MLB announces agreement to experiment on rule changes in Independent Atlantic League...

[posty 2,296]

Quote

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/03/mlb-announces-agreement-to-experiment-on-rule-changes-in-independent-atlantic-league.html

Major League Baseball announced on Friday that it has reached an agreement with the independent Atlantic League wherein the Atlantic League will adopt a series of radical rule changes to serve as an experimentation grounds for MLB. Under the agreement, MLB “will analyze the effects of these changes before deciding on potential additional modifications during the 2019 Atlantic League All-Star break and in future seasons.” The slate of rule changes to be implemented in the Atlantic League are as follows:

• Home plate umpire assisted in calling balls and strikes by a TrackMan radar tracking system.
• No mound visits permitted by players or coaches other than for pitching changes or medical issues.
• Pitchers must face a minimum of three batters, or reach the end of an inning before they exit the game, unless the pitcher becomes injured.
• Increase the size of 1st, 2nd and 3rd base from 15 inches square to 18 inches square.
• Require two infielders to be on each side of second base when a pitch is released (if not, the ball is dead and the umpire shall call a ball).
• Time between innings and pitching changes reduced from 2:05 to 1:45.
• Distance from pitching rubber to home plate extended 24 inches, in the second half of the season only; with no change to mound height or shape.

In the past, MLB has experimented with various rule changes at the minor league level, most recently implementing a pitch clock in the minors back in 2015. (That change, which gives a pitcher 20 seconds to at least come set to deliver his pitch, is currently being tested during Spring Training.) However, given the more radical nature of these changes, MLB has now sought an independent setting in order to analyze the benefits and potential pitfalls of these scenarios.

Alterations to the pitching mound, robotic/computerized calling of balls and strikes and the potential banning of aggressive defensive shifts have all been among the talking points during commissioner Rob Manfred’s ongoing pace-of-play initiatives since being named Bud Selig’s successor. While today’s announcement certainly doesn’t suggest that any of these changes are on the cusp of being introduced at the MLB level, the experiment and analysis nonetheless foreshadow what feels like an inevitable wave of changes at some point in the future. Baseball purists have persistently bristled at the continual changes that have been both implemented and suggested by Manfred. The commissioner, in turn, has repeatedly spoken about a desire to grow the game’s appeal and to not only shorten the overall length of games but also to increase the level of action within them.

Leave the game alone, it is fine the way it is...  The crap that they do to try to keep the ones with zero attention span interested...

[NEWPOSTERGUY! 266]

3 minutes ago, posty said:

Why can't they just leave the game alone...  The game is fine the way it is...  The crap that they do to try to keep the ones with zero attention span interested...

baseball was overtaken by the N.F.L. and N.B.A. because those two sports can be sold to the 'hood - MLB will never capture that demographic, which, even though small as it is in terms of population %, wields consumer/commercial/cultural clout at a clip which far exceeds their raw numbers. 

and that's nauseating. absolutely vile that such dimwitted numbnutz get pandered to. 

leave MLB alone, it will survive ... oh, and, not for nuttin' - hispanics are the largest growing minority here, by far ... and they love some Beisbol - give it time, and MLB will put both the hip-hop leagues in it's rear view. 

/word

[edjr 5,547]

David Price averages 27 seconds between pitches. FOck him and fock pitchers that take that long

 

Baseball averages 1 ball batted in play every 4 minutes.  FOCK THAT!

[vuduchile 1,940]

No shortage of stupid ideas in that deal.

 

[bandrus1 413]

24 inches added to pitching rubber to plate wtf

[RaiderHaters Revenge 3,566]

1 hour ago, bandrus1 said:

24 inches added to pitching rubber to plate wtf

yep all the others are whatever, but seriously what is this about?

moving the mound from 66 to 68 is a huge difference, and changes the entire game, why not shorten the bases to 80 feet

stupid

 

[posty 2,296]

3 hours ago, RaiderHater's Revenge said:

yep all the others are whatever, but seriously what is this about?

moving the mound from 66 to 68 is a huge difference, and changes the entire game, why not shorten the bases to 80 feet

stupid

 

It is currently 60 feet 6 inches, not 66 feet...

[RaiderHaters Revenge 3,566]

14 hours ago, posty said:

It is currently 60 feet 6 inches, not 66 feet...

yah I was just thinking 60-6 turning into 66

 

[JustinCharge 2,397]

I read an article recently that attributed most of the increase in game length to the loss of foul territory over the past 20 years.  20 years ago, many more ballparks had lots of foul ground.  That meant foul balls were more likely to be caught for an out which shortened games.  The desire to bring seating closer to the action is nice for fans but makes games longer.  The number of foul outs has dropped considerably over the past 20 years.  Now we have ridiculously long at-bats as hitters just keep spoiling pitches.

A possible solution is to give each hitter only x number of foul balls before they can counted as strike 3.  Or maybe give a team x number of foul balls that aren't counted as strike 3, and these chances can be used at any time by informing the umpire.  Maybe you save them for the 7th, 8th, or 9th innings, or save them for when a runner is on 3rd base, itll be up to the manager.

[bandrus1 413]

1 hour ago, riversco said:

I read an article recently that attributed most of the increase in game length to the loss of foul territory over the past 20 years.  20 years ago, many more ballparks had lots of foul ground.  That meant foul balls were more likely to be caught for an out which shortened games.  The desire to bring seating closer to the action is nice for fans but makes games longer.  The number of foul outs has dropped considerably over the past 20 years.  Now we have ridiculously long at-bats as hitters just keep spoiling pitches.

A possible solution is to give each hitter only x number of foul balls before they can counted as strike 3.  Or maybe give a team x number of foul balls that aren't counted as strike 3, and these chances can be used at any time by informing the umpire.  Maybe you save them for the 7th, 8th, or 9th innings, or save them for when a runner is on 3rd base, itll be up to the manager.

Wow never heard this but it sounds dead on

[RaiderHaters Revenge 3,566]

not buying the foul territory thing

the game now is designed for tv, how many times are you at the park and the pitcher and batter are ready and they have to wait to come back from commercial break.  Catchers used to call their own games as well, and that IMO is the biggest issue that slows down the game.

[posty 2,296]

2 hours ago, riversco said:

I read an article recently that attributed most of the increase in game length to the loss of foul territory over the past 20 years.  20 years ago, many more ballparks had lots of foul ground.  That meant foul balls were more likely to be caught for an out which shortened games.  The desire to bring seating closer to the action is nice for fans but makes games longer.  The number of foul outs has dropped considerably over the past 20 years.  Now we have ridiculously long at-bats as hitters just keep spoiling pitches.

A possible solution is to give each hitter only x number of foul balls before they can counted as strike 3.  Or maybe give a team x number of foul balls that aren't counted as strike 3, and these chances can be used at any time by informing the umpire.  Maybe you save them for the 7th, 8th, or 9th innings, or save them for when a runner is on 3rd base, itll be up to the manager.

God no...

[Drizzay 644]

2 hours ago, RaiderHater's Revenge said:

not buying the foul territory thing

the game now is designed for tv, how many times are you at the park and the pitcher and batter are ready and they have to wait to come back from commercial break.  Catchers used to call their own games as well, and that IMO is the biggest issue that slows down the game.

Yea, I don't get that.  Any catcher that needs to look to the dugout for the next pitch isnt a catcher at all.

[JustinCharge 2,397]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/foul-balls-are-the-pace-of-play-problem-nobodys-talking-about/

Foul Balls Are The Pace-Of-Play Problem Nobody’s Talking About

Major League Baseball is eager to speed up our national pastime. In the past few offseasons, MLB has tried to combat the slowing pace of play by targeting pitching changes, intentional walks and mound visits. But another significant culprit behind the sport’s sluggish pace of play may be something that no pitch clock or simple rule change can fix: the foul ball.

The number of foul balls has increased by 11.98 percent from 1998, when baseball expanded to 30 teams, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis of Baseball-Reference.com data. There were almost 14,000 more foul balls last season than there were 20 seasons earlier. In 1998, 26.5 percent of all strikes were foul balls. That share increased to a record 27.9 percent of strikes in 2017 and 27.8 percent last season, the top rates since pitch-level data was first recorded in 1988.

Overall, there were 26,313 more pitches in baseball in 2018 (724,447) than in 1998 (698,134). That’s the equivalent of adding 88 games, or roughly a week, to the schedule.¹ A record 3.9 pitches were thrown per plate appearance in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, according to Baseball-Reference.com, up from 3.73 pitches per plate appearance in 2002 and 3.58 in 1988. And about half of the growth in total pitches can be attributed to foul balls.

For the first time since pitch-level data has been recorded, there were more foul balls than balls put in play in 2017 — and that trend continued in 2018.

While fans have a better chance than ever at grabbing a free souvenir, fielders do not. In 2003, there were 4,372 foul outs. That number has fallen off dramatically, reaching a record low 3,262 in 2016 and hitting 3,450 last season.

An increase in foul balls and a decline in foul outs may seem paradoxical, but the reason is simple: Playing surfaces are shrinking. In comparing 21 current stadiums with their immediate predecessor, FanGraphs found that fair territory had decreased by 1.4 percent, but foul territory decreased by 20.5 percent, or about 5,500 square feet on average.

[edjr 5,547]

9 hours ago, Drizzay said:

Yea, I don't get that.  Any catcher that needs to look to the dugout for the next pitch isnt a catcher at all.

THat is what makes Chris Sale so awesome. He doesn't ever wave off the catcher> catcher puts a sign down, he throws the pitch.