What rule change would you like added/changed?

[Johnny G]

There are plenty I'm sure but was curious what irks baseball fans. I think the batters constantly stepping out of the box, and pitcher/catcher meetings at the mound are just too much. Needs to be limited some how. Any other ideas or opinions?

 

[Juan Gris]

I'd like to see a rumble strip installed halfway between 3rd and home so runners will slow down and catchers can block the plate again.

 

[MrMet]

No more AllStar game deciding home field advantage

 

[jszczech]

These aren't rules that need to be added because they are already in place but I would like them to enforce the rule book strikezone and the amount of time allowed between pitches. I hate that every umpire has their own strikezone that they enforce.

 

[Johnny G]

I am agreeing with these ideas.

 

[elmalo]

DH in the N.L.

 

[MrMet]

DH in the N.L.

No, no, no, infinity times no!

 

[elmalo]

No, no, no, infinity times no!

Yes, yes yes!

 

[smapdi]

While I'd appreciate faster games, I don't think there's any way to really enforce inter-pitch delays on the part of either the hitter or the pitcher, or prevent teams from using 7 pitchers each game, or any of the other commonly-cited reasons for 3 hours being the new average. Certainly an actual pitch clock would be an abomination. Once you do that, why not go all the way.

“Baseball needs a little speeding up. You know how you speed up baseball? Everybody gets one swing, that's right. One swing, F*** you, you're out, sit down, next, let's go, come one, sit down, come on, let's go. Here's another thing that would make baseball a lot faster: If the pitcher hits the batter with the ball, the batter's out. You hit 27 guys, you got yourself a perfect game my friend. You get two really good accurate pitchers out there and you could be out of that ballpark in 15 minutes. You could be home watching football on TV and see some serious injuries. One more thing for baseball, out in the outfield I would have a series of randomly placed landmines. "There's Marshall, settling under that ball." (EXPLOSION sound effect) "Holy s***!"

And begin trolling...
Use as big or as small a bat as you want.
Allow 2 guys on a base.
Prohibit anything but dark colors to be visible from the field with 3 feet of the top of the outfield fence so it would be clear without replay whether a ball is a home run or not.
Failing that, at the start of every inning, and whenever necessary, rim the top of the fence with charcoal. If a ball hits it and bounces back into play, it'll be clear it came off the top of the fence and not something behind it.
Allow 1 pitcher per team to be registered as a spitballer.
At the start of every game, the captain of each team rolls a die, then flips a coin. If he wins the flip, he can have the bases moved that die roll number of feet closer to each other. If he loses, they are moved that much further apart. Just imagine how fun it would be to be competing on an 84-foot diamond compared to a 96-foot one.

Other than that, the game really is perfect.

 

[DaClyde]

A pitch clock would be no more an abomination than the shot clock in basketball or the play clock in football. But at the same time, umpires should stop granting time outs to batters for no reason. Let the batter step out of the box all he wants, but if he's not back in there by the time the pitcher throws the ball, it should be an automatic strike. I always hated the whole calling time to disrupt the pitcher's rhythm when he's already in the windup. There's no justification for calling time there, and the umpires shouldn't be so quick to grant it. Again, it's the umpires that should be dictating the pace of many aspects of the game, they just don't.

I love the idea of enforcing the rulebook strike zone. Every umpire's performance should be evaluated at the AS break and at the end of the season, as well, to see who is consistently calling a non-conforming strike zone. This should be automated, using the various strike zone systems at each park, so there shouldn't be any appreciable delay in the evaluation. Then the best umpires are chosen to officiate the AS game and post season. No seniority rules.

And at a federal level, MLB's anti-trust exemption needs to go. There is no justification that somehow that is to the benefit of the country when baseball isn't even the most popular sport in the country anymore.

 

[Crewfan82]

No, no, no, infinity times no!

+1

 

[Crewfan82]

I think the batters should only be able to step out of the batters box once per AB. No need to tighten those batting gloves after every pitch.

 

[Austin]

No more AllStar game deciding home field advantage

This has to be change #1 . Does any fan actually like this rule?

 

[corockies]

Replace the outfield warning track with a trampoline. Imagine all the home runs robbed with that there!

 

[madbull34]

They need to clarify the new home plate rule or get rid of it altogether.
DH should either be in both leagues or abolished.
All Star game deciding home field advantage needs to go.
Play reviews system needs to be revised to not delay the game so much.

 

[UMich92]

“Baseball needs a little speeding up. You know how you speed up baseball? Everybody gets one swing, that's right. One swing, F*** you, you're out, sit down, next, let's go, come one, sit down, come on, let's go. Here's another thing that would make baseball a lot faster: If the pitcher hits the batter with the ball, the batter's out. You hit 27 guys, you got yourself a perfect game my friend. You get two really good accurate pitchers out there and you could be out of that ballpark in 15 minutes. You could be home watching football on TV and see some serious injuries. One more thing for baseball, out in the outfield I would have a series of randomly placed landmines. "There's Marshall, settling under that ball." (EXPLOSION sound effect) "Holy s***!"

Thanks for the George Carlin quote.

 

[rsmath]

get rid of the home plate blocking rule other than make the only rule that a runner can't target the catcher with the intent of knocking the ball free. Anything else goes so if the catcher does not want to take the risk of a collision, don't block the plate to put the catcher in the way of the runner trying to make contact with home plate.

automate balls/strikes since that causes the most arguments in baseball and technology can pinpoint where the ball crosses the plate nowdays. I know a recent article says HP umps get the call right 88% of the time, but that 12% error is likely to rear its ugly head in giving a wrong strike three call or having an error in ball/strike call earlier in at-bats that end up affecting the outcome of an at-bat. The HP ump has way too many other things to watch out for so they won't be useless standing behind the catcher while the automation makes the correct ball/strike calls.

 

[TwinsWin]

Get rid of the replay

 

[TNP777]

Abolish the DH

 

[mmier118]

Bring back home plate collisions. And honestly if they have the technology I would be all for an automated strike zone.