MLB's proposed rule changes are playing to mixed reviews

Major League Baseball doesn't seem to have too many problems. Generally speaking, attendance and television ratings are strong and certainly revenues seem to be as well.

The sport has seemed to achieve a level of competitive balance without a salary cap. A level where the Orioles, Blue Jays and Rays can dethrone the big-spending Red Sox and Yankees atop the American League East. A level where the Kansas City Royals can win the World Series. A level where there has been a different World Series winner every year since the Yankees won three in a row from 1998-2000.

Yet, the baseball brass is looking at some rule changes. There is discussion about use of a pitch clock, raising the strike zone and limiting visits to the pitcher's mound, among other things.

What we almost certainly won't see is a runner placed at second base to start an extra inning. That will be tested in rookie ball this summer, but it's not coming to a big league facility near you anytime soon.

We found out this week that MLB officials are eliminating the need to throw four pitches to produce an intentional walk. Now there will be a signal and the batter just takes first base without a single pitch being thrown. Surprisingly, there have been some strong opinions over this rule. As for me, there is nothing to see here. I've tried to summon up some emotion for this but only end up yawning each time. Will anyone really miss the intentional walk?

It takes about three hours now to play a big league game. If baseball's brass could find a way to make a real difference here and trim the games by 20 or 30 minutes without changing the sport, we'd all probably be open to hearing how. But the measures so far have done little except to shave a few minutes here and there and the time of game actually increased from 2015 to 2016.

Some feel commissioner Rob Manfred really wants to decrease not so much the times of the games, but increase the pace of the games. He wants to cut down on inaction and reduce long stretches between the times when the ball is actually put into play.

That is fine and maybe they can make improvements here. But baseball has always been a sport when strategy is happening even when action is not. Signs are given, players shift in the field, pitchers and catchers try to outsmart hitters and runners. We can't change that, and why would we? Those that don't get that part of the game and see baseball as slow and boring probably always will.

But major league teams drew 73,159,044 fans for an average of 30,169 per game last season. That is for 162 games per team, and includes school nights and bad weather games as well as those sun-splashed, perfect days of summer. This was the 11th-best attendance year in the sport's history. The best was 79.5 million in 2007, before the downturn in the economy.

In 2016, there were seven major league teams that drew 3 million fans for the season, 12 at 2.5 million or more, and 22 at 2 million or better for season attendance. That included the Orioles at 2.172 million.

Meanwhile, the minor leagues are doing very well also. Total attendance for 2016 was 41,377,202 and that was the 12th consecutive year the minors combined for over 41 million fans. The attendance last year was the ninth-highest total in history.

If there is something wrong with the product in baseball right now, it hasn't stopped fans from showing up in person in big numbers, even at a time when more games than ever are televised.

Manfred says he is simply trying to be proactive and trying to grow the game with young people. Rather than losing younger fans, he wants to cultivate that base and keep them as fans so they can pass on a love of the game to their kids and so on and so on.

It sounds good, except for that theory of don't fix what isn't broken. With baseball doing well at the gate, in the ratings and with revenue, the game is pretty good. It doesn't need any fixing. There is nothing wrong though with being proactive and trying to add younger fans to ensure the sport's future.

But no one has been complaining much about baseball as far as I can tell. Fans can't wait for a new season to start. They seem prepared again to provide baseball with outstanding attendance numbers. They'll be at the ballpark - even if the game takes three hours and there is some downtime while they are there.

Around the Twitterverse:

An Oakland A's pitcher has some pace-of-game thoughts:

Rather than focus on time/pace of game let's find new & innovative ways to grow the game by promoting players & unique personalities of MLB

-- Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) February 24, 2017

Matt Wieters was introduced by the Nationals and, as usual, towered over the media.

#Nats catcher Matt Wieters: "I always thought it was a good fit for me." pic.twitter.com/e6DgHIqZtW

-- Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) February 24, 2017

Eddie, Eddie had a birthday on Friday.

Happy 61st Birthday to HOFer and #Orioles Legend, Eddie Murray! #Birdland pic.twitter.com/ZrgLCvNRTb

-- Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) February 24, 2017