Solutions for Baseball’s Too Many Strikeouts Issue/Not Enough Basehits

Baseball finally addressing the pace of play has made watching MLB games enjoyable again. Players continue to complain and I’ve heard the argument “Baseball doesn’t have a clock so this sucks”–but ultimately, as Bill James noted, baseball DID have a clock. It was called sundown. And though baseball didn’t have a clock, if you go check out the start of the 20th century, you’ll find World Series games played in under 90 minutes.

Really.

Anyways, there’s still concern about the number of basehits and trying to get baseball back to where it was in the modern ‘golden age’ of the 1970s-80s where you could win with power, average, speed, defense, or pitching–or any combination thereof.

So…here are some suggestions that wouldn’t radically change the game but would help tweak things back to baseball where you can win a ton of different ways. Styles make fights…styles make excitement.

THE WAYS:

• Move batters boxes back 3-4″. Since players obliterate the chalk to move forward anyways, this will make pulling outside pitches more difficult and bring opposite field hitting back into vogue.

• Looking at the Louisville Slugger museum, I realized bat handles are now half the thickness they were 50 years ago, down to 1/2-3/4″ thickness. That makes power and bat control easier–why not increase bat thickness back to 1″ in diameter?

• Go find photos of fielding gloves from 1910, 1950, 1980, and today. My goodness, today’s gloves are immense. What would happen if you mandated gloves shrink 2-3″? You’d still get shoestring catches but you’d also get more balls dropping in as well or making it past the infielders for seeing-eye hits.

• Roster limits on pitchers. You can have 13 in April, 12 in May and June, and 11 from that point onwards.

• Starting pitchers cannot leave a game until they have given up a run. Relievers must give up a run or complete two innings. This will force pitchers to pace themselves.

• Put a line on the mound to restrict how far forward a pitcher can plant his foot. Pitchers are 6-8″ taller than they were a century ago so they now release the ball closer to the plate–less time to see the ball, less ability to hit. Placing a line on the mound would return the release point to where it was 30+ years ago. It would also mean shorter pitchers are less at a disadvantage than taller pitchers.

• Limit the armor batters can wear at the plate. Batters crowd the plate without fear because of their armor–elbow/ankle pads, etc. If you limit the armor, those batters will be less willing to stand in place to take the HBP. I love Anthony Rizzo but…I’m looking at you, dude.

• Alternative to limiting batter armor–>batters currently strip off all the armor once they get on base. Nope. If you want to wear protective armor, you need to keep that on while on base. Yes, it will restrict your running and slow you down if you have shin protectors. Now you have a choice to make.

None of these are complicated. None would be hard to enforce.

Alas, none will happen because of inertia. Baseball changes too slowly and has for more than 50 years. Sigh.