Dodgers in the Eleventh, Mariners in the 15th

[Edgy MD]

Extra-Inning Baseball is actually a wonderful feature that we have treated as a bug, and here we are with hyperbolic headlines about the dramatic finishes that we used to have — and still could have — available to us all season long.

Bizarre.

[Centerfield]

I love that there is no extra runner. And if I had my way there would never be one. One of the considerations a manager used to have when pulling his starter early is “what if this game goes into extras”.

Those that favor the extra runner will say we can’t take it away because of the way the games are managed now. Everyone will run out of pitchers. I say if you go back to normal, then managers maybe wouldn’t manage this way.

In the end it’s all about viewership and ratings. We know it won’t ever go away. I just wish they’d give us, say, two innings of real baseball before adding the runner.

Starting with a runner in the 12th makes more sense to me.

[Edgy MD]

One of the considerations a manager used to have when pulling his starter early is “what if this game goes into extras”.

 

It is indeed among the unintended consequences we create with all the dumb rules to preserve pitching. We give managers an extra roster spot, we universalize the DH, we virtually eliminate extra innings, and we allow for liberal roster manipulation to expand the roster toward infinity, and all it does is cause managers to be more profligate with the pitching they have.

The more we address the demand on pitching, the more poverty of pitching we create.