By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--February 9, 2017
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Major League Baseball plans on testing a rule change in the lowest levels of the minor leagues this season that automatically would place a runner on second base at the start of extra innings, a distinct break from the game’s orthodoxy that nonetheless has wide-ranging support at the highest levels of the league, sources familiar with the plan told Yahoo Sports. A derivation of the rule has been used in international baseball for nearly a decade and will be implemented in the World Baseball Classic this spring. MLB’s desire to test it in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League and Arizona League this summer is part of an effort to understand its wide in-game consequences – and whether its implementation at higher levels, and even the major leagues, may be warranted. “Let’s see what it looks like,” said Joe Torre, the longtime major league manager who’s now MLB’s Chief Baseball Officer and a strong proponent of the testing. “It’s not fun to watch when you go through your whole pitching staff and wind up bringing a utility infielder in to pitch. As much as it’s nice to talk about being at an 18-inning game, it takes time.
“It’s baseball. I’m just trying to get back to that, where this is the game that people come to watch. It doesn’t mean you’re going to score. You’re just trying to play baseball.” While the specifics of the rule are not final, the current plan is to start with a runner on second base in the 10th and every inning thereafter.I suppose part of this can be explained by MLB's weird obsession in recent years with pace of game, or to put it in English, not having the games take so long. An extra-inning game is already going to blow past three hours, so if you don't find away to end it quickly, you're going to be looking at four or five hours. But I think a bigger concern here is the havoc wreaked on bullpens by games that go 12 innings or longer. Once you get into the 15th or 16th inning, you're having to consider bringing in the next day's starting pitcher, and you probably will have to make roster moves after the game to get fresh arms up from the minors - so taxed is your regular bullpen after an extra-inning marathon of extraordinary length. But that doesn't make this a good idea. This is a terrible idea. Before we even get into purity-of-the-game type arguments, let's consider whether this would actually accomplish what MLB seems to want it to. An inning with scoring will always take longer than an inning with no scoring, so if you start with a runner on second and no one out, you're going to make that inning take longer simply by virtue of how the game slows down for strategic considerations - holding the runner close to the bag, shifting the defense, changing signs to avoid having them stolen and relayed. A lot of things slow down with a runner on second.
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