember you won't be able to make a living if franchises begin to fail. If you price the game for the wealthy, only the wealthy will attend.

If I could attend an MLB game without having to secure a line of credit, I would consider attending one..... but only if they promise to not play that idiotic loud music and noise pollution between innings and half-innings. What a nightmare.

Here’s my two cents for players, owners and fans. ~Please don’t allow the DH in the National League until fans 60 years and older are no longer alive to watch games. Pitcher at-bats are not much different from those of many .200 batting infielders and can be surprising. (Bartolo Colon.) ~Mandate organ music in all MLB parks between innings. It creates a relaxing, carnival vibe that would appeal to families and old folks. ~Lower the costs of beer and hot dogs. We get that ticket prices need to be high, but gouging fans for food is a bad practice. Alternatively, go back to allowing fans to bring food into the parks. ~Eliminate infield shifts by mandating two infielders on each side of second base. This will add needed offense and eliminate calls for an NL DH. ~Don’t add additional timers to speed up games. If fans want fast-moving action, there’s basketball and hockey. ~Stop bashing owners who finally realized that 10 year contracts at any cost are bad business.

I’ve got an idea, why don’t al the teams tank except the Mets, then they might win - maybe.

Baseball has become a bit boring ... that is, unless one greatly enjoys watching pitchers pitch. They are really good at what they do, dominating the game over batters ... and making the game go on and on and on. The game would become more interesting ... or at least more exciting ... if the offense had a larger role. It’s an issue these days that wasn’t years ago. One can’t restrict pitchers to pitch slower or place a speed limit on a pitch with some sort penalty such as a called “ball” when in excess. That would be rediculous. I think, however, moving the pitcher’s mound 5 feet back could solve the problem of boring games.

Not noted as a potential factor in declining attendance: Average ticket prices. With an overzealous building frenzy of new stadiums, mostly redesigned to maximize luxury box and luxury seats, at the cost of cheap seats, and tickets prices rising WAY faster than inflation, many of us have been priced out. In the late 90's and early 2000's you could go to a game for under $ 10; now the cheap seats are double the price and they sell out quick because there are far fewer of them. Baseball used to be an everyman's game, in contrast to football or even basketball, because it's played in a big stadium and there are 80 home games, but greedy owners saw that they could make a lot more money selling a few tix with a complementary hoagie platter to the super rich, and cities and the league have pretended not to notice (in NYC's case it may have helped that a number of those boxes were made available to city officials, the same ones who were supposed to ensure that the stadium rebuilds would be of maximal benefit to New Yorkers). Now the league and owners reap what they sow. They should be careful, if people don't go to baseball games, they might start to be less inclined to watch them on TV as well. Bring back the cheap seats!

I don't want the DH in the NL. Thanks baseball. So much for actual game strategy.

I live in greater megalopolis and due to an outrageous tv deal can’t watch (like most of L A), our home team. But that tv deal covers their entire on field player salaries each year (300m). The income from attendance, parking, concessions, is all profits. They could easily pay to get some of those free agents but that might cut into their profits. I don’t know about the financial situation of other teams be we are being used.

As one commenter has said, lower the price of beer (and add craft beers!) and food (some Indian or Thai would be fun...). And add more playoff teams. More chance to get into the post season will quell public apathy and encourage teams to go after free agents. Don't tinker with the rules.

When the players say it’s not about the money...it’s about the money. Perhaps the players should try a little bit of honesty instead of trying to spin, spin, spin. Just say it. We want to get paid!

Notes from my Econ 201 class (1964): >Businesses hate competition. Businesses want to avoid competition. Competition is expensive and fraught with danger: One could lose. >Businesses like laissez faire, free market capitalism. It can lead to monopoly. Businesses, when left to their own devices, will aggregate to their own best advantage, create cartels at best and monopolies at worst. Monopoly is the ultimate goal of any business. A small cartel is not a bad second prize.

I believe the stagnation of the free agent market is not about the money, but more about the length of contracts that agents demand. I think the days of 10 year, $200+ million contracts have ended.

George Carlin had some suggestions: 1 - Batters only get one swing at the ball. 2 - If the pitcher hits the batter with the ball then the batter is out. 3 - Randomly place land mines in the field. I'm all for improving the game but given this generation's attention span complainers should just tune out and find another sport to watch that they consider to be more entertaining.

I’m completely with the players on this one. Put the best team on the field, and fans will come to the ballpark. Lower the prices of beer and food, and even more fans will come.