Main League Baseball has undergone some dramatic modifications lately which have altered the sport. The designated hitter in each leagues, expanded playoffs and most not too long ago the pitch clock.
However one concept that has been mentioned and kicked round in latest months could be one of the crucial dramatic modifications ever and utterly change the very nature of the best way the sport has been performed for greater than 150 years.
It’s the golden at-bat, and it’s one thing that commissioner Rob Manfred casually mentioned this week on John Ourand’s podcast.
“There are a selection of (rule change concepts) which are being talked about on the market,” Manfred stated. “Considered one of them — there was somewhat buzz round it at an homeowners’ assembly — was the concept of a “Golden At-Bat.”
The idea of the “Golden At-Bat” is straightforward sufficient — one time per sport a staff may select any hitter in its lineup, whether or not it’s their flip to hit or web, and ship them as much as the plate for an at-bat.
It isn’t an imminent rule change, however the truth it’s being talked about and the actual fact the commissioner is touch upon it’s a fairly good signal that it’s one thing that it’s being critically thought-about down the road.
It ought to keep an thought and by no means transcend that.
Whereas it may actually add some intrigue to video games and one other layer of technique for managers, it nonetheless looks as if extra of a gimmick than anything. And it’s too dramatic of a change to the best way the game is performed.
You set a batting lineup, and that’s it. How the sport unfolds after that’s as much as the play on the sector.
The pitch clock was at all times seen as controversial to baseball purists, nevertheless it doesn’t change the best way the sport is performed. It simply makes it occur quicker. The designated hitter might need its critics, however once more, it’s nonetheless a fundamental idea with a batter within the lineup hitting so as.
The Athletic’s Jayson Stark outlined a few potential methods the rule could possibly be applied, together with limiting it to solely at-bats earlier than the seventh inning, or solely permitting groups which are trailing to make use of it late in video games.
There may be additionally the chance {that a} staff may select a hitter for the “Golden At-Bat” earlier than their spot within the lineup, creating the chance for them to hit two occasions in a row.
This concept, by the best way, has already been put into follow with the Savannah Bananas, baseball’s reply to the Harlem Globetrotters.
