https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/03/mlb-makes-minor-tweaks-to-2023-rule-changes.html

 

The changes are as follows:

The rule that Passan highlights as the most important involves replays of defensive shift violations. There was some concern that teams would challenge defensive positioning on key plays, hoping that one of the four infielders had a toe or a heel beyond where they were supposed to be standing. Today’s memo specifies that only the position of the player who first fielded the ball can be challenged. For instance, on a groundout to the third baseman, the batting team can’t challenge that the second baseman was violating the positioning rules.

MLB players began using PitchCom last year, an electronic device that allowed catchers to call pitches, which arrive to the pitcher as an audio message via a receiver in their hat. If a device malfunctions, the player must inform the umpire, who can grant time and stop the clock. Bob Nightengale of USA Today adds that a pitcher won’t get more time if they forget their PitchCom in the dugout at the start of an inning. This is to prevent players from deliberately forgetting the device for any reason.

Bat boys and bat girls will have standards applied to their responsibilities of retrieving equipment from the field of play. As part of the pace of play efforts, the league can ask clubs to replace them if they are deemed not quick enough.

Umpires can delay the start of the pitch clock, or wave it off if the operator has already started it, on brushback pitches or “big swings” where equipment falls off or the hitter falls to the ground.

When pitchers leave the mound to make a defensive play, the 30-second between-batters clock will be delayed and will restart when the pitcher is back on the infield grass. If the pitcher is in foul territory to back up a play, it will restart once he is back in fair territory.

Umpires will have some discretionary ability with the clock when it comes to catchers who finish an inning batting or on base. The two-minute and 30-second between-innings clock can be paused at the 30-second mark if the catcher isn’t ready, provided they made a “reasonable effort” to do so. In that case, the catcher will be allowed to receive one warm-up pitch and make a throw down to second base.

After a hitter calls time out, which is allowed once per plate appearance, the clock would restart from 15 or 20 once he was alert in the batter’s box. Now the batter has the onus of telling the umpire when he’s ready, regardless of where he is standing, thus restarting the clock. Castrovince notes that in the rare instance that a batter uses his timeout and is then replaced mid-at-bat due to injury, the pinch-hitter will not be awarded an additional timeout.

Subtle which is good. I agree with Manfred (rare moment). They need to give the rules a chance before entertaining more changes to them.

Lmao Manfred coming after the bat boys.

This guy must have had a horrible childhood. This is a game that people watch for fun. Why are we trying to speed this up like it's a chore? Manfred should work at UPS or Amazon or something.

1 hour ago, Entendu said:

Lmao Manfred coming after the bat boys.

This guy must have had a horrible childhood. This is a game that people watch for fun. Why are we trying to speed this up like it's a chore? Manfred should work at UPS or Amazon or something.

yeah but I think you and I are in the minority with this effort to speed up the game a ton. I always enjoyed the more relaxed nature of baseball where you could talk with people easily without missing a whole bunch.  I never saw anything wrong with games being 3+ hours.  I mean I understand people have the attention span of a gnat now (not to be confused with a Nat) but just from my own personal preferences and perspective I preferred the longer slower paced games.

LMAO he going hard after bat boys

52 minutes ago, pollythewog said:

LMAO he going hard after bat boys

Are you saying he shouldn't?!!?!?

 

 

 

1 hour ago, pollythewog said:

LMAO he going hard after bat boys

Also, none of this garbage is going to speed the game up meaningfully. I bet we'll shave off like 15 minutes.

16 minutes ago, Entendu said:

Also, none of this garbage is going to speed the game up meaningfully. I bet we'll shave off like 15 minutes.

Yep, it probably won't even be that much in all honesty. Life is fucking hurried and obnoxious as it is which is why I truly appreciated baseball for being a bit slower. Again, I know they have to play to a younger and less attentive crowd though so you do what you gotta to try and get fans in.

1 hour ago, Entendu said:

Also, none of this garbage is going to speed the game up meaningfully. I bet we'll shave off like 15 minutes.

Spring games have been 30 mins shorter.

I doubt it directly translates to that in real games, but still.

Also, while overall time of game shrinking is a benefit, a lot of it is more to eliminate dead time where nothing is happening....for instance, while we wait for the batter to adjust his gloves 857 times despite not moving the bat from his shoulder.

1 hour ago, rmc523 said:

Also, while overall time of game shrinking is a benefit, a lot of it is more to eliminate dead time where nothing is happening....for instance, while we wait for the batter to adjust his gloves 857 times despite not moving the bat from his shoulder.

that stuff just....never really bothered me though? 

 

I'll also be miffed going to a game and possibly missing a full inning just because I want something to eat since if it really is speeding it up THAT much (30min). 

So yeah, just not a fan of it.  I felt baseball was uniquely paced and that was a good thing - more than anything it promoted conversation amongst friends you were with as well as more in-depth discussions from the analysts calling the games and by speeding it up this much it will diminish some of that fun for me.  Again, for the 3rd time now, I understand everything has to be ACTION PACKED now which is why people still see all 38 trash Marvel movies that come out each year but...meh...it'll take a little bit of the joy of baseball away for me personally.

Everyone should just sprint everywhere all the fucking time. That would be great to watch. We can save another 10 minutes that way!

We should give or take runs depending on how quickly we switch innings. Even mound visits. We'll keep stats on how fast a pitching coach is. We can even have sabermetrics on that shit.

Let's really lean into the inattentive instant gratification crowd. Fuck. Hell, why even broadcast live games? Tape em and disseminate it on TikTok through the little swipe up thing. So many great ideas. 

Maybe we can start a subscription service on TikTok. Free moocher plebs have to swipe up every ball in play. The real winners can subscribe and only see the pitches that result in runs, so we essentially condense game time to 30 seconds, which is about as much time as these cretins can focus on any one task anyway.

Edited March 23, 20233 yr by Entendu

Y'all are old.

7 minutes ago, Michael said:

Y'all are old.

20 hours ago, hovertical said:

that stuff just....never really bothered me though? 

 

I'll also be miffed going to a game and possibly missing a full inning just because I want something to eat since if it really is speeding it up THAT much (30min). 

So yeah, just not a fan of it.  I felt baseball was uniquely paced and that was a good thing - more than anything it promoted conversation amongst friends you were with as well as more in-depth discussions from the analysts calling the games and by speeding it up this much it will diminish some of that fun for me.  Again, for the 3rd time now, I understand everything has to be ACTION PACKED now which is why people still see all 38 trash Marvel movies that come out each year but...meh...it'll take a little bit of the joy of baseball away for me personally.

Well, youre not the fan theyre trying to get with these changes.

29 minutes ago, rmc523 said:

Well, youre not the fan theyre trying to get with these changes.

Never said I was. I even said multiple times I understand who they're rightfully targeting as fans - I just don't have to personally like or appreciate it.

I go both ways.

I liked the relaxed play and I don't think it needed to be changed but I'm all for eliminating the exaggerated dead time and am also excited at the idea of a faster paced game with less down time. 

Maybe it depends on the setting? If I'm sitting at the ballpark on a Sunday afternoon I'll take a slow game but if it's a random Tuesday night and I'm sleepy and would like to get to bed earlier since I work in the morning I'd welcome the shorter game length.

Quicker games might also be a little treat when the Marlins play on the west coast and those games start at 10pm over here. 

3 minutes ago, SilverBullet said:

Quicker games might also be a little treat when the Marlins play on the west coast and those games start at 10pm over here. 

No personal attacks (I live on the west coast)

1 hour ago, SilverBullet said:

I go both ways.

I liked the relaxed play and I don't think it needed to be changed but I'm all for eliminating the exaggerated dead time and am also excited at the idea of a faster paced game with less down time. 

Maybe it depends on the setting? If I'm sitting at the ballpark on a Sunday afternoon I'll take a slow game but if it's a random Tuesday night and I'm sleepy and would like to get to bed earlier since I work in the morning I'd welcome the shorter game length.

Just curious. What is exaggerated dead time?

1 hour ago, Entendu said:

Just curious. What is exaggerated dead time?

Pitcher taking 30 seconds between pitches and stepping off and the batter taking time between pitches and all that.

2 hours ago, Entendu said:

Just curious. What is exaggerated dead time?

Someone slowing down an already slow game at an unnecessary point.

If a game is cruising along and suddenly here comes a bases loaded situation in the 8th inning then slow it down and do what you gotta do to win. 

But then you have players killing time in meaningless moments. Killing time for the sake of killing time. Throw the fucking ball already. 

54 minutes ago, SilverBullet said:

But then you have players killing time in meaningless moments. Killing time for the sake of killing time. Throw the fucking ball already. 

The score. 16 to 2. Pedro Baez on the mound. He has stepped off 12 times this inning and yet to record an out. Two runners on and a 1-1 pitch coming. This game, already four hours long, has somehow grinded to an even slower pace. Baez steps off again.

That's pretty uncommon. And at that point it isn't even a game. Just leave or turn off the TV lol

All the rule changes are great.

People have this pollyanna idea that baseball should NEVER evolve with the times.  

EVERY OTHER major sport's rules evolve over time.  Why?  becuase thats what they have to do in order to maintain fans.  Like it, hate it, its reality.

The banning of the shift while unfortunate really needed to happen.  (But they should just learn to hit the other way).  Weak argument.  The time it will take to condition hitters to do that makes it not practical.  That's 'reality'.  

The batting averages last year sealed the deal.  MLB had to do something in an effort to increase offense.

The bigger bases should see a return to the run game, the number of tosses over is done to get action on the bases in many ways and more action in general.    

The pitch clock is great.  It makes games flow so much better.  Will they need to tweak a few things? Yes.  and hopefully these modifications will do it.  

But lets not have the pace of play in the late innings?  Why?  Because we should just throw aside rules late in games because its 'pressure' packed?  Thats dumb as you are going to have players conditioned to follow a clock and then all of a sudden you dont?  

The man on 2nd in extra innings during the regular season is just like every other league in regular season.   No need to be here until 3 am.  

And players LOVE that rule.  Thats why it exists still.  

This is also I believe a push toward fans ordering from apps and what not for concessions.  Also minor league clubs with the pitch clock basically saw no reduction in concession sales from prior to the pitch clock.