I like where this thread has gone, you don't usually get to say outlandish things like this because there is absolutely zero chance of any of it happening.
What was the actual question? How to raise offense or how to make the game less boring?(which I think is what they need to be doing, not shorten the games)
They need to get the ball in play more, without increasing homeruns. Problem is, anything you do to hamper the pitcher he is just going to exert himself more and more until his arm falls off. But some ideas are lower the mound again(or move it back), or mess with ball aerodynamics so you don't get such sweeping curveballs(although I would hate to see this), definitely digitize balls/strikes, but as someone said after you hamper the pitcher to get more balls in play you are going to have to deaden the ball to prevent homeruns. Honestly HR's, no matter what the media tries to do with them, are/were killing the game. Not just because they themselves are boring, but more because of players/teams pursuit of them, you could just make HRs harder to hit, and the game would naturally evolve over time back to high contact/high speed.
The only thing we have a chance in hell of seeing, and which I think was actually a not bad idea, was the hitters keeping one foot in the box.