the first new MLB rules since '96

anyone thrilled with Bud's "improve the on-field issues" committee? O BOY, GEORGE WILL

i wish they had invited some of the brighter young managers in the game. george will can burn, obv. i don't think any players should be in there because baseball players are really dumb.

low-hanging fruit?

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/5/10/3012029/mlb-fake-to-third-throw-to-first-move-balk

so the idea is that would speed up the game?

does it even happen once every 5 games?

maybe that?! of all the things dumb about baseball i never thought the fake to 3rd was one of them.

Granderson fell for the banana in the tailpipe?

RHPs will step off the rubber and do the same damn thing. It will probably happen with roughly the same frequency.

Neyer predicts that, SOMEDAY, MLB will have to reduce strikeouts and pitching changes to shorten games.

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/5/29/3048980/ernesto-frieri-angels-strikeouts

Neyer's been on that soapbox for a while. Anyway, the game goes in cycles so I wouldn't assume that strikeouts are some runaway phenomenon that's going to necessitate a significant rule change.

The fake-to-third/throw-to-first will now be ruled a balk:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20130126/pickoff-rule-change.ap/

The hidden-ball-trick's days are surely numbered.

ha, i used to do this all the time when i played

will cut 30 seconds off the average game

I wonder if the LV sports books are offering an o/u on the number of balks that will come of this in 2013.

looking to ban collisions at home

http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/12/12/5201700/mlb-banning-collisions-home-plate-winter-meetings-rules

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/1/28/5353948/baseball-padded-caps-pitchers-safety

"Just reading through it, the main thing it does is eliminate the malicious collision," Posey told ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" on Tuesday morning. "If the catcher is not set up right on top of the plate, it doesn't allow the runner to run through him."

Posey said the tweak to the rule would not alter the way he prepares for the season as a catcher or as a baserunner.

"For the most part, I think it'll stay pretty much the same," Posey said. "We've never been taught to set up right on top of the plate; we've always been taught to give the runner a little bit of the plate.

"[As a baserunner], my mindset, when I'm coming around third, is to slide hard and late."

Texas Rangers catcher J.P. Arencibia said the new rule "takes away the malicious intent behind the play at the plate."

"It stops guys just going out of their way just to try to dislodge the baseball when [catchers] have the plate," Rangers manager Ron Washington said.

Hall of Famer George Brett, the Kansas City Royals' vice president of baseball operations, said he doesn't like the rule even though he understands that the objective is to reduce injuries.

"I'm not a big fan of it," Brett told ESPN.com. "Catchers are taught to put their foot right in front of home plate, and the plays are bang-bang. I like the collision.

"I don't sit around at home at night and think about it. This is the first time I've thought about it since two months ago when somebody told me, 'They can't run into catchers anymore.' I said, 'That sucks. I love that play.'"

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10512206/mlb-bans-home-collisions-1-exception

so without amending the rulebook, MLB has redefined a legal catch

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/transfer-rule-focus-of-cleveland-replay?ymd=20140409&content_id=71485458&vkey=news_mlb

I'm sure you've heard, they've fixed this idiotic transfer thing

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/mlb-makes-1st-major-adjustment-of-replay-era-tweaks-transfer-rule-042514

Rules quiz:

http://www.sbnation.com/2014/8/27/6075321/obscure-mlb-rules-quiz

I got 7/10.

In the Arizona Fall League this year:

http://deadspin.com/baseball-will-test-out-six-new-rules-to-speed-up-the-ga-1641283166

Hitters must keep at least one foot inside the batter's box at all times, barring exceptions like foul balls, wild pitches, or if the umpire grants him time out.

Pitchers must throw a pitch within 20 seconds of receiving the ball. Clocks posted in each dugout will count down the 20 seconds.

There will be a maximum break between innings of 2:05, with a clock keeping track. Hitters must be in the batter's box by 1:45. If the hitter's not ready, the umpire can call a strike. If the pitcher doesn't throw a pitch by 2:05, the umpire can call a ball.

Teams will have a maximum of 2:30 to change pitchers, with the clock starting as soon as the reliever enters the playing field.

Teams are limited to a maximum of three mound visits per game, not including pitching changes. This applies to trips to the mound by managers, coaches, and catchers.

Pitchers no longer have to deliver four balls for an intentional walk. The manager can simply signal to the umpire.

new pace rules for MLB this year

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2015/2/20/8075545/mlb-pace-of-play-changes-effective-2015

MLB, MLBPA ADOPT SLIDE RULE ON DOUBLE PLAYS, PACE OF GAME CHANGES
Interference Rule Governing Double Play Slides Clarified;
Mound Visits, Break Times Adjusted in Pace of Game Program

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/165429062/pace-of-game-changes-new-slide-rule-adopted

“People watch the UFC. But they get mad when a guy breaks his ankle at second base because of a hard slide. I don't get it." -- Ian Kinsler, future Fox analyst

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ce_iquoVAAELtrm.jpg:large

In the 9th last night vs the Mets, Jayson Werth was called out for interference making a late slide on a DP breakup attempt. I'm getting a little sick of Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling grousing about the new unmacho world (Keith sneered about "the geniuses" who effected the rule). Nats GM Rizzo also got into a shouting match with the umps after the game. Tough shit, dinosaurs.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/watch-ninth-inning-slide-rule-call-plays-a-big-part-in-mets-win-over-nats/

https://www.sny.tv/mets/news/nats-gm-ump-argue-over-call-on-werth-slide/188622326

oh go fuck yourselves

"Major League Baseball plans on testing a rule change in the lowest levels of the minor leagues this season that automatically would place a runner on second base at the start of extra innings, a distinct break from the game’s orthodoxy that nonetheless has wide-ranging support at the highest levels of the league, sources familiar with the plan told Yahoo Sports."

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb-plans-to-test-new-extra-innings-rules-in-rookie-ball-with-joe-torres-approval-224914115.html

What in the blue hell is that all about.

Honestly, I would prefer ties in baseball to a dumb rule change like that.

“It’s not fun to watch when you go through your whole pitching staff and wind up bringing a utility infielder in to pitch.

gotta disagree with you there, Joe.

i will give you each $1000 if this ever becomes a major league rule

twist: the free runner on second base is bartolo colon

Anthony Castrovince @castrovince
This idea has uncovered quite a number of rookie ball purists.

first they came for rookie league, and i said nothing

gonna need one for this, because c'mon

https://twitter.com/AJCassavell/status/831916548369510400

that's even worse than jordan walden

no one ever calls traveling anymore

that is a fucking weird delivery.

Cater Crapps

@JeffPassan
Rob Manfred: There will not be substantive rules changes in 2017 due to "lack of cooperation from the MLBPA."

@EricFisherSBJ
And Manfred then reveals a new chestnut in new labor deal: a unilateral ability by the league to impose rules changes as soon as next yr

@JeffPassan
Among the rules changes MLB could impose, per Manfred: a pitch clock, a smaller strike zone, fewer visits to the mound, auto-intentional BB.

yay lack of cooperation

As part of its initiative to improve pace-of-game play, Major League Baseball has approved a change to the intentional walk rule, going from the traditional four-pitch walk to a dugout signal, team and union sources told ESPN's Howard Bryant.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/18737245/mlb-union-agree-get-rid-traditional-intentional-walkwill-use-signal-dugout

this will save nearly 12 seconds per game

i'm so pissed that the miggy cabrera intentional walk single will never happen again

ugh

what about the Johnny Bench WORLD SERIES fake-IBB strikeout?

(1972)

i was not alive but that sounds tremendous

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

it'll be really interesting to see the effect of the larger bases on stolen bases and infield singles, etc. seems like a full AAA season's worth of that would be a large enough sample to predict the effect on MLB as well

i think they need to do various things to the rules to slow the direction of the game into exclusively being about strikeouts, walks and homers. as entertainment i don't think baseball is headed in the right direction. things like pitcher velocity and organizational philosophies about the most valuable styles of play are harder to change but i'm in favor of them curbing shifts to open the field back up and these little minute changes to try and encourage some more running

I think the instant replay is a big culprit for killing the sb, since we can now see everytime someone pops off the base by a mm for half a second.

don't understand the obsession with stolen bases. i do wish there were more again, but idk why they're the first thing brought up when people talk about the strikeout/juiced ball era - i miss "defense" in general much more than i miss SBs

the big positive in this imo is "and determine the optimal strike zone for the system." i know there was a lot of talk about ABS calling a massive strike zone so it's good if they're willing to tinker with it

if they want to avoid 1B collisions though just do the double base thing from softball

Also the drinking between innings from softball. Will help you go limp in case of a collision.

we can reinstitute beer kegs at third base to encourage balls in play

keeping infielders in place seems fine to me

I'm resistant to the idea of pickoff limitations, timers (antithetical to baseball), and any pace-of-play stuff. It's baseball! Proceed at your own pace!

agreed

i kinda thought the shift would lead to more varied, less pull-happy swings, but it never really happened

a surefire way to increase action on the basepaths is of course to deaden the ball to some unspecified degree but hahahahahaha

i think over time ... like 5-10 years ... players would adjust how they hit for the shift, forcing a counter by defenses and thus rebalancing things a bit. but i'm down with MLB being like, it's better for balls to fall in the field of play for hits and we're not going to wait on natural regression to fix this

but it would be better for the game to have hits land in all parts of the field and not just crushed for power (or be swung on and missed - which is the other thing that happens when you “cheat” on a pitch to try and wrap your bat around it) - the broadcast booth always waxes on interminably about contact hitting and inside-out swings and “going with” the pitch but i think they’re not wrong and it’s weird that wouldn’t translate into actual support in the rules for that style of play

tracer they're deadening the ball this year!

eh??!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-planning-small-changes-to-deaden-the-baseball-for-2021-season-per-report/amp/

i think over time ... like 5-10 years ... players would adjust how they hit for the shift, forcing a counter by defenses and thus rebalancing things a bit.

teams have been shifting for a decade now and i think what we're seeing *is* the adjustment. if they need a man on base, people like freddie freeman or j.d. martinez will drop a bunt down to third every once in a while, but they and their teams have concluded that when every pitcher has a 98mph fastball, it's too hard to string together three singles to score a run. better to try to hit the ball in the air and hope it goes out.

(also the way players are rewarded incentivizes dingers as opposed to inside-out swings.)

maybe a deadened ball will lead to more warning-track outs and a change in philosophy. but i think the issue is less the shift than the fact that pitchers are throwing so much harder than they were even 10-15 years ago, and even lowering the mound won't help with that. when tony gwynn was asked whether he preferred to face fastballs or off-speed stuff, he chose the latter, because it gave him more time to see the pitch.

we might soon be reaching the limits of how hard people can physically throw baseballs, but i think ultimately they're gonna have to move the rubber back, and i'm not sure anyone has the appetite for that

this feels like the key

stringing together multiple hits in an inning is so difficult

there's still no telling how much the ball is actually being "deadened", and meredith wills (who's been researching this for years now) suggested the changes might actually make the balls livelier

i don't have a BP subscription but this article apparently suggests the same thing

Since we are brainstorming here, and I do like the idea of moving back the rubber, what about reducing the size of the strike zone?

that shouldn't even be controversial, it's been getting bigger and bigger over the past decade

i guess they're paving the way with the (slightly) larger bases, but moving the rubber back would be an incredible clusterfuck. rip george will yet again

no doubt manfred sees it as an opportunity to split the union; he's probably right

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2021/3/15/22331075/pitching-mound-move-distance

The Atlantic League, a minor league hotbed for innovation in baseball, will announce plans Wednesday to move the pitcher’s mound back 12 inches from home plate this season, according to two people with knowledge of the arrangement. The move represents one of the most stark rule changes proposed by baseball leadership in a generation and comes amid sweeping changes on the minor league level designed to reduce home runs and strikeouts and increase the action from batter to batter.

The eight-team Atlantic League, which has franchises along the East Coast, will enact the change during the second half of its 120-game regular season, one person familiar with the matter said. It will be the first change of mound regulations in professional baseball since 1969, when MLB lowered the mound after a season in which seven starting pitchers posted sub-2.00 ERAs.

Not sure how this would reduce home runs

I wonder what the average game time is when total runs are >20.

Feels like this should be an injury risk for pitchers somehow? 20 years of muscle memory (and actual muscle) being disrupted almost overnight?

i said it in the general thread, but i’m a big fan of 7 inning games. managers have to be more aggressive - more bunts, get things happening. you don’t just sit back waiting for the homers.

You ever see a post and think man I wish morbs was here to respond to that

haha oh man he’d throw a beer at my head and i’d love it. sorry morbs - the game’s changed! 9 innings were good in the 50s. 7’s good now. unless somebody has a better way to both create more action on the basepaths and bring game times under three hours.

- more aggressive managing
- more pressure to score
- more complete games from starting pitchers
- games last 2.5 hrs

how to speed up games - batters roll a 12-sided die to determine the count they start with.

right on top of home plate

If you’re going that route I’d rather see it more extreme. Get games down to 1:15.

Foul balls caught in the stands - out
Two strikes - out, but five balls to a walk
Runners can advance on any fair batted ball without tagging up

Easy to get outs but when the ball is in play it’s faster and more exciting.

Too bad speedball has a negative connotation.

i’ve said this before but my dad always said home runs should be foul balls. you’ve hit it outside the field of play.

Reward steals with an extra base. Take second, get third.

But only in odd numbered innings.

i’m serious about 7 inning games. They’re good.

I'm serious about all of the above (in a new sport alongside traditional baseball), I think they'd make it exciting as hell, like rugby sevens vs. regular rugby.

yes i’m talking about the sport of baseball in case that wasn’t clear.

with 7 inning games you could also dispense with the runner on second in extras, which actually does fuck with the internals of the game in the way you’re describing.

I think you're underestimating how much eliminating 22% of outs fucks with the internals of the game.

i don’t think i am. but i guess we’ll never know!

i’ve listed some big changes to the internals upthread. i consider them improvements.

Idk if I like the idea of eliminating 2 innings in an era full of relievers who can throw 105 mph strikes, feel like a big market team could dump truckloads of money at those guys and win 110 games

I do like the 3 inning/9 outs idea though. Everyone gets a turn!!

pfft come on that’s just rounders

But what if everyone got exactly three turns?

Baseboxing - throw hands if tagging isn't feasible