Great post! Some things I've recently been thinking about. Really hope the mods move this to the main page.

I laugh at speeding up the game arguments. The average baseball game is around 3 hours, though a great pitching performance or extra innings skew that time frame. And yet, an NFL game is also approximately 3 hours. Last I knew, the average NFL play lasted about 6-7 seconds. The huge run or deep TD pass is exillerating! But does it really eclipse the big HR or Triple? Baseball is boring for pitching changes and the time between pitches. As opposed to huddles between plays and an incomplete pass or run for no gain?

The problem is perception and marketing as much as anything. Embrace change in baseball! Market key players and big plays. Let go the old stoic principles and realize a fist pump or occasional bat flip is emotion and excitement and not an insult. (A sack celebration when down by 21 is far more ridiculous and insulting).

I don't want a league filled with steroids and 50+ HR champs every year. And I know offense sells. But despite being a DH lover who hates pitchers "trying " to hit, I absolutely miss the subtleties of how baseball should be/used to be played. You mentioned small ball and SB. I think a SB is a tremendously exciting play! And while I prefer the DH, where have we gone so wrong to only play for the long ball vs the excitement of fundamental ball and the inheritment excitement for what might happen next?

Beyond marketing, marketing, the single biggest flaw I can see with the game itself is not the game, but the umpiring. Not a scapegoat! Simple truth is, finding quality pitching is a problem for everyone. But it's also been well documented over time how the strike zone has shrunk. What if more strikes were called in the zone as written in the rule book? Would that force managers to play to manage a different game?

Not sure i have an answer. But you have definitely hit a nerve on excitement missing from the game.

I hate giving away outs on the bases, but I'd still be all for more stolen base attempts. Looks like the league average success rate right now is 73%. I like those odds.

You may kill a potential rally here or there, but if you're smart about it, I'd bet an increase in stolen base attempts would create more rallies than they'd kill. Of course, you've gotta have the personnel to pull it off. Without Buxton, the current roster doesn't have many burners, though I suppose you could always call up Zack Granite.

If you wanna see running in 2018, the White Sox are your club. They lead the league with 47 steals and have an impressive 82.5% success rate.

I always thought the stolen base was underutilized in all levels of baseball. 70%+ chance of success is pretty decent. I doubt sacrifices work that often. But it's also a very clear, cut and dried, out given up when it doesn't work. Thin skinned, tenuous, or timid managers won't try it that often.

Thanks for a great post about diminishing exciting plays in baseball.  I got excited just reading it.

It's a contrast - the 'younger generation' wants the action of the home run.... Yet don't want to sit around and wait and watch the byproduct of living by the long ball - more strikeouts, less "other action" such as stolen bases, sac bunts, hit and runs, etc.