MLB Manfred looking at robot umps by 2024, pitch clock, expansion and more

[LadyStanley]

Rob Manfred says he wants robot umps in MLB by 2024, hints at expansion to 32 teams

Big changes could be on the way to MLB.

sports.yahoo.com

And expansion to 32 teams.

Pitch clock cod speed up games by 30 minutes.

And looking to eliminate blackouts

Click to read more...

 

[Mike C]

Rob Manfred says he wants robot umps in MLB by 2024, hints at expansion to 32 teams

Big changes could be on the way to MLB.

sports.yahoo.com

And expansion to 32 teams.

Pitch clock cod speed up games by 30 minutes.

And looking to eliminate blackouts

Why don't they just play the games on stratomatic and take all the human element and charm out of a game that they are systematically ruining step by step that was just fine as it was

 

[KevFu]

Manfred has been hinting at expansion for years now; Oakland/Tampa stadiums are all that's in the way from going ahead with it.

I'm just terrified he goes through with a plan for radical realignment that has been hinted at as well for years now. Because it's a bad plan.

He seems to think that baseball is losing popularity because it's not more like the NBA with "bigger playoffs, geographic alignment, balanced scheduling" but the NBA is a totally different product. Baseball is losing popularity because it's slower and more boring than the NBA.

 

[KevFu]

Why don't they just play the games on stratomatic and take all the human element and charm out of a game that they are systematically ruining step by step that was just fine as it was

Angel Hernandez calling pitches totally incorrectly isn't charming when it's your team.

 

[OG6ix]

I hope he does not try to change baseball too much - I get that it's slower than other sports but there are other elements of the game that are not found in the other sports like the fact that there is not a clock to save you.

I understand that ADHD culture is huge now but there is no way I can see a sport like baseball catch up to the crowd that needs that constant feedback. The game is just not structured that way.

I think their expanded playoffs will help quite a bit - in Toronto baseball was sad when for two decades it was basically the Yankees and Redsox every year in the post season and other markets in the AL East had no chance. It wasn't until the last decade where that changed with the one additional wildcard.

 

[Centrum Hockey]

Manfred has been hinting at expansion for years now; Oakland/Tampa stadiums are all that's in the way from going ahead with it.

I'm just terrified he goes through with a plan for radical realignment that has been hinted at as well for years now. Because it's a bad plan.

He seems to think that baseball is losing popularity because it's not more like the NBA with "bigger playoffs, geographic alignment, balanced scheduling" but the NBA is a totally different product. Baseball is losing popularity because it's slower and more boring than the NBA.

No one should be shocked if any East/West realignment proposal keeps the AL/NL names to keep the traditionalists somewhat happy.

 

[Mike C]

Angel Hernandez calling pitches totally incorrectly isn't charming when it's your team.

Then he should be fired and replaced with someone competent.

 

[KevFu]

No one should be shocked if any East/West realignment proposal keeps the AL/NL names to keep the traditionalists somewhat happy.

Sure, but...

A) the real reason they'd keep AL and NL and slap West on one division, Central on another and East on another is that any team switching divisions has Veto Rights. So radical realignment would take at least 13 teams with a veto to approve (and doubtful you could make a good alignment while only moving 13 teams. In the 90s, 22 of 28 teams had veto rights in a plan that failed miserably).

B) Making a Western Conference and calling it the National League isn't tradition. Tradition is keeping the teams who've been playing for 100 years in the same league together.


I've said it a dozen times, the best thing MLB could do is to ADD TWO LEAGUES and be Four Leagues. The AL, NL, Pacific League and Southern League.

All eight Western teams would volunteer to join the PL, because they'd get a ton more local TV start times. It's worth giving up 60 years of tradition because they've been selling "a tradition that starts at 4 pm" about 20% of the time.

For the Southern League, expansion Nashville gets no vote. Houston and Texas would gladly jump at the Southern League, because it gets them out of the AL West, where they're playing division road games at 9 pm.

You'd need five more volunteers out of ATL, MIA, TB, WAS, BAL, KC... or worst case CIN, PIT

 

[StreetHawk]

Sure, but...

A) the real reason they'd keep AL and NL and slap West on one division, Central on another and East on another is that any team switching divisions has Veto Rights. So radical realignment would take at least 13 teams with a veto to approve (and doubtful you could make a good alignment while only moving 13 teams. In the 90s, 22 of 28 teams had veto rights in a plan that failed miserably).

B) Making a Western Conference and calling it the National League isn't tradition. Tradition is keeping the teams who've been playing for 100 years in the same league together.


I've said it a dozen times, the best thing MLB could do is to ADD TWO LEAGUES and be Four Leagues. The AL, NL, Pacific League and Southern League.

All eight Western teams would volunteer to join the PL, because they'd get a ton more local TV start times. It's worth giving up 60 years of tradition because they've been selling "a tradition that starts at 4 pm" about 20% of the time.

For the Southern League, expansion Nashville gets no vote. Houston and Texas would gladly jump at the Southern League, because it gets them out of the AL West, where they're playing division road games at 9 pm.

You'd need five more volunteers out of ATL, MIA, TB, WAS, BAL, KC... or worst case CIN, PIT

Probably just go time zone based.
West - sea, Oak, ALAA ,LA, SF, SD, AZ, either Col or Por or LV as expansion.
Midwest - Col if LV/Por expansion. KC, Hou, Tex, Stl, Mil, Cubs, Minny. If no Col probably have to look at either Cle, Det, Cin.
North - Det, Cle, Cin, ChiSox, Tor, Pit, NYY, Bos
Atlantic - NYM, Phi, Atl, Mia, TB, Was, Bal, and an expansion club in either NC or Ten.

Probably something like that.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

A complete geographic alignment would alienate so many fans.

Which is why I've proposed a four-league alignment based on history, which in turn was modified from someone else's proposal. It's time we make the Continental League and a majors version of the Pacific Coast League a reality.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

And expansion/realignment should coincide with the next TV contract that begins in 2029 and would ideally last through 2040. 12-year agreements would become the new norm.

Here's what platforms would be televising games when:
Sunday afternoon: ABC (exclusive coverage, starting third Sunday of May)
Sunday night: ESPN (exclusive coverage)
Monday night: Apple TV+ (exclusive coverage, may be doubleheader or singleheader)
Tuesday night: TBS (non-exclusive coverage, games blacked out in home territories of participating teams, doubleheader)
Wednesday night: Peacock (exclusive coverage, doubleheader)
Thursday night: MLB Network (non-exclusive coverage, games blacked out in home territories of participating teams, may be doubleheader or singleheader)
Friday night: Paramount Network, produced by CBS Sports (non-exclusive coverage, games blacked out in home territories of participating teams, doubleheader)
Saturday afternoon: Fox Sports 1 (non-exclusive coverage, games blacked out in home territories of participating teams, doubleheader)
Saturday night: Fox (exclusive regional coverage, three games air in Eastern/Central Time Zones at 7 PM ET/6 PM CT, each 7 PM game must either be between 2 Midwestern teams, 2 Southern teams, or 2 Northeastern teams for purpose of regional distribution, with each of the three eastern leagues being equally represented, including during the first three weeks of interleague play, while a PCL game airs at 7 PM PT/8 PM MT for those time zones; during last three weeks of interleague play where PCL teams are involved, all games start at 7 PM ET)

Here's the broadcast rotation for the first four years of the playoffs plus the All-Star Game, this would be a pattern for the remaining years of the 12-year TV contract:



Other notes:

Fox would only air weekday playoff games during the afternoon, in order to protect their primetime programming, and would not air any Saturday afternoon playoff games before 4 PM ET, to protect Big Noon Saturday, its flagship college football presentation; it also diverts any Sunday afternoon games to FS1 due to NFL coverage

ESPN can divert playoff games it holds the rights to to FX, FXX or Freeform based on its other sports commitments, including college football on Saturdays; ABC would generally not air any pre-WS playoff games in order to protect both its daytime and primetime programming, with one exception (see below)

Each cable network that would have the rights to a National Semifinal Series in a given year can move a game 7 to a sister broadcast network as follows:

ESPN: ABC
Fox Sports 1: Fox
Paramount Network: CBS
TBS: The CW (only half owned by TBS parent Warner Bros.-Discovery; other half is owned by Paramount Network and CBS owner Paramount Global, also simply known as Paramount).

During the regular season, ESPN, Paramount Network, and TBS are allowed to produce alternate telecasts oriented at kids for a sister kids-oriented cable network: Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network, respectively. These generally would only occur for select games, and these broadcasts, as fundamentally different from the traditional broadcasts on ESPN, Paramount Network, TBS and the RSNs, would not be subject to blackout. Nickelodeon would also start airing a weekly kids-oriented highlight series, MLB Slimetime, which is essentially a companion program to NFL Slimetime. A Nick broadcast of a game involving the Detroit Tigers could feature Jessica DiCicco as a commentator in character as Lynn Loud Jr. from the Michigan-set Nicktoon The Loud House.

With these new contracts, MLB would have broadcast deals with all five of the big five media conglomerates: Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros.-Discovery.

 

[oknazevad]

Still not getting the point that the CW will never carry sports. Or that Paramount Network isn't getting them either. Or that CBS has zero interest in carrying baseball.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Hope the robo ump is like the challenge system in tennis, you get x number of challenges per game, we know within seconds if it was a strike or ball.

 

[KevFu]

Hope the robo ump is like the challenge system in tennis, you get x number of challenges per game, we know within seconds if it was a strike or ball.

The system is pretty simple, because it's really not "robot umps." We already have the "K-Zone," where the broadcast and the live stats show the actual location of the pitch from Statcast data...

That data of strike/ball is relayed to the human umpire standing behind home plate (either audibly via microphone like PitchCom, or by lights on the scoreboard).

The ump is still there for foul tips, check swings, catcher's interference, plays at the plate, etc.

There wouldn't NEED to be a challenge system for Balls/Strikes.


And there shouldn't be a challenge system for replay NOW. They should change the replay system, where there's a fifth umpire in the umpire's lockerroom -- decked out in Home Plate Ump gear -- sitting on a recliner with all the available camera angles, watching the play. And he's got a mic to the crew chief; and on close plays he says "Wait a minute, let me look... yeah, he's out."

No gathering and putting on equipment and waiting for someone else to look at it. Just a fifth umpire. And he's in home plate gear in case the home plate ump gets hurt they can just swap places and the game doesn't have a 20-minute delay while a base umpire goes and puts on the gear and comes out.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Still not getting the point that the CW will never carry sports. Or that Paramount Network isn't getting them either. Or that CBS has zero interest in carrying baseball.

Still not getting the point that you don't have to comment if you don't like my ideas.

I hope we also get so many complaints about having to play every team every year that they abandon doing so in the next CBA. The relative lack of off days in MLB compared to the other major leagues makes this a horrible idea. We need to be making travel better, not worse.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Saw a AAA game earlier this summer with a pitch clock. It seemed to help keep things moving and doesn't seem intrusive at all. The game still took nearly 3.5 hours and that was with only 4 runs being scored. Nearly half the crowd had left by the end, with the home team winning and postgame fireworks. I can't imagine what that would have looked like without a pitch clock.

 

[oknazevad]

Still not getting the point that you don't have to comment if you don't like my ideas.

Maybe if you didn't completely spam the same debunked ideas in every thread that was only tangentially related people would t feel the need to tell you that we've already been over this a dozen times.

I hope we also get so many complaints about having to play every team every year that they abandon doing so in the next CBA. The relative lack of off days in MLB compared to the other major leagues makes this a horrible idea. We need to be making travel better, not worse.

It makes travel better, as it allows road teams to have less distance between opponents and hit more on a single road swing instead of having to double back over and over again.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

I don't want teams in the Eastern and Central Time Zones playing more than one series in the Mountain/Pacific Time Zones every year. That's way too many late starts for fans of those teams.

It's especially bad for the Astros and Rangers, who have three West Coast teams in their division.

Plus it would do MLB a lot of good to have over 200 games between two California teams each year. It could make the five teams in that state a huge five-way rivalry.