Rob Manfred, three days after officially taking over as the tenth commissioner in baseball history, spent time on MLB Network Radio (Inside Pitch) with Casey Stern and Jim Bowden.
Commissioner Manfred discussed a variety of topics including the designated hitter, pace of play, defensive shifts, instant replay and the possibility of a worldwide draft.
On how much is baseball a different game, not only because of the analytics, information and statistics, but the desire of knowledge from the fan base than it was 10-20 years ago
“I think it’s a really great sign for the game. I do think it’s very different and I think it presents a great opportunity for us to more fully engage with our younger fan base.”
On if it’s better for the game to have one rule and where he stands on the designated hitter issue
“I think it’s a practical matter. There’s still significant resistance in the National League to go in to the designated hitter. I will tell you this however, I think the teams that you see in terms of the types of players that are occupying that position in the way that the American League teams are staffing that position has started to weaken, maybe erode a little bit, some of the resistance that we’ve seen historically going all the way to the DH. I will tell you as a personal matter I’ve never had one moment of dissonance about the fact that the National League and American League played with one different rule. It really has never been a real concern of mine.”
On the amount of money being paid to pitchers, is there more of a concern now than there used to be about National League pitchers getting injured by things other than throwing a baseball while the DH exists in the American League
“You know pitchers have hit in the National League for decades. It is a relatively uncommon phenomenon, but it is a consideration particularly when you have bigger dollars invested in great pitchers that we have to think about.”
On pace of play, time in between innings increasing over the years and the significance of advertising revenue with so many homes having DVRs, is baseball finding it a challenge to find another way to increase revenue while shortening time between innings
“One of the things we are looking hard at is everybody likes to blame it on the advertising and the revenue. The fact of the matter is we’re having inning breaks that are longer that what’s required for the advertisements that have been sold. I think step one on that one is to get back to the breaks that are required and not anything longer.”
On what has made the inning breaks longer than required
“You know it’s just people getting in and out of the breaks on the broadcasts. It’s pitchers not being ready to go. It’s music that goes on too long and the batter taking too long to get to the batter’s box. Generally, it’s nobody’s fault. It’s a lack of focus and we’re going to try to a little better job at that this year.”
On if he’s a fan of instant replay and the way it played out last year and what adjustments would he like to see made this year
“Huge fan of instant replay. I think that the roll out of instant replay was simply baseball at its best. I think the planning that Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa and John Schierholtz did, in terms of what the system should look like, was absolutely outstanding. It was incredibly detailed the amount of time that was spent. I think the technology that was applied to the problem is the best anywhere. We have a great asset in MLB.com, great technology company and they really came through for us on replay. I think once we got over the human issues associated with catch, no-catch at the beginning of the season, the system performed really, really well. Having said that there are some things we are looking at. We are going to make some adjustments for this year. We are in the process of fine tuning those. And one of the things I know people have talked about is the managers being out there waiting for a signal from the dugout. We have some ideas about how we might shorten that up and take that piece of it out of play.”
On if baseball is at a place with the technology to use IFBs (special intercom) or an extra umpire inside the stadium to speed up the replay process
“We looked hard at the umpire in the stadium and it just really was not feasible from a logistical standpoint. It just didn’t save us a lot of time in between the central location, the format we went to, and having an umpire in the ballpark. We really do believe, from a consistency perspective, having the umpire crew there in New York when a replay comes in is a very positive thing. It’s unusual when we have two replays going at the same time and as a result you’ve got a crew of umpires’ eyes on the play and we think it really improved the quality of the replay.”
On the All-Star Game being in Cincinnati this year and if Pete Rose will be able to participate in the festivities and is he open to Rose filing for reinstatement
“Let me take them one at a time. With respect to the festivities, obviously Pete participated in ’99 when we had the All-Century Team. I am going to have some conversations with Mr. Castellini, the owner in Cincinnati, about exactly what Pete is going to be allowed to do. But I think you can assume that he will be a participant if he would like to. With respect to reinstatement, that is Pete’s call. He’s got a right to apply for reinstatement. It’s allowed under our rules. If he wants to do that he can do it.”
On pace of play and the pitch clock that will be used in the minors this year (Double-A and Triple-A), is there concern the attention in the park will end up being 30-40,000 fans getting on the opposing pitcher by counting down from 10 to zero with every pitch and what are some of the detracting arguments/aspects of a pitch clock being used in the majors
“We sure do. Let me start with the positive okay. I thought that the pitch clock experiment in the Arizona Fall League was successful in two respects. I think that it did improve the flow of the game first and most important. Secondly, I think that some very traditional people had an opportunity to see the experiment and I think it made them more open to what is kind of a revolutionary idea of having a clock at a baseball game. I think it was successful in that regard. You’ll notice, however, we did not run to try to implement it in the big leagues and that’s because the sort of issues you [Casey Stern] raise are always of concern to us. While we want to always try to improve the game, make it better for the fans, improve the pace of play, we also don’t want to make a mistake by moving too quickly and ending up with something that we need to back away from.”
On the comments he made and his stance on defensive shifts
“Let me first clarify exactly what I said and what the context was. We had talked about a variety, in the interview we talked about a variety of changes on the field and I was asked about something that might be more radical, okay? And what I said was I was prepared to have a conversation about defensive shifts in the event that we reached the conclusion that we needed more offense in the game. [Laughs] As you can see there are a lot of contingencies there and all I said was I was prepared to have a conversation about it. Look, shifts are an interesting topic. I think you get to shifts only if you conclude that we in fact have a prolonged trend on a lack of offense that you need to do something to address it. I understand, because we have talked about it internally that there are numbers suggesting that those shifts, the elimination of those shifts, would not be particularly effective in terms of producing more offense. And again, I think what’s important with respect to all of these challenges that affect the play of the game on the field, I think we need to think about these issues all of the time. I think we need to be open on the issues and I think we need to be cautious about how quickly we proceed. For example on shifts, it may turn out this year that guys who were subject to shifts last year all went home over the winter and they’re going to go the other way next year and shifts will have self-corrected. You have to really be thoughtful and cautious about making those changes.”
On if he thinks there is a problem with the lack of offense in the game and since there is a concern about the length of games, wouldn’t scoring more runs make the games longer
“You make a really great point. Let me say two things. We’re not sure that we have enough information to reach the conclusion that we have a problem with a lack of offense. I think what people should be hardened about is that we are watching all of these trends very carefully all the time to make sure we know what’s going on out there, point one. Point two, the lack of offense issue actually got some discussion internally this winter because of exactly the problem that you are raising. You have an interrelated set of issues, right? You’ve got pace of game. The absolute length of the game. You’ve got how much action you having in the game and how frequently is the ball getting in play and then how productive are the times that the ball is put in play, that is how much offense you have. They are interrelated and they do in fact go in opposite directions.”
Jim Bowden asked Rob Manfred about his meeting with Alex Rodriguez. Manfred did not divulge any details of the meeting with him. And Manfred would not discuss the milestone (home runs) bonuses in Rodriguez’s contract because there may be a dispute down the road.
On TV blackouts and will those issues be addressed in order to keep the fan base that wants to pay to watch the games but cannot because they’re blacked out
“Blackouts is an issue that people complain about. Obviously when you are a fan and you are in an area you don’t have distribution of the games it’s troubling and problematic. I’ve really have become more aware of that just since my election and we’re in the process of thinking hard about that issue and collecting some information. That’s really all I can really tell you right now.”
On his views of having a worldwide draft and if he sees a day all amateurs will be part of the same draft
“You know we have proposed in a number of rounds of bargaining a worldwide draft. I think that, I don’t like to get in to what we are going to propose the next time around because I’m just not ready to say that. I’m going to make an exception in this case. I think at some point, at some point the equities are such that we are going to end up with some sort of worldwide draft system, a single method of entry into the game.”
On the responsibility of changing the game and moving it forward while also keeping the purity baseball has that other sports don’t have and is that the most difficult task of being commissioner
“When I think about the job I think that there are two things that are both really difficult. On the one hand you have the desire to have the game evolve in a way that keeps it popular and relevant and important. On the other hand you don’t want to do anything that upsets the traditions that run so deep in our culture and are held so tightly by our fans. So that balancing act is very difficult. And I think the second one that you always have to keep in mind is to accomplish anything. Whether it be the kind of changes that we’ve been talking about or labor agreements or whatever. You’ve got to be open and always need to spend time thinking about that and working on it.”
On the A’s and Rays stadium issues and how important it will be for him to find a resolution or help get a solution for those two cities
“Let me say this, I think it’s always important to bear in mind that stadium construction is fundamentally a local issue. The owner, the local government, the local communities have to be committed to the project. I share your view that Tampa and Oakland are situations that need to be addressed and believe me I will be making myself available to both owners, both clubs to play whatever role they want me to play in helping them get their situation resolved because I do think both of them are really important to the game.”