How To Fix Baseball

[mitlen]

Reliever can enter an inning whenever. They are there until they finish the inning though. (Barring injury.)

Not nit-picking but  ...  why shouldn't starters have to finish innings they start?

[Minty Fresh]

I don't understand your fifth entry.

Play your nine best positions in the field.  They can bat in the order if the manager wants them to or they can just play the field.

Hit your best 10 hitters on the roster.  You can have one DH or all DH's.  They hit in the order whether or not they play in the field.

[Minty Fresh]

1. Eliminate farm systems. Any team can buy into lowest level of minors - promotion and relegation. It makes games worse since you can't stash young players, but if you just build a $500 million stadium, you aren't going to tank and risk playing semi-pro in five years. Fans in smaller cities have their own teams to cheer for.

2. Eliminate the draft and the reserve clause. No more tanking for picks or selling your fans on multi year rebuilds on the cheap, if you want to compete buy better players

I love both of these ideas.

[GburgNatsFan]

Just spitballing.

Not nit-picking but  ...  why shouldn't starters have to finish innings they start?

[varoadking]

Go back to 16 teams and enrich the talent pool...addition by subtraction... 

[mitlen]

Just spitballing.

That reminds me of 9th grade.    We would chew the end of matchbook matches until they became pulpy (spitballs).     We'd light the match and toss it to the classroom ceiling where it would stick and leave a nice little smudge.    Ah, the good old days.

[GburgNatsFan]

In today's environment, that'd get you convicted.

That reminds me of 9th grade.    We would chew the end of matchbook matches until they became pulpy (spitballs).     We'd light the match and toss it to the classroom ceiling where it would stick and leave a nice little smudge.    Ah, the good old days.

[mitlen]

In today's environment, that'd get you convicted.

Prolly

[Vega]

I really like the idea of expanded playoffs. A sixteen team playoff would result in a lot more teams being competitive over the course of the season and since success in baseball isn’t as reliant on finding a Top Star like the NBA, there is less incentive for teams on the edge between being in and out of playoff contention to tank. So long as the regular season was also shortened a bit, which owners might actually be okay with when paired with expanded playoffs, it’d probably be a great success.

[bluestreak]

Sounds like incentive for teams to not try and suck.

How on earth would relegation work when all of the lower level teams are owned by the major league ones. The current baseball system makes it not even feasible even if someone wanted to blow everything else.

[HalfSmokes]

How on earth would relegation work when all of the lower level teams are owned by the major league ones. The current baseball system makes it not even feasible even if someone wanted to blow everything else.

You’d have to get rid of farm teams

[DPMOmaha]

How on earth would relegation work when all of the lower level teams are owned by the major league ones. The current baseball system makes it not even feasible even if someone wanted to blow everything else.

Oh, it would be a complete overhaul of the system. I mean, it's never gonna happen, but if it was up to me, I'd work towards some sort of system like that.

[RichMinSC]

Barry Svrluga has a column with fan ideas for improving baseball.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/07/11/how-to-fix-baseball-washington-post-readers-have-a-few-suggestions/?utm_term=.75ff0e1da627

most of these are BS   limit bullpens to 7 maybe even 6, change the DL to 21days,  get rid of all those 3-7 day 'excused absences"

[Mathguy]

162 game season (plus playoffs) is alot.  Whatever helps the players with physical stress or injuries would be favored by me.

[Vega]

Let's assume a sixteen team playoff system. That would see St. Louis as the current 16th seed with the Angels, Nats, and Pirates all within two games of the Cards. So that's roughly two thirds of the league all jockeying for playoff positioning and fighting to make the playoffs compared to around ten teams in the hunt in the current system. More teams playing meaningful regular season games and having a shot at the playoffs would equal larger attendance and interest across the fanbases. 

[HalfSmokes]

Let's assume a sixteen team playoff system. That would see St. Louis as the current 16th seed with the Angels, Nats, and Pirates all within two games of the Cards. So that's roughly two thirds of the league all jockeying for playoff positioning and fighting to make the playoffs compared to around ten teams in the hunt in the current system. More teams playing meaningful regular season games and having a shot at the playoffs would equal larger attendance and interest across the fanbases. 

The converse is that that teams at the top can put it into cruise control and coast even earlier

[varoadking]

Let's assume a sixteen team playoff system. That would see St. Louis as the current 16th seed with the Angels, Nats, and Pirates all within two games of the Cards. So that's roughly two thirds of the league all jockeying for playoff positioning and fighting to make the playoffs compared to around ten teams in the hunt in the current system. More teams playing meaningful regular season games and having a shot at the playoffs would equal larger attendance and interest across the fanbases.

I like this idea...playoffs are more exciting than regular season baseball anyway...2 five game series and 2 seven game series...

A 154 game season should easily accommodate this system...

Nats would still lose in the first round though... 

[Vega]

The converse is that that teams at the top can put it into cruise control and coast even earlier

Make it so that the division winners are the top six seeds.