Recently, major league baseball, has implemented a pitch clock to speed up the game. This may have been one of the best things they have done in the last 10 years. Another major improvement is the increased size of the bases. The pitch clock is a timer that makes it so the pitcher has a certain amount of time to throw the pitch and the batter has to be in the box by a certain time, and if the batter fails to do so he is penalized with an automatic strike, and if the pitcher fails to do so he is penalized with an automatic ball. And with the increased size of the bases the idea was that runners could get bigger leads and steal more bases
Studies were done to find a way to get more fans to attend games and watch a games at home. And with this study, it was shown that most people think that the games where way to long and boring there was not enough going on and people where getting bored. So the MLB needed to find a way to speed things up and the pitch clock was the answer. This kept the games to around 2 hours apposed to around 3 and it made things interesting. It forced pitchers out of bad habits of taking forever to pitch and preventing batters having a long routine before they hit.
The other major improvement made to baseball was the increase size in bases. With this increase the runners had and extra 5 inches. 5 inches does not seem like a lot but, baseball is a game of inches. Runner gets thrown out by 2 inches or they can be safe by 1 inch. With this size increase we have seen a major increase in the number of bases stolen. For example, Ronald Acuna has just set a major record. 40/70 is the name of this record and this absolutely insane. This means he hit 40 homeruns and stole 70 stolen bases. Last time a baserunner had more than
70 stolen bases was in 1991 by Otis Nixon. And he had 71. Ronald currently has 73. And before that the next closes runner was a man named Hap Myers and he had 57 and this was in 1913.
With changes so great there has to be a down side to them. Right? Well one could say so but others could use these changes to there advantage. Once again we see Ronald Acuna doing something so abnormal. With the pitch clock rule and the attempt to speed up a game. Pitcher are only allowed to pick off a runner 2 times with in an at bat and if they do 3 then it is an automatic balk and the runner is awarded the next base. So Runners have taken this to the next level Acuna being one of them. They would get a massive lead and intentionally draw a pick off then they would do it again. And at this point the runner will now get a huge lead, to the point where it is a guaranteed stolen base.
Many people would argue that both of these are bad for the game and that they are hurting baseball. but they could not be more wrong. This is the real future of baseball. As we see players like Miguel Cabrara, Adam Wainwright, and Brandon Crawford all retire and new players such as Paul Skenes, Max Clark, and Dyaln Crews coming in, we see that baseball is changing and its changing majorly. This new generation plays baseball in many new ways. They are faster, bigger, and stronger than the old generation. This new generation of baseball players play the game different.
Baseball is changing and that is something we need to accept. These new players will hit more home runs, they will pitch faster, and they will steal more bases. The game will played faster and more intense so these changes are so good for the league. It makes baseball more interesting and keeps people engaged. Before when people would go to baseball games they where there for close to 3 hours if not longer and they was not a whole lot going on. So often times people would leave early in in years past we saw a decline in the amount of people in
attendance to these games. So with this changes more people where in attendance and more people where watching from home because it was no longer a 3.5 hour event. The games where closer to 2.5 hours. Also coming with this you can understand how all the action will get compacted in to the shorter time keeping people engaged and more entertain.
With all of these new improvement to the game of baseball it may make some people mad because it is changing. But there is a new generation of baseball players who play the game different. We want to see more action in games and they cant be so long. These changes are for the good of baseball.
