Rob Manfred talks about the game

He thinks that the fact that none of it was real detracts from what could have been an excellent Michael Douglas movie

By Doug Bruzzone Apr 3, 2015, 9:00am PDT

One thing's for sure: He's more photogenic than Selig

Rob Manfred did an interview with the Wall Street Journal yesterday, and he touched on a lot of issues that have been hot topics for discussion lately. I shall ignore that the reason they've been hot topics for discussion is that Rob Manfred's office has been discussing them, and present his comments as if a PR professional didn't just play the Wall Street Journal, and me as well now that I'm also talking about this, like a kazoo.

Kazoos are much easier to play than fiddles, is the point.

Manfred thinks offenses will adjust to defensive shifts

The question was about if he wants to see more offense, and he basically dodged it with a "Wait and see" comment. And that's fine! Though the very fact that he's being asked about it is worrying. Because what's he going to do? Lower the mound? Order all balls to be stored next to radiators? Shrink the strike zone? Well, we know he's not going to shrink the strike zone because...

Manfred is not going to alter the strike zone anytime soon

I view this as a good thing, even though his stated rationale is total bullshit. Manfred honestly mentions this as a credible position people believe:

"No, if hitters know the strike zone is bigger, they won’t go up there looking for pitches, working the counts. They’ll swing the bat and you’ll get more offense."

Is this a "If it weren't for my horse I wouldn't have spent that year in college" level statement? And I say this as someone who thinks that the strike zone shouldn't change and that Manfred is probably just saying words that sound like they make a point so that he doesn't have to talk about it, because he doesn't really want to change it either.

Baseball is working on streaming

Hooray! It's about time that MLB got its act together and found a way to sell its product to anyone who wants to pay for it in any format they want to watch it on, no matter where they're located geographically.

It's in-market streaming only

Oh.

I know this is disappointing

It's fine.

The cable companies have to make money too

Okay.

You can't just go disrupting the natural busin-

I SAID IT'S FINE HE DIDN'T EVEN MENTION THE LAST THREE HEADERS IN THE INTERVIEW LEAVE ME ALONE FOR A MINUTE OKAY.

Marketing baseball players is tougher than in other sports because they play so many games and don't have much time off

But...can't you market the sports stars...doing sports? Is...is that not...why...

No one knows anything about pitcher injuries

But they're studying it! It seems like a good study too, taking a close look at six different teams. That's the kind of in-depth biomechanical research that baseball should have started a long time ago, but we can be glad they're doing it now.

It won't help anytime soon, of course. Nothing will help. All pitchers are doomed and should live off beans and salted meats in bomb shelters. It's the only way to keep their arms safe.

The owners were the driving force behind speeding up pace of play

Never forget who Manfred's bosses are. It's not the players. It's not the fans. It's not the glowing statue of Eugenio Velez which demands weekly blood sacrifices. It's the owners. It will always be the owners. And they do not necessarily want the same things you do. NEVER 4 GET.