FanNation - The Republic of Sport

unwatchable? what is wrong with you. it was a tie game pretty much the whole game, how is that not exciting?! who cares how many times they go out to the mound. whats next? players are only allowed two practice swings. FILLER ALERT!!!

Dont let the pitchers warm up while your at it, who needs practice!!!!

I think that teams should be limited to 2 mound conferences per inning. There's no need to keep running out and going over signals; that's why you go over them before the game. And if you're talking strategy, that's why you go over the scouting report. I agree that these visits take away from the ebb and flow of the game.

QUOTE(#3):

Originally posted 01:34 PM ET  10.06 by FALIF

I think that teams should be limited to 2 mound conferences per inning. There's no need to keep running out and going over signals; that's why you go over them before the game. And if you're talking strategy, that's why you go over the scouting report. I agree that these visits take away from the ebb and flow of the game.

Id like to add up these "extra" mound walks, what will it take off the total time..a extra 5 minutes..give me a break, its all rules and lame regulations, let them f'n play.

Now it shouldnt be allowed to have the whole infeild come up and talk, but nothing wrong with pitcher/catcher coming out to see whats up, sometimes eye/finger gestures just dont cut it.

Sometimes mound conferences are done in good sportsmanship, and limiting the conferences would cut out those mound trips. For example, when someone fouls a ball off of their foot/ankle and it's a particularly bad looking one, often a catcher will walk to the mound out of good sportsmanship to give the batter a little more time to shake it off.

Baseball is a game without a time clock on it, if it's taking to long, go watch another sport. Uh, maybe basketball, where the last two minutes of a half or game can take fifteen minutes with all the stupid timeouts.

If MLB wants to make games shorter, this is one way of achieving that. Why not limit the amount of visits during an inning to two? Everytime a pitcher gets in trouble or when he has two strikes with two outs, the catcher comes out to discuss the next pitch(es). Can't pitchers these days work out of a jam without a conversation every other batter?

But if you do that, you should also cut down the time between innings (it's now up to 3 minutes during the LDS which is too long) and make pitchers respect the 12-second rule with no one on base, even during the later innings.

I personally enjoy watching pitchers like Mark Buehrle or the entire Blue Jays staff, who work fast. All the time you hear players in the field like that. Makes you wonder why more pitchers don't do that.

You play 162 games to get to the Show...the games are so important who cares how many times they go to the mound...just stop showing TV commercials and show some clips from SI's Swimsuit Edition instead! The more trips to the mound with TV timeouts the better!

You can't limit the number of times that the pitcher and catcher can conference. That basically encourages the runner on second to steal signs, since there's nothing that the defense can do to combat it. What would you suggest for a penalty? A balk? That's ridiculous. It's a necessary part of the game.

I also don't understand MLB's attempt to keep batters from calling time. If a pitcher is taking a long time to pitch, the batter locks up and won't get a good swing. They have to call time. If baseball wants to limit the time of games, cut down on the friggin' ads. TV ads are what slows it down, not conferences that only take 5-10 seconds. I understand that they need to pay the bills, but increasing TV timeouts by 50% once the playoffs come around is ridiculous.

I kinda liked the mound visits, they gave me time to run into the kitchen for another Pabst Blue Ribbon without missing anything.

The mound visits kill the game. Everyone goes over the pre-game material on how to attack the batters. Memorize it and save the BS.

I think that they should get rid of the fans and stop televising the games altogether.

Can't they just come up with signs that eliminate the need for mound visits? You know, flash 1 finger for "Don't walk this guy" or 2 fingers for "Don't throw the same junk he crushed over the fence in the 3rd inning"

What else is necessary? If pitchers are so dumb as to need constant hand-holding from managers and catchers, just put a juggs machine out there

QUOTE(#5):

Originally posted 01:54 PM ET  10.06 by Ichron

Sometimes mound conferences are done in good sportsmanship, and limiting the conferences would cut out those mound trips. For example, when someone fouls a ball off of their foot/ankle and it's a particularly bad looking one, often a catcher will walk to the mound out of good sportsmanship to give the batter a little more time to shake it off.

The umpires do the same thing for catchers if a ball catches them in the family...

But still, why change this? If you are going to take away this, then you might as well not allow the infield to toss the ball around while the pitcher is warming up. Maybe install a communicator in the catcher's mask and pitcher's hat, so they can just talk from where they are at and let everybody here them.