Brace yourself.
It’s coming.
There will be “The Call.” That will be followed by the on-field diatribe associated with “The Call.” After that will come the next 48 hours of internet conspiracy theories of why “The Call” was made and a bunch of television talking heads who didn’t even know the rule that produced “The Call” 30 minutes earlier, but now possess an ironclad opinion that just happens to be diametrically opposed to another talking head’s.
Major League Baseball knows this is all coming, and possibly as early as Thursday, Opening Day.
MLB officials recognize they dove into the deep end this year when it comes to just how many seismic rule changes are being implemented simultaneously.
But they believe they dove only after having taken swimming lessons. They have myriad data points and anecdotes from hundreds of minor league and Arizona Fall League games played with a pitch clock, removal of extreme shifts, bigger bases and fewer mound disengagements.
And they didn’t tiptoe into the deep end. All of the updated edicts were being enforced from Day 1 of spring training with the goal of working out the kinks off-Broadway before the curtain goes up on The Show.
Yet they recognize that a violation of a new rule that will alter the outcome of a game is coming, and that it will ignite a firestorm about reinventing the sport.
But for MLB, this overhand right to the jaw is worth absorbing. The officials didn’t want to make changes piecemeal. They believe the confluence was needed to engineer the style that fan surveys demanded — shorter games, more hits and stolen bases and greater action. They believe a more entertaining product will generate larger fan interest, which will bring cha-ching.
MLB hopes its rule changes will speed up the game while adding more action and excitement.USA TODAY SportsMore pressure is going to be put on the 76 full-time MLB umpires and just how much discretion differs from one to the other in interpreting the new rules, because there is some gray, rather than black and white. When, for example, to start the clock after a pitcher covers first base or an outfielder chases a foul fly ball. Every team is in the lab searching for loopholes to exploit, or as Mets manager Buck Showalter said, “People up here are looking for a competitive edge.” But that isn’t different from what teams were hunting for with the old rules.
What else isn’t different is that the best players in the world are the best because they have proved adaptable to different environments and challenges. So MLB expects what will draw lots of attention, second-guessing and fury early will quickly become routine, such as when the league changed rules in recent years around take-out slides at second and barreling the catcher over at home. Initial outrage melded quickly into acceptance.
To wit, the trend line during spring training followed what MLB experienced in the minors — a steady decrease in violations. In Week 1 of the exhibition season, there were 2.03 violations per game, in Week 2 it was 1.49, then 1.13 in Week 3 and 1.03 in Week 4. If it continues along the minor league trajectory, there will eventually be about one violation every other game.
In exchange, MLB believes there will be more balls in play, more base hits, more emphasis on the running game and less time-wasting fat. What can be expected:
— The clock is probably the biggest change — pitchers must be in the windup to deliver a pitch within 15 seconds with no one on and 20 seconds with runners on. Batters must be ready to hit with eight seconds left on the clock. Violations will result in a strike or a ball, depending on who was tardy.
Pitchers and hitters will have to adjust to the pitch clock.USA TODAY SportsThe target is time of game, which dropped from 3:01 through four spring weeks in 2022 to 2:36 this year. There are no replay reviews in spring and some regular-season games have longer between-inning-breaks. So expect regular-season games to last a bit longer that the spring games did this year. But removing 20 minutes on average seems not only feasible, but likely.
— Batting average fell to .243 last year. That was the lowest since 1968, The Year of the Pitcher, which motivated the lowering of the mound in 1969. The hope is legislating that all infielders must stay on the dirt, with two on each side of second base, will generate more hits — and more rangy athletic plays by defenders.
Batting average on groundballs in play was .235 through four spring weeks last year and was .254 this year. That 19-point rise was fueled by pulled grounders — the kind that were getting swallowed by the shift — being up 25 points.
One of MLB’s big changes is bigger bases.AP — Bigger bases have shortened the distance between bags by 4 ¹/₂ inches. Pitchers now can disengage from the mound to throw over or fake a throw or simply step off just twice within a plate appearance with a man on. A third disengagement without picking off the runner will lead to a balk and all runners advancing.
No player has stolen even 50 bases since 2017. But the environment is now there. In the first four weeks of spring, compared to last year, attempts were up per game from 1.6 to 2.3 and the success rate had climbed from 71 percent to 77 percent.
