2008-10-07T00:45:08-04:00 Should a limit be placed on mound visits? 2008-10-06T12:49:20-04:00 14 2008-10-06T12:49:20-04:00 1 2 10 2008-10-06T13:54:39-04:00 13 FL Ichron St. Petersburg 398198 5 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. 2985485 2008-10-07T00:45:08-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/417/69/thumb/SNHU.jpg 1478 MA JAubin: Go Gators! 9-0 Swansea 41989 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. 14 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. 2990573 2008-10-07T00:08:09-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/472/8/thumb/leavitt.jpg 69 FL mcox567 Sarasota 4748 13 Can't they just come up with signs that eliminate the need for mound visits? You know, flash 1 finger for &quot;Don't walk this guy&quot; or 2 fingers for &quot;Don't throw the same junk he crushed over the fence in the 3rd inning&quot; 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 2990480 2008-10-06T20:58:18-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/553/401/thumb/Oops.jpg 50 TX howardryan6 Corpus Christi 553881 12 I think that they should get rid of the fans and stop televising the games altogether. 2989777 2008-10-06T16:20:09-04:00 15 NJ NDRUSS South Orange 90509 11 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. 2987488 2008-10-06T15:56:18-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/482/462/thumb/moongif_1_.gif 8422 NY Johnny B.Goode Blue Point 482902 10 I kinda liked the mound visits, they gave me time to run into the kitchen for another Pabst Blue Ribbon without missing anything. 2987136 2008-10-06T15:30:37-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/186/513/thumb/SittingBull.jpg 3644 CO wtnelson = Big Chief Fort Collins 186813 9 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. 2986760 2008-10-06T15:13:02-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/133/51/thumb/Cam_Neely.jpg 4634 MA BobBoston Beantown 13371 8 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! 2986574 2008-10-06T14:57:17-04:00 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/106/59/thumb/images.jpg 96 XX pimpbot5000 No City 10679 7 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. 2986443 2008-10-06T14:13:44-04:00 5 NY Travlin'man Fulton 576438 6 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. 2985719 2008-10-06T13:54:39-04:00 13 FL Ichron St. Petersburg 398198 5 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. 2985485 14 <div class="photo_container image_right"> <div class="photo"><img title="Jason Varitek (right)" src="http://i.cnn.net/si/fannation/varitek-conference.jpg" alt="Jason Varitek (right)" width="298" height="437" /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: right;">Has the frequency of mound conferences gotten excessive?<br /></div> <div class="photo_attributes" style="text-align: right;">Stephen Dunn/Getty Images<br /></div> </div> <p><em>Sports Illustrated</em> senior writer <strong>Tom Verducci</strong> takes issue with the frequency of mound conferences in the last of his <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/tom_verducci/10/06/verducci.cuts/index.html" target="_blank">Five Cuts</a> from this morning, saying the number of pitcher-catcher powwows made yesterday's Angels-Red Sox playoff game almost impossible to watch.<em> </em></p> <blockquote> <p>Has Boston catcher <strong>Jason Varitek </strong>finished giving his signs yet with a man on second base? That ALDS Game 3 was nearly unwatchable because of how much time Varitek took giving signals and running out to the mound to talk to <strong>Josh Beckett </strong>seemingly every other pitch (and to a lesser extent, <strong>Mike Napoli</strong> chatting with <strong>Joe Saunders</strong>). <strong>Carlton Fisk</strong> was never that bad. I know how important these games are and I know each pitch is important, but come on, there has to be some limit to the conferencing. The general managers at their meetings next month should have some discussion about it. If the coach and manager are limited on mound visits, why not the catcher? Can you get through an inning without, say, four visits to the mound by the catcher?</p> </blockquote> <p>Do you think mound conferences make baseball "unwatchable" or are they a natural part of the game's dramatic build-up? Should baseball look into limiting the number of mound visits at next month's GM meetings? What would you suggest?</p> 11522 18 NY The SI Staff New York City 21244