I just think there is only so much that can be done. The game is the game. Pitch clocked save 20 minutes, but it's still basically a 3 hour game that is just not designed to move quickly

Flounder Dorfman said:

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I despise Rob Manfred, but I'll give him credit for getting that pitch clock done. We've all saved 30-45 minutes of not watching a pitcher stroll around the mound, batters screwing with their batting gloves each pitch and everyone fidgeting with their nuts.

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Yeah it was getting ridiculous. Dylan Rock hardest hit.

DannyDuberstein said:

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I just think there is only so much that can be done. The game is the game. Pitch clocked save 20 minutes, but it's still basically a 3 hour game that is just not designed to move quickly

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Yep, college football games take 3.5 hours, there are 3/4 commercial breaks per quarter, and a 30 minute halftime. But there is something about football that makes it more appealing to the modern man than baseball.

The action per play in football is significantly higher, and every play has an "outcome". Gain, loss, stop, etc...

A batter in a MLB game sees 4-5 pitches.

So only 20-25% of the time you are watching a MLB at-bat are you seeing an outcome... strikeout, hit, ground out, etc...

The rest of the time is simply the space around the outcome.

In football terms, think about if 75% of the time a team came to the line of scrimmage there was a penalty called that delayed the actual play from happening...

Now, many of us enjoy the probabilities... and sometimes you've got a pitcher that's just dealing so the leadup to the potential strikeout is interesting as well. But that's few and far between. You used to be able to lean on the rivalries, but as we've seen now even in the college ranks - players simply aren't there long enough to invest in them or their rivals.

Unfortunately the only way to really correct this would require changing the entire game.

Idk how you manage to do it, because they have already done a few things like banning the shift and what not, but getting more balls in play would be a huge help.

Football is about guys lining up and knocking the other's jock into the dirt. It is about imposing your will on the other team. That appeals to the core of most men.

Baseball is more cerebral. It is more strategic. I had a post lined up but felt it was too long.

Jim Lites tried to make the Rangers game day experience more like Hockey and it wasn't well received, IMO. It alienated many baseball fans. I go to a baseball game to have a beer and conversation about the players and the game. It is a game about mostly failure where you can fail 75% of the time and still make millions.

Football is about scoring more points in the allotted time and then running out the clock.

I have an employee who lives in India. I went to London with him and one of his peers from India. We went to dinner and it was a Cricket style experience. We sat. Had a drink. Then, we ordered appetizers and another drink. When we got the appetizer... it wasn't until AFTER we finished the appetizer and another drink... that we actually ordered dinner. Dinner came. We finished... and then had an after dinner drink. Cognac/Coffee. It was a 3hr+ dinner each night with just the 3 of us. And THEN... they wanted to take a 30min walk to enjoy the evening and reflect on things.

It wasn't about the food it was about the relationship building. Baseball is about spending time with your kid/spouse... not stuffing your face for 45 mins and then speeding off to the next task.

DallasAg 94 said:

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It wasn't about the food it was about the relationship building. Baseball is about spending time with your kid/spouse... not stuffing your face for 45 mins and then speeding off to the next task.

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Now you see why I call it primarily a societal issue lol.

All sports bring something different and attract different type of fans. I hear about how unpopular baseball is for some people because there's not enough action, but soccer is the most popular sport in the world.

Despite its flaws, teams are still averaging over 20k fans attending 81 games a year. Teams are being paid $70-100MM for the rights to televise their games. The interest is still there.

I'm a big football fan as well, but like someone else said, there is no thinking in football. It attracts everyone because even the biggest mouth breathers on earth understand what's going on.

If that is what "baseball is about", then we wouldn't have put in the pitch clock.

Many people like to take a nap with golf on, that doesn't mean golf needs to lean into that as being a way to increase popularity/viewership.

shack009 said:

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DallasAg 94 said:

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It wasn't about the food it was about the relationship building. Baseball is about spending time with your kid/spouse... not stuffing your face for 45 mins and then speeding off to the next task.

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Now you see why I call it primarily a societal issue lol.

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100%. IMO, baseball is a reflection of society.

You have a culture with 70% born into single-mom households who views their coach as a father figure and then give them the choice of either a full college scholarship out of poverty (football/basketball) and women throwing their panties at them OR... 5 more years of poverty in obscurity living in a team apartment making $1500/mo. You'd get more from welfare.

Of course, you could take the baseball college route and get 1/3 scholarship and take out loans for the rest hoping only 3 years of poverty in a team apartment with the hope one day to make $600-700K/yr for 3 years.

Goldie Wilson said:

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DallasAg 94 said:

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I had a post lined up but felt it was too long.

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I decided to publish it.

This isn't Rangers specific, but I think speaks to players being an ambassador to the game and how the topic of youth baseball will grow.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40944836/yankees-back-aaron-judge-criticism-little-league-coach

Nobody will accuse me of being a Yankee fan. There are hundreds of places I'd rather go than NYC.

Having said that... Aaron Judge started in CF for the AL in the ASG and sitting in our serf-level seats in LCF... Judge was front and center. I was never a fan of Judge for no other reason than probably he was a Yankee. He was spectacular that day. He engaged the OF fans. Threw balls up to them and really had a great spirit about himself. The fans LOVED it. I'm a big fan of Aaron Judge.

I think this coach and the entitlement he showed his LL team is more of the problem. Players are there at work to make a living and MLB usually does a great job to showcase the game. I'm guessing when his team played in the LLWS he wasn't telling them to engage fans and be distracted. So, why would he publicly call out a player?! Because of his self-importance.

34 Game count down.

We are 9Ws behind Houston.

And so it begins.24-14. Rangers win the the AL West.

MLB should lean into YouTube. My son has become fans of certain players because they are discussed or shown on YouTube by certain YouTubers and what not.

DallasAg 94 said:

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34 Game count down.

We are 9Ws behind Houston.

And so it begins.24-14. Rangers win the the AL West.

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Check your math

24-14 = 38 games. So 24-10?

And I must say I am impressed by all of the posts here today on an off day!

That's why I got a degree in engineering. I was never good with Cardinal numbers.

Mariners fire Servais...

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40955377/source-mariners-fire-manager-scott-servais-amid-al-west-slide


How many games we got left against them?!

Not sure if it was the same game, but pretty sure it was the same series, Josh Hamilton hit 4 HRs against the Os. Last I heard, there are fewer 4 HR games than there are perfect games.

I was watching that game live. 17 years? Holy F, I'm old. I might have guessed 10-11 years since

Hamilton wasn't a Ranger until 2008. The 4 homer game was 2012.

Wow, Leiter and Rocker coming up would put to be that tired old "we can't develop pitching", along with Game 6 and all the other tired tropes sports talk radio relies on.

I mean lets pump the breaks a bit. Until multiple dudes do it at the MLB level consistently, we still have plenty to question. On the Leiter front in particular, he was dreadful when he came up in the spring for some spot starts. Doesn't mean he won't be better this time around, but he's going to have to do it at the MLB level week in and week out.

ETA: what I will say about these promotions is that I get the sense that the Rangers as an organization are probably going to let some of them in the full-time rotation here in the very near future. No more Heaney, Scherzer, Urena or maybe even Eovaldi in the rotation. Its time to turn this thing over to guys they've invested a ton of time and resources in.

A bit of perspective regarding young pitching. Here's a stat line for you.

6 games, 2-4, 5.52 ERA, 31 IP 44 H
30 games, 6-14, 5.61 ERA, 155.2 IP, 181 H

Pretty unimpressive call-up and first season. Until you consider that the pitcher who put those numbers up was Greg Maddux.

Now of course I'm in no way suggesting that Leiter, Rocker, or anyone else is going to be the next Greg Maddux. Just pointing out that it takes a while to adjust to the majors for a lot of guys. If we'll all be honest, part of our frustration with Leiter is that he didn't rush to the majors & dominate. We were probably being completely unrealistic - he may be one of the many guys who needs time to figure it all out. Doesn't mean he can't still turn into a very solid MLB pitcher.

Leiter was not ready when he was called up, but I like how this has played out. He was brought up, had some success but got kicked in the teeth overall, goes back down and then knows what he has to work on. He does that, puts up very nice numbers and I think he's ready now. So we will see.

Rocker is a dude. Just needed to get him healthy. I can't remember a guy dominating AA right out of the blocks, especially considering he was just getting back on the mound after TJ surgery.

Agree that Leiter was not ready. Thinking he will have better success this time.

Rocker needs the level up but when spring rolls around he may be a realistic option in the bigs. Stuff is electric.

Completely agree. Who knows what Leiter turns out to be, but somewhere along the way fans started to expect guys called up to come in and dominate. Maybe it's a reflection on our society now. I don't know, but it doesn't really work that way.

And actually, when it does, it usually falls off a cliff pretty soon as other teams get film on a guy and figure out his weaknesses. It doesn't always work out like Paul Skenes, but it would be a lot cooler if it did.

Can we call up Blaine crim and company too? Since the lineup isn't doing anything anyway.

Another interesting angle for what seems like THE call-up for Leiter is that it could open up a little more FA money to allow us to go get another bat. The same could be said for future guys like Rocker, Teodo and Santos as well.