Breakdown on the new rules for 2020

[T.G.]

https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/11/15/baseball-rule-changes?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=socialflow_twitter_si&utm_campaign=si-mlb

I didn't realize THIS was happening...

New Rule: A pitcher must either face at least three batters or pitch to the end of the half-inning.

How Much It Will Matter: Yes, this has been labeled the “three-batter minimum.” No, it’s actually not that big of a deal. The “or pitch to the end of the half-inning” does a lot of work in this rule. As Mike Petriello spelled out over at MLB.com back when this rule was announced, most short relief appearances—two or fewer batters—are set up to end a half-inning. Those aren’t affected by this. There are short relief appearances that don’t go to the end of a half-inning, but they’re far less common, and getting rid of those is more likely to be felt as “cutting down on time-consuming mid-inning pitching moves” versus “removing brilliant strategy.”

[Second Base]

Most of these are rules just for the sake of having rules. hardly any of them will have any significant effect on the game itself. There's literally no reason for some of these.

[angelsnationtalk]

Actually, I think it can make a significant difference in terms of the "lefty specialist" coming in. Could make a big difference when pitching in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. 

[Tank]

i think it's a way to speed the game up a little bit, too.

all of us cringe a little bit when there's 2 or 3 pitching changes in an inning.

[Don]

I think we're gonna see a lot of guys get hurt and miraculously recover in one day this season.

[Pancake Bear]

44 minutes ago, Don said:

I think we're gonna see a lot of guys get hurt and miraculously recover in one day this season.

I would imagine there will be iniatives in place to guard against that. 

Plus, as noted, it’s rare that you have that kind of situation anyway. Mostly its just when teams are micro managing. You obviously can’t remove several players in a game because of ‘injuries’. Teams will just learn to adapt.

[AngelsLakersFan]

4 minutes ago, Sean-Regan said:

I would imagine there will be iniatives in place to guard against that. 

Plus, as noted, it’s rare that you have that kind of situation anyway. Mostly its just when teams are micro managing. You obviously can’t remove several players in a game because of ‘injuries’. Teams will just learn to adapt.

But when the chips are down... this will be really interesting in big games.

[Pancake Bear]

1 hour ago, Second Base said:

Most of these are rules just for the sake of having rules. hardly any of them will have any significant effect on the game itself. There's literally no reason for some of these.

Rule 1: Roster size expansion from 25-26. That’s a cookie for the PA to get them to chill out about some of the other changes.

Rule 2: Regulations on two way players. It won’t change much, but I guess they felt regulation was necessary. 

Rule 3: Pitchers must pitch to 3 batters or to the end of an inning. Seems a bit bigger of a change, but it mostly just eliminates one batter only specialists. I like it overall. I get that we’re losing strategy, but the constant pitching changes can be annoying to sit through. I do wonder about how they’ll police any ‘injuries’ involved.

Rule 4: Change to IL time. Obviously intended to keep teams from shuttling guys back and forth from the big club to manipulate the roster limit. How well it’ll work remains to be seen. Whether it was necessary, I dunno. Someone smarter will have to explain to me why it was a problem, I guess.

I'm just waiting for universal DH, both because it’ll improve the game and because it will cause all the whiny NL fans to go into a meltdown. I’d also like to see robo umps sooner rather than later.  

[Don]

1 hour ago, Sean-Regan said:

I would imagine there will be iniatives in place to guard against that. 

Plus, as noted, it’s rare that you have that kind of situation anyway. Mostly its just when teams are micro managing. You obviously can’t remove several players in a game because of ‘injuries’. Teams will just learn to adapt.

I imagine you won’t see too many shenanigans in like May, but September/October? I could definitely see a lot of managers getting a bit creative in big situations. And I understand the intent of the rule is to speed up the game, which is fine in its overall purpose. I just wish they went about it in a way that doesn’t fundamentally change the strategy of the game. Maybe limit the time between when a pitcher is taken out and when the next pitcher has to make their first pitch?

[Pancake Bear]

7 minutes ago, Don said:

I imagine you won’t see too many shenanigans in like May, but September/October? I could definitely see a lot of managers getting a bit creative in big situations. And I understand the intent of the rule is to speed up the game, which is fine in its overall purpose. I just wish they went about it in a way that doesn’t fundamentally change the strategy of the game. Maybe limit the time between when a pitcher is taken out and when the next pitcher has to make their first pitch?

To your main point, that’s a fair concern. I’m sure MLB is aware of the possibility. 

As per strategy, I wish they could change pitchers without taking five minutes for each one who pitches to one guy. When strategy interferes that seriously with game flow, it becomes a problem, IMO. 

[ScottT]

I think this rule change will not only capture the imagination of children that currently prefer watching videos of others playing video games.... but also boost the U.S. economy.  The average baseball fan will save eight minutes and twenty seven seconds every season, becoming better employees, bed partners, parents, and students. 

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

What could possibly go wrong?

 

 

[Second Base]

If they really wanted to speed the game up, they'd put in the pitch clock and enforce the rules in which a career has to keep one for in the batters box. Then limit the amount of warm up pitches.

[BackUpTheTruck]

2 hours ago, Second Base said:

If they really wanted to speed the game up, they'd put in the pitch clock and enforce the rules in which a career has to keep one for in the batters box. Then limit the amount of warm up pitches.

There should definitely be a pitch clock. The games were much more watchable last spring training when they had that. I do think there should only be a pitch clock when there are no runners on base though.

I hate this new reliever rule. What happens when Fernando Rodney comes in and can't throw strikes? Does he really have to face two more batters and load the bases?

[Jeff Fletcher]

17 hours ago, Sean-Regan said:

Rule 2: Regulations on two way players. It won’t change much, but I guess they felt regulation was necessary.

This is a nitpick, but....

It’s not really a regulation on 2-way players. It’s a regulation on pitchers. Since they are having 26-man rosters they don’t want teams having 14 pitchers and making endless pitching changes. 
 

So they aren’t actually regulating 2-way players, but defining them, so they don’t count against your pitcher limit. 
 

This will be an advantage for the Angels because they could have 14 pitchers. Not sure if that’s an advantage for people watching Angels games. 

[Angel Oracle]

It's time for the NL to adopt the DH.    Nobody other than the NL (HS level and above) has the pitcher hit (unless someone like Ohtani DHing).