Baseball. Just Baseball

More about baseball and its recent changes today.

The changes about how a baserunner slides into a base, or how a catcher now has to block home plate, I believe are good ideas. 

Sure, it can be fun to knock out a catcher or break a shortstops leg on a non-slide (right Muttley?) but there’s clearly a difference between playing hard and playing dirty. This sport has done a fairly decent job of cleaning up itself over the 140 years it’s been in existence. 

Two changes coming up next year were recently announced. The first is that it will no longer be necessary to throw 4 pitches wildly out of the strike zone to intentionally walk a batter. This is a great change for MLB. Seeing a pitcher throw one of these pitches so far out of the range of the catcher practically never happens and this will speed up the game. No one tries to steal a base during these things and no one ever tries to hit one while being walked. 

Good move, MLB. Leave it for Little League for the time being, maybe, but perhaps take it out of there too. 

The other change is in the strike zone. The bottom part of the zone is moving from right below the knees to right above the knees. This is an effort to increase offense. 

In 1969 the pitching mound was lowered because of the lack of offense in 1968 and now MLB believes this change will increase offense once again.

I’m not really a fan of this type of change because it does make a big difference in the game. It can practically change an entire era of the game. 

In 1969 the average runs scored per game jumped one half a run across the Major Leagues. But that was also an expansion year with what one could argue was watered down talent. 

1968 was an aberration though. At an average ERA of 2.99 there hadn’t been an average that low since 1919, the year before the ball was juiced up a bit because of the popularity of the homerun and Babe Ruth. 1919 was also the year of the Black Sox scandal and it was thought that the change in offense would lure fans back to stadiums.

Since 1968 there hasn’t been an average ERA lower than 3.49 in the NL and this year, currently, its at 4.10.

It seems that MLB is more concerned about the amount of strikeouts being compiled by pitchers. There is a very noticeable trend upwards in the amount of strikeouts per game. In the late 60’s and early 70’s the average number of strikeouts was roughly 5 per game. Then in the 80’s and 90’s it moved into the 6 and lower 7 range and now it’s in the high 7’s and in the NL so far this year pitchers are striking out an average of over 8 per game.

I have to imagine that polls suggest that offense still draws in more fans than defense. But who doesn’t appreciate a Clayton Kershaw striking out 300 in a year when limited to a certain amount of pitches per game? Who doesn’t appreciate Noah Syndergaard blowing away batters with 100 mph fastballs? That is just as exciting as watching a guy hit a 450-foot homerun to me. 

These changes make debates about who are the best players of all time much more difficult to have, too. 

We had a Deadball era, a Spitball era, a Wartime era, and a Steroid era, to name a few. How, then, with these changes in rules and changes in times can someone say that Christy Mathewson or Randy Johnson was a better pitcher? Who can say that Hank Aaron or Johnny Mize was a better hitter? Makes it tough. Not a big deal in the overall context of life, of course, but as a fan of the sport it makes a difference.

How about instant replay? What do you think of that? I find it annoying, frankly. It’s abused by managers already. I think the “Manager’s Challenge” needs to be removed. I believe that replay should only be used by an umpire crew which believes that they need to get something right.

For instance, take the game on June 2, 2010 when Tigers pitcher Armando Gallaraga was pitching a perfect game. With two outs in the ninth a groundball to the right side of the Tigers infield was fielded by Miguel Cabrera who threw to a covering Gallaraga. Pretty much everyone in the world, except the first base umpire, saw that the runner was out and that just the 21^st perfect game in MLB was just thrown.

https://youtu.be/j5HTFZainm4

However, he was called safe. 

The next day the umpire even apologized at home plate to Gallaraga for the call. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig refused to overturn the call which, was the correct call even though it was unfortunate. 

This would have been one of those times where the other umpires, who maybe had a better look at the play, could come over,  and said, “let’s just double check that one.”

As someone who referees two sports in my free time (volleyball and basketball) I can attest that there are just times when a ref gets blocked from a proper view or a boundary call of some sort is just so close or happens so fast that it’s difficult for the naked eye to see. For those cases I don’t have a problem with replay. Some of them are still difficult to call even with replay.

I just have a problem with coaches running over to the phone on every single close play to check with their video crew to see if a fingernail came off of a bag while a fielder’s glove is still making contact with the runner. It’s particularly annoying when a guy slides into a base, seconds before a tag is applied, and while sliding a bit over the bag but not past it, his body lifts up a bit and he gets called out. That’s not even close to “the spirit of the game.” It’s one thing if a guy slides past a bag, for example, but clearly another in that other situation. 

Hopefully some of the annoying aspects of video replay will iron out over the next few years. 

What I really don’t want to see is what I have already seen suggested…robotic calling of strikes and balls. Umpires, officials, and referees are part of every sport and need to continue to be part of sports. Bad calls are part of games and, let’s face facts for a minute…umpires are needed to give players excuses for losing games. They also give reasons for fans to believe that the umps blew the game and not that their own team didn’t really do what it took to win the game. Umpires have to be right 100% of the time or they are vilified and charged with blowing games. A batter in MLB who successfully gets a hit just 30% of time (to hit .300) doesn't get blamed, as often it seems, and then goes to the Hall of Fame. 

A discussion of new baseball stats will be next. But for now I’m…

Done