Bumgarner is no fan of recent and proposed baseball rule changes.
As baseball tweaks rules, Bumgarner can only shake his head
With all the new rules and changes in baseball, it’s as if people believe the game is broken.
This may be breaking news on certain fronts, but some people believe the game is fine as is.
Or at least they believe it was fine until decision-makers found a need to start fixing it.
“I understand they don’t care what I say,” Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner said. “I’ll play whatever rules we have, but I think it’s kind of getting out of hand.”
Bumgarner, 28, is in his 10th big-league season. He has witnessed a world of change, and more change is coming. Commissioner Rob Manfred wants a pitch clock, seems open to an electronic strike zone and limiting or banning defensive shifts, and recently hinted there’s momentum for a universal designated hitter.
For Bumgarner, a three-time World Series champ and MVP of the 2014 Series, that might be the last straw. There might not be a better hitter among pitchers. Certainly no pitcher has better power. But it’s not just about him. He doesn’t want to see the DH rule in the National League because he prefers his league’s strategies and style of play and thinks they should be preserved.
But it has gotten to the point that when Bumgarner hears
“We’ve changed so many rules, I can’t keep up with it.” Madison Bumgarner
talk of a universal DH he shakes his head as if to say “whatever.”
“Honestly, I don’t care anymore,” he said. “We’ve changed so many rules, I can’t keep up with it. I play the game that they have for us. Who knows what that’s going to be when I’m finished, as much as I’ve seen changes in the little time I’ve been here.”
The fact is, Bumgarner does care. That’s what makes him so competitive, so fiery, so good. He loves the game. He loves the purity of it, the timeless pace, the human element, all the things that have made the game distinctive for decades and decades.
Much of that is changing. Or on the verge of changing.
Asked about baseball without the DH, Bumgarner said, “There’s 100 percent more strategy. You see American League managers — the game moves a little quick for them when they come over here. That might offend some people. It’s the truth. It’s a more difficult game to manage. At the same time, you’re giving more (hitters) jobs. I get that, too. There are two sides to it.”
The arguments for the universal DH rule include unifying the sport, providing an even playing field (especially in interleague play), eliminating a game with two sets of rules and preventing weak-hitting pitchers from swinging a bat or running the bases.
The arguments for keeping the DH out of the NL: preserving the leagues’ last remaining difference, appeasing fans who prefer traditional DH-less baseball, providing greater opportunities for managers to outsmart each other and keeping alive small ball — or what’s left of it.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Bumgarner said. “My job is pitching. That’s what I’m going to focus on doing. But the whole reason I work on hitting is because that’s how we play in the National League. You can help a team win a game. Like you saw (Thursday) night, cases like that or getting a bunt down, whatever it might be.”
In his last start, Bumgarner pitched eight scoreless innings in a 3-0 win over the Padres and drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly.
Then there’s the case of Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, who recently strained hamstrings in both legs while running the bases in an interleague game. Tanaka’s trip to the disabled list prompted the latest outcry for those in favor of a universal DH.
“I don’t understand,” Bumgarner said, not specifically referring to Tanaka but to the argument that pitchers are more susceptible to injuries without the DH rule. “As pitchers, we do all kinds of running. I don’t know what the reason is. Maybe some guys don’t run, I don’t know. Here, we run our guys every day. There’s no difference running as part of a workout or running during a game.”
As for recent changes and proposals to speed the game — from limiting time between innings and limiting mound visits to pushing for a pitch clock — Bumgarner isn’t all in. Like many purists, he believes the game should proceed at its own natural pace.
“How the game has been played, there are advantages you can have,” he said. “Mound visits are one of them, taking your time, slowing things down at the right time. I’m not saying work slow because working slow all the time works against you. But there are times you’ve got to slow down and change that momentum. It’s just all part of the game. They want to get rid of that.”
One more thought on the changing game, which might be surprising coming from Bumgarner: “The umpires aren’t a part of the game as they were,” he said. “I think everybody knows the umpires and I probably aren’t on each other’s Christmas list, but I like when they’re part of the game. Human error, that’s part of it. I like that. It was that way for, I don’t know how long, 100 years? I understand we have technology we didn’t have back then. But you ask my opinion, I’m telling you.”