Baseball is scheduled to come back July 24th! If the season starts at all thanks to COVID-19, of course.
As part of the shortened, 60-game season, however, there are going to be some rule changes. Here are my initial thoughts on these changes.
Universal DH
Initial Thought: Hate It
We already covered this ground last week. It sounds like that for now at least, the change is only for the 2020 season. If that’s what it takes to get baseball on the field in 2020, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. FOR ONE YEAR. I don’t think that a permanent National League DH can be implemented unless it is done so as part of the next collective bargaining agreement; the current CBA does not expire until December 1, 2021.
Runner on second in extra innings
Initial Thought: Hate it even more than the Universal DH
There is nothing more infuriating than when the rules change when you go into extra time. In the NFL, you only get one 10-minute overtime period. In the NHL, you wind up playing 3-on-3 hockey. Major League Baseball has decided to emulate these stupid paths by adopting a new rule that puts a runner on second in extra innings. Just in an effort to “speed the game along.”
I don’t care if this is something that is designed to help handled fatigue and, particularly, pitcher workload during this unique season. It violates the integrity and the spirit of the game and it should be sent to the trash bin of history.
Can you imagine what would happen if Harvey Haddix or Pedro Martinez took a perfect game into extra innings and then wound up having to start the 10th with a runner on base? Can you imagine the absurdity of that? If a pitcher in 2020 throws nine perfect innings and then retires the side in order in the 10th with that runner on second, do they still have a perfect game?
I know this has been tried in the Atlantic League before. OK, that’s all well and good. But this is Major League Baseball. This changes the very nature of the game, particularly when you consider how often the leadoff batter in the 10th will immediately bunt the runner over to 3rd Base.
This rule is dumb and whoever thought up the rule in the first place should not be allowed to work in Baseball.
Position players can pitch at any point during a game, with zero limitations
Initial Thought: Good
Originally Major League Baseball proposed a rule for 2020 that limited the scenarios where a position player could pitch. They did this by classifying each player as a position player, a pitcher, or a two-way player. A position player could then only pitch in an extra-inning game, or at any point where his team led or trailed by six runs.
The rule was superfluous and unnecessary. Though most teams only have position players pitch in the circumstances dictated by the rule above, it gave teams a reason not to develop two-way players.
Besides, who doesn’t enjoy position players pitching?
Pitchers are allowed to carry a small wet rag in their pocket to be used as a replacement for licking their fingers.
Initial Though: Uh, ok?
I know pitchers like being able to lick their fingers to get grip on the ball. I’m not entirely sure how a wet rag is going to be useful in this endeavor. I understand the idea of trying to minimize the number of ways a player can put bodily fluid on the ball, but this seems like a good idea that won’t properly execute.
At least it won’t be this.
The three-batter minimum for pitchers will be enforced
Initial Thought: HATE It
This is the continued institution of a rule that was implemented for 2020 that requires pitchers face a minimum of three batters or get to the end of the inning before being removed. This manly will hurt LOOGY’s (Left-handed Only One Out Guys) like the Jesse Oroscos of the world. The concept of the rule is that it will limit pitching changes and make the game go faster, though research indicates it may actually be useless. Like the elimination of the DH, it does negatively impact actual managing and strategy in a game.
If this rule had existed in 1990, the Red Sox may not have traded Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen, though.
Games that are not official can be suspended and continued
Initial Thought: Good
This should have been a rule for a long time. It made no sense that a game could be wiped out once it was started. My one concern is that this rule might make teams and umpires a little gunshy about getting a game started if there is going to be questionable weather. But otherwise, I have no problem with this rule sticking around for longer than 2021.
Trade Deadline of August 31st
Initial Thought: You have to do it
The trade deadline will be about 38 days into the season. That’s pretty much the halfway point of the season. Usually, the trade deadline is July 31st, which is actually about two-thirds of the way through the season. You can’t exactly have a trade deadline one week into the season.
The trade deadline is actually more like, in regards to the length of the season, the old June 15th trade deadline, which was closer to the halfway point. That was changed after the 1985 season to the current July 31st deadline.
Until 2018, there was the secondary trade deadline, the waiver trade deadline that was August 31st. That was eliminated for last season, which means we miss out on some of the more fun trades at the deadline like when playoff-bound Oakland traded Jose Canseco on August 31st for Ruben Sierra, Bobby Witt, and Jeff Russell.
Those are just the rule changes that impact the game itself. Some things (reported by ESPN) will be banned but won’t hurt gameplay. Like no high fives, players sitting in the stands away from each other, no spitting, and changing balls after multiple players touch it.
Let’s face it though; a lot of these on-field rules are dumb and they hurt the integrity of the game. But if that’s the price we have to pay to get baseball back on the field for 2020, let’s go. But let’s also make sure that some of these more ridiculous rules will be viewed as a COVID novelty after this most unusual season.