Major League Baseball is tweaking the game in 2020 and introducing a controversial three-batter minimum for pitchers in an attempt to reduce the number of pitching changes and speed up ballgames. According to a recent ESPN report, MLB is also considering massive changes to the postseason format, and the proposal has many fans revolting.
According to Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer, MLB’s proposed changes to the game won’t solve any of its issues, while the league continues to ignore other problem areas that need to be addressed. In a video for Momentum, Bauer vented on all the of the things he can’t stand about MLB and its commissioner, Rob Manfred.
On the proposal to expand the playoffs:
“They’re just wrong. Like, who put this out without thinking of the fact that the best team in the league is going to get a six-day layoff? A seven-day layoff? While we sort out this whole three games here, and this Wild Card, and we’re going to pick out opponent, and we’re going to do this whole reality TV stuff…. meanwhile, the best team in baseball is sitting at home waiting for all this crap to transpire. God forbid someone’s ace pitches four days before the end of the regular season, and then has 10 days between starts. This isn’t football where you can heal up and that helps. Being on a routine is so important in baseball.”
On Rob Manfred and baseball’s media problems:
“Rob, if you understood media, maybe as the commissioner of baseball you could solve some of these things. Like how in one of your biggest markets [Los Angeles], half the fans can’t even watch the damn game because of TV deals…. Half the people in local markets have blackouts. They buy the MLB package to watch their favorite team, and they can’t even watch their favorite team half the time. I know that’s not all on Rob, but as the commissioner, figure it out, man! How are we supposed to spread the game…. when they can’t even see the damn game.”
On how difficult it is to see MLB highlights:
“They can’t even go to Twitter, where all the young people hang out. You can’t even go to social media and see anything about the game. Steph Curry throws a bounce pass in an NBA game and it’s trending with 1.5 million views 5 minutes later – and Mike Trout goes and launches himself and robs a homer or something and you can’t find the highlight anywhere online!
You’ve got BAM – Baseball Advanced Media – that was designed to centralize all MLB content and force people to pay to have access to it. Great, you made a lot of money up front, but you centralize all this content and you make people pay for it, and you know what you get? You get a missing generation of fans.”
On baseball’s dumb rules and dumb rule proposals:
“Let’s not even talk about the shoes, the cleats. ‘Oh, hey Mike Clevinger, you can’t wear those shoes that are colorful that everybody on Twitter likes because it violates our stupid cleat policy where you get three colors of cleats.’ I mean, what does it even matter? Just let the players express themselves. Let it have some personality.
You want to market the game? Don’t change it. Don’t make the mound 62 feet. Don’t make playoffs where you have to pick your opponent and freaking whatever. Don’t change the game. Market the players! You have more players in baseball than any other league with much more diverse backgrounds, worldwide, moreso than any of the other major American sports. And it’s the least marketable. It’s because you make stupid decisions about how you market the players.”
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