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| Yankee Great Edwin Encarnacion |
I know I promised you all lots of MLB Baseball talk this year, well I wore myself out researching Honus Wagner, but I do have some other new material coming. In the meantime MLB has made major announcements this year with new rule changes, moving my material back until after the rule changes go into effect, just like the pitchers mound...which has been moved back two feet.
These rule changes I believe take effect after the 2019 All Star Game, so if you want to see the old game you only have until the 2019 All Star Game then they are implementing some major changes that will make it a different ball game.
For example the pitchers mound will be moved back two feet, I'm assuming because they are throwing too hard and it gives the batter more time to see the ball.
Before I get into the rest of the rule changes I would like to say that my baseball knowledge goes way beyond the realm of comprehension of any major league official. I have to say that these rule changes only play into my hands as a fan of baseball and I was surprised to see the game develop into a more challenging and exciting game.
Speeding up the game is only one of the reasons behind the rule changes which I am not a fan of but they are speeding up the "dead time" not the playing time. Yankee great David Cone I believe said to me while commentating the game on television that advertisers or sponsors who help fund baseball are trying to speed up the game.
Why an advertiser would want to speed the game up is not something I can understand because you think they would be trying to extend the game to keep their ads up longer, or it might have been someone else that said that.
I also want to point out that I have been a fan of Major League Baseball since I was a small child and the commentators on the game have taught me the game of baseball and I have learned a massive amount of knowledge of the game of baseball by following the commentators who seem like great people and have an expert knowledge of the game beyond any regular outside mortal.
You have to appreciate these people and listen to them for your whole life like I have done to properly understand the game of baseball, do not take them lightly they are experts in the game.
Since they are changing the game drastically this year for the first time in my life I would like to thank them for their years of telling me and teaching me the game of baseball. You are probably my only real friends.
People often ask me two difficult questions about the rules of the game of baseball which I usually reply to them, go ask David Cone. However, he is probably not available so I will tell you the answers in laymen's terms...hopefully you will understand. They are the infield fly rule and the balk.
In layman's terms the "Balk" is an illegal "fake" throw to try and pick off a base runner, but the difficult question is "how do you know it is a balk?"
People don't understand outside baseball that the pitcher has to "commit" to the throw to the hitter, if he throws to a base to pick off a runner after he commits to the hitter that is a balk.
In baseball the pitcher has to stand on the pitchers mound and then his "movement sequence " for throwing a pitch is a rule in the game, if the pitcher goes to far in the sequence it means he has committed to throw to the hitter.
If he stops after he has committed and throws to a base and breaks the sequence he has committed a balk. A base stealer will run after the pitcher has committed to throw to the hitter, after that it is up to the catcher to try and throw out the base runner attempting a stolen base.
The infield fly rule is that if a "pop up" on the infield I think with runners on bases is an automatic out, I am only talking about if they are base runners during the popup.
This is because if the bases are loaded and a hitter makes a popup on the infield it is an automatic out even if a player drops the ball...because if the bases are loaded and a popup is hit on the infield then the defending player can "intentionally drop the ball" with the bases loaded which would force the runners to run by making it a live ball.
After that the defending team can easily make a triple or double play by intentionally dropping an infield fly to force the offense to run, this pushes them off they bases where they are easily thrown out.
A defending player dropping the ball intentionally on the infield is banned in baseball because it would illegally force the offense to run where there can easily throw out the runners who are in a defenseless position after that.
To make it fair to the runners an infield fly is an automatic out to prevent the defending team from intentionally dropping the ball with the bases loaded to get a triple play, so the infield popup is declared an automatic out to prevent the defense from intentionally dropping the ball to throw out the base runners on a "forced" live ball.
This year the new rule changes will make this a more competitive game which will add more excitement and fair play to the game of Major League Baseball.
Here are some highlights:
-Pitcher's mound moved back two feet.
-Larger bases
-No defensive shifting - meaning I think that the defense will not be allowed to move the third basemen to the position between first and second and their players will have to stay in their proper outfield positions which will eliminate the dreaded "the shift" I THINK that's what they are saying.
-"Robot Umpires" to help make proper calls with a radar enabled strike zone.
-No more changing pitchers for every hitter in late innings for individual matchups, pitchers entering the game will have to face a minimum of three hitters.
-No mound visits except for removing pitchers or in cases of injury.
-Trade waiver period eliminated, I didn't bother to look this up.
-New rules for All Star Game Voting, I also didn't bother to look this up.
-Home Run Derby prize money increased from $1 Million to $2.5 Million Dollars.
-Mound visits - the MLB.com page says the mound visits were reduced from 6 to 5 which differs from what is posted on Yahoo Sports so I don't know which rule it will be.
-Rosters will increase from 25 to 26 players.
-Rosters for Double Headers will increase from 26 to 27.
-40 man roster for the World Series Playoffs will be eliminated.
-Something about a two way player, didn't look it up yet.
-Minimum time on injury list increased from 10 to 15 days.
If you don't follow baseball those are some pretty huge changes which will be guaranteed to make Major League Baseball more competitive and exciting.
The rule changes differ on Yahoo Sports and MLB.com so I don't know what will make it to the game or what won't. I'll update this blog later when I figure the rest of it out.
This is going to be awesome for baseball, make sure to watch the rest of the first half if you want to see the last part of the old game, the new game starts after the All Star Break I think.
Remember kids, always listen to the advice from the baseball television game commentators if you want to make it in the game of baseball.
I just relooked at this and some changes will not be until next season.
I just relooked at this and some changes will not be until next season.
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