A series of new MLB proposed rule changes were released Wednesday morning, including one that would be a massive mistake.
If there’s one thing MLB has loved to do since Rob Manfred took over, it’s tinker.
Rule changes of every sort have been discussed over the last few years. Pitch clocks, limiting mound visits, robotic strike zones, banning the shift, extra runners in extra innings, bigger bases, and a hundred others. Some of these have been implemented by MLB already, some are still in the beta stage in the minors.
Wednesday morning, news broke that MLB will be testing out three new rules in the Atlantic League in the summer of 2021. Two of them are drawing particular attention: what’s been termed a “double-hook” for the DH, and moving back the distance of the pitching mound by a foot.
One of these, “double-hooking the DH”, could be a great idea – mostly because we floated it as a proposal in this space forty-eight hours ago. Aside from making us look good, it does offer some clear benefits for the game, on and off the field.
But as for moving back that pitching mound? This is just a case of MLB trying to fix something that isn’t broken.
Now, this is not to say that there isn’t some evidence to suggest it could be a good idea. Jayson Stark of The Athletic spotlights a plethora of studies MLB conducted to suggest that it could both make a difference and not be dangerous. The advantage for this switch would seem to be that it would give hitters more time to react to the faster than ever before pitches being fired at them, increasing the number of balls put into play. So more conventional, station to station baseball as opposed to the strikeout or homer world many seem to think baseball has been stuck in these past few years. More action, more fans, more money.
However, there is that matter of MLB feeling the need to prove that this won’t be dangerous. Not what you tend to want to hear if you’re a player, and certainly not what you want to hear if you’re an owner cutting eight and nine figure checks for your pitching staff. As both articles cited above note, players freaked when the Atlantic League last floated the prospect of moving the mound back. To be fair, that was two feet, not one- much more substantial. But the number of pitchers who said they would quit the league rather than try it out spoke volumes. The Atlantic League backed down, and MLB started commissioning those studies.
While it is great that some of these studies suggest it’s not that a big a deal in terms of pitching mechanics, it also seems that most of these studies are focused on the extremely technical, physical nature of that question. As Yogi Berra once said, “Ninety percent of the game is mental.”
MLB pitchers will freak out about this. Pitchers will overthink this kind of correction. Consequently, those same pitchers will overthrow to adjust for the difference, and injuries will surge.
Leave it to MLB to figure out a way to significantly increase the risk of injury to pitchers (moving the mound) at the same moment they’re finally getting around to figuring out a way to eliminate the biggest injury risk pitchers are currently concerned about (having to hit).
Sounds like par for the course for Rob Manfred.