LA Angels Monday News Crash:

Robert Manfred is doing his job, raising the value of teams and their owners by any means possible at the expense of the Game itself and at the expense of the fans….sort of.

Baseball fans and non-baseball fans returned to the stadiums this season in droves. Why? Because of shorter game times and seeing more action. Have to give Manfraud credit for taking chances on rule changes and seeing them succeed.

Larger bases that are thinner increased base stealing. Allowing a pitcher 2 throws to pick off a runner was aided by the catcher trying to pick off the runner in the strategy part of holding the runner on. GPB grade B+

Time Clock was genius and accomplished it’s desired affect by shortening game times, which is what the fans wanted. Adding in the number of times a batter could step out of the box and a pitcher could step off the mound aided in faster game times. Have to give a grade of A+ here.

Eliminating the shift was a no-brainer and did add to the excitement value of the offense part of the game. GPB Grade is A.

I still do not like the Ghost runner in extras, but it is more than tolerated by younger fans as they seem to enjoy it.

I do not care for so many wild card teams being added as it takes away from having to win your division. Not a fan of the lowering in season games just to focus on the playoffs. 162 games are just fine. MLB is not a sprint, and it should not reward teams that do not win their division either by allowing so many Wild Cards.

Conceding that playing teams in division 18 times per season is a bit much, I have to take issue with playing every team in MLB every year as I would like to play more often against the teams in the American League Central and Eastern Divisions. There seems to be a “Let’s copy the NBA and NFL” instead of embracing what MLB has, and that is 2 separate individual leagues. We have the National and American Leagues; we do not have and do not need Conference’s.

So why the dislike for Manfred and disrespect by referring to him as Manfraud? It is in his handling of the sign stealing teams. with slapping the hands of a few teams and amnesty for the players who cheated. For not exposing all the teams that cheated thinking to rather save the face of MLB. Also allowing “Legalized” Gambling to be around the game. It’s just a matter of time until a scandal pops its ugly head up and taints the sport that it will not recover from. And lastly, not doing more sooner to solve the issues of Tampa – Oakland sooner. Next in line will be the Brewers and the Guardians needing to move as their cities are losing population fast. Is San Francisco going to be an issue with attendance down the road? How about the South side of Chicago? Inner city Baltimore?