Baseball is Back, but They Changed the Rules – Part Dos

A look at larger bases…and that’s about it…

As I foolishly promised in our last thrilling episode of Baseball is Back, But Look How They Screwed It Up – Part 1, we will now look at some of the other rules that came out of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement which is not as easy as it sounds because I’ve read several articles on it and none of them said the exact same thing, plus they also had this confusing statement:

“The new CBA includes a 45-day window for MLB to implement further rule changes, including a pitch clock, ban on defensive shifts and larger bases. Those changes would not take effect until the 2023 season.”

The internet defines “implement” as: “put (a decision, plan, agreement, etc.) into effect.”

So will they be implemented in the 45-day window or will they not take effect until next season and if Professor Irwin Corey were still alive maybe he could answer that question and while things wouldn’t be any clearer once the Professor was done, at least he would make us laugh which I’m pretty sure we could all use about now.

Nevertheless, no matter when they start using them, let’s look at…

Larger bases

I could not find an article that explained just how big the new bases will be, but when they tried this out in the minor leagues the bases went from went from 15 inches a side to 18 inches a side and if the larger bases are anchored in the same spot (bases have a square metal peg on the bottom that fits into a square metal sleeve buried in the ground) then the front edge of first base would be an inch-and-a-half closer to home plate and another inch-and-a-half would be in foul territory which isn’t going to work unless they change another rule.

(Bases are in fair territory, just like bad rule changes made by MLB.)

So if the entire base needs to be in fair territory, first base would then be three inches closer to second base and since second base is also bigger by three inches, if it’s anchored in the same place, it’s also an inch-and-a-half closer to first base, so add all that up and it’s four-and-a-half inches and now the 90 feet between the bases is 89 feet, seven-and-a-half inches and I don’t think that’s what God wanted because the second thing he said after:

“Let there be light.”

Was…

“And 90 feet between the bases.”

An important Celestial Decree which was edited out of the King James Version of the Bible because King Jimmy was just the kind of guy who couldn’t leave well enough alone which is amply demonstrated by the fact that he decided to EDIT THE BIBLE.

Maybe I’m missing something and I often do, but it seems like someone came up with a bright idea about larger bases which theoretically means fewer injuries because that would give players more room to operate around the bases and help avoid collisions because the last thing the people that run baseball want are exciting plays like a runner flipping a pivot man to break up a double play, which was part of baseball for a century or so until greedy people realized star players fill the seats and went overboard trying to protect them.

If breaking up a double play could somehow always involve two bench players, Major League Baseball wouldn’t care if the runner slid in waving a switchblade and the pivot man defended second base with a two-by-four, which I’m thinking would be pretty exciting so MLB would probably be willing to supply the knife and lumber.

True story

So I had a buddy who was the first base coach for a Big League team and he got moved over to coach third base, so I then asked yet another buddy who also played Major League Baseball how much more responsibility there was over at third base (both first and third base coaches do way more than you think and I should probably write about that some time) and the second buddy said yeah, there was a lot of responsibility over at third base, then added:

“And they don’t like it when you get a multi-million dollar player blown up at the plate.”

Which made me wonder if a third base coach had to keep track of players’ salaries and hold a runner at third who was making $10 million, but send a runner home who was making major league minimum, which made my friend laugh and tell me I actually wasn’t that far off.

Quick question:

Who broke Buster Posey’s leg?

Answer:

Scott Cousins.

According to Baseball Reference in 2011 – the year Cousins collided with Posey at the plate – the Marlins base runner made $414,000 and only played 14 more games that season and wound up with a .135 average so if he got injured colliding with a catcher it doesn’t seem like it would have hurt the Marlins that much. But all this speculation might be unfair because I don’t know what the Marlins third base coach was thinking or saying to Cousins, but I do know baseball cares way more about star players than guys making $414,000.

And now back to our original story.

Encouraging stolen base attempts

One of the explanations I read about increasing the size of the bases said it was not only being done to avoid collisions, baseball also wanted to encourage more stolen bases and the number of infield hits, which seems to indicate without saying it right out loud that they are going to decrease the distance between bases.

Which brings us to what I assume is your favorite subject: arithmetic.

(Don’t worry; I hate it too, but this is actually pretty entertaining.)

The average lead at first base is between 12 and 15 feet. Once they’ve established their lead, most Big League base stealers can get to second base in 3.3 to 3.4 seconds. Get out a calculator and it comes out like this: a guy with a 12-foot lead who runs to second base in 3.4 seconds is covering — on average — 2.29 feet every tenth of a second. A runner with a 15-foot lead who gets there in 3.3 seconds is covering – once again on average – 2.27 feet every tenth of a second.

The average Big League catcher has a pop time (the time between a pitch popping into his mitt and his throw to second base popping into a middle infielder’s glove) of 2.0 seconds.

Since the runner’s time and the catcher’s time remain fairly constant, the big variable is the amount of time a pitcher takes to deliver a pitch.

Guys with a high leg kick might take as much as 1.9 seconds; guys who use a “slide step” (barely picking up their front foot and sliding toward the plate) might deliver a pitch in as little as 1.1 seconds.

So if you run a 3.4 you can steal on a pitch that’s delivered with a high leg kick, but will get thrown out on a pitch that’s delivered with a slide step and just to make things more fun, some pitchers mix up their deliveries so you’ve got to look for pitch delivery patterns if you want to run.

And as we continue our journey down “The How Baseball Is Actually Played Rabbit Hole” some pitchers have a hard time throwing strikes out of a slide step (the ball goes high for reasons I won’t get into right now) which means a smart runner waits until the pitcher has to throw a strike – 2-0, 2-1, 3-0, 3-1 and maybe 3-2 – and then takes off because he knows the pitcher will have to use his slower delivery.

This by the way, is the stuff knowledgeable observers watch and why they find the game fascinating while everybody else is waiting for a home run and a beer vendor. You get out of the game what you put into it; so your call.

Anyway…

You don’t have to think about it too long before you see that fractions of seconds and inches one way or another will change the game and if you’re going to do that maybe it ought to be a conscious decision and not the unintended consequence of trying to protect star players and fix the game you screwed up in the first place.

And if you’re thinking: “Oh, c’mon…nobody is that short-sighted, they must have thought about all this” might I remind you of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome ceiling:

Somebody thought it was a good idea to construct a roof using white material and then just to make tracking a baseball a little more fun, added little round white lights and then invited American League teams to play:

“Guess Which Little White Round Thing is Moving!”  

So if you want more stolen bases you could make the bases bigger or do what my buddy Jason Kendall suggested when I asked how he would encourage more stolen bases:

“I don’t know…have the manager give the steal sign?”

In conclusion…sort of

When I started writing this thing I didn’t realize how much I had to say about larger bases and we still haven’t talked about pitch clocks, 12 teams in the playoffs, nine-inning double headers, no runner on second base in extra innings and advertisements on uniforms, so I guess there will be third part to this series which I never intended and reminds me that when I agreed to have children I never expected to still be feeding them when they show up at my house as adults and maybe I need to discourage them the same way my 94-year-old mother did me when I showed up at her house and she offered me a breakfast made up of three items:

1. Red licorice

2. Fritos

3. Tootsie Rolls

A breakfast menu that will make you get up off your ass and go buy yourself an Egg McMuffin at McDonald’s.

OK, that’s it for today and we’ll get around to Part 3 whenever the Hell I feel like it.