MLB 2019 and beyond. Major rule changes are coming and a possible thaw of labor relations.

[The Evil Genius]

Good news and some needed rule changes are coming. Also, **** the DH (and the Dodgers). 😁

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2019/03/14/mlb-new-rule-changes-roster-3-batter-minimum/3157226002/

 

Quote

PHOENIX -- One-out relievers will soon be obsolete in Major League Baseball.

Multiple trade deadlines, with no trade permitted after July 31, also about to be gone by the wayside.

A pitch clock? Soon expired.

And no longer will teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies be playing with a 40-man roster in September, while the Miami Marlins are playing with only 25 players.

MLB and the union will formally announce Thursday several major rule changes, most which will be implemented in 2020, two officials told USA TODAY Sports. They spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they have yet to publicly announce the changes.

-- Pitchers will be required to face a minimum of three batters in a game beginning in 2020.

-- There will be a single July 31 trade deadline, starting this season, with teams prohibited from making any type of trade after that date.

- Mound visits will be reduced from six to five during games beginning this year, and perhaps reduced to four visits in 2020.

-- There will be an All-Star election daystarting this summer where fans can determine the starting players in the All-Star Game with 24-hour voting.

 

-- The Home Run Derby will now pay $1 million to the winning player.

-- Commercial breaks during innings will be shortened by 20 seconds to 2 minutes.

-- Position players will be prohibited from pitching in games that don’t go into extra innings, unless a team is ahead or behind by at least eight runs.

-- Committees will be appointed by the Commissioner’s office and the union to formally discuss the game’s economic concerns. They will study ways to make the free-agent market more active. They will discuss eliminating the incentive for teams from purposely losing to gain top draft picks. They will explore efforts to prevent teams from manipulating service time that delays their top prospects from being called up to the major leagues.

 

 

More at link

[Spaceman Spiff]

Kudos on the single trade deadline.  

 

But a three batter minimum is stupid.  Position players should be able to pitch whenever.  

 

Manfred sucks.

[TheDoyler23]

Most of these are stupid. 

 

Make the strike zone a little bigger and have umpires tell batters to get in the box and pitchers to throw the damn ball and that will speed up the game. 

 

 

[Warhead36]

I don't like the three batter minimum. And besides, how would you enforce it? Couldn't a P just feign injury? I mean, its not like they can force a P to pitch through "injury." That rule won't pass.

 

But overall I do like anything that speeds the game up. They should ban hitters from leaving the batters box once they enter. None of this step out, adjust your gloves, unfold your shirt, scratch your nuts etc. non sense.

[First Colony]

Thankful that there's no shift rule.  Earlier, it was floated that there was going to be rule mandating two players on each side of second base.  Glad to see this didn't happen.  Don't like the shift?  Then learn how to hit the other way.  If the manager wants to load up one side of the infield, then he should.  Makes for interesting strategy.

[TheDoyler23]

Just now, Warhead36 said:

But overall I do like anything that speeds the game up. They should ban hitters from leaving the batters box once they enter. None of this step out, adjust your gloves, unfold your shirt, scratch your nuts etc. non sense.

 

The Yanks and Sox have games that last forever. Their pitching staffs are usually in the bottom 5 in time between pitches. Dudes didn't step out against Burhle because he was practically in his windup when he got the ball back. 

 

But some dudes are just glacial out there. Starters like Alex Cobb of my O's and Straus of the Nats. I'd have to look it up, but I bet they're up there for taking a year between pitches. And there are lots of these "former stater becomes reliever max effort" pitchers that ramp up between tosses. 

[Popeman38]

I think the 3 batter minimum only applies to within an inning.  If you make a pitching change with 2 outs, and the RP gets the 3rd out, I believe they can leave the game between innings. But, if a LOOGY is brought in to face <insert LHB> and walks them, they can't be removed. This will prevent the September 7th inning with 4 pitching changes - in conjunction with limited rosters in September.

39 minutes ago, TheDoyler23 said:

 

The Yanks and Sox have games that last forever. Their pitching staffs are usually in the bottom 5 in time between pitches. Dudes didn't step out against Burhle because he was practically in his windup when he got the ball back. 

 

But some dudes are just glacial out there. Starters like Alex Cobb of my O's and Straus of the Nats. I'd have to look it up, but I bet they're up there for taking a year between pitches. And there are lots of these "former stater becomes reliever max effort" pitchers that ramp up between tosses. 

Stras only has a glacial pace when he is struggling. When he is rolling, he is one of the quickest between pitches...

[TheGoodBits]

24 minutes ago, Popeman38 said:

I think the 3 batter minimum only applies to within an inning.  If you make a pitching change with 2 outs, and the RP gets the 3rd out, I believe they can leave the game between innings. But, if a LOOGY is brought in to face <insert LHB> and walks them, they can't be removed. This will prevent the September 7th inning with 4 pitching changes - in conjunction with limited rosters in September.

 

Picture this scenario...

 

The Nats and Phillies are tied in the standings in mid Sept. Nats are up 1 run, Phillies are batting in the bottom of the 8th with the heart of their order coming up. Segura (R), Harper (L), Hoskins (R), Realmuto (R). In the old rules, in this CRITICAL situation, you could choose to start the inning with whoever pitched the previous inning, then go to your loogy for Harper, then Rosenthal for Hoskins/Realmuto. And you still have Doolittle for the 9th. Lot of bullets you can fire to make sure you can secure the game. 

 

New rules: you've gotta pick your poison. Either let Rosenthal pitch to Harper (not ideal when Harper can't hit lefties worth a damn), or more likely put Doolittle in for the 8th. It dramatically limits the # of pitchers you can insert for a given situation. 

 

Also, managers of the team on offense still have full ability to pinch hit. They can still play matchups, while the pitching team cannot. 

 

My overall point here is that this isn't a minor change. It's a DRASTIC shift in favor of the offense. And it'll have a major impact on the way games are played, immediately.  

 

 

[CRobi21]

How are relievers getting lit up because they are forced into bad matchups supposed to speed up the game?

 

12-10 final scores are gonna routinely take 4+ hours.

[TheGoodBits]

2 hours ago, CRobi21 said:

How are relievers getting lit up because they are forced into bad matchups supposed to speed up the game?

 

12-10 final scores are gonna routinely take 4+ hours.

 

Each extra batter that appears in a game is equivalent to roughly the amount of time it takes to swap out a pitcher (if you set some tighter guidelines for how many on-field warmup pitches they get). 

[DCSaints_fan]

For the relief pitchers I think it should have been 3 batters or end the inning.  If you bring in a guy in relief mid inning with 1 or 2 outs and he gets the next one or two batters out, he shouldn't have to pitch the next inning.  Indeed you may be losing any advantage because the manager is planning on a pitching change as soon as possible anyway, which results in another mid-inning pitching change.

 

The no position players pitching is stupid.   Especially if they aren't going to have the DH in the NL.  And what about players like Ohtani? 

 

They also should have done something about the pitch outs.  My idea is you get 2 for free, then the 3rd would be counted as a balk if didn't result in a out.

14 minutes ago, skinsfan_1215 said:

  

Each extra batter that appears in a game is equivalent to roughly the amount of time it takes to swap out a pitcher (if you set some tighter guidelines for how many on-field warmup pitches they get). 

 

They never go to commercial break for a pinch hitter.  

 

They do it for every single relief pitcher.

 

Also, they should have banned Kershaw's delivery because its stupid.

[Redskin4ever]

2 hours ago, DCSaints_fan said:

They never go to commercial break for a pinch hitter.  

 

They do it for every single relief pitcher.

 

 

Completely agree with this point you made. If baseball was truly concerned about how long games take, they would cut down on commercials. The pitching change is one place that is a perfect example. 

 

Also with the commercial thing, when you go to a game in person, you see how long guys take to get to their position between innings, how long the pitchers takes, etc. If you cut down on that time, guys will hustle more to their positions to get ready for the inning. I'm not talking about making them all sprint to their positions in a few seconds, but if you dropped that time by 30 seconds, you cut out roughly 8 minutes from the game. Drop that break by a minute, you've cut out 16 minutes.  If games take less time overall, some of the in game delays don't seem as long. 

 

The only in game thing I think they should change for pace of play is the stepping out of the box, then stepping back in, then the pitcher steps off, and they dance like this for a while. Come up to the plate, get in the box, and unless you make contact with the ball, you can't step out. You can call time, but only once in an at bat and you can step out then. Otherwise stay in the box and none of this step out, step in, step off garbage.  

 

Last thing I'll add, I don't know what changes were made in college basketball this year to speed up games, but I went to a lot of games in person and 7pm games were routinely over by 8:45. I didn't notice any less timeouts, any less subs, and in fact I saw more replays this year than I ever have. But the games still got over 10 - 15 minutes earlier than last year when games got over around 9pm. My point is that the fact the overall time was shorter, I didn't notice all the other things I used to talk about that made games go longer than in years past. I think baseball would do a world of good by just cutting 15 - 30 minutes off the overall time of games. 

[abdcskins]

Shorten the season and make the strike zone automated. I'll keep saying these things until it happens. Also would like to see more reviewable calls but that's at the bottom of my list.

[Riggo#44]

17 hours ago, skinsfan_1215 said:

Also, managers of the team on offense still have full ability to pinch hit. They can still play matchups, while the pitching team cannot. 

 

My overall point here is that this isn't a minor change. It's a DRASTIC shift in favor of the offense. And it'll have a major impact on the way games are played, immediately

This is a point that's overlooked. Baseball wants 14-10, Coors Fiels slug fests.

 

As someone that thinks baseball is missing a golden opportunity to market the game different from every other sport. Baseball's pitchers are better than they've ever been. They make that ball dance, at 100 MPH.

Every other sport is so focused on offense, baseball can celebrate its potchers, who are still exciting. 

 

But Manfred is a ****ing moron.

 

And this dip**** is still calling games.

 

[Warhead36]

15 hours ago, abdcskins said:

Shorten the season and make the strike zone automated. I'll keep saying these things until it happens. Also would like to see more reviewable calls but that's at the bottom of my list.

No way they shorten the season even though I agree they should. Fewer games = less revenue.

 

And definitely all for automated strike zone. Keep an Ump for checked swings, balks, and plays at the plate.

[Riggo#44]

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

On 3/15/2019 at 7:05 AM, Riggo#44 said:

This is a point that's overlooked. Baseball wants 14-10, Coors Fiels slug fests.

 

As someone that thinks baseball is missing a golden opportunity to market the game different from every other sport. Baseball's pitchers are better than they've ever been. They make that ball dance, at 100 MPH.

Every other sport is so focused on offense, baseball can celebrate its potchers, who are still exciting. 

 

But Manfred is a ****ing moron.

 

And this dip**** is still calling games

 

Well, baseball wants 14-10 slugfests.  It also wants to shorten games.  Can't have it both ways.

 

I agree that pitchers throwing 100 mph are exciting, but it's gotten to be commonplace now.  Used to be seeing someone hitting 100 was an event, now it's a common occurrence.   I think almost every team has someone on their roster that can hit 100.

 

With that, the amount of strikeouts are up.  And that's boring.  Less balls in play.  

[Riggo#44]

1 hour ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

 

Well, baseball wants 14-10 slugfests.  It also wants to shorten games.  Can't have it both ways.

 

I agree that pitchers throwing 100 mph are exciting, but it's gotten to be commonplace now.  Used to be seeing someone hitting 100 was an event, now it's a common occurrence.   I think almost every team has someone on their roster that can hit 100.

 

With that, the amount of strikeouts are up.  And that's boring.  Less balls in play.  

 

It's not just the velocity, it's the way they make the ball dance. Scherzer's slider, Kluber's slurvey thing (its not quite a curve, its not quite a slider, but it comes with a slice of cantelope at the end), Kershaw's curve, Sale's slider. The ball just defies physics at times.

 

I should work for MLB marketing!