So if you throw 100 pitches you don’t have to pitch 6 innings
So guys still throw max effort and just get taken out as a soon as they reach 100 pitches. So not much change there.
If you give up 4 runs you don’t have to pitch 6 innings
It’s good to have a baseline but if you’re going to implement a stupid rule, have it be a sliding scale. 5 runs after 2, 4 runs after 4, 3 runs after 5 or something. I’m imagining a scenerio where a guy gives up 3 runs in 5 innings, gets the bases loaded with nobody out in the 6th and you can’t pull him until he gives up another run or 4?
If you get injured you can come out but you are then forced to have an IL stint
This will just lead to MORE injuries because teams and players aren’t going to err on the side of caution if an injury doesn’t seem that bad and don’t want to miss multiple starts.
This is so so stupid. I want starters to throw more innings, just like I wanted teams to shift less. But like banning the shift, this ain’t it.
I feel like the pitch clock and shift restrictions have addressed a lot of the issues MLB wanted to address. A couple more modest changes might make sense along those lines (banning outfield positioning cards, mandating fast infield grass) but there’s no need for any of it at all.
If there are going to be changes made on the pitching side, they should be laser-focused on injury prevention. I have no idea what changes would help with that, though, and this certainly isn’t one of them.
This is so stupid. Why have a roster for managers to manage? This would take out yet another key part of the game, trying to turn the entertainment product into beer-league softball. They think people are not showing and filling a stadium on a Wednesday evening because the entertainment product is not good. That’s not it at all. They find it easier to sit in the comfort of their Laz-E-Boy drinking a $2 IPA watching in 80" of glorious 4K HDR instead of paying $50 for a ticket, $10 for a beer, $25 for parking and not fretting about the line of storms approaching from the west. A 2.5 hour game on the tube Wednesday evening is just that, 2.5 hours. A 2.5 hour game in person is hyper expensive and really 5+ hours. And, forcing a pitcher to get shelled up to some mercy rule is not going to change that.
If they really want starters to go longer, reducing the number of pitchers on the active roster would automatically reward innings-eaters – both starters who go longer and relievers who can reliably handle 2-3 inning stints. The same rules on movements back and forth between MLB and AAA would allow for the recycling of fresher arms, though orgs would also need to watch out for too many options. (I am thinking of Blanco last year having reached the limit of times he could be sent down.). This might also provide more opportunities for fringe guys to show that they really belong in MLB. Forcing a starter to get shelled, though, is ridiculous.
And, naturally enough, it’s at cross purposes with their desire to shorten game times. I wonder how long it will be before one of their management consultants from Andersen or wherever suggests cutting games to seven innings.
I’ve always thought a “baseball sevens” could be fun. Not in MLB, but an Indy league or something could try it. Seven-inning games, seven-man batting orders (pitcher & catcher don’t hit; no DH). Just a quicker version that could be played separately from the real sport, like Big3 or Twenty20 cricket.
Preventing pitching injuries starts in Little League.
Get companies like Driveline, who are selling parents with teenage and pre-teen pitchers how they can improve their child’s velocity dramatically in months, away from young arms.
Figure out a way to reduce/eliminate the year-round obsession with specializing in baseball at a young age for pitchers so they don’t tax their pitching arm/shoulder as much.
Make sure you aren’t teaching young arms to throw a lot of sliders/sweepers before their arms are fully developed. These pitches greatly stress their arms.
At the MLB level, the pitch clock does not help in regards pitching injuries because you are making some pitchers rush their routines to beat the clock.
