Wednesday’s News & Notes

Rochester Red Wings – OFF DAY
The Red Wings begin their final homestand against the RailRiders. MiLB.com is listing Cade Cavalli as the starter, but officially it’s TBD vs. TBD.

DSL Nationals 7 DSL Twins 0
• Cedeno (W, 5-0) 5IP, 2H, 0R, 2BB, 4K, HBP
• Leon 2IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Carmona 2IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 3K
• W. Diaz 3-5, R, RBI, SB
• Tejeda 2-4, R, RBI
• J. Garcia 2-5, R, RBI, 2E

Three D-Nats pitchers combined on a three-hit, 7-0 shutout of the D-Twins to run their current win streak to three. Jose Cedeno won for the fifth time in 12 appearances with two hits and two walks allowed over the first five. He struck out four and hit a batter. Jefrem Leon allowed the third and final hit over the next two innings while fanning. Josue “M-M-M-My” Carmona closed it out with two walks and three whiffs over the final two innings. Winder Diaz led the 11-hit parade with three singles and was one of five batters to both score a run and drive in a run. Erick Tejeda, Juan Garcia, and Armando Cruz also had multiple hits.

RULE CHANGES REDUX
Yesterday, BA had an article outlining the 2021 rule experiments, which we covered late last week. A quick rundown:

• Pitch clock (Low-A West)
• Larger bases (AAA)
• No IF shift (AA)
• Stepoff on pickoff (A+)
• Pickoff attempt limit (A-)
• Automated Balls-Strikes (Low-A SE)

There wasn’t much new ground covered with the first three rule changes, which worked largely as intended. The verdict on the robo-umps remains “meh” — the usual complaints about it first being too high, and then, after being lowered, too wide.

But the rule changes related to pickoffs had some rather interesting data to back up the anecdotal observations:

(High-A)

(Low-A)

As I noted in the comments, the idea of reviving the running game in baseball is a good one. The current league leaders would barely crack the Top 10 in the 70s and 80s, and wouldn’t win any titles until the 1950s.

I would agree with BA that the increases, while significant, are not so substantial as to wreak havoc — less than an extra stolen base per game and an increase of less than 10%. Let’s not forget that defense this year in the minors was noticeably worse, especially catchers.

I’d like to see those numbers broken down further by month. My hypothesis would be that as the summer wore on, both the success rates and attempts dropped as catchers edged toward pre-2020 shape and pitchers adjusted to the new rule. Plus, as you can see just by looking at the two levels vs. each other, the true base stealers get weeded out as you go up the ladder.