Why do an automatic strike if the batter isn't ready? Just let the pitcher throw it whether he's in the box or not.

As it is stolen bases are higher than they were at many times in baseball history (including the entire stretch from 1930-1972) whereas caught stealings are at a historically low level.

I understand that pitchers have to stay on the rubber to make the pitch clock effective, but it gives a baserunner too much of an advantage if they can't throw over/freeze the runner if they are faking a stolen base attempt.

Can the catcher just hang onto the ball for a while, putter around with it .. always a loophole somewhere.

Those are exciting plays by (usually) exciting players. The shift gives teams an incentive to develop multitalented players rather than lumbering oxen who’s only aim is to pull the ball in the air.

By definition the shift punishes the kind of all-or-nothing hitter who’s made baseball less interesting over the last 30 years. Want to beat the shift? Spray the ball all over the park, or bunt to the open side of the infield. Those are exciting plays by (usually) exciting players. The shift gives teams an incentive to develop multitalented players rather than lumbering oxen who’s only aim is to pull the ball in the air.

The limitation on "disengagements" (including pickoffs) is a necessity if you're going to have a pitch clock. Otherwise pitchers were just stepping off whenever they wanted and resetting it.

Why are some folks confident that Joey Gallo will greatly benefit from the elimination of the shift? Isn't the problem that he and other dead-pull hitters are incentivized to hit over the shift, not around it?

Except that shifts are legal now and obviously that hasn't led to this actually happening? What's happened instead is that teams decided they could just live with outs hit into the shift in order not to sacrifice power.

ut it is still a move in the wrong direction.

I don't know what the effect will be. As SoSH says, the dead-pull launch-angle LHBs are very likely to get a few extra singles out of the ban.

I don't like banning the shift but like #1 it's just not a hill I'm prepared to die on.

a) There will be some creative positioning after the pitch is thrown that will effectively make this rule a lot less effective than at first glance. Will be interesting, at least, to see how that strategy evolves.

Even in the second half, shortstops and second basemen could still steal hits up the middle by shading toward the opposite side of second and standing a step away from the bag, then crossing into the pre-pitch no-man’s-land after the ball was put in play. The Naturals, Badders says, were “still shifting every play, just not to the extremes that they otherwise might.”

The limitation on "disengagements" (including pickoffs) is a necessity if you're going to have a pitch clock. Otherwise pitchers were just stepping off whenever they wanted and resetting it.

Joey Votto's GB BABIP has fallen from 246 to 187

I wish they would just start with the one big, obvious change of enforcing the pitch clock and see how that goes first.

More stolen bases are good because stolen bases are fun in and of themselves, plus, as someone else mentioned, it enhances the value of players who reach base without hitting the ball over the fence. The larger bases and the pickoff attempt limitations will help with that.

IIRC, they did this in the minors and it didn't really work? I guess you could emphasize it more, but do you really trust Angel Hernandez with this?

You can make them easier, which MLB seems determined to do, but a stolen base without the risk of a caught stealing is simply not exciting.

• The catcher must be in the catcher’s box with nine seconds left on the timer.

• The hitter must have both feet set in the batter’s box and be “alert to the pitcher” — meaning he has his eyes on the pitcher, and can quickly take a hitting stance — within eight seconds.

• The timer starts when the pitcher has the ball, and the catcher and the batter are in the dirt near home plate and play is ready — meaning, runners have retreated if there was a foul ball, or exited the field after an out. (The pitch timer starts with the second pitch of the game.)

• In between batters, there is a 30-second clock, except for the final out of an inning. The timer for inning breaks and pitching changes is 2 minutes, 15 seconds.

• Pitchers who violate the clock are charged with an automatic ball. If a catcher violates the clock, an automatic ball is charged as well. Batters in violation receive an automatic strike. Umpires can also award a ball or strike if they detect a player circumventing the clocks, and the commissioner’s office could issue discipline beyond that to teams whose players or staff violate rules, as well.

• Pitchers can step off the mound for a pickoff or any other reasons — a “disengagement” it’s called — twice per plate appearance if there is a runner on base. But, if a runner advances during the same plate appearance, i.e., by stealing a base, the pitcher gets another two step-offs. Stepping off resets the clock to its full time (20 or 15 seconds depending on whether a runner is on).

• If a pitcher steps off a third time or more, the penalty depends on what happens. If the runners are safe, the pitchers are charged with a balk. If an out is recorded, like on a successful pickoff, no balk is charged. No balk is charged if a runner advances, either.

• If the defense requests time, a disengagement is assessed to the pitcher, with several exceptions, including mound meetings, an object on the field, injuries, or an appeal. Catchers giving signals to infielders doesn’t count as a disengagement as long as the catcher is back by nine seconds.

• Pitcher requests for a new baseball with nine seconds or more remaining on the pitch timer do not count as a disengagement, but do if there are less than nine seconds.

• Mound visits have a 30-second clock starting when the manager or coach leaves the dugout, or whenever the defensive player leaves their position. If a manager joined a mound visit in progress, the timer resets if there are at least 20 seconds left on the timer. The umpire has discretion to grant additional time if a manager or coach is dealing with a physical ailment. There is no timer if a trainer goes out with the manager or coach for “a bona fide medical issue.”

• Teams can newly get an additional mound visit in the ninth inning only (it is not carried over if unused to extra innings) if it has used up its allotment of mound visits previously.

• Batters can ask for and be granted time once per plate appearance, and have to ask for time orally. That resets the pitch clock. A batter who requests time a second time or more in the same plate appearance is to be charged with a strike — unless the batter stays in the batter’s box, then the umpire has discretion as to whether to charge a strike.

• The length of batter walk-up music cannot exceed 10 seconds. Music between pitches is to be limited so hitters aren’t encouraged to leave the box.

• “Extended inning events,” like the playing of “God Bless America,” or anything that stops all action in the ballpark, requires approval from the commissioner’s office, and advance notice of those approved events has to go to the MLBPA.

• The pitch timer cannot be reviewed on replay.

• Umpires have sole discretion to direct the start, stop or reset of the timer if the clock operator makes a mistake or a special circumstance applies, such as a catcher not having enough time to put on equipment after running the bases or a medical concern. (They would reset the clock to 20 or 15 seconds).

I think you're overstating how easy steals will be, we're talking about an increase in the success rate from 75% to 77%.

Teams can newly get an additional mound visit in the ninth inning only (it is not carried over if unused to extra innings) if it has used up its allotment of mound visits previously.

batter walk-up music

The Athletic has more details.

So, sure you can make SBs much easier, but I don't think teams will try to steal more bases unless you've almost completely removed the risk. But if, and this is just a tossed out example, say 75 percent of future stolen base attempts resulted in no throw from the catcher, you wouldn't have a more exciting game*. You'd just have added a lot of catcher's indifference plays. I don't know what the exact number will be, but I'm pretty sure that the end result of these changes will not produce a more exciting baserunning environment, and I'm not sure anything will.

* Though, easier stolen bases does, as JAHV notes, increase the importance of reaching first, which can result in some indirect excitement gains.

all the players on the committee voted against the changes

I'm happy about the pitch clock. I know "just enforce the existing rule" argument but it's pretty clear that MLB isn't going to do that so this is the option.

Because of f***ing course they did.

Cant we just do the pitch clock thing and see what happens from there?

Steals becoming easy is good. A single becoming a de facto, or quasi de facto, double raises the relative event value of a single -- which is exactly what we want.

They found the pitch clock didn't work unless you limited pitchers from stepping off.

When the final verdict on this horrific era in baseball is written, I would commend the videotape of the Cincinnati Reds at Braves Suburb Park oafishly flailing with men in scoring position in extra innings in the 2020 playoffs. Aristedes Aquino's ABs were virtually beyond satire. I found myself nearly at the point of being personally offended, and if the game had been like the Iliad, Zeus and crew would have been been on the first train down from Mount Olympus. God would have turned the joint into a pillar of salt.

This is probably too many changes at once. if they were all implemented at the same time then umpires will have additional responsbilities to: manage the pitch clock, track the movement of infielders and stepping off/throwing over.

Games used to be faster with less time between pitches not because the umps constantly kept track and enforced it on every pitch, but because that's just how people had learned to play and what everyone did, and maybe because they generally knew there was a rule...

Or, if you step off and actually throw the runner out, then it doesn't count against you. Something like that.

Position players are said to have provided feedback during the process indicating that they would take large leads to force pick-off attempts, and then — knowing at that point that a pitcher has only one pick-off attempt left — they’ll then use the clock, and a pitcher’s history, to steal. A pitcher might develop a history of consistently throwing before the clock hits, say, three seconds remaining. The feared end result is that there are more stolen bases that are not contested, without a chance for a catcher to throw out the runner.

Because teams can challenge whether a player was in an illegal position before a pitch, players worry that a tiny infraction — an inch over — will lead to the erasure of some major moments, even if it didn’t impact the outcome of the play or pitch.

Players are concerned about the timer’s effect on major situations, be it the postseason, or late-and-close games in the regular season; moments when pitchers might otherwise take extra time to collect themselves and reset.

there used to be a natural clock: it was called sunset.

Players are concerned about the timer’s effect on major situations, be it the postseason, or late-and-close games in the regular season; moments when pitchers might otherwise take extra time to collect themselves and reset.

I love a stolen base - the announcer, especially on the radio, getting excited when a runner is on the move is one of those fun baseball things that I'll never tire of. That will be the case no matter how much the catcher throws down.

Agreed. While I guess technically SoSH is arguing that this will not increase: "exciting baserunning" it should increase the value of a single and put more emphasis on obp at the expense of power. So I guess that's good .

A stolen base without any threat of an out is not very exciting.

All I've seen is that two defenders must be on either side of second base.

That's a significant exaggeration in two respects. First there won't be "any threat of an out" disappearing. That's a massive overbid. There will likely be "less of a threat of an out," and maybe even a material one -- but that's entirely different than "no threat."

That's a significant exaggeration in two respects. First there won't be "any threat of an out" disappearing. That's a massive overbid. There will likely be "less of a threat of an out," and maybe even a material one -- but that's entirely different than "no threat."

Second, yes, a runner like Rickey getting so good a jump and being so fast that the catcher cries uncle and doesn't even throw is quite exciting.

Now, I absolutely agree, and previously acknowledged, that if you turn a single into a double or triple by making the caught stealing virtually impossible, then that will undoubtedly increase the value of a single (which has value). But I'd rather MLB try to improve the value of putting the ball in play some other way than turning major league baseball into Forest Park Little League.

Not if it happens regularly, it isn't.