Joey Gallo hitting above .300? Veterans’ first career stolen bases? Shorter Games?
A great deal of backlash came into the 2023 season when commissioner Rob Manfred stated that there would be some rule changes. The new changes were as followed
During spring training, fans were furious about some of the rules, especially the pitch clock. The new rule that implemented a 20-second pitch timer for both the pitcher and batter to be ready was designed to speed up the game. It has done just that through the first few weeks of the season.
A large part of these rule changes was to make the game more exciting as over the last 2 decades, baseball viewership has dropped. In recent years it has seen a bit of a resurgence which can be attributed to international growth and interest. But increasing the size of bases and making the pitchers work faster was in an attempt to make the game more exciting and fast-paced.
Things like stolen base attempts are being done at a rate not seen since Ricky Henderson. This has created a baseball genre that is not prevalent in the modern era. Another attempt at “turning back the clock” by the MLB, is the banning of the shift.
Without the shift, pull hitters no longer have to worry about 110 MPH line drive outs to the short-right-fielder. Advanced metrics have shown the early changes that the shift ban has had,
While backlash was very heavy to start the season, controversy over the new rules has seemingly been on the decline. And with viewership average up from last year, maybe the rule changes were for the better