The Atlantic Professional Baseball League will experience two groundbreaking changes usually in the 2021 season, limiting the use of teams to the designated hitter position when the starting pitcher is in play and extending the distance between the home plate and the kicker’s tire.
“The Atlantic League is an important step in preparing for major changes to the Major League rules,” said MLB Baseball Operations Executive Vice President Morgan Sword, “and we look forward to seeing them brought to life in a competitive environment.”
The DH rule, which will be known as the “Double-Hook” rule (because DH is eliminated from the game at the same time as the starting pitcher), will be in effect throughout the 2021 season, while moving to the mound distance will be done in the second half.
The Atlantic League will also continue to use the automatic ball hitting system – the so-called “robot ump” which helps the base referee to judge the attacking zone. This system will also be in place in the Low-A Southeast Affiliate League this season.
“We are excited to play a critical role in testing and evaluating the experimental rules of Major League Baseball,” said Atlantic League President Rick White. “ALPB is a league of perspective and it is satisfying for our teams and players to be leaders who determine the future of our sport.”
Previous Atlantic League experiments include a minimum of three beats (which has since become a Major League rule), restrictions on defensive positioning (which will be used in Double-A this year), and 18-inch square bases (which will be used). in Triple -A this year).
With future discussions on the collective bargaining agreement, MLB considered it important to use 2021 for a variety of rule experiments. However, it is safe to assume that none of these Atlantic League rules would jump straight from the indy ball to the big leagues. If they are considered worthy of future use, they will be tested first among minors.
“Fans, players and many others in the baseball community have expressed interest in seeing more regular action on the field,” said Theo Epstein, MLB rules consultant, former general manager of the Cubs and Red Sox. “Therefore, it is important to use the 2021 season to explore various ways to create more frequent contact – and the increased action and on-screen athletics that will follow. We are grateful that the Atlantic League – which has been at the forefront of successful experiments as a rule in the past – has agreed to test a 12-inch increase in the distance between the pitching tire and the home plate in the second half of the season. We expect to learn a lot about the impact of such a change and whether an adjustment to this critical size of the field deserves further consideration at other levels of professional baseball. ”
The Atlantic League includes eight teams playing between 118 and 120 games each from May 27 to October 10.
Here’s a closer look at the two Atlantic League changes for 2021 and what MLB hopes to accomplish:
DH RULE “DOUBLE-HOOK”
The world of baseball has usually been split between DH devotees and those who prefer old-school National League rules that – in addition to the temporary use of universal DH as part of coronavirus-related health and safety protocols in 2020 – require pitchers to hit .
This “Double-Hook” rule would be a kind of compromise. He uses the DH spot that has been in place in the American League since 1973. But once a team’s original pitcher is replaced, the pitching spot takes DH’s place in batting order. So, from that moment on, the team will be asked to either use a hammer in that place or let the pitcher fight.
The impetus behind this idea is to stimulate teams to push their beginners deeper into games. Almost 90% of the pitching starts in the 2020 MLB season lasted less than seven innings. The increasing use of relays – including the use of the “opener” strategy – diminishes the role of the starter. However, there is a general agreement that having identifiable beginners – ways of working around which fans schedule their spectators or participation – is good for the sport.
To prevent the starting pickets from beating, it would have avoided unnecessary injuries, such as the forearm fracture of the D-backs suffered by Zac Gallen while taking the practice of beating this spring. And the combination of extending DH to another league and convincing clubs to use their starters longer in games would conceivably improve overall offensive performance.
In addition, lovers of NL rules would still receive the state-of-the-art management strategy they want. So, “Double-Hook” takes the best of both leagues and combines them all.
MOVING THE RUBBER (ONLY THE SECOND HALF)
The dedicated distance of the baseball from the rubber to the back of the home plate was 60 feet, 6 inches from 1893. Therefore, the new distance of the Atlantic League of 61 feet, 6 inches will be considered by some a bold expansion – a small step for pitchers, a huge leap for baseball itself.
But several factors contribute to the idea of regulating that seemingly sacred space between the jug and the beater.
First, Major League elimination rates have increased each season since 2005 (the entire league’s K rate was 16.4% in ’05 and was 24.9% until Monday’s game). With about a quarter of all board appearances ending in one fell swoop, it is generally considered to be to the detriment of the entertainment value of the game.
The increase in attacks is due, in part, to a dramatic increase in speed (the average four-stitch speed so far in 2021 is 93.6 mph, compared to an average of 91.9 mph in 2008). In addition, research by The Ringer has shown that modern MLB jugs, weighted by workload, are more than four centimeters larger on average than they were when the 60’6 ”distance was implemented in 1893.
All this must say that professional baseball could certainly have exceeded 60’6 “.
Moving the pitching rubber back with one foot will give the beats more time to react to the pitches, potentially improving contact rates and thus injecting more action into the game. MLB found that the reaction time on a fast ball of 93.3 mph (average four-stitch speed in 2020) thrown from 61’6 “is equivalent to a fast ball of 91.6 mph (approximately the average fastball speed in 2011) thrown from 60’6 ”.
MLB also determined that a 12-inch increase would be the minimum range needed to assess a change in mound distance. Although a greater increase in distance has been considered, the goal is to make a change without interruption or additional risk of injury.
The American Institute of Sports Medicine conducted a study in 2019 that found that fellow players throwing from distances of 60’6 “, 62’6” and 63’8 “did not show significant differences in key measures of rotational motion or Speed and hit rate have also remained consistent.As part of the mound change experiment, TrackMan technologies installed in Atlantic League parks will be updated to design and measure pitches and evaluate results.
An increase in distance of 12 inches may not be as drastic as it seems. As part of its analysis, MLB found that the standard deviation in the way the fasteners installed behind the board is seven inches. Some catchers have settled up to three feet away from the plate than their peers.
Therefore, the 60’6 ”standard is not as standard as we assume.
Why will the distance from the mound be moved only for the second half of the Atlantic League season? Because this will provide a control group. The data from the first half will be compared with the data from the second half to determine the real effects of the change.
It is worth noting that when 60’6 “became the standard of the National League in 1893 – at a distance of almost 5 meters more than the pile had stood the previous year – the rate of league-level strikes fell from 8.5 % to 5.2% and the average beat increased from .245 to .280. MLB also reduced mound height from 15 “to 10” in 1969, helping to lower the attack rate from 15.8% to 15.2% and increase the average beat from .237 to .248.
Therefore, the changes in the mound aimed at improving offensive performance are not unprecedented.