This year in MLB spring training, teams may be trying new potential rule changes during games.
Real MLB baseball, as opposed to hand-wringing over your team’s chances of signing a big star, isn’t that far off. Well, at least MLB spring training is now on the horizon, and that’s real enough for many baseball fans. So, with some eagerness I checked out The Athletic’s piece on eight stories for the coming season by Cliff Corcoran.
Alas, too many of the stories still had little directly to do with what MLB teams will begin practicing in MLB spring training. Only about half of the eight items were arguably on point if the point is the game itself, but at least some of them were interesting. One involved the changes in pitching theories or staff-building. The item that caught my eye, however, came under the heading “February rules announcement.”
After noting that for the past five seasons, as spring training begins, MLB has instituted rules changes, Corcoran presents a fairly cynical take on the potential for a sixth season of changes come mid-February:
“So what will it be this year? Will [Commissioner] Manfred institute pitch clocks? Will he limit the shift? Is it possible he has seen the light and would rather solve a real problem, rather than an imagined one, by raising the lower limit of the strike zone? I won’t hold my breath.”
So what does Corcoran favor doing? Let’s start out with taking a look at three possible changes he might be in favor of trying out in MLB spring training…