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March 16, 2021
New Blog Topic: MLB EXPERIMENTING WITH MORE RULE CHANGES
Well, they’re at it again. While Major League Baseball continues to be fixated on speeding up the game, they’re also finally taking heed about the lack of action caused by fewer balls being put in play during a ballgame. It was announced just recently that several potential rule changes would be tried this year at various levels of the minor leagues. Whether any of these potential rule changes will be implemented at the Major League level is still a matter of conjecture. So let’s take a look and see what you think. Of course, as always, I’ll give you my opinion, as well.
The first one takes on the oft-debated situation of infield shifts. At the beginning of the Double-A season, all four infielders will be required to have both feet on the infield dirt. That would eliminate an infielder playing in short right field in a radical shift against a southpaw swingers. MLB also said that, depending on the results, the second half of the Double-A season could mandate two infielders on each side of the second base bag, in effect, making the shift illegal. The explanation was simple. “These restrictions on defensive positioning are intended to increase the batting average on balls in play,” said an MLB spokesman.
So there it is, an admission the sports needs more offense and more balls in play. Even Red Sox manager Alex Cora stated what many of us have also thought about the game today. Said Cora, “As an industry, and I lived it last year just watching from afar, there are certain days it’s tough to watch. Strikeouts, walks, and homers. Especially in the regular season.” Both the Yankees manager, Aaron Boone, and first baseman Luke Voit, said they were bothered by the possibility of legislating against the shift. Voit feels it’s up to the hitters to adjust to it.
I agree with him. Instead of teaching young hitters about launch angles why not teach them to shorten their swings, make contact and learn to hit the other way. Other sports allow teams to be creative on defense. NFL defenses have a variety of different formations to stop offenses. The NBA now allows both zone and man-to-man defense. Why should baseball go the other way and restrict defensive strategies? Way back in the 19th century, Willie Keeler’s philosophy was “Hit ’em where they ain’t.” It worked then and would work now. Dropping a bunt, punching the ball to the opposite field, or hitting it hard the other way might quickly make shifts obsolete. Remember, a radical shift leaves large swaths of the field unprotected. Good hitters should be able to take advantage of that.
Another innovation will be tried in the low-A Southeast League. In “select games” balls and strikes will be called by ABS, an automated ball-strike system. In other
We’ve all noticed that in recent years the plate umpires seem to miss a great deal of calls, some of them very obvious. But is the answer really robot umps, even if they get every single call correct? Wouldn’t something like that begin to make baseball resemble a video game? Not to mention taking the human element out of it. I hate to say missed calls are part of the game, but in reality, they are. And
In another low-A league, there will be an experiment with a 15-second pitch clock. This has been discussed and considered in the past, but the 15-second clock is the shortest one yet. This is yet another effort to speed up the game. I guess the pitchers could adjust to it, or most of them anyway, but wouldn’t MLB speed up the game more by teaching and allowing starters to go deep and even finish, instead of parading eight, ten, and sometimes 12 pitchers in a single game? Look at the time that takes. And hasn’t baseball always bragged about being the only sport without a clock? Why start changing that now?
There will also be some experiments with the pickoff move. In another low-A league pitchers will be allowed to try a pickoff or to step off the rubber just twice during an at-bat. If they do it a third time and fail to pick the runner off, then a balk will be called. There are also thoughts to allow just one pickoff attempt. This seems like apples and oranges. How many pitchers today throw to first repeatedly during the same at-bat? I can’t remember too many. They seem few and far between.
In high-A ball, there will be a rule requiring pitchers to step off the rubber before throwing to first, eliminating the quick throw many lefties use to try picking off the runner. This was tried in the second half of 2019 in the Atlantic League and supposedly stolen base attempts jumped 70 percent, and the success rate was up as well. This is interesting since analytics has said the stolen base attempt isn’t worth the risk of giving up an out. Could an anti-analytics trend be on the way? Wouldn’t that be nice.
The final change that will be tried – and this is kind of strange – will be larger bases in Triple-A. Not that much larger. The bases will be three inches longer on each side. With those bases, the distance between home plate and the edge of first base will be reduced from 88 feet, 9 inches to 88 feet, 6 inches. MLB feels this small edge will help the success rate on steals and with runners trying to beat out slow hit balls or bunts. They also feel it might decrease collisions at the bag that result in injuries. I’m kind of neutral on this one. It seems like a relatively minor change but again shows that MLB is looking to increase offense.
I’ve heard many times over the years people calling baseball the greatest game ever invented, as well as the most perfect game of them all. My major gripe is with new rules that will change the game from the baseball we know and love. Putting a runner on second to start the 10th inning is the perfect example. To me, that isn’t baseball. Nor would robot umps be. Outlawing infield shifts would take some of the strategy and creativity out of the game. Let baseball remain a game of adjustments on the field and maybe, just maybe, it will return to the game it used to be and not the one Alex Cora and so many others have said is boring and difficult to watch.
Bill Gutman
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