MLB announces major rule changes for 2019 and 2020



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I have a long history of abhorrent structural changes or rules in baseball. I was not alive in 1969 to get angry, but going from two divisions to three seemed an affront to all that was right and decent in me, fifteen years old. And a joker? A team that can not even win the division would make the playoffs? I am somewhere in the WBAL-TV video archive at the end of 1994, talking to Josh Lewin about how much I hated the joker. Hope we can not find it.

Interleague game I hated. I still have not reached the point where I hate it most of the time. If I look deep in my soul, I still think of the Milwaukee brewers as the East AL team with the best logo in the history of baseball and the Houston Astros as pillars from NL West.

Thursday, the announcement fell Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association, many of the significant changes to the rules proposed in recent weeks would now be applied for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Yet, I have not returned from the table and I did not have a weird speech on Twitter that implied Nordic gods hitting Rob Manfred under a vermilion sky (we'll keep this image for the CBA negotiations). I am happy? Aside from the solute lack of robots, that's it.

First, the changes for 2019, in no particular order.

A deadline for transactions, not a deadline for transactions, but also for this strange second deadline with lists and secret elements

The deadline for baseball "bonuses" after July 31 did not really make sense. This is something we accepted because we were used to it, for example how neon blue became the official color of raspberry candies for some reason. Why have a trading deadline if you want to have another before some players can be traded, but only if they go through a series of complicated hurdles?

The August trading season was an opaque mess, rich in waiver claims, revocable waivers, irrevocable waivers, withdrawals and withdrawals, and teams trying to find a way to get prospects moving by players who will be named later. . This was largely the deadline for "exchange swap contracts" and what is the reason for it?

The objections to the removal of this deadline do not seem to me very logical. I've heard a number of people adjacent to baseball and baseball ask "And if you do not know if you're competing or not?" Or "And if something happens if you do not have no Plan B in minors? "These may not be the exact words, but you understand the essential.

My answer: then? His well for sport to have an element of risk in the decision-making process and well for teams that plan well the depth of their team to receive a benefit. A simple and straightforward transaction deadline is the way to go. And really, if you need until the end of August to find out if you are a team in the running or to receive the revelation that pitchers get injured frequently, you have to worry about a lot bigger problems.

Star Election Day (guest invited: Extra Cash)

I will save political parallels between election winners receiving cash bonuses directly for someone else!

The vote of the stars has always been a bit odd, because if you try to vote based on the performance of the season, you end up voting for a team of stars since the voting process starts very early and continues for a long time . time.

The all-star game is the least interesting part of Star Week since inter-league play began, but I think baseball here has an opportunity to create an event to market its best players. Expecting the Home Run Derby prize to reach $ 1 million will encourage more prominent sluggers to participate. Joey Gallo is already considering this.

The MLB also took into account the rule that for the All-Star Game, the extra innings start with the runners of the second goal. Since it will still not affect real games, I hope that this thing that no one has asked for, desired or appreciated will not die anymore and will be a joke in 30 years, much like AfterMash.

Reduced commercial breaks

Anything that increases the baseball / non-baseball ratio suits me perfectly. The reduction from 2:05 to 2:00 in local games will probably not be noticed, but the fact that it is 2:25 pm to 2:00 pm in televised games nationwide is a significant reduction. Recording a dozen views of the horrendously antiquated advertising of the World Series could do a lot for our collective mental well-being.

After 15 years, I still can not completely forget the advertising for Skin in which Ron Silver reminds his daughter that his boyfriend's father is the attorney. If you are not old enough to remember the 2003 World Series, consider yourself blessed.

MLB / MLBPA Joint Committee

This is not really a rule change, but I hope that the MLBPA and MLB meetings that will take place years before the expiry date of the current collective agreement will result in more productive changes than those that we got recently. The baseball income system is in serious need of modernization and it is not something that can be claimed from both sides by agreeing to withdraw money from these rich, thieves, barons … uh … from international players 17 years old. Whether it's to entice teams to win baseball games or subsidize lower incomes, by way of timekeeping service, both parties have a lot to discuss . Rules changes are unlikely to be as controversial as provisions that have a direct impact on player compensation, but a constructive dialogue about what baseball should look like and how it should be played can only help shape the game. the difficult discussions that must take place in 2021.

Revoked access rights

Baseball imposed a 30-second limit on the number of mounds visited before the 2016 season and limited to six the total number of mounds per game with no launcher changes until 2018. For 2019, this number was further reduced to five. This will not result in a significant change in total playing time, it is another time when, for the viewer, nothing happens in reality, except for a few who discuss. Baseball is not a pub crawl, after all.

And to come in 2020 …

Return of the list of the wounded of 15 days

The list of the injured (formerly the list of disabled people before the name change) will be reverted to a list of 15 days instead of 10 days; the minimum period for launchers sent to minors will also be increased to 15 days. The idea of ​​the shorter casualty list was to induce teams to place injured players in the short term on hail instead of keeping them active for fear of losing them for two full weeks, thus risking an aggravation of the injury. In practice, some teams used it as a team of taxis and baseball would prefer not to have to resort to the injury police to enforce the decision, whether the wounded visits to the list were attributable to the chicane or not. . Unlike machinations such as novice players or two-player players, exploiting rules designed to protect injured players is not what I consider a skill at stake.

The LOOGYDämerung Beckons

Baseball rule changes often involve structural changes to things such as divisions, playoffs or equipment. Changing How a player is allowed to be used on such a base is a little more rare. There was always DIY around the edges, like the The Pat Venditte rule, which aims to prevent baseball from degrading to an infinite loop, while pitchers and hitters-switches fight endlessly for the superiority of the pack.

Going from a minimum of three strikes to the end of the half-inning is a significant change, and I feel it's been a long time, simply because of the nature of the shot compared to the shot at baseball. he himself is conceived.

A left-handed thrower can be registered simply to be able to release the left-handed hitters, all they have to do it, but it's a lot harder to wear a left-handed hitter who just hits the right lifters. There was always a lot more Randy chooses that Dave Clarks.

As the players specialized, the flowerbeds ballooned and the benches turned off. Knowing that a pitcher may have to throw at three hitters, or until the end of the inning, brings back some balance to the question as I see it. This makes the strike order more tactically relevant and instead of inviting the southpaw to face the southpaw almost reflexively, managers will need to assess the risk-risk ratio of bringing the launcher back without the option. to remove it easily.

One important thing to note is that people also greatly overestimate the number of baseball bat raises.

Top 25 seasons for passes to a battery

Year Apparitions to a battery
2015 1410
2012 1335
2014 1272
2011 1230
2016 1188
2007 1175
2010 1170
2013 1168
2018 1159
2006 1131
2009 1130
2017 1125
2008 1085
2005 1051
2001 1041
2004 1035
2003 1005
2002 1000
1999 991
1998 987
2000 978
1997 945
1993 920
1996 882
1995 856

Even during the season with the most appearances with a batter in 2015, teams still averaged only eight per month. It is too early to be certain of the trend, but based on the years 2017 and 2018 at least, this type of use could have reached its peak in 2011-2015.

I'm half joking when I say The retirement of Bruce Bochy would have reduced this number alone. Three of the four most popular seasons in the history of baseball with a batting batter were teams run by Bochy – the Giants of 2012, 2015 and 2016. In 2012 alone, there was 112 relays with a batter on the Giants; only 15 other teams already at the top of 70.

The players did not embrace this rule changebut agreed not to fight this particular adjustment. I think in 10 years we will be surprised at how extreme people thought that change was at the time.

The 26/28 Aligniste

The size of standard active alignments will increase to 26. This seems to me to be an eminently fair attempt to reverse the disappearance of the benches. A team may still carry 13 throwers (or the number chosen in the final rule) if it wishes, but now the AHL teams will have at least one reasonable sized bench. My hope is that resource limitations will bring innovation to arenas and benches alike. If we see a greater variety of "bullpen" roles combined with the three-batter rule and the batting return of the situation, I think it's a win.

Naturally, with a limit on pitchers, it takes a clear line to separate two-way players like Shohei Ohtani and Matt Davidson. Players will now have to be designated as a pitcher or position player in advance and two-way players will have to meet certain criteria. The initially chosen limit of 20 innings pitched and 20 games of at least three appearances at the plate seems a little too steep. I have serious doubts that the teams would try to "simulate" a pitcher by allowing a 400th OPS hitter to start ten games a year. For 2020 Ohtani, he will already have the required number of matches at the plate starting in 2019 to qualify as a two-player player, but in the absence of an injury waiver, up to that point. that he has 20 throws, he will have to be considered a pitcher, which means that he will occupy one of the team's slots for this period. After these 20 rounds, he would no longer count against the team cap and could be reclassified.

In addition to the three-batter rule, thrower throwing also aims to improve the game's aesthetics. I have long argued that the problem of baseball is not long games, but long games. and nothing happens. A parade of constant succession changes stops things.

The effect on the September lists does not really excite my enthusiasm. I'd like to see teams that are not vying to call some of their minor leagues in the lineup of 40 people. With 28 players on the list, teams are saving on MLB salaries. If you think that part of this money will go to the 26th player for most of the season, it will probably work in many cases as a subsidy for older players among the youngest. And this is unfortunately the theme of some changes that MLBPA and MLB have happily accepted over the past decade.

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