What are we doing here?
I mean, seriously? Let's take a breath and relax before all of this gets totally out of hand.
So this morning I read a story that reminded me of a story that I had previously read. I seem to remember now reading something awhile back where baseball thought about --- perhaps, maybe, kinda --- tinkering with moving the pitcher's mound back a bit so as to attempt to spike the rate of balls in play.
Back then, when I initially read it, I immediately thought, "no way, crazy idea, that will never happen."
Fast forward to this morning --- apparently it will happen. At least in one minor league has designs on seeing how it works as a trial balloon and then going from there.
Ugh. Have we lost our collective minds?
Anyhow, in the Atlantic League, an eight-team independent league that is now a partner of Major League Baseball, the mound will be pushed back 12 inches to 61 feet, 6 inches.
How ridiculous.
They say it is to give the hitter more time to recognize the pitch and, thus, a chance to put contact on it and put the ball in play. If that increased contact comes, the thought too is that so will the increased action. You know how it is in baseball right now --- far too many strikeouts, walks and home runs. They are those three true outcomes that apparently bore the paying customer and send games into a monotone drone as they don't provide enough action.
But here is a thought (actually a few thoughts): Won't moving the mound back have a potential to elevate the walk rate even more? I seem to think so as pitchers will now have to adjust to throwing the baseball --- albeit from just a foot --- from a new distance.
Also, if the Atlantic League is the only league instituting such change, wouldn't it work as a disservice to their pitchers who could potentially get their contracts purchased by teams in higher, affiliated leagues but once they get there be pitching from different dimensions? In short, how does it make sense to have the rest of the baseball-playing world using one distance and a lone, solitary league subscribing to a different set of rules?
To me, it doesn't.
Here is a thought and one that I have with just about all these rules that they either do, or try to, push into baseball to endeavor to escape the three true outcomes … how about we put the onus on having the hitters become, well, better hitters.
You know, not just guys trying to club it 700 feet. But have them be hitters.
How about the men with the bats, instead of having rules cater to them, learn how to handle that bat a little more and not be married so much to an all-or-nothing proposition.
