Editor’s note: This is the Monday, February 20, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.
Good morning. Major League Baseball spring games will begin this week, and we’ll begin to answer questions about how this season’s rule changes will look on the field. I’ll tell you my biggest question after a review of the sports news.
On Friday, when the Dodgers face the Milwaukee Brewers in Phoenix and the Angels play the Seattle Mariners in Peoria, Ariz., baseball’s biggest set of rule changes in memory will be in effect.
A pitch clock will force the ball to be delivered within 15 seconds when the bases are empty and 20 seconds with runners on. Bases will be three inches bigger across. Pickoff attempts will be limited, essentially, to two during any plate appearance. And, in what could be the most visible change from what we’ve been used to seeing, infield shifts will be banned.
Baseball columnist J.P. Hoornstra has been chronicling the implications of all this since the changes were announced in September, writing about how the shift restriction changed player evaluations this winter, and writing a smart piece last week about baseball’s decision to make the extra-innings “ghost runner” a permanent feature – “MLB’s worst new rule is already a familiar one.”
I don’t know which new rule is the worst – the pitch clock is the best – but I know which one has the potential to rob baseball of a nicety and even spark controversy as it’s enforced.
The shift rule requires two infielders to be on each side of second base and all standing on the dirt when a pitch is thrown. If it’s violated, and a ball is hit and the batter reaches base and runners advance safely, then no harm, no foul. But if play results in an out, then the hitting team can accept the penalty, wiping out the play and adding a ball to the count, or decline it and let the play stand.
One of the great…
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