Golden At Bat rule

K

Krgrecw

**NOT ACTUALLY RACIST
OK, what is a Golden At-Bat?

What if a team could choose one at-bat in every game to send its best hitter to the plate even if it wasn’t that guy’s turn to hit? That’s the Golden At-Bat concept in a nutshell.

Say there are two outs in the 10th inning in October. The Yankees and Guardians are tied. Does this ring a bell at all? But in this alternate October universe, it’s not Juan Soto who is due up. It’s, say, Oswaldo Cabrera. Except the Yankees say: No, no, no. We’re going to use our Golden AB here … and send up Soto. Then home run magic happene

How would the rule work?

How would this rule be worded? Sorry. That’s a mystery nobody can answer yet. The truth is, baseball hasn’t settled on those details. And MLB officials declined to speak with The Athletic about any possible future rule changes. But lots of variations have been tossed around. Here are some that I’ve heard

• Each team gets to pick one at-bat — at any point in the game, but only once — to play its Golden AB card. So would it save that card for The Juan Soto Moment? Or would it play it in the second inning, with the bases loaded and a chance to blow up a game? Strategy alert!

• Or there’s this option: Each team gets one Golden AB per game — except only in the seventh inning or later.

• Or there’s the variation I’d vote for — where only a team that is trailing (or tied) in the ninth or later gets to use a Golden AB. I’m a fan of less is more, and two Golden ABs every game (one per team) might be overkill.

• There’s also this potential wrinkle: The Royals use their Golden AB to let Bobby Witt Jr. lead off the ninth. He makes an out. But who’s batting second? Whaddaya know, it’s Witt’s turn in the lineup. So here he comes again. Yes, that could be a thing.

Anyone actually in favor of this potential upcoming idea?
 
What **** rag was this article taken from without credit, and why would you even bother posting this drivel here? Anyone in favor of this mockery should be banned immediately.
 
I still like my idea of targets in the stands and outfield and if you hit them you get some sort of bonus...maybe even go full bananas and if a fan actually catches a foul ball with 2 strikes, the hitter is out. I mean why grow the game organically and impose fair revenue streams that promote equal spending with hard line floors that are really high and hard line ceilings that are obtainable for all teams in the league. lets create stupid gimmicks instead of promoting young stars and making it really really easy for fans of those players to be able to watch them...
 
That's a croc of ****. Just make the game basketball already. What I might be okay with is a designated fielder rule so we can get some of these crazy good defenders in the game who can't hit. It's a shame some of the best defenders never see the majors or significant play time because they couldn't hit a beach ball
 
I mean, it would certainly be exciting, but so would letting a new starving apex predator loose on the field every inning as an extra obstacle for both teams.

How about they work on a rule tweak to get more balls in play rather than artificially adding drama to the game.
 
CyYoung31 said:
What **** rag was this article taken from without credit, and why would you even bother posting this drivel here? Anyone in favor of this mockery should be banned immediately.
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I think Jayson Stark of the Athletic would be in the know. Stories making the rounds on other sources now.
 
At the very least, if the Golden AB is used to replace Toothpick Nobatter in a key situation, Toothpick Nobatter should then take the place of the Golder ABer in his particular line-up slot the next time through.
 
Manfred is hellbent on ruining the game.

I figured this was a joke, but it's not.

150 years of tradition would be destroyed.
 
bravesfanMatt said:
I still like my idea of targets in the stands and outfield and if you hit them you get some sort of bonus...maybe even go full bananas and if a fan actually catches a foul ball with 2 strikes, the hitter is out. I mean why grow the game organically and impose fair revenue streams that promote equal spending with hard line floors that are really high and hard line ceilings that are obtainable for all teams in the league. lets create stupid gimmicks instead of promoting young stars and making it really really easy for fans of those players to be able to watch them...
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You have my vote for commissioner good sir
 
chop2chip said:
You have my vote for commissioner good sir
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No doubt, MLB will have exhibition games against the Savanah Bananas in the near future. That’s where this whole idea originated from. I don’t like manfred, but it’s his job to protect MLB. And the hottest baseball tickets belong to the bananas so I see where manfred is coming from
 
Krgrecw said:
No doubt, MLB will have exhibition games against the Savanah Bananas in the near future. That’s where this whole idea originated from. I don’t like manfred, but it’s his job to protect MLB. And the hottest baseball tickets belong to the bananas so I see where manfred is coming from
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The Bananas are basically the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. Nothing against them as the whole schtick is entertaining, but so was Eddie Feigner and the King and His Court. I suppose we could have the pitchers pitch blindfolded like Eddie did periodically. Of course, that was softball.

I like enscheff's idea of unloosing a predator onto the playing field. Or we could just roll out an Octogon and have two players from the opposing teams have a match during the 7th inning stretch. Another great rule change would be to go back to the early days of the game when fielders could throw the ball at opposing baserunners and if they hit them, the runner was out (Rob Dibble would come out of retirement). Manfred should just quit thinking outside the box and instead say "What box?"
 
The Bananas are fun and different.. but they are the homerun derby or slam dunk contest..cool for a while but not real competition that drives real dollars in the sporting world..

It is a shame that Baseball owners continue to stick with guy who can't see the forest from the trees. He thinks making silly rule changes to increase offense will draw people back.. and to a point, those things should be addressed.. but he is missing the most glaring problem in the game today.. parity. Way too many teams can't compete anymore..

Until Baseball can control balanced revenue and force teams to spend to stay in the league, while not allowing other teams to just spend a billion dollars because they play in a huge market versus a smaller market team...Then nothing is going to bring the sport back to the glory days.
 
bravesfanMatt said:
The Bananas are fun and different.. but they are the homerun derby or slam dunk contest..cool for a while but not real competition that drives real dollars in the sporting world..

It is a shame that Baseball owners continue to stick with guy who can't see the forest from the trees. He thinks making silly rule changes to increase offense will draw people back.. and to a point, those things should be addressed.. but he is missing the most glaring problem in the game today.. parity. Way too many teams can't compete anymore..

Until Baseball can control balanced revenue and force teams to spend to stay in the league, while not allowing other teams to just spend a billion dollars because they play in a huge market versus a smaller market team...Then nothing is going to bring the sport back to the glory days.
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I’m a die hard whose team has a top 5ish payroll and I feel like we can’t compete with the Dodgers and Mets long term if baseball continues down this path. I can’t imagine what 20 other baseball fanbases must feel like.

But hey… at least Ohtani makes the Dodgers (and MLB) lots of money!
 
A huge part of baseball is that you can't just bring up your best player in the biggest moments. Bottom of the ninth and Ronald Acuna is due up: cool, good for you. Bottom of the ninth and Luke Williams is due up? Too bad, find someone better than Luke Williams. That's the whole damn point.
 
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