The new baseball season is kicking off and there are many different rule changes that the commisioner of baseball thinks will produce more offense. There are changes to many parts of the game as well, the bases are going from 15 in2 to 18 in2 and there is now a pitch clock.
The current bases are 3 squared inches bigger than what they were last year which doesn't sound like buch but that is not only making the base paths shorter but more to slide into making the runners steal more often. The bigger bases are bringing positives and negatives but mostly positives. No one likes to watch a game that is scoreless going into extra innings, everyone likes seeing homeruns and extra base hits, and with this they will se more offense and more runs. As I'm currently watching the Cardinals vs. the Cubs, one of the cubs runners was safe by no more than 1 inch and now they hit a double to tie the game.
Another rule change is the pitch clock which puts a timer between pitches and the times are 15 seconds between pitches when the bases are empty, and 20 seconds when someone is on base. Me personally I don't like this rule because, as a pitcher myself, I know what it's like to be hurried on the mound and it sucks, but thats what this rule does it hurries the pitcher for no apparent reason other than to cut down the time of game.
The last rule change I wanted to talk about is the new shift rule where teams aren't allowed to have more than two position players on either side of the bag. I like this rule because there have been many batted balls that would've gotten down in the outfield but they look like routine plays because of the shift.
What do you think of the new rule changes? Why?
Do you think that the rules will benefit or drawback for the MLB?
Replies
Good topic choice and well done overall Jonas. Be sure to include your sources. It was also a bit late.
Personally I don't watch a lot of baseball. But from what I hear about the new rule changes not a lot of people like them. So that makes me not like them just based on what others say. From what I hear the new rules could help but a lot of fans don't like it.
I don't know much about baseball, so I don't really know how impactful all of these changes are. I think that the pitch clock is a great one because I can easily understand that and compare it to basketball. But I don't know much about base length and how important it is.
I personally do not play or watch baseball. I do understand frustration with being rushed but that might be something that players will just have to get used to. I think that there might be a different audiance with different rules becuase people who are agianst it might stop watching it but other people who were previously frustrated with the slowness of the game now might start watching.
I agree with a lot of everything you said, but I don't thank that the rule changes are enough to drive people away from playing baseball, but maybe the new rule will bring some people back to watching the game.
Personally, I do not like the new changes. I especially don't like the new pitch clock. I understand that they added a pitch clock to speed up the games, but baseball is not meant to be a time based sport. I like that they made the bases bigger because there are more steals, so it's more entertaining. I don't think the new rules will have much of an effect for the MLB.
I agree with everything you said, the pitch clock isn't too useful for offense. I also think that the bases getting bigger are going to produce more offense as it stands, but we never really know for sure what it will do.