NEW YORK- Major League Baseball wants more offense, and their new experiment will be to remove the mound from the pitcher.
The test will consist of establishing a distance of 12 inches between the mound and the home plate for a period of the Atlantic League season, an independent minor league circuit. The end? Try to reduce the attacks and generate more offense.
The distance between the mound and the plate will remain at 61 feet 6 inches during the experiment.
“It’s a direct response to increased attacks, giving the bully another hundred seconds to decide whether to pitch a pitch, which would only have an effect on reaction time, slowing the pitch. almost 1.5 mph, “said Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations. “The end of the experiment and the hope is that that little amount of time allows the hitters to have more contact and reduce the attack rate.”
In 2019, the last full season, the hits recorded a record for the 12th consecutive year, accumulating 42,823, up 33% from 32,189 in 2007. Strikeouts surpassed the hits of the last three seasons, something unprecedented in the history of the majors.
MLB calculated that the average speed of a fast balloon last year was 93.3 mph and estimated that increasing the distance to the board would reduce it to 91.6 mph.
Movila has maintained its current distance since 1893, when the National League decided to move it 5 meters away. Strikeouts fell from 8.5% in 1892 to 5.2% in 1893, and the average beat increased from .245 in 1892 to .280.
Jed Hoyer, president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs, compared the changes to lowering the mound’s height from 15 feet to 10 feet before the 1969 season.
“We need to do something to be able to do more offense in baseball, whether it’s moving the mound with one foot back, having different ways to eliminate defensive formations, or taking action on using substances to manipulate the ball.” said Hayer. “We need changes. The batsman has come out of these changes. Going down the mound has followed these changes. And I think – someone who loves baseball – that the rules are not engraved on stone tablets.”
Many baseball players oppose changing distances on the field. But Commissioner Rob Manfred was more willing to innovate in a sport so obsessed with tradition.
“It seems pretty drastic to me, but this kind of thing, sometimes the craziest, ends up gaining steam,” said Aaron Boone, manager of the New York Yankees. “I think it’s important to test them.”