An automated strike zone? Stealing first base?
New Britain Bees at center of baseball experimentation
Under the rules baseball players across all levels used for more than a century, New Britain Bees outfielder Bijan Rademacher would have been called out.
In the sixth inning of a game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Rademacher had rolled a bunt foul on an 0-and2 count – an offense that throughout baseball history has resulted in a strikeout. In the 2019 Atlantic League, however, Rademacher was allowed to remain in the batter’s box. Two pitches later, he smacked a line drive into the right-center field gap for a double.
In partnership with Major League Baseball, the independent Atlantic League has experimented this season with a series of unusual rules, ranging from an automated strike zone to a ban on mound visits to “stealing” first base. A few of the changes were implemented in April, when the season began. Others, including one that permits batters such as Rademacher one foul bunt with two strikes, went into effect this month, during the Atlantic League’s second half.
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Some of the rules have been received more warmly than others, both in the stands and on the field, but as Bees manager Mauro Gozzo sees it, Atlantic League players are making baseball history either way.
“It’s an honor,” Gozzo said before a recent Bees game. “If any of these rules do take place (in MLB), we were some of the first. We were the pioneers.”
While each new Atlantic League rule has its own specific purpose, MLB’S broad goal seems to be speeding up games and restoring some action to a sport that has become dominated by strikeouts. Hence changes such as a limit on infield shifts (to incentivize balls in play) and a more batter-friendly check-swing rule (to eliminate a few K’s).
It’s unclear how many of the Atlantic League’s rules will one day reach the majors. One of them, a requirement that pitchers must face at least three batters or finish an inning, is set to arrive in MLB next year, but others remain confined to New Britain and the seven other Atlantic League cities.
There, they have interesting – and sometimes unintended – consequences.
In the bottom of the sixth inning of a game against Lancaster on July 13, Southern Maryland outfielder Tony Thomas did what no player in professional baseball history had done before: He “stole” first base.
Under a new Atlantic League rule, batters can run to first any time the ball sneaks past the catcher, regardless of the count. And while some players have bristled at the change, Thomas was happy to take advantage.
“It was kind of like in slow motion,” Thomas said Thursday before the Blue Crabs faced the Bees. “I saw the pitch was way outside. The way our field is, there’s kind of a mat and there’s a little space in between the (mat and) the ground. And it got kind submerged underneath that. All of a sudden, I hear everyone in the dugout saying, ‘Go, go go,’ and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I can run.’ So I just took off to first base.”
Stealing first (which Thomas says would be more accurately described as advancing to first base on a wild pitch, as the player doesn’t get credit for a stolen base) hasn’t fully caught on with Atlantic Leaguers, for several reasons. Some players, Bees pitcher Jed Bradley said, find the rule “kind of bush league.” Others resent the fact that the play enters the scorebook as a fielder’s choice and therefore counts against a hitter’s batting average.
Thomas said players must weigh the game situation when deciding whether to take first.
“Early in games, if the situation happened, I probably wouldn’t do it,” Thomas said. “Late in the game – we were down by one run in the sixth inning and needed base runners (against Lancaster). In those situations, I don’t mind an 0-for-1.”