Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Did Rob Manfred Actually Do Something Good For Baseball?

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

Two rules implemented last year may not be around much longer, much to the delight of D.C. and Locked On Anaheim Ducks host Jason Hernandez. The two talk about Commissioner Rob Manfred's comments alluding to the possibility that the extra-inning free-runner rule and seven-inning games in double headers will both be things of the past come next season. Both men are very happy to learn about these facts, and also surprised, and would also like to see pitch clocks implemented to speed up the pace of play. Finally, NHL hockey is coming to Seattle, and the expansion draft is imminent. Jason explains how the NHL expansion draft works, and also talks about the first three exhibition games the Seattle Cracken will play at the end of September. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on Locked-on Mariners, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lunders. Did Rob Manfred actually say something good was going to happen to baseball? Yeah, amazingly enough he did. And we're going to be talking about that a little bit today here on Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on podcast network, or T-L-O-P-N. or Plopin.

Yeah, buddy, please remember to download rate and follow this program using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Why do I say it like that? I have no idea. Ask your smart device to play Locked on Mariner's podcast or any program

here on Tlopin. I'm as surprised as you are, ladies and gentlemen, that we're going to say nice things about Commissioner Rob Manfred. And here with me to do that, Locked on Anaheim Ducks host, Jason Hernandez. Jason, how goes it? The freaking American League did it again.

Oh, eight in a row. Oh, whatever. But Shohei did the thing, so yay, I guess. I'm a National League guy, but I'm in Anaheim, so Angels, yay. Okay, fine. But Dodgers. Didn't they score 22 runs or something the other day? Who was that against?

22 to 1 against some. horrible team in the desert called the Arizona Diamondbacks. 22 runs, baby. That is the team that we were talking about or that you and John were talking about last Friday as the worst in baseball. And then over the weekend, we were having a conversation

during one of the Angels Mariners games where I was asking you guys, wait, the Orioles aren't the worst team. And then I looked at the records and yeah, the Diamondbacks are actually much worse than the Orioles. Way worse. I didn't realize that the Diamondbacks would they lose, something like 83 games in a row? Something like that. Something like that. It may as well. Oh, well.

Anyways, we're going to talk about something Kaiser Manfred said yesterday. Actually, I shouldn't be calling him Kaiser Manfred in this case because there are a couple of rules that I'm not a fan of and Jady, I don't think you're a fan of these either. I know Sully on Lockdown MLB is not a fan

of at least one of these rules and that would be the extra inning T-ball free runner rule that might not be a thing next year, yes, Jason? Soli's ecstatic about this. I bet he is. Yeah, as well he should be, quite honestly.

That and the seven inning games for double-headers, pardon me, those probably are going to be going by the wayside for next season. And in terms of, and this is coming from an article written by Mark Fein-Sand on MLB.com, quoting the article, Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday morning that the seven-inning double-headers and the extra-inning rule that places an automatic runner on second base are not in the league's, quote, long-term future, end quote, end quote. It goes on. Commissioner Manfred also said, quote, I see the extra inning rule and the seven-inning double-heder as rules that were adopted based on medical advice to deal with COVID.

I think they are much less likely to become part of our permanent landscape than some of the other rules that we've talked about over time that, relate to how the game is being played. And quote, I think he's probably referring to the Universal D.H., which I'm also not a fan of. I would honestly rather have the Universal D.H. than that T-ball runner in extra inning. So I'm over the moon about this, J.D. Finally something good came out of this weekend from Rob Manfred. He needed to do something positive this weekend.

I don't know if you saw, you know, the relentless booing that. he got during the first round of the MLB draft. On the first pick, as soon as he came to the stand, he got booed relentlessly. But it got worse. Those were hand-picked fans that booed him during the first round of the MLB draft.

Every single pick he got booed. Everywhere he went, he got booed. Even at the end of the Midsummer Classic, he got booed there too. And then he comes out with this. We're finally going to get rid of the runner on second base rule, which I thought was horrendous. I thought that actually lengthened some games.

It probably did lengthen some games, yes. It did because when you got to the 10th and 11th innings, when that happened, you would have all this strategy about how to get the lead runner out, and then you had a lot more of looking back on the second basement. You had at times some pitchers would throw back to second before throwing a pitcher in the 10th inning. Doesn't that seem abnormal? Yeah, typically the first throw should be the one towards home, not the one towards second. Yeah, okay, fine. There's more to it than that, because with runners on base, pitchers generally work a lot slower than they do with the base is empty. That's

almost universal across the board. Way slower. And that slowed down the games to a snail's pace. The other rule, or I guess non-rule possibly, is the seven-inning double headers. John and I talked about this. Yes, you did. Hey, there's a seven-inning no-hitter. It doesn't really count as a no-hitter, but it's a complete game. Yeah, it's a complete game,

but it still doesn't count as an official no-hitter. None of these, no, no more of these qualified, complete games. No, a complete game, by definition, is when you complete the game at the end of a Regulation 9-in game. That's a complete game.

We've had this seven-in-crap. We've had two such no-hitters. this year that have been in double-headers. Max Scher, I think, had one of them. Yes, J.D? Oh, but we can't call them official no-hitters. Say with me. Stay with me here.

Stay with me here. Max Scherzer pitched one of these seven-inning no-hitters. And just last week or so, it was a combined no-it. Tampa Bay, thank you. Yeah. I'm with you guys. I don't think these should be counted

as regular run-of-the-mill no-hitters because, and you guys were talking about that you'd have to go back in history and find some game short and no-hitter that called for darkness, called for rain. Remember in 1990, Matt Young, I think it was, who was pitching for the Yankees, had an eight-inning no-hitter, but he lost the game one-to-nothing, and the Yankees were the away team. So there was no bottom of the ninth to give him an opportunity to try to complete a nine-inning no-hitter.

He's not in the record books. That is not a major league baseball sanctioned no-hitter, even though it was eight no-hit innings. same thing happening here and then you could also go through Pedro Martinez was throwing a perfect game in 1996 against the Padres I once say

and Bip Roberts was the one who let off the 10th inning I believe with a single or a double Yes he did Why do I remember that one so well? He was pitching in Montreal at the time former Dodger I know I know

And then if you're going to go that route, the famous Harvey Haddock's game where he threw, what, 12 or 13 perfect innings? 12 perfect innings. Not only lost a perfecto in the 13th. I've talked about this on the show before. He lost a perfecto in the 13th and the game. That might be the best pitched major league baseball game of all time. And he doesn't get credit for a perfecto even though he threw 12 perfect innings because he didn't see it through. Oh, this happened a few years ago, too.

Can I remind you of another one that happened? I would be happy if you did. Rich Hill against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh. He had a no-hitter. You're right. After nine innings, going into the bottom of the 10th inning, he lost the no-hitter. He lost the game.

It was zero-zero going into the 10th because Rich Hill still had a decent pitch count and lost in the bottom of the 10th. I remember that game, and I remember that since it was against the pirates, everybody was bringing up Harvey Haddicks again because the Haddx game Harvey Haddx was a Pittsburgh pirate at the time so that's why people were drawing those parallels I remember exactly where I was at that time actually

but we don't need to get into that as a matter of fact we're up on a break right now JD don't have a trivia corner today but I do have a word from freshly if you're interested and I bet you are I am go ahead tell me more tell me more all right here it is we're all trying to get in shape and eat right

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$40 off your first two orders, yes, sir. There's some good-looking meals there, buddy. Yes, there sure are. Coming up, what will Jason Hernandez have to say about the upcoming NHL expansion draft? Maybe he'll say, was it? Yeah, that's me. That's you, yeah. Yeah, well, you blew the tea, so maybe I'll just use that one going into C-block.

Sorry. That's all right. The joke isn't even worth it now. So I'll just tell you about the Spotify Green Room gang. It's the first social audio platform made for sports fans. Hey! The app is free to download. And once you're in, you can talk with me,

other fans and athletes and insiders in real time about your favorite team or sport. We have a good time doing this gang. I'll be hosting rooms for Locked on Mariners once per week. Yes, indeed. Green Room is a perfect place to start or join conversations about the league. You'll find fans on there just like. yourself for watch parties, debates, post-game breakdowns, and of course, reacting to big news or rumors. I'm sure the Green Room was blowing up over the Will Vest News. Go download the free Green Room app now,

currently available on all iOS devices with a beta version for Android. That is what I use. Doesn't have all the features quite yet, but they're working on it. Be sure to create a profile and join the Major League Baseball Group for the latest league updates. Follow me at Locked on Mariners, oddly enough. Hmm. To be notified when my room goes live. I don't have a set time when I do it. Just when I have some free time, have not done mine for the week thus far. And I don't know if I'm going to do it during the week or if I'm going to wait to the weekend series with the Angels. This kind of depends on how the week goes. But, you know, follow me at Locked-on Manors to find out when I do go live. This is going way too long. Green Room changing

the way we talk about sports. Oh, you're just waiting for the weekend. I should go in there and talk about the Eagle, too. Oh, no, no. No, no. I'm going to go. Welcome back to Lockdown Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. Not this weekend. I was going to say, I don't think he's coming back for this series, which greatly helps the Mariners. Oh, yay. We're back, aren't we?

Yes, thank you very much, Joey. I'm sure. We just talk right on through the musical interlude, don't we? That is fine. We're back here on Locked on Mariner's with Jason Hernandez talking a little commissioner, Rob Manfred, actually making some sense. in A block. I don't know how much more conversation

we're going to get out of that JD. We started to talk about shortened and lengthened no hitters. And I don't know how much more conversation we're going to get out of that either. I mean, look, the way they did the seven innings was ridiculous because that took away from the complete games,

as I talked about. It also takes away from having fans do, I don't know, split double headers. When they had the day-night double headers, Those also had to be seven innings Can you imagine being a fan That had a ticket for that game You paid regular price

And then it got rained out And you had to use that ticket For one of the games The following day I paid for nine innings Not seven What is this crap? You mean the beer sales go off

On the middle of the fifth eddy now? What is that? Yeah I imagine they are pissed about that I never thought about that Yeah, I never thought about that, but that's a hell of a good point. Also, what about the seventh inning stretch? There is no seventh inning stretch. I was going to say, but I will say that the seven-inning double-header rule made sense last year.

This year, I don't think they should have done it, and I never liked the free runner rule. I always thought that implementing that last year was kind of Commissioner Manfred's way of backdooring that into baseball, only using the pandemic as an experience. excuse. Well, I think he saw some of the games, saw how they're getting slowed down, and decided to go against it, thank God. So maybe this is something in the right direction for baseball. And maybe this opens something else up. If Manfred is willing to step back on that, maybe he will consider something else that will actually speed up games. The pitch clock!

That is one thing that I would love to see implemented. It's implemented in minor league baseball. It's implemented in low A. And look how fast those games are going. There was an article that came out a few years ago about what's going on as the worst offense in baseball and it's time between pitches. And this was pretty alarming.

From now until a few decades ago, the average time between pitches has gone up an average of 12 seconds. And DC, I know you can do the math fairly quickly. On average, there's about 250 pitches. So I will let you do the math. and while you do the math, I will just say another thing about this.

The fact that you have this much time and this much more time between pitches, it's ludicrous, because I've seen times where we have a minute between pitches, and it takes entirely too long, and it slows down the pace of the game. That's the real offender in general. And there should be a pitch clock.

I mean, imagine if you went from a minute to 30 seconds for some of those pitches, You could already see maybe a few minutes dropped right there. And how long, I mean, when they were comparing, it said over the decades, right? So when do this? Yeah, it's looking like they started this in the 70s. Okay, so the number I got actually makes sense. If there's an average of 12 more seconds between pitches now as compared to the 70s,

that's about 50 years ago, that's adding about 3,000 seconds per game or 50 minutes. that makes sense. It makes total sense. Look at the average game time of a game from the 1970s. You'd be hard pressed to find something that lasted three hours unless it's an 11-12 inning ball game.

And it seems like the average these days is about three hours, 15 minutes, three and a half hours. I know the Mariners might not be a good example because they work the count very well. So they might be seeing a few more pitches per ball game than other teams. But I've noticed that they've been playing

some very long games recently, almost averaging about three and a half hours. That said, they've also played some very quick ball games at two and a half hours. And you know which ones are more enjoyable, JD? The two and a half hour games, I think it was, was it Saturday that they played just a great game against the Angels that was two hours and 50 minutes. It seemed like it was paced perfectly. Both teams played pretty well. It was a good baseball game.

Yeah, for you guys. No, it was a good overall baseball game because I think both teams played pretty well. It was enjoyable to watch. We just don't have a whole lot of those anymore. Yeah. I don't know. Well, two things. One, the Angels didn't have the rally kid behind them.

That's true. And two, another reason that game went pretty fast was because the pitchers actually worked a little bit faster. Imagine that. Maybe that's the point then. We do need a pitch clock. Like you said, it's been implemented in the minor leagues. On the Spokane Indians website, they said that the average game lasts about two and a half hours. One reason that minor league games are shorter is because they don't have the TV commercial breaks that Major League Baseball does.

There's nothing that can be done about that. Baseball needs the ad revenue to sustain itself. I get that. That's not going to change. Fine. I'll concede that point. Pitch clocks is something that can change. Even the professional bowlers association uses a shot clock.

They give the bowlers 25 seconds to go through their pre-shot routine, and then the shot clock stops when they begin their approach. I hate to compare baseball to other sports, but maybe it's warranted in this case because I can't think of another sport. I can think of a comparison that's pretty apt for just the general sports crowd right now. All right, if I can. Yes, let me finish my point, and then you can. The NBA has a shot clock.

The NFL has a play clock. What say you? Go back to the NBA. How long is the shot clock in the NBA? 24 seconds, I think. Did you know that the NBA also has a free throw clock? I did not, but it makes sense. And this has been made fun of, and this can kind of segue into the break,

that the Milwaukee Bucks Janice Ante Coupo, he takes his time on the free throw. And he has this whole, I guess, routine. that sometimes takes longer than 10 seconds. At the referee's discretion, they can blow the player for a free throw violation if he takes longer than 10 seconds from the point he's given the ball to the point of release.

I had you know that. I did not know that, but thank you for pointing that out. And the reason I point this out, if I can be humorous here, because this is a true story. All right. When Janus has gone to the free throw line during the NBA finals,

the Relentless Phoenix Suns fans have been counting up as soon as he touches the ball. They count one, two, three, four, five. It's hilarious. That is great. That is great. And again, I hate comparing baseball to other sports. I just don't like that argument. But there's precedent for a play clock or a pitch clock or a shot clock.

It wouldn't be anything revolutionary that they would be instituting and it would be very easy to do. But like you said, we're kind of up on a break. so if you out there have a question or comment, please send it into locked on meriders at gmail.com. Questions and comments on any subject are highly encouraged. Does not have to be about the Mariners. Doesn't even have to be about sports at all, really. Locked on Mariners at gmail.com is the place to send those questions.

Trying this again, coming up, what will Jason Hernandez have to say about the upcoming NHL expansion draft? Maybe it'll be plurk-plac-plac-plac-plac. That wasn't worth it, was it? Anyways, we do have this word from Built Bar, the greatest protein bars in the history of hexahedral prisms. That's right, gang, hexahedral prisms. They're high in protein and fiber and also low in sugar and calories. But best of all, JD, they are high in good old fashioned deliciousness, aren't they?

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Now back to Locked on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Oh, yes, indeed. Thank you very much, Joey Martin, for leading us back into the final segment of the day here on Locked on Mariner's. I'm here with Locked on Anaheim Ducks host, Jason Hernandez. Yo. And there are some Seattle hockey happenings upcoming here in just a few days. The NHL expansion draft is occurring.

I'm sorry, Jason. Was it Friday or Saturday? This weekend. This weekend. Saturday, Sunday. Yay. Yep. And teams have not submitted their protection lists for the expansion draft.

But Jason, I was kind of wondering if you could enlighten, you know, the Seattle baseball fans. on kind of procedurally how the NHL expansion draft operates. Okay, so the actual draft takes place a week from today. Teams have until Sunday to submit their list of protected players and what each of the 30 teams except for the Vegas Golden Knights, so they are exempt from this. But the other 30 teams, they must submit a list.

And here's what is on that list. It must be one goalie, three defensemen, and seven forwards, or one goalie, and any eight skaters. That's what every team must submit to the league by Sunday. And then the Cracken have an exclusive window from July 18th to the 21st to interview and sign pending free agents, and these are the pending unrestricted free agents, who are left unprotected in the first. the expansion draft. If they sign that player in that window, it counts as their pick

from that player's former team. Oh. So a little bit of an interesting twist on that one. Anyone that has a no movement clause at the time of the draft must be protected and will be counted toward that team's protection limits. And this also applies to anyone that has been in the league for at least three seasons.

Here's the fun part. all first and second year pros and all unsigned draft choices are exempt from selection and does not have to be protected. Hey, that's good for my ducks because there's a lot of young guys on the ducks that Seattle cannot touch.

Yay for that. But then there's other kind of like rules here like you have to play at least 40 games the prior season to count as a season. There's accrued seasons, like a lot of weird stuff as far as a crude game. that's just like really, really weird.

But that is the basics of how the expansion draft is going to work. And that's going to be really the next week. So Seattle fans get ready. I mean, get ready for some Seattle crack in hockey and get ready for some big time madness coming up, which I will talk a lot on my show too, but just be ready for it. Oh, boy. Yeah, I mean, that sounds a little bit more complicated than the Major League Baseball expansion draft when they have to utilize those.

And you talking about signing unrestricted free agents brought to mine the Colorado Rockies, signing Andres Gala Raga prior to the expansion draft during the winter meetings. I don't know why that brought that into my head, but bringing it back to baseball once again. And as far as protected lists go, you know, at least in baseball, they don't have to, there are no quotas to meet for any one specific position, but it also has to do with players with no trade clauses, for example, must be on the protected list and things of that nature. I learned all of this when one of my listeners sent in an email question asking me which players on the Mariners I would put on an expansion protected list should there have to be an expansion draft next season. And that was a couple months ago, I think.

Hey, there are 30 teams right now. You could have 32 teams in Major League Baseball. I'm just saying. I think that there should be. And it's something that I think I've talked about briefly on the show before. and it's something that Commissioner Manfred has said he's not going to entertain the notion of expanding the league at all until the stadium situations in both Tampa Bay and Oakland are kind of solidified. Which is smart. That is smart.

Wait, that's another smart thing? Yeah. Maybe I should stop talking about Manfred and talk about something else regarding hockey because there is another bit of news. There is another bit of news and this one I'm rather excited for. Go for it. Which we probably should talk about because the Seattle Cracken will be released. Sunday, September 26th. DC, you would be interested in this.

The first ever game of the Seattle Cracken and preseason is going to take place at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, home of the Spokane Chiefs, the WHL team. That's taking place Sunday, September 26th. And tickets for that go on sale on Friday. So I imagine Spokane is going to. to be turned upside down for a day, but hey, that's for a very good reason, because you would get to be, like you in Spokane, would be the first people to see the Cracken Unleashed.

Tickets, like you said, go on sale on Friday. I have no idea how much tickets are, but I'm going to at least try to get them. And if they're not too expensive, remember, I don't have very much money, ladies and gentlemen. But if they're affordable, sure is shooting, I'm going to this game, because I'm really looking forward to this. I've never been to a hockey game before at any level. We'll change that. Oh, yeah, we'll change that for sure. But right at this exact moment, JD, we're a little bit overtime, I think, so we've got to go.

So can I mention this to three cities? Please do. It's the three rink rush. Everett, Kent and Spokane. Spokane is the first game. Then at Everett, at the Angel of the Windsorina, October 1st, and then at Kent, home of the Seattle soccer team, at the Accesso Show Ware Center at Kent, Washington, October 2nd. So, hey, Seattle fans, be excited for a hockey team.

They're coming. Yes, indeed. And if you live in Seattle, you can very easily get to Everett or Kent, because they're both very close. See, Spokane's kind of a hike. It's at least three hours away if you're flooring. In any case, we do have to go, Jason. Thank you very much for enlightening us on the kind of nuts and bolts

on the NHL expansion dress and very interesting stuff there. I'd like to know why the Golden Knights are exempt. Could you actually explain that real quick? I know the music's going, but if you can give a quick answer to that? Because they were the previous expansion team just a few years ago. That's the main reason. And they also didn't get the money for the expansion fees. Those two reasons are why.

Okay, well, thank you. Thank you for giving a quick answer. And now can you tell us where we can find you on Twitter and also tell us about your great show Locked on Anaheim Ducks? Locked on Anaheim Ducks is daily talking to about the Anaheim Ducks, and once weekly the San Diego Goals. You could find the show on Twitter at L-O underscore Ducks, or find me on Twitter at StimpyJD, talking hockey, talking baseball,

talking all kinds of fun stuff. So check me out on Twitter once again at StimpyJD. There you go, buddy. Thank you very much. Tomorrow on Locked on Mair is again not exactly sure what we will be discussing, but I will be joined by Billy Cranston, Philbert Shelbach, and a box of cream-filled oatmeal pies. Ooh, that sounds good, doesn't it?

Not anymore, I ate them. You ate one of my guests. Well, in any case, I'll find somebody else. In any case, please remember to download and follow Locked-on Mariners. Look for us in any podcasting app you can happen to think of. Leave a rating and review if your podcasting app of choice so allows. And remember to check out the other great programs here on the Locked-on podcast network, of course, including Locked on Anaheim Ducks.

Thank you once again to Jason Hernandez for joining me today. I'm D.C. Lundberg. I'll talk to you tomorrow in the interim health. Have a great afternoon. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski will keep you updated on the latest news in every major sport with Locked On's team of local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. This is Joey Martin for Lockdown Mariners, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network.