According to the statement from Major League Baseball, the giant season in 2021 will see some new and changed rules at the various levels of play. “In line with the preferences of our fans, the rule changes being tested are designed to increase the action on the base roads, create more balls in the game, improve the pace and length of the matches, and the injuries of players to reduce, “reads the statement.
Many of these changes have long been discussed or even used in other smaller leagues – Baseball America is JJ Cooper note that fans of the independent Atlantic League will recognize many of these adjustments to the rules. Nor is it necessarily the case that all of these new rules (whether in their current form or whatever) will ever appear at MLB level, given the trial and error basis.
Triple-A baseball will see the size of the bases increase from 15 inches square to 18 inches, a deceptively small change that could eventually have a noticeable impact on a game. As stated in the league statement, “the Competition Committee also expects that the shorter distances between bases created by larger size will have a moderate impact on the success rate of stolen base attempts and the frequency with which a victim runs on baseballs. and color efforts. . Furthermore, larger bases will also reduce the chance of collisions on the base roads.
Double-A baseball will experiment with a new rule that addresses defensive shifts, because going forward ‘the defensive team must have a minimum of four players on the inside, and each must penetrate both feet completely in front of the outer edge of the dirt. Although shifts have been part of baseball for decades, teams have used shifts more frequently and in a more complex way over the past few seasons, to the point that a club has four or even five outfield players for a specific field. batsman deployed. t extraordinary.
This initial rule will keep inmates inside the home, and the statement also points to further restrictions on shifts in the second half of the Double-A season: placed entirely on either side of the second base … These restrictions on defensive positioning is meant to increase the batting average on balls in the game. ”
Step-off and pickoff movements are the primary focus of the Single-A rule changes, as in High-A ball: ‘Jars are expected to loosen the rubber before being thrown to any base, with the penalty of a beam in the event that a jug does not conform to it. “It was one of the rules introduced in the Atlantic League in 2019, as noted in the MLB statement, and the amended rule ‘led to a significant increase in stolen base efforts and an improved success rate.’
The expulsion / knockout rules will be changed even more important for all low-A leagues. If there are one or more runners on the base, pitchers can only throw a maximum of two results or make two appointments per board. The pitcher can try a third result or an output, but the game must result in the forerunner retiring. If the runner returns to his original base during this third pitcher try, the game is called a bar and the runner will advance anyway. MLB’s statement states that the restriction can be further reduced to just one attempt to pick up or take off per board, to see how the initial rule plays out.
The Low-A West League will apply timings on the field ‘to enforce time constraints between deliveries of pitches, breaks and changes on the field.’ An even more interesting electronic element will be part of the Low-A Southeast League, as the Automatic Ball-Strike System will be used ‘to assist home plate referees with call balls and strikes, to ensure a consistent hitting zone is called and the optimal strike zone for the system. ”