Diamondbacks Bullpen

shoewizard

Things I’d Change if I were Baseball Dictator for life:

League Alignment & Schedule:

1.) I’d contract the Devil Rays and the Marlins, and put their players in a draft to be taken by the other 28 teams. I would prohibit any major league franchise from ever moving to Florida ever again. It’s all going be underwater in 20 years anyway.

2.) Two Leagues, 14 teams each, no divisions.

3.) No inter league play

4.) Teams play balanced schedule, 12 games against each team in their league, 156 Game season

5.) Top 4 teams in each league make the playoffs.

Playoffs & World Series

1.) Of course 1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3

2.) Best of 7 in first round. Teams 1 & 2 get FIVE home games in first round. (2-2-3)

3.) Best of 7 in second round, highest seeded team gets home field advantage 4-3

4.) Home field advantage alternates for the World Series.

Rules:

1.) No DH in either league

2.) Widen home plate two inches

3.) Increase minimum bat handle thickness.

4.) Maximum 3 pitching changes per team for 9 inning game. (so max 4 pitchers may be used) Exception: if the 4th pitcher in a game gives up 4 runs or more, the manager may have a 4th pitching change and use a 5th pitcher.
Extra inning games, each subsequent pitcher used must pitch a minimum of one inning.

5.) The Claudio Vargas/ Steve Trachsel Rule: Maximum 30 seconds to deliver the next pitch from the time the catcher throws the ball back to the mound. Batter may not step out of the box more than once per at bat, except in cases where he fouls a ball off his foot or leg.

Penalty for violating is a ball charged to the pitcher, a strike charged to the batter.

Revenue Sharing:

I would adopt Bill James plan. All television and merchandise revenues would be split as follows:

Teams keep 50% for themselves, and 50% goes into the league fund, and that league fund is then divided evenly among the 28 teams. Obviously teams that have their own cable networks would have to be audited so that a fair market rate was being paid to the team.

Teams keep 100% of all other revenues for themselves.

There would be a salary cap and a salary floor. The amount of that cap and floor would be adjusted according to overall revenues.

All Star Game:

The All star game would be played April 1st or 2nd, immediately at the end of spring training. (Simply do away with the extra exhibition games played after teams break camp from spring training) The advantages to this:

1.) It would be a great way to welcome fans back to baseball

2.) Fan voting would be based on the entire previous season’s results, making it more likely that deserving candidates that happened to do better in the second half would receive votes.

3.) Since Starters are not asked pitch more than 2-3 innings anyway, there would not be any issues with guys begging out of pitching in the all star game because their arms are worn out mid season. Position players would not be banged up yet either, so the top guys voted into the game would actually be more likely to show up.

4.) It won’t be too hot to finally have an All Star game in Arizona.

5.) Teams could still be given a 3 day break in the schedule to rest and be with family immediately following the 4th of July. (baseball should always be played on the 4th of July)

Fine Print:
AS BASEBALL DICTATOR FOR LIFE, I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO AMEND, DELETE, ADD, EDIT ANY RULE AS I SEE FIT.

TAP

shoe, I'm okay with these dictatorial proclamations. However there are two caveats...

shoewizard · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:04 am Post subject:

Well, the Padres can move to Yuma, the Dodgers and Angels to Vegas, the Giants and A's can move to Reno, and the Mariners can move to Boise.

Done.

EvilJuan · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:08 am Post subject:

Wow, shoe! Your ideas are... well...

REVOLUTIONARY...

Sign me up!
_________________
Is It Next Season Yet? Sad

McCray · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:59 am Post subject:

where do i sign up to help lead this bloody revolution?
_________________
Hank, you're dead to me.

shoewizard · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:10 am Post subject:

Not so fast....levski has not showed up yet to point out the error of my ways.

Lets see what he has to say first.

EvilJuan · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:04 pm Post subject:

All hail Shoewizard!

All hail Levski!

All hail McCray!

The leaders of our glorious revolution!

Down with the evil baseball tyrant!

_________________
Is It Next Season Yet? Sad

McCray · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:16 pm Post subject:

Hank · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:01 pm Post subject:

I just wanted to stop by to say I predict great success for the new dictatorship...

shoewizard · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:22 pm Post subject:

OK, as dictator I am making an ammendment. In order to fuel in state rivalaries, and to add some mystery back into the world series, these will be the league breakdowns:

Eastern League:

NYY, NYM, TOR,BOS, BAL,WAS, PHIL, PIT, ATL, MIL, MIN, DET, KC, STL

Western League

LAA, LAD, SD, SFO, OAK, SEA, AZ, COL, TEX, HOU, CHI W, CHI C, CLE, CIN

matt · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:28 pm Post subject:

Since you are the dictator, how does dick taste?

shoewizard · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:29 pm Post subject:

moviegeekjn · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:47 pm Post subject:

David B · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:28 pm Post subject:

McCray · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:29 pm Post subject:

wow, in one day we had our bloody rise to power, and our terrible, hank-fueled fall from grace. and of course, it ended in a nuke. wow. productive day...
_________________
Hank, you're dead to me.

shoewizard · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:08 pm Post subject:

shoewizard · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:09 pm Post subject:

1golfer1 · MLB Rookie Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 135

unc84steve · Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:20 pm Post subject:

If I could recreate baseball, I'd go for a European soccer style relegation/ promotion system. Such a system would eliminate the free-riding at the bottom of the league b/c they'd risk relegation to a lower league. It would make minor league baseball 1000% more interesting b/c the races & games would matter.
_________________
-Steve

EvilJuan · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 8:57 am Post subject:

shoewizard · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:02 am Post subject:

Exactly. The only way a relegation system would work would be if there were no affiliations between major and minor league clubs.

David B · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:32 am Post subject:

I think the relegation system should only involve existing major league teams. A premiere league of 16 teams and an A league of the other 14 (or 16, if you want to expand to...oh, say, Las Vegas and Portland). The bottom two finishers in the Premeiere league (let's say they're Cincinnati and Houston) would get demoted, and the top two teams in the A league (let's call them Cleveland and Arizona) would be promoted.

EvilJuan · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 2:51 pm Post subject:

David B · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 3:11 pm Post subject:

No EvilJuan, its not at all like the wild card. Under the present system the Blue Jays and Orioles could spend money wisely to be compettive, and yet still never be able to wrest a wild card birth from the Red Sox or Yankees.

You would have two distinct leagues. The premiere league would probably start out as basically the large market teams (the New Yorks, Boston, LA, Anaheim, etc), and presumably the A League would start with a lot of the smaller market teams. At the end of the season, the two worst teams in the Premeire league get demoted, and the two best teams in the A league get promoted. Ideally, the competive balance in the two leagues would be fairly even, because the groupings would be much closer to payroll. Plus, this year there would have been a pennant race among teams like Florida, Arizona, Cleveland, etc, creating excitement in markets where no excitement existed this year.

At the end of the season, smaller market teams that have a good season get rewarded, and larger market teams that can't compete get demoted.

Thus, you have a situation where a Cleveland, or Florida, or Arizona get to compete against teams with similar payrolls, with a reward of getting promoted if they excell. I don't know if this is a perfect system or not, but it's at least something to ponder.

matt · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 3:38 pm Post subject:

Yeah that's a scary proposition. Fun to talk about but there is no way in hell that could ever happen. People freak out at the slightest changes in the game, no way in hell would the fans allow it (nevermind the small market owners and the player's union).