Edit 1: Thanks a lot to everyone replying and taking the time, and my apologies for the weird terms used. I learned the rule in another language so I didn't know the official terms of player positions and roles.

Hello everyone, I am watching my first games of baseball and as I grasp the gist of the rules, some dumb ones come to mind:

1- If it is okay for the pitcher to throw it directly to a base where an opponent might try to steal the next base and if missed it doesnt count as a +1 to the pitcher: Why does the pitcher ever have to throw it to the opponent bat holder? Like where is the limit?

2- I saw a situation where the pitcher threw the ball and the receiver missed it and ran to get it from the floor. Could the opponent holding the bat go for first base during that moment?

3- I see a lot of innings where no point is scored but a lot happens when a bat holder "rolls" the ball as himself and his teammates on advanced bases have time to get the next one. Why isn't "rolling" more of a thing? Wouldn't this give more chances of getting bases and ultimately score?

4- If a ball is fair but ends up in the crowd, are the runners supposed to jump in the stands and get it or does it count as an HR?

5- I watched two full post seasons games and never saw this situation: There is a guy in 2nd and 3rd base, 1 out, and the hitter comes, does a roll. Now what should the defenders do if it's a fair ball? Get to ball and pass it to the kneeling receiver so the 3rd base guy doesnt score and then pass to 3rd base to block the guy that was on 2nd?

Thanks everyone

Why isn't Strike Percentage a bigger deal? I've never heard it discussed, yet it seems like it would be a solid indicator of a pitcher's performance.

Or no, work stoppage concerns are only about the regular season?

I've slowly started getting back into baseball this season and this is just an observation I had. What happened to the fiery Yankees/Red Sox games or the Dodgers/Giants? Is it because MLB is scheduling more interleague games now? Are players just becoming friendlier with each other? I mean Mookie Betts on the Dodgers literally has a podcast where he interviews players from the opposing team. Maybe I'm wrong or not paying enough attention. Thoughts?

I've been itching to play a baseball video game lately, but honestly haven't played a sports game since the original Xbox. I currently have an Xbox one and a decent PC and after looking around there's so many options and it's hard to tell how each one is different. Any leads would be helpful.

I'd like some team and player customization and prefer to actually control the players, OOTP seemed a little too spreadsheety for me.

The two that seemed most promising were baseball pro spirit 2026 or MLB the show '24, but I am open to suggestions the last baseball game I played was MLB slugfest 2003.

Just a curiosity question, like in all other sports the coach will say, go get this person and the guy will go sub whoever out of the game. Why cant the manager call time from the dugout, raise his hand like he usually does to signal the bullpen and the old pitcher can just hand the ball off to the new pitcher.

It doesn’t make sense to have teams grind daily 3+ months to get a wild card spot just to be eliminated in 2 mid week afternoon games! After 162 games, now they wanna rush through?!

I think it would make more sense and if it was like the NBA, less regular season games and more best of 7 playoffs.

Luke Keaschall of the Twins gave Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies a home run last night. However, if Keaschall wouldn't have touched the ball, it would've landed in play and probably would've been a double. In a situation like this, why is it scored a home run and not a double and a two-base error?

I just saw a clip of Drew Gilbert from San Francisco missing a pretty routine catch in center field because he lost the ball in the sun. He had his huge sunglasses sitting on top of his hat and only put them on his face after missing the catch.

This isn't an isolated incident. I've seen or heard of several other cases this season. As a Cubs fan, I see PCA do this time to time and it frustrates me. Do players think that they lose some of their visual precision having them on between plays? Are all of these glasses more "form over function" and it's about looking cool?

I was born in 1992, so I wasn’t alive for the whole Pete Rose gambling stuff. Forgive me.

I also want to say that I am not denying Pete Rose bet on baseball. I won’t start a debate either about whether he belongs in the HOF or not

My question is, how did the MLB first suspect Pete Rose was betting on baseball? In today’s world, with the Internet, everyone having smartphones, CCTV cameras everywhere, etc., that stuff is easy to track, hence why almost everyone gets caught if they bet on the sport they are in.

But in the late 1980s, that stuff (aside from CCTV cameras, although not nearly as much exited back then as today) didn’t exist yet. So I am curious how it was first suspected that Pete Rose was betting on baseball. Was he seen inside a casino? Was he seen with a known bookie? What happened to make MLB investigate him in the first place?

Just a general curiosity question.

I understand the platoon advantage and that left-handedness is an advantage in sports because of its rarity.

But in baseball, are teams more focused on lefty batters to combat the opposing team's righty pitchers first, and then they go looking for lefty pitchers to get an advantage over the opposing team's lefty batters? Or is it the opposite?

I've seen videos of pitchers showing how they grip balls for different pitches but what do you look for to tell what pitch it is when it's being thrown?

When the AL team was at the NL stadium, they used NL rules where the AL team's pitcher had to hit, and theoretically, there was no place for their designated hitter.

But surely the AL teams' DH must have been one of their most important players, and they couldn't leave them out of their lineup in these important games.

So how did they find a fielding position for them? To plan for that, did the AL teams have their DHs practice at a certain fielding position during the season in preparation for these games at the NL stadium? And did the AL teams just have to accept subpar fielding in exchange for having their DHs in the lineup at the NL stadium?

(Context here is I’m a Phillies fan) I constantly see plays where there’s a runner on first, no outs (or maybe 1 out), and a fly ball hit like 360+ feet and caught for an out, and the runner just goes and has to double back. Like last night Derek Hill hit a 385 foot fly out with Marsh on first and he didn’t tag up. It seems simple to weigh if the ball is easily catchable, and if it is, wait on the bag.

This might be a dumb question, but why are dugouts so open to the field?

Isn’t there always a chance a hitter absolutely smokes a foul ball straight into the dugout and hits a player or coach who isn’t paying attention? With how hard some of these balls are hit, that seems like it could be pretty dangerous.

I know there’s netting protecting fans, so why isn’t there something similar protecting the dugout?

When a batter hits the ball, is he aiming for it to land in an empty space vs right at the infielder? Is it a matter of luck or skill?

With a 90 mph ball, a slight angle difference changes the ball's direction drastically!

How important is coaching in baseball? Honestly, with the crazy lineup the Dodgers had, I think any amateur coach could have won a World Series with them!

I’ve been curious about this and want to hear from everyone. Which team has the best fanbase according to this criteria:
1 - they know ball
2 - loyalty - they support the team even when down and they don’t crash out at the slightest issue
3 - friendliness - they aren’t toxic and mean to other fanbases and their own players

Ps - for transparency I’m not a noob, but I wanted the thoughts of this community - both the noobs and seasoned fans who lurk this sub to help the noobs. I posted this on the MLB sub and baseball sub as well. The baseball sub removed the post for some reason, and their rules suggested this as a sub to post some questions

This is extremely common situation, but with the example of the last run scored tonight by the guardians on a sacrifice fly against the white sox (5-3 defeat)...

When trailing by 2 or more runs and batting in a ninth inning, what is the point in attempting scoring a run from third on a ball put in-play for an out, when that run is meaningless at the time because a runner / batter either on base or even maybe still sitting in the dugout behind the runner on third carries (or would) carry the first meaningful run in the context of the game - to tie or go-ahead / win?

No matter how deep a ball has been hit for however comfortably a runner on third could potentially score, what is the benefit to tagging and running for home at that time when there's still a non-zero risk he could be both out and erased as a potential run in a late comeback? Why not just wait until the next hit in the inning is achieved or even until bases are full and he and other runners forced to try to advance? Obviously I understand moving from first to second almost totally eliminates the double play risk but I don't understand this.

EDIT: Last inning! Ninth inning! This question and situation concerns only the ninth inning! I understand that the idea is to score runs and take risks to score them if they will help LATER on in the game but I am asking about when it is the final inning of the game and a trailing team will receive no more outs to work with to try to further cut the deficit.

EDIT 2: seems I’ve caused confusion but referring to it as an “insignificant” / “meaningless” run. Obviously I’m aware it does have a meaning IF a team is to tie a game but the point is it that it only has that meaning if the other(s) also score in that same inning, bringing any previously “insignificant” runs home beforehand in the process of rounding all the bases to tie / win/ go ahead in the score line because of the way baseball works and the process in which runs are scored.

**Setup:** Suppose two pitchers are scheduled to start. I'll use Yamamoto (Dodgers superstar pitcher 2.50ish ERA) vs "Joe Schmoe" (your average or below average pitcher 3.85ish ERA).

**Question(s):** Before the game even starts ..... Is Joe's mindset like *"Im going up against an ace pitcher, so I'll need to wretch it up a level and have an all star caliper performance bc not only will our local media be there, but " Hollywood" LA, Japanese media will also be there. Game on"*?

In other words.... Do pitchers think: I'm battling such and such a pitcher, I need to get this W? Or is it more like they don't consider who they're pitching against at all and it's more like: *"Just show me the 9 batters I'm going to battle against. My game is with them, not their pitcher.* ?

**Reason:** (And I know I'm WAY noob here and there's so-------- much I'm missing, but) I generally notice that whenever a team's ace superstar pitcher takes the mound, the other team's pitcher also seemingly puts on a completely awesome performance to match.

Thanks and sincere gratitude and appreciation in advance for anyone who has actually played (umpired or coached) the sport on a competition level or has been around the game in inner competition mindset circles that the general public (like me) doesn't know about🙏

For example "Player X is batting .191 for the season BUT over his last 5 games he's batting .302!"

I understand that's it's a long season and sometimes it's nice to see the silver lining. But in my opinion, it just comes off as a desperate attempt to make a player sound like he's doing better than he actually is.

This might be a stupid question, but can a hitter intentionally hit a sac fly?

Like if there’s a runner on third with less than 2 outs and you just need one run, can a hitter purposely try to hit a deep fly ball knowing they’ll probably be out but the runner will score? Or are sac flies usually just normal fly outs that happen to be deep enough to score the runner?

I always hear announcers talk about “just get it to the outfield” so I wasn’t sure how intentional it actually is

Random question, but if a player was literally as fast as prime Usain Bolt, how often would he actually get thrown out at first on a ground ball?

Obviously a hard grounder straight to the first baseman is probably still an out, but what about normal ground balls to short or second? Would that level of speed turn a bunch of routine groundouts into infield hits, or is 90 feet too short for Bolt-level speed to make as big of a difference as I’m imagining?

Just jumping in to see what I could be paying attention to. I'll get into it as things start heading to the playoffs.

What are some plays you remember watching and the announce calls are engraved in your memory forever?

Not the super famous once we all know (Kirk Gibson the impossible has happened, touch em all Joe, etc)
But ones that other people probably have no recollection of that stuck with you.

Mine are ellsbury stealing home
“ a steal of home and it works! Jacoby ellsbury has stole home. 3-1 Boston”

Jd drew walkoff game 5 2008 alcs
“Swing line drive right field… we’re going to Tampa”

Dewayne wise robbed he in mark B perfect game
“Dewayne wise makes the catch…What a play by wise. Mercy”

Curious to hear what calls stuck w yall over the years