the first new MLB rules since '96

Elimination of 40 player roster, too!

Interesting changes! I'm really excited to see how the relief pitcher / opener rules pan out (in 2020).

No more waiver trades too! The trade deadline just got even more exciting.

The fact that the 40-man Sept. roster expansion doesn't reduce to 28 until 2020 increases Tim Tebow's chances of being a big leaguer.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) March 14, 2019

I call this "overmanaging"

playing Seymour Skinner re position players pitching particularly

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mlb-announces-major-rule-changes-for-2019-and-2020/

A commenter asks:

"Not that this will be [a frequent] occurrence but I’m still waiting to see how it will be handled if a team makes two mound visits before a pitcher faces three batters. We would have one rule requiring the pitcher be removed from the game and another stating that he is not allowed to be removed. Is baseball just broken at that point?"

Oof.

What about a pitcher feigning injury? We know it doesn't count as a mound visit. But will it also allow managers to skirt 3-hitter rule? Will said pitcher be obliged to do a DL stint? So much unnecessary dumbness.

dl il stint

supposedly the three-batter rule will be implemented in the (affiliated) minors this season. i don't think it will come up too much, though -- there aren't really minor league LOOGYs or convoluted platoon matches because the games don't mean anything

RIP pitch clock?

yeah :/

seems like overkill

MLB is at Nationals’ camp today workshopping a new communication device for pitchers and catchers. It would allow catchers to type a pitch call (with location) into a watch that is connected to a watch the pitcher is wearing on the mound. An effort to eliminate sign-stealing.

— Jesse Dougherty (@dougherty_jesse) March 18, 2019

ugh

real galaxy brain shit right there

sign stealing is the best

a good way to speed up the game is to have the catcher text the pitcher on his apple watch before every pitch

yeah wtf

a century from now MLB will have "evolved" into 162 home run derbies + a midseason "old school" classic w base running, fielding, etc

classy

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D2wy5U4WkAAuvkb.jpg

the shark has pearly teeth

apparently the mound will *not* be moved back in the atlantic league this season after all

good news for new long island duck jon niese

that did seem the most harebrained

thought this was a joke; apparently it is not

Atlantic League announce 4 new rules:
Pitcher required to step off the rubber in order to attempt a pickoff.
1 foul bunt is permitted with 2 strikes before strikeout is called.
Check swing rule made more batter friendly.
Batters may steal 1st on any pitch not caught by catcher.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 11, 2019

why WHY

is the foul bunt rule meant to encourage more bunting? seems odd

also, embarrassed to not know for sure, but i thought a pitcher was already required to step off the rubber before a pickoff?

If on the rubber, the motion has to be directed entirely toward a single base. i.e. home, first, etc

i think i was confused my the rules in my childhood league - i was always required to step off the rubber. i remember vividly because i got several balks called on me and had no idea wtf was going on

i will never pay to see a "stealing first" league game

i guess some of this might somehow yield more ~action on the bases~

insofar as it does, it would also make the games longer

Yeah Karl I remember something similar. the MLB rules allow for that classic leftie pick-off move where they lift their right leg up but you don't know yet which way they're going.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27405556/yanks-boone-worth-exploring-mlb-mercy-rule

I might be in favour of a mercy rule of some sort, mainly because of the risk of someone getting hurt.

i wouldn't necessarily be against a mercy rule, but have we actually seen position players get hurt pitching? (and if so, that's on the managers -- no one's forcing them not to use real pitchers)

I guess it's more the risk of any player getting hurt in a game where the score is lopsided and the guys just want to get the hell out of there (on both sides). Much like the Buster Posey and Chase Utley rules, one serious injury could be enough to get the rules changed, e.g. Mike Trout getting injured by an errant pitch in a 15-1 game. You can't sit everybody even once the score gets out of hand.

what are the best single game comebacks in mlb history?

i assume if a game ends in, say, the 5th inning on the mercy rule, all the fans get 4 innings worth of ticket price refunded, right? RIGHT?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQmqqA_X0AI5Ia3?format=jpg&name=large

RIP loogies everywhere

Any difference between these and the three-batter/roster expansion stuff announced last year? Or is this just the formalization of it?

just the formalization, i think, although the reduction in challenge time is new. i'll be surprised if that one is actually enforced

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/new-pickoff-rule-coming-to-minors-after-indy-ball-success-in-2019

Double plays also dropped from .82 per game to .63 per game with the new rules.

With that and the upped SBs would this mean longer games?

oh my yes.

idk, i'm not really against this. lefties are pretty much balking on every throw over

saw a (maybe collegiate?) umpire praising it -- with a guy on first in two-man umpire crews, the field ump is out by second and neither he nor the HP ump have an angle to judge a lefty's balk. but if they have to step off the rubber first, that can be seen

Yeah i don’t mind it - seems like rubber should equal “locked in for home”

seems fine to me, too. those were the rules in my day (back when i manned the keystone for the san diego padres in the late 70s with my friend and doubleplay partner ozzie smith), and for a very long time i wasn't aware that the rules were any different for pros

btw (almost all of) the high-a florida state league will have robo ball/strike calls this year. mlb's current agreement with the umpires, which covers the next five years, allows for its implementation in the majors, so i think we can anticipate that happening before the deal ends, at the latest

more controversially, i think mlb will indeed soon adopt the guy-on-second extra-inning rule; i hope george will's estate is in order

that last wd be abominable

a stopped Will is right once a lifetime

a stopped Will is right once a lifetime

MLB announces experimental playing rules to be tested during 2021 minor league regular season. pic.twitter.com/oRriW7TItH

— emilycwaldon (@EmilyCWaldon) March 11, 2021

big bases and automatic balls and strikes - yes

the rest - trash