24 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Hockey you can't even enter a zone of the ice without the puck being there first. 

 Soccer you can never be in front of the last line of defense as an offensive player and receive the ball.

 Basketball you cannot stand in the lane without an offensive player around you for longer than 3 seconds.

In football, you cannot line up more than a certain amount of players on the line of scrimmage and only a certain kind of player is allowed to run past the line of scrimmage on pass plays.

As I noted in my post, other leagues enforce defensive/offensive positioning to limit exploitative practices. I don't really think there's much difference between doing it on offense or defense. You're just choosing to accept those sports restrictions on player locations or movements, while being critical of MLB's proposal and pretending they're not at all similar. I'd argue they're all predicated around the same thing.

I asked for defense for hockey, football, and soccer.

Football has strict formation requirements. Once the ball is snapped, all bets are off.

8 minutes ago, JoeC said:

I asked for defense for hockey, football, and soccer.

Football has strict formation requirements. Once the ball is snapped, all bets are off.

I explain pretty thoroughly that I stated in my first post that they enforce offensive/defensive positions limits (not just defense), and also explained that I found it pretty arbitrary whether it's on offense or defense - the purpose is the same. Also that I found it odd that you are willing to accept it on offense in some sports, and offense and defense in basketball, but defense in baseball is for some reason off limits. 

Also, lineman are restricted once a ball is snapped as well. 

Edited June 8, 20223 yr by Look at Ray Ray Run

I guess my fundamental disagreement is in the definition of "exploitive" practices. In the examples you give, the rules are in place to prevent "exploitive" practices (your word).

My fundamental issue is that the league is, in essence, telling everyone "whelp - there's literally no better way to counteract this tactic that's existed since before Ted Williams. We'll just tell people they aren't allowed to do it."

To go back to my response to your "look at other sports" point, I understand and acknowledge your point, and you're right. That said, in most other sports there is a clear trade-off in employing certain tactics for the benefit of a defensive strategy, and the sports in each instance at least made some semblance of an effort to adjust before saying "there's literally nothing we can do." Baseball is the only one of the sports you've mentioned where the prevailing strategic adjustment to "there's a wall there" has been "I'm going to keep beating my head into that wall."