Sunday, June 18, 2017

Remove power: fair ball hit into stands is a double; 90 mph speed limit on pitches.

If you actually wanted to reduce the incentive for batters to use performance enhancing drugs (PED), including steroids, eliminate the never ending quest for power. All home runs must be inside the park, with mad dash base running. No more tee shot followed by victory lap, often punctuated with unsportsmanlike conduct.

Pitchers can be likewise impacted by having a speed limit: 90 mph. All pitches are already measured, so this is an easy change, too.

So what would change in player evaluations? It's pretty obvious that different and more varied skills would become valued. We pretend that we want this but would you make these changes? Or are you too timid to save baseball from its path to total boredom: interminable jerking around between pitches and fewer and fewer balls in play?

Think it through before your knee jerk rejection.

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