Baseball owners can’t stop
themselves—legally—from overspending, so they get the players’ association to
agree to a luxury tax that works as a soft cap on salaries. And now, because coaching staffs can’t stop
themselves from over-managing, Commissioner Rob Manfred gets the players to
sign off on two rule changes to keep pitching coaches and managers in the
dugout.
Starting in 2020, the number of
allowed mound visits goes from six to five, which, for fans at least, won’t be
too much of a problem. Ah, but invoking
a three-batter minimum for pitchers (excluding a one- or two-batter appearance
that leads to the end of the inning), that’s going to be controversial.
I’ll give Manfred this much—he gets
it, to a degree, that the game is dragging.
That’s why he’s also cutting down on the length of commercial breaks and
putting an end to the agony that is September baseball. No more 40-man rosters come September 1. Instead, it’ll be 28. They ought to call this the Francona Rule,
for the way Indians’ manager Terry Francona would trot out half the pitchers in
the entire Cleveland organization, if only to stupefy the opposition.
Also of interest is the expanded
roster, which goes to 26 in 2020 (and 27 for doubleheaders). I wonder if managers will opt for yet another
pitcher (or two, with twin-bills). The
13-man staff could become the 15-man staff.
No doubt that will help pick up the pace of the game, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment