Strange minor league baseball rule

[RocketDawg]

Watching a bit of AA ball on television, and they have a strange rule that I've never heard of. When in extra innings, they put a runner on second base to start the inning. How long has that rule been in effect? Seems more like tee ball to me than professional baseball.

[DownwardDawg]

Wow. Never knew that. It does seem "t-ball" ish....,,,

[SteelCurtain74]

I believe they started that rule either this year or a couple of years ago. I think it was one of the pace of play enhancements to make the game more enjoyable to fans. I'm not a big fan of it.
The minors are being used as guinea pigs for proposed rule changes to mlb. Once they decide to go to the electronic umpire calling balls and strikes, they'll use the minor leagues to work out any issues.

[Todd4State]

It's a rule in MLB too. It's to speed up the game.

[Cooterpoot]

Originated in softball. Been doing it there forever.

[RocketDawg]

The game I'm watching (Trash Pandas vs Tennessee Smokies) is now in the bottom of the 13th. The Smokies have gone through 7 pitchers, and have put a catcher in. He throws a 59 mph ball (apparently the other relievers were out because of pitch count) - game just ended in a walk-off home run on the slow pitcher. Final score 12-8.

Not sure the rule sped the game up. Each team scored just about every time, so doesn't seem like anything gained. Hopefull it's just an experiment.

[RocketDawg]

It's a rule in MLB too. It's to speed up the game.

Dang - they're getting soft. Friend told me the other day that Atlanta was going to play a double-header, but they were 7 inning games. They don't even do that in college ball (maybe in special circumstances). They just need to play the game as intended.

[Rex54]

I'm curious to see how moving the mound back a foot works in their experiments later this summer.

61' 6" is an absolute no-brainer in my opinion. And heavily suspend pitchers using substances that hugely increase spin-rates

[RocketDawg]

I'm curious to see how moving the mound back a foot works in their experiments later this summer.

61' 6" is an absolute no-brainer in my opinion. And heavily suspend pitchers using substances that hugely increase spin-rates

I suspect that'll make a huge difference. Never thought much about it but if asked I would have assumed the pitcher's mound was the intersection of lines between 1st and 3rd, and home plate and 2nd. Hope they don't change the basepath length - 90 feet is perfect for a lot of close plays. They're screwing with the game too much, I think. It's not like changing the 3-point line and other changes in basketball - that's a no-brainer.

[Rex54]

I suspect that'll make a huge difference. Never thought much about it but if asked I would have assumed the pitcher's mound was the intersection of lines between 1st and 3rd, and home plate and 2nd. Hope they don't change the basepath length - 90 feet is perfect for a lot of close plays. They're screwing with the game too much, I think. It's not like changing the 3-point line and other changes in basketball - that's a no-brainer.

Analytics has absolutely ruined sports in many ways. The front offices are smart though so the game needs to incentivize balls in play. Move the mound back, police foreign substances ruthlessly, ban the infield shift.

[parabrave]

Watching a bit of AA ball on television, and they have a strange rule that I've never heard of. When in extra innings, they put a runner on second base to start the inning. How long has that rule been in effect? Seems more like tee ball to me than professional baseball.

Been for 2 seasons in AA Ball/ It does make it more interesting though and you do get alot of plays at the plate. I like it.

[Quaoarsking]

Analytics has absolutely ruined sports in many ways. The front offices are smart though so the game needs to incentivize balls in play. Move the mound back, police foreign substances ruthlessly, ban the infield shift.

That's a red line that will kill baseball forever. I don't like the man-on-second-in-extras rule, but banning the shift would be 1,000 times worse.

Learn to spray all over the field, or even just to bunt well, and you'll never get shifted on.


However, moving back the mound makes sense. Putting the pitching rubber at the exact center of the basepaths seems so logical that I bet most people assume that that's where it is already.

[Rex54]

That's a red line that will kill baseball forever.

"You have to have two infielders on either side of these lines when the ball is pitched" is not some drastic phenomena. I'd much rather have than than the man-on-2nd in extra innings gimmick.

As a good liberal, do you not feel that left handed hitters are severely discriminated against and certainly financially hurt because of the shift incentives?

[Coach34]

banning the infield shift would be stupid. You can line up on D however you want. Moving the mound back a foot would be a good move. Putting someone on base that hasnt earned it is bullshit.

[MetEdDawg]

banning the infield shift would be stupid. You can line up on D however you want. Moving the mound back a foot would be a good move. Putting someone on base that hasnt earned it is bullshit.

Everything about this post is correct. I think it's extremely bad territory to start telling teams how they can line up defensively. I think we should limit the number of defensive backs a football team puts on the field because teams are having too much trouble passing the football. Doesn't that sound stupid?

And putting a free runner on 2nd is complete garbage. I hate that. I'm not a huge fan of the mound move, but baseball as we know it now is ugly. Homers and strikeouts. That's about all you get.

[Commercecomet24]

Rob Manfred is ruining the game. Can't stand the guy.

[Quaoarsking]

"You have to have two infielders on either side of these lines when the ball is pitched" is not some drastic phenomena. I'd much rather have than than the man-on-2nd in extra innings gimmick.

As a good liberal, do you not feel that left handed hitters are severely discriminated against and certainly financially hurt because of the shift incentives?

No, I feel that right-handed hitters are discriminated against because they have to run an extra step to get to first base**

[Quaoarsking]

Ted Williams could beat the shift. Modern players can man up and do so too.

[Todd4State]

Rob Manfred is ruining the game. Can't stand the guy.

I agree. He needs to be fired. He's trying to change too much at the same time. And a lot of it is unnecessary. Like what we're talking about with the runner on second. Others have talked about moving the mound back. He also wants to make the bases bigger, put the DH in the National League, and then the seven inning doubleheaders are trash. Then you have the double hook rule where you take out your DH if you make a pitching change. And then there is the three batter minimum for relief pitchers now. And it's always about "pace of the game."

What I think the biggest problem is with baseball right now is the lack of offense. And I think that goes back to the philosophy of pulling everything. Somehow along the way some of these hitting coaches started to convince people that it was OK to strike out a ton because if you could hit 20 home runs a year while hitting .215 with 200K's you could make 3 million. I think what I would try to do is have private hitting instructors get MLB certified where they have to go to a class for a week or two to learn from pro coaches how to teach hitting and how to teach hitters to use the whole field and then have MLB evaluate their teaching every other year or so to keep the certification. Once you do that it will decrease shifts and create more offense naturally over time. I'd also create a Willie Mays award which awards the best player statistically OPS and most SB to encourage players to become more well rounded.

[smootness]

It is better for an offense to hit for power and XBH than to slap the ball around and amass singles. That is part of the change across baseball. But what has also happened is that pitching has become much better and far more specialized. Pitchers are throwing much harder, with much more spin, and bullpens are much deeper than they ever have been. And you're seeing more unfavorable L/L and R/R matchups as hitters. Even with all of that, runs scored have not dipped, even as K's have skyrocketed and shifts are now common. Why? Because it actually is true that hitting for more power is better, even if it does come with increased K's, and to offset the increase in K's, you need to make your contact count.

None of this is a result of bad teachers or hitters that just don't care. Everyone is simply dealing with the reality of increasing talent and teaching tools. Hitting right now is much harder than it's ever been.