https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/everything-you-re-not-thinking-but-should-be-about-baseball-s-rule-changes/ar-AA18s3qb

Everything you’re not thinking (but should be) about baseball’s rule changes

There are the new rules. And then there are the new lessons being
absorbed within the new rules.

The classroom has been open for a few weeks of spring training as 30
organizations try to prepare players, coaches and managers for the
largest infusion of rule changes in history.

But it is one thing to be told there will be a pitch clock, the removal
of extreme shifts, larger bases and fewer pickoff throws.

The other part of the agenda is finding all the nuances within the
edicts. The true education only comes from playing games and
experiencing the alterations.

So I figured I would use 3Up this week to offer insights that I would
not have thought about without seeing the rules in play and talking to
those on the ground who are learning in real time:

1. Watch this version of the game, and you know what really stands out?
How long 20 seconds is.

With runners on base, pitchers must be into their delivery within 20
seconds of receiving the ball, generally from the catcher.Hitters must
have eyes on the pitcher ready to hit with no fewer than eight seconds
left on the clock.

What those two strictures remove is all the wandering (around the mound
and batter’s box) and all the quirks (constant visits to a rosin bag or
the adjustment of batting gloves). It forces seriousness of purpose for
both pitcher and hitter, and once there is seriousness of purpose, 20
seconds is a long time.

And that is important in conjunction with another rule: A pitcher may
disengage from the rubber twice within a single plate appearance with a
runner on base. Essentially that means the pitcher can throw over or
step off the mound just two times as a way to deter a baserunner from
trying to steal. On the third disengagement, there is either a
successful pickoff or a balk is ruled and the runner(s) advance a base.

MLB surveying found fans wanted more action on the bases. And the
disengagement rules in tandem with bigger bases (18-inch sides rather
than 15-inch) that shorten the distance between bases by 4 ½ inches
should deliver more steals and probably a better success rate.

There were roughly as many stolen bases attempted (3,297) last season as
there were just successful steals 10 years earlier (3,229 in 2012).

This is mainly due to the analytics revolution. The groupthink was to
avoid outs on the bases to — in general — create more opportunities for
multi-run homers. The success rate in steals remained basically static
for the decade. It was 74 percent in 2012 and 75.4 percent in 2022.

This spring, steal attempts are up roughly one per game.

Last year, for the entirety of spring (remember, due to the lockout, it
lasted just three weeks), there were 300 stolen bases in 411 tries (73
percent). This spring (through Wednesday), base stealers were 335 out of
413 (81.1 percent).

This appears to be validating the concerns of pitchers that they have
been stripped of weapons to counter the running game.

Which brings us back to the 20 seconds and just how long it plays on a
field.

A pitcher who comes set at, say, 10 seconds and waits for the hitter to
be ready with no fewer than eight seconds left has those eight seconds
to play with before beginning his delivery. As many of you probably
noticed, Max Scherzer has been varying his times to the plate during his
starts, experimenting with what will unsettle hitters and baserunners.

This is going to be a valuable tool to attempt to slow runners, who are
trying to time a pitcher to get the best possible break. Pitchers can
disrupt timing by delivering a pitch quickly or slowly or somewhere in
the middle.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stole 245 bases during the regular season
and postseason during his career, including (sorry, Yankees fans)
perhaps the most important steal in history in Game 4 of the 2003 ALCS.

When I asked him what bothered him most in trying to steal — a step-off,
a throw-over or pitchers holding in the set and varying their times to
the plate — he said: “A hold and varying times. That’s it. And our guys
[pitchers] are trying to do a better job at valuing that part of the
game. I have talked about this for years: I think we have the smartest
players in baseball. That doesn’t get quantified. But it shows up in
stuff — in stuff like this. Smart players are going to understand. They
are going to learn the rules, and then they will work within those
parameters to find advantages and benefits.”

One pitching coach stated: “The dumb, unathletic pitcher is going to
have lots more trouble.”

Translation: It takes intelligence and poise to adjust to new rules
within real-time game situations, and athleticism to create multiple new
practices on how to deliver the ball with runners on base.

One veteran scout added: “We are going to set a record — if the record
is even kept — on the number of back picks [throws by the catcher behind
the runner at first base]. Those are unlimited, and teams will use that
[to go after runners].”

2. I was chatting with Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen about the new rules
and he said, “In aggregate, this will be one of the best things that has
ever happened to baseball.”

He then pursued a subject I had never considered with the pitch clock,
which, in particular, is expected to shorten the lengths of games
(spring games were being played 25 minutes faster on average than last
year) and perhaps kill the interminable four-hour game that seemed to
become an AL East speciality.

So I will let his answer run in full here:

“For me, it’s about the players,” Hazen said. “The players are going to
be on their feet so much less. That is going to have a beneficial impact
on injuries to me. Standing on your feet for four hours on a Saturday
night, turning around and playing a day game the next day for another
four hours, and then getting on a plane and flying across the country,
and instead you’re playing the game in two hours and 30 minutes to two
hours and 45 minutes. On aggregate over a 24-hour period, you’ve chopped
two hours of a player standing on his feet, and then multiply that by
162 [games]. How can that not be a benefit to players? And that will
improve the game because we’re going to keep our best players on the
field. We always talk about that: Keep the best players on the field.
Fans want to see the best players. I just think that’s going to be the
result. I might be wrong.

“How long does a Saturday night Red Sox-Yankees game take (Hazen worked
for the Red Sox from 2006-16)? A player is getting home, what, not
before 1 a.m.? Then you turn around and play at 1 p.m. the next day.
Even if you’re playing Sunday Night Baseball and [afterward] those two
teams are flying — one to the West Coast and one to Texas. The [Sunday
night] game starts at 7 p.m. Eastern, which is an improvement [it used
to be 8 p.m.], and the national game lasts longer because there are
longer commercial breaks in between innings. That’s just the biggest
thing for me — the game is going to be sped up. We’re all going to speed
up. We’ll be pushing action. That’s great for the fans and everything
else, but definitely great for the players. That is what the game is
about, and I think that is what these rules are going to do.”

3. Let’s visit a familiar slow dance from the game: Seventh inning. A
pitcher in trouble. A reliever begins to warm up.

The manager wants to get that reliever into the game for the next
batter. So a signal goes to the catcher to slowly walk to the mound to
fake chat with the pitcher. Wait until the ump comes to break it up,
which varies in timing based on the tolerance of the ump. The catcher
then slowly walks back to his position, and begins to reposition himself,

Then the manager calls time from the dugout and begins his slow
procession to the mound. Again, what is the tolerance for the ump to let
this go on? The manager then waits for the ump to come out, and maybe he
chats a bit before signaling which reliever he wants.

Now that reliever makes a long, slow walk to the mound, and is afforded
eight warmup pitchers before — finally — a fully ready reliever gets set
and the game can be renewed.

It is hard to believe this amount of dead time was tolerated.
Pitching changes also will be governed by a clock starting this season,
limiting the time a manger has to call someone in from the bullpen and
the pitcher’s warmup time.Getty Images

It won’t be any longer.

The rule now is if a catcher calls time, he has 30 seconds to wrap up
his conversation, at which point the pitch clock will begin. The manager
and pitching coach also have 30 seconds from when time is called in the
dugout to leave the mound because the pitch clock starts again.

That also counts as two of five permitted visits by anyone (manager,
pitching coach, catcher, infielder) to the mound for the game (one extra
visit is allowed in the ninth inning if a team has run out).

If a reliever is summoned, he has 2:15 from that point until the next
pitch has to be thrown. If the umpires determine the reliever is trying
to get extra throws in the bullpen, the clock will be started. If the
reliever takes his time from the bullpen to the mound, it will mean
fewer pitches to warm up and acclimate to a new mound. The umpire will
signal with 40 seconds left that there is just one more warmup pitch
allowed.