Review of MLB rules may spawn radical changes
Ideas include pitch clock, limit on shifts
Limiting pitching changes, restricting defensive shifts, altering the strike zone and installing pitch clocks are among the ideas Major League Baseball may consider as it undertakes a multiyear review of the game that could include the sport’s most radical changes in decades.
Baseball owners were given a lengthy presentation Thursday during their quarterly meeting of how the sport has changed in the past 40 to 50 years.
“Sometimes baseball fans think about what should happen with the game sort of with an artificial construct, that the choice is between preserving ‘The Game,’ as it came down originally from the mountain, and making some changes to that game,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said.
If implemented, some of the changes could be the most revolutionary since the AL adopted the designated hitter in 1973 or perhaps even since the number of balls for a walk was reduced from five to four in 1889.
Offence dropped steadily after the start of drug testing in 2003 until an uptick started in the second half of last season. Strikeouts have set records annually for much of the past decade, increasing from an average of 12.74 per nine-inning game in 2006 to 15.57 this season.
And the average time of a nineinning game is exactly three hours — Manfred highlighted that Game 7 of the 1960 World Series took 2:36 for Pittsburgh’s 10-9 win over the New York Yankees.
Manfred acknowledged some of the increased length was caused by added TV commercials.
“We did not and we are really not at the point of making recommendations or having the owners make decisions about what, if any, changes are necessary,” Manfred said. “I think when you have sort of a new administration, it’s a good time to take a really hard look at the product. I think there are pieces to this project that are not yet complete, including figuring out what our fans are seeing, what they like, what they don’t like in a more comprehensive way than we’ve done in recent years, having interactions with the other stakeholders in the game, the ESPNs, the Foxes, the Turners, our big partners, and sharing with them how we see the product and getting their reaction.”
Manfred said defensive shifts have changed the game: There were 2,464 on balls in play in 2011 and this year’s total projects to 28,117, according to Baseball Info Solutions. Pitchers per nine-inning game have increased from 6.89 in 2000 to 7.88 last year.
“You can make an argument that more relievers have lengthened the game, more pitching changes has slowed the pace of the game and the unbelievable effectiveness of those relief pitchers have robbed some of the action from the game,” Manfred said.
MLB is unlikely to propose altering the height of the pitcher’s mound, which was lowered from 15 inches to 10 inches after the 1968 season.
“Because the height of the mound does changes people’s delivery and we have a lot of pitcher issues in terms or injury and whatnot, probably would be a little slower to move in that direction,” Manfred said.