Recently, Major League Baseball and the Atlantic League have formed a partnership wherein MLB can test rule changes in the Atlantic League over the course of their 63 game season. Today, the first set of rule changes have been announced. As reported by Baseball America, those rule changes include:
- Computer assisted strike zone
- No mound visits by players other than pitching changes/injury
- Pitchers face minimum of 3 batters or end of inning.
- Increase bases by 3 inches (to 18 inches)
- Two infielders must be on each side of second base when a pitch is thrown
- Time between innings will be cut from 2:05 to 1:45
- The mound will be moved back by two feet in the second half of the season
Looking over this list, you see many of the proposed rule changes Commissioner Rob Manfred has not only discussed, but has also implemented in some form at the minor league levels. As you can see with a good portion of these changes, the overriding drive is pace of play and an increase in offense.
Looking over the list, the most controversial of the group is moving the mound back. Already, there are some Atlantic League players speaking out on the the issue. For example, former Mets prospect Tyler Badamo, who pitched for the Long Island Ducks last year, said, “My career 3.48 era in the atlantic league is about to double… but yea these changes will get me back to affiliated baseball.”
Unfortunately for Badamo, he and other Atlantic League pitchers are being the proverbial guinea pigs here because Major League teams do not want to test these ideas out on their own prospects. As previously reported by Baseball America, “It is almost extremely unlikely that teams would allow MLB to test-run a mound change with young pitching prospects.”
While some of these changes may be controversial, it should be noted they are not permanent. Indeed, these rules can be changed in-season. According to the agreement between the two leagues, MLB would need to give 30 days advance notice to make in-season changes. This could mean if any of the above are creating a real issue, the two leagues could agree to revert back to the original rules or even to create a new rule.
The main question which arises with these rule changes is the effectiveness of making all of these rule changes at once. Even with the Atlantic League now utilizing TrackMan, you have to wonder how effective it is to adjudge the impact of both banning the shift and moving the mound back simultaneously. The same could be said for most other permutations of the proposed rule changes.
More than anything, it will be interesting to see the impacts these rule changes have not just on the game but also the players. It will also be interesting to see how Major League Baseball utilizes this data in future discussions with the Players’ Association when trying to implement new pace of play initiatives.
