Cleveland Sports Forum

Unlike the Browns who have never had a nucleus to build off of since their reincarnation, "Cleveland" (I'll stop using the nickname "Indians" or "Tribe") now has the nucleus to build from. If they remain diligent, they can now spot their weaknesses in turn build to their strengths. Don't keep players on the payroll with diminishing skills or don't wait until they're too "old" to get any value in return just because you "like" them. We appear to be in a "good" position right now. No reason why we can't be perennial favorites if the front office does their job.

Civ, season ticket sales are currently 11,000

Mid 90's during sell out streak season tickets were 25,000

Gotta tip the hat to Dolan.

To make room for Logan on the roster, hard-throwing but generally unsuccessful righty Austin Adams is released. He's at age 30 now and has never got his control in command, or his command under control.
Despite that, his fastball makes him a candidate for success some day.

Since the demand for 2nd lefty in the pen has been met, I would have expected them to return Rule 5 draftee Hoby Milner, whose minor league stats are promising, but see little chance he'd make the roster, as a 3rd lefty in the pen, on a pennant-chasing club. But I guess he deserves an opportunity to show his stuff in Spring Training before he's offered back to the Phillies.

In case you missed it, Nap just signed with TX.

That had been expected for awhile. I hope he has a good season, seems to be a good guy.

MLB Plans to Test New Extra-Inning Rules in Minor Leagues During 2017 Season


Scott Polacek
Featured Columnist
February 8, 2017

Baseball offenses in the low levels of the minor leagues will reportedly start extra innings with a runner in scoring position before anyone even steps in the batter's box.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reported Wednesday that Major League Baseball will test a rule change in the Gulf Coast League and Arizona League in 2017 that will place a runner on second base to start extra innings. Passan noted something akin to this rule has been a feature in international baseball and will be used in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

Testing the rule in those leagues "is part of an effort to understand its wide in-game consequences—and whether its implementation at higher levels, and even the major leagues, may be warranted," Passan wrote.

MLB's Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre commented on the rule, per Passan: "Let's see what it looks like. It's not fun to watch when you go through your whole pitching staff and wind up bringing a utility infielder in to pitch. As much as it's nice to talk about being at an 18-inning game, it takes time."

Pace of play has been a point of emphasis this offseason, as MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred recently stressed, per Liz Roscher of Yahoo Sports.

"Our goal is to make sure that our product is as tight and compelling as possible," Manfred said. "So what we're focused on is eliminating points of delay in the game, where there's no action, it doesn't affect the outcome of the game. Where we can just move the game along a little quicker."

This comes after Rob Arthur of FiveThirtyEight noted in July 2016 that the average MLB game was an even three hours and near its 2014 high.

Placing a runner on second base to start extra innings isn't the only potential new rule designed in part to increase the action and pace of play.

According to Jayson Stark of ESPN.com, MLB proposed rules that would raise the bottom of the strike zone to the top of the knees and do away with actually throwing the pitches in an intentional walk. Instead, a team would simply send the batter to first without throwing the four pitches for any intentional pass.

In terms of the extra-inning rule, Passan listed other possible advantages if it was implemented:

Possible Advantages to New Rule
Advantage Brief Explanation
Increase Action Forced runner leads to more action, even when balls aren't put in play.

Philosophical Element Managers would have to decide whether to bunt the runner over.

Fatigue Effect Extra-inning games increase stress and fatigue during the course of a long season that features plenty of traveling. They also stress the bullpen.


Passan did point out the rule would probably take multiple years to reach the MLB level, even if it's a success in the lower minor leagues.

How much of the increased game time is because of the length of time taken between innings and pitching changes.

Baseball offenses in the low levels of the minor leagues will reportedly start extra innings with a runner in scoring position before anyone even steps in the batter's box.

I've seen this rule implemented many times during international competition. I think it's a great idea. I also thought that the overtime rules in college football was a great idea when it was first implemented. If you like the college format, you'll like this one also.

Want to speed up the game? No pitching changes during an inning except for injury. No visits to the mound. To prevent faking injuries, require pitcher removed for injury to sit for a number of games.

Tito would be screwed if they did that!

Tito is part of the problem.

Yeah, I guess you'd rather have Manny Acta back.

Just talking about the length of games not the job Tito has done. Tito makes all those pitching changes because he can.

And all those changes limit the damage, and have won several games for us. If we took that away from him, we are taking away wins from the team!