~2021 MLB Thread~

[OrangeAfroMan]

I'm above average!!!

You couldn't find 5 other blonde baseball players with the right build.  You'd have to throw him in with football players.

[longhorn320]

And tanking is akin to the 3 true outcomes.

The worst thing a team can do is be average.  So there's a gap now, between the teams trying to win 90+ games and ones tanking and winning fewer than 75.  Between 85-75 is purgatory.  It's harder to go from 90 to 95 wins than it is from 85 to 90.  So being average is basically slamming your head against a wall every year.
.
It's another inefficiency that statistics has revealed for optimization of a franchise.  But it does nothing to help viewership.  Baseball's winning strategies are anti-viewrship.  That's a problem.  It is not something to ignore, sit on, and proclaim everything is fine.
.
I get the idea that longhorn is one of those people that think declaring bankruptcy involves yelling the word. 

In what way is MLB's strategies anti-viewership?

Have you looked at the data on TV viewership

doesnt look like it

[GopherRock]

The most anti-viewership part of modern baseball is taking 4 hours to play nine innings of baseball.

[longhorn320]

The most anti-viewership part of modern baseball is taking 4 hours to play nine innings of baseball.

if that were the normal case you'd be right

average game is just over 3 hrs

just like football

[betarhoalphadelta]

Golf is far more interesting to watch on TV than baseball.

[longhorn320]

Golf is far more interesting to watch on TV than baseball.

Just like baseball I have to be watching a favorite team or in golf a player to be interested

I feel the same about all televised sports

except women's beach volleyball 

[OrangeAfroMan]

In what way is MLB's strategies anti-viewership?

Have you looked at the data on TV viewership

doesnt look like it

Because winning is better for viewship than losing.
Being alive for the postseason is better for viewership than being out of it.
Losing on purpose doesn't really bring the crowds.
.
Just because you're looking at data doesn't mean it's the right data.

[longhorn320]

Because winning is better for viewship than losing.
Being alive for the postseason is better for viewership than being out of it.
Losing on purpose doesn't really bring the crowds.
.
Just because you're looking at data doesn't mean it's the right data.

and yet you dont look at data at all

point me to any data that points to baseball dying

its all in your mind

[OrangeAfroMan]

Attendance is in an continuous 12 year slide.  

[OrangeAfroMan]

However long or short you want to argue a game is right now, games are getting longer.

[OrangeAfroMan]

91% of Americans have heard of LeBron James
88% of Americans have heard of Tom Brady
41% of Americans have heard of Mike Trout.

[MarqHusker]

In game pace is the biggest wart on the game.  Pitchers and batters fidgeting doing anything but playing the game.  It has badly trickled into LL too I've observed.  It ruins golf and it ruins baseball.    Enforce pace through whatever means.  MiLB pitch clock helps, noticeably.  I can live w 3outcome baseball as I think it will change faster than we think.

Btw football has this problem too though for entirely different reasons.  The administration and presentation of a football game is tedious and it has become the least attractive sporting event to attend by a country mile.  I have more fun at the horse track.

[Brutus Buckeye]

You'd have to be nuts to burn a whole summer watching 162 games. Even if your team is awesome, you will suffer through at least 60 losses, and they are quite unlikely to even make the World Series, let alone win it.

[MarqHusker]

The season really is soap opera viewing.  Day after day after day.   Standings, box scores, I don't do fantasy.   When you're into it and your team is 'in it' it is quite emotionally taxing in Aug/Sept.    It's quite delightful.   Outside of times when I'm off the grid fishing in Canada, I don't remember too many times going to bed without knowing the outcome of a Brewers game.

several flips ago, I meant to comment related to TV ratings.  I consume portions of baseball games (well over 100) during the season, either radio, or TV, but I probably catch fewer than 4 national broadcasts (Fox, ESPN) in the regular season.  I am very typical of the actual consumer of baseball.  We're not watching 'marquee' game of the week.   Why would I, when I can watch any *game, any night of the week.   The local 9 regularly wins the ratings night in many local markets.    I don't need or even want to watch a game on Saturday afternoon b/t April-Sept.   This isn't 1975.

*excepting the draconian TV blackouts based on location.