Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Shortest distance for home runs is down the lines, so batters pull the ball down the line.

Duh. Previous post:

410 feet down the lines and 330 in center. What would Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca say? Monday, April 18, 2022

If it's OK to have different outfield dimensions in each ballpark and different within every ballpark, why not switch them around?

_______________________

In recent years fielders increasingly have been instructed to stand where batters try to reach the seats, the batter's pull field. Then the batters cry: no fair!

So next season fielders will be limited in where they may play.

I'd have to research whether the tongue in cheek suggestion in my previous post is allowed but for years I've been amazed at how little teams try to take advantage of the silly (euphemism) idea in baseball that it's not only OK but actually charming to have different home run distances. Who wants the playing area to be the same or even fair like those stinky other U.S. team sports football and basketball?

A team could have its outfield distance be 410 feet all the way around. And with a fence at least ten feet high. Then put three center fielders (no matter how they hit) out there to cover the vast area. The question would be whether the home field advantage would be more than the road disadvantage when the poor hitting outfielders would hurt team scoring.

The other advantage that's ignored is the football idea that there are two sides to the ball. In baseball, teams play the shift. Then when they come to bat, let their batters hit into the shift. The way to get a competitive advantage, is to play the shift but not hit into the other teams shift.

It's pretty obvious but no team does any of this. They're so boring.

No comments: