Both rules seem terrible.
if they want to increase interest and energize the fanbase, they should actually look at what excites people instead of relying on the old ideas of increasing offense. MLB should promote their stars. Darvish, Bauer and some others have crazy following on social media because they're funny and have great content. around the ballfield, a lot of the conversations i've overheard center around the baseballbatbros, pitching ninja and eric sim. MLB should actually look at what makes people interested instead of assuming. so guys throw "too hard"...make throwing too hard sexy!!
The first rule is ok with me. As for the second I don't like the DH anyways, which is why I like the National League, "double switches" and substitutions. Fun to see pitcher's who can handle the bat.
Read today why there isn't such a premium on defense in MLB - both SS and 2B "chances" have gone down drastically in the last couple years. So teams are putting their hitters anywhere and taking their chances with the trade-off. Never thought that the "game" that I saw evolving in Little League World Series (all strikeouts and HR) would get to MLB as well. Not sure what moving the mound back 1 foot will do long term. Maybe they'll look at something even more revolutionary such as changing the counts (balls and strikes) to give more baserunners. Time will tell.
@CTbballDad posted:To hell with pitcher arm health! Let's move the mound back and keep them in longer. Are you not entertained?
The article claimed ASMi has done a study letting pitchers throw slightly longer distances and mechanics and forces did not really change.
Not sure how true that is in games though.
The ball is the key to everything. You want more balls in play? You want less strike outs? Lower the seams to reduce pitchers' ability to move the ball, and deaden the ball to reduce home runs. Adjust the ball's bounciness and settle in around 0.8 HRs per game per team (it was 1.4 in 2019) then guys like Didi Gregorius will start putting the ball in play more. (I'd like to see bigger ballparks, but that's not feasible.)
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MidAtlantic, I agree. MLB must know this, right? It makes me wonder if they are getting exactly what they want.
I also think they should make the strike zone smaller with robo ump. If you look at contact stats hitters handle in and out pretty well but struggle with up and down (why is why the trend is away from horizontal pitches to vertical movement).
So raise the lower boundary to top of kneecap and lower the upper edge a ball width and it should help Ks, if you want you can deaden the ball a little to compensate for the smaller zone.
Deader ball plus smaller zone means less incentive for pitchers to nibble and throw breaking balls