Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list inclu...
Baseball is still a great game. It just needs some cosmetic surgery to make it look young again, particularly after last season, when for the first time in MLB history there were more strikeouts than hits.
The game is being dominated by relief pitchers, mound visits, stalling tactics, defensive shifts and launch angles. It’s all based on statistics and probability, trying to take advantage of every one-on-one situation. They’ve taken all the joy out of baseball.
Among the rules being proposed this season are limiting the number of times a manager can visit the pitching mound, a requirement that every pitcher faces at least three batters and forcing the National League to start using the designated-hitter rule that’s been in the American League for 45 years.
Baseball needs to generate more offence, teams have to score more runs. More lineups containing DHs instead of weak-hitting pitchers might help, but outlawing infield shifts and minimizing the effect of relief pitchers would be much more effective.
