Nats and Marlins Tie, 1-1; MLB to F_ck with MiLB Rules
Miami got one in the bottom of the 4th, Washington got one in the top of the 5th… and that’s how it ended, 1-1. It was the third tie for the Nats, fifth for the Marlins in 2021 Spring Training.
Patrick Corbin worked around four baserunners—two hits, two walks—to notch three scoreless innings. He notched three K’s while throwing 46 pitches, 27 for strikes.
Once again, “our guys” were limited to hangin’ out the passenger side of their best friends’ ride coming off the bench or in relief:
- Luis García pinch-hit for Victor Robles in the 7th, grounding out, and played 2B on defense.
- Jackson Cluff subbed for SS Trea Turner in the 7th and lined out to 1st to end the 8th to remain hitless for the spring
- Jakson Reetz is still missing his “c” but picked up his first hit of the spring as the second backstop of the game
- Matt Cronin threw his first clean inning of the spring, dispatching the Marlins in order on nine pitches (five strikes)
Today is an off day. The Nats return to West Palm Beach to host the Mets tomorrow night at 6:05 p.m. It’ll be the first game broadcast over the radio (980 AM).
MLB is apparently not content to use its partner leagues (note the plural) for its rules experimentation, as it announced yesterday it will use MiLB too:
- Larger bases in AAA – 18″ x 18″, which is believed to result in fewer collisions/injuries while slightly increasing success rate of stolen bases
- Two-phase rules against IF shifts at AA – 1st half, no IFs in the OF; 2nd half, more than two IFs on either side of 2B
- Pitchers must step off the rubber entirely before a pickoff attempt at High-A, which resulted in more SB attempts and a higher success rate when implemented in the Atlanic League in 2019
- Limit of two pickoffs per baserunner at all Low-A Levels; a third attempt is allowed, but a failure will be called a balk
- ABS system in the Low-A Southeast (used in AFL in 2019); pitch clocks and between-innings timers in the Low-A West (used in FSL in 2019)
BA implied that the Atlantic League would continue to be used for further experiments in 2021.
While it’s hard to argue against efforts to speed up (read: enforce existing rules) time between pitches and innings, it’s particularly egregious to mess with young pitchers at the lower levels in their efforts to learn how to hold on runners and improve their command. As noted in the comments in the fall of 2019, the ABS was not well received in the AFL, with high, hard pitches being called strikes more often (probably not bad, given the general lowering of the strike zone since the 1980s) and low, breaking pitches being called strikes less often (definitely bad if it’s over the plate). There was consensus that side-to-side was fine.
I’m ambivalent about rules against IF shifts because, in general, they ought not to be used in the first place. Good hitters ought to be able to learn to exploit them often enough that employing them is a waste of time. Yes, even power hitters because sometimes you do need to go with the pitch the other way – especially RHBs.
But I’m more irritated that this is being implemented when MLB recently tripled the number of leagues with which it could conduct such experiments.
The rule on shifts is asinine. They were shifting on Ted Williams and the hue and cry was missing then.
Reminds me of the, I think, 1850’s when the Ivy League banned curveballs because it considered such trickery was dishonorable.
Agreed on the shifts rule. But I’m not altogether against some of the other proposals. In particular, limiting the number of pick off attempts. Whether that’s twice per batter or what, placing a restriction that prevents a pitcher from wasting everyone’s timing meekly tossing the ball to 1B three or four times between pitches is probably a good thing. Further, if it were to be coupled with one of the other new rules introduced (larger bases, limits on pick off motions) it could lead to a big increase in steals, which would then mean more time wasted on futile pick off attempts, unless this were restricted.
Still, if we assume that the problem with baseball is the speed of the game (and there’s plenty of space to argue that pace of game isn’t what’s “killing baseball”, but rather I believe what’s killing baseball making it exceptionally inaccessible to fans with archaic television blackout rules and in the Nats case, a tv business deal predicated on punishing the Nationals, as well as baseball’s tendency to hate everything “fun” by using its unwritten rules to suck joy out of what is, at its core, a game. But I digress…). If we assume baseball is too slow, the real solution to me seems really simple and obvious that could be accomplished in two simple steps.
1. Actually enforce the rule to not allow the batters to call time and step out of the box.
2. Implement a pitch clock.
These two things would actually cut considerable time out of the game, and speed up the pace of games, without fundamentally changing the rules like the man-on-second-in-the-10th, or banning the shift, or tampering with baseballs, or whatever new idea they come up with.
AAA fodder
Sean Nolin LHP
Andreas Machado RHP reliever
Ramon Flores L/L OF 2019 Red Wing with Twins
A true numbers crunch for early April
Nats like those ex Royals farm hands for their pipeline of PD
I just don’t like shift rules because we’re gonna need replay to see if Turner’s feet were on the dirt. Did he break the plane of the infield? Will Boston cut out more dirt to allow their SS to play deeper? Just too much to game the system with, and for what? Like you said, learn to hit the other way once in a while. It’s the same reason NFL teams need to onside kick when they’re not desperate, like 3x a year. You’ll knock 5 yards off your opponents’ returns on every other kick because they’re always prepared for an onside kick. If the defense is always ready for a bunt, or you have to learn how to single the other way because it’ll win the game, then do it.
The fact that limiting the defensive shift seems to be on MLB’s priority list would have been the best news I’ve heard all week if not for, you know, the vaccine. Banning the shift wasn’t necessary when it was only used on rare occasions. But the prevalence of shifting has badly hurt BABIP and crushed left-handed hitters in particular, as it’s gone — within the span of just a few years! — from being an occasional thing to being constant.
And saying “well hitters should simply learn to beat the shift like Juan Soto!” is like saying “well pitchers should simply learn to throw 100 mph with movement like Jacob deGrom!” If everyone could do it, they would, and players like Soto wouldn’t be all that special.
As for the automated strikezone, it’s really just a matter of figuring out what the zone should be, then programming the robo-umps to call it that way. They should be able to collect some useful data this summer in Florida. But clearly the Mark I eyeball is just not up to the task, especially with an aging (and infamously cantankerous) group of umpires and the fact that we can all clearly see on television whenever they blow a call. This will take some time to get right, but it’s a worthy investment if it means never having to endure another game in which Angel Hernandez calls pitches on the black as balls for the Nats’ starting pitcher while gifting the Mets’ starting pitcher strikes that are four inches off the plate.