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After all the conversation about much-needed rule changes in Major League baseball, finally something has been done. The changes were actually agreed to last spring by both the owners and the union. The announcement came as the teams reported for spring training. Here are the important ones:
THREE-BATTER MINIMUM
This was a much-needed rule in my estimation. Pitchers will now be required to face a minimum of three batters or finish the half-inning. Exceptions will be made for injury or illness. Obviously, this eliminates a manager bringing in a reliever to face one batter followed by another visit to the mound to again change the pitcher. To give you an idea of the impact, in the last three years, there was an average of 694 visits to the mound to change the pitcher that would no longer be allowed. Obviously both strategy and time will be affected by this change.
POSITION PLAYERS PITCHING
A player will now be designated as a pitcher, position player, or two-way player. This must be done the first day they are put on the active roster and it cannot be changed. A two-way player has to have pitched 20 innings and started 20 games as a position player, with three plate appearances in the current or previous year. Ninety position players pitched last year. One oddity in the rule interpretation is that players designated as pitchers can be position players so Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese star for the Angels, can both pitch and hit.
ROSTER SIZE
Active players on the roster will increase by one to 26 until August 31 and increase to 28 on September 1. Teams will be able to add a player for doubleheaders. Thirteen pitchers will be allowed until August 31 and then the number can increase to 14 on September 1. This is a great change eliminating the 40-man roster when the games were the most important to those teams in the post-season chase. Now teams will have to play with the roster they carried throughout the year.
INJURED LIST AND MINOR LEAGUE OPTIONS
These changes are minor for the average fan. Pitchers on the injured list will now have to miss a minimum of 15 days (was 10). Teams were manipulating the rule to rest a pitcher for one start. Pitchers must also now, if optioned to the minors, stay there for 15 days (it was 10). This rule, much like the “injured list” rule, keeps teams from rotating pitchers constantly, making more pitchers available and creating more pitching changes.
All these changes make sense in order to speed up the game, keep infielders from pitching, and create more stable rosters. I like the rule changes.
Now, “Play ball!”
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
1. Cleveland Browns’ defensive end Myles Garrett has been reinstated by the NFL. Garrett, you may recall, hit Steelers’ quarterback Mason Rudolph over the head with Rudolph’s helmet during a melee. Garrett ended up serving a six-game suspension and some thought he should have been banned from the League. Garrett still claims that Rudolph called him the “N” word, but that has been disputed by almost everyone involved and the league found no proof of that despite microphones being nearby.
2. There is no word on the status of Tom Brady for next year. Most fans forget that he was the 199th pick in the 2000 draft and is now considered by many to be the greatest of all time. He won six Super Bowls and has been paid (so far) $235 million. The retirement party should be fun, whenever it occurs.
3. The Lafayette Leopards men’s basketball team was hit with a devastating injury this past week. Leading scorer and team leader Justin Jaworski suffered both an ACL injury and a torn meniscus and was lost for the season. This, of course, after leading returning scorer Alex Petrie was declared medically ineligible before the start of the season. The Leopards were playing very well and were the only team to beat League-leading Colgate twice. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out.
4. The PPL Center created an appropriate venue for the EPC semifinals and the championship finals. Congratulations to the Bethlehem Catholic girls and the Allen boys for their championship wins. And congratulations to the EPC committee for garnering the Center. The good news is that enough fans came out for the three nights to pay all expenses and (perhaps) make a little money.
5. Here are the TV games for this week:
Wednesday, Feb. 19: 7:00pm – Boston University vs Lafayette College (Men); 9:30pm – Pocono Mountain West vs Whitehall
Friday, Feb. 21: 7:00pm –Bethlehem Catholic vs Northwestern; Central Catholic vs Palisades (Boys); Easton vs Freedom; Nazareth vs Pleasant Valley (Girls)
Saturday, Feb. 22: 1:00pm – East Stroudsburg South vs Freedom; Easton vs Parkland (Boys)
Sunday, Feb. 23: 2:00pm – Loyola vs Lafayette
