If you follow baseball specifically the MLB we are almost to the All Star break and there are 14 players with 100+ strikeouts and 22 with 90+ strikeouts to date. 2 players have 40+ stolen bases. Elly De Le Cruz is a fine talent but he only has 16. His little feat the other day against the Pirates where he stole consecutive bases and scored was more on the pitcher than his speed as an athlete. He was smart, read the pitcher and got in his head.

Did the new rule limiting plate disengagements by the pitcher have something to do with it? Who knows but SB numbers will set a record and 'caught stealing' should go down. This is assuming there are some fundamentals in play.

Hows that defensive shift rule working out that was supposed to generate more runs/offense? Not so much Robert. Love the fact that the OF still overshift with some hitters.

How has the 'pace of game' rules and the pitch clock helped drive more viewers? The people who have noticed are the same ones who were watching and attending before.

Keep your greedy bits out of the great game Mr. Manfred.

Huge congrats to Ron Washington. 3b coach/Infield coach for the Braves. The entire starting IF made the '23 All Star roster. If you coach, have kids/grandkids who play baseball/softball his YouTube vids on IF play are amazing.

I hate to say it, but the pitch clock needed to happen. All of the other changes are just dumb.

Well IDK about all of that...

What I do know is it feels like more bases are being stolen for sure, and guys getting thrown out while trying feels rare to me.

Also the game feels much faster. Used to be you could go take a leak and grab a beer between pitches with some of those clowns, now you have to watch bcs it happens pretty fast. I like it!

Only shortens the games by about 20-25 mins I guess but it feels way faster...

like the pace of play better . also like infield shift rule. big non fan of the ghost runner rule . maybe start the ghost runner in the 12th inning

I promise I am not smart enough to make it up.

The game is much more enjoyable to watch while sacrificing pitcher health.

All I can say is, I have watched more MLB this year than ever before. Of course the Rangers are playing well, but I like the pace of the game and the offense. So far, so good.

Elly De La Cruz has only been called up for a little over a month. He's been pretty electric since arriving with the big team.

Before the season began, everyone said that Corey Seager would benefit the most from the new shift rule. He's batting .353 & OPS 1.026. Just blistering the ball this year. Since he's on "my team", I would say I like the new rule

I'm not a Manfred fan. At all. The juiced balls - dead balls of the last few years, coming from the top. I'm just not a fan of his.

Don't forget too, that the bases are 3" bigger than previously (18" to 15"). That makes it just a bit shorter distance from 1st to 2nd (where most of the steals occur). Many of those really close call "outs" in past years are now "safe" calls.

You can basically time steals on almost every pitch now.

You just study pitcher tendencies on how many seconds left on clock they like to pitch.

The great Ricky Henderson records will likely never be broken though.
Once in a century or two talent at leadoff and on the bases.

Yes sir pitchers tempo has adjusted and had to. I always like(d) the guys who work quick anyway. Seems to get in the hitters head especially when a plate umpire won't grant time. That is happening more it seems.

I’ve been convinced for years that Manfred doesn’t even like baseball. If it weren’t for Goodell, he’d be the worst American commissioner.

Pitch clock is better than I expected it to be. Both leagues playing by the same rules and having a DH should’ve been done years ago. The rest of the rule changes are stupid, particularly the extra innings base runner deal.

One thing they could do that would actually help grow the game is to allow anyone to share clips on social media. They’re strict about it, and it makes no sense.

On the flip side of that I have seen a couple of pitchers who struggled out of the gate with it... they are adapting but some of those guys who worked more methodically, they got beat up early on.

I have not heard a single person not say the pitch clock has made the game more enjoyable.

Its going to get really interesting in post season. When fans going wild, shaking the stadium noise levels with a huge game on the line... the hitter and pitcher gotta throw down. No walking off, checking first, playing with your batting gloves etc.

Throw down!

So what is the average game time this year VS 4 years ago?

2019: 3 hours, 10 minutes.
2023: 2 hours, 38 minutes

Source for time