The Atlantic League has become a testing ground for potential rule changes Major League Baseball could potentially implement in its quest to increase action, and the latest announcement is a drastic one.
After previously canceling plans to move the mound back two feet in the second half of the 2019 season, the Atlantic League and MLB announced Wednesday that the 2021 Atlantic League season would see the mound pushed back a foot in an effort to decrease strikeouts and increase balls in play.
Asked about the change on Wednesday, Aaron Boone saw the potential change as a severe one.
“I was on some calls this winter and heard some of the things they were kicking around,” Boone told reporters on a Wednesday Zoom call. “I know the distance and things was one of those. That seems pretty drastic, but again, I think those are things that sometimes the craziest ideas have some traction to them.”
While the idea sounds far-reaching, it wouldn’t be the first time that MLB changed the height or distance of the mound, and using the Atlantic League as MLB’s petri dish makes sense when trying out some of the more severe ideas.
“I think it’s important that you try these things out when you’re trying to consider different things in a league where you can really take some information and see how it works out,” Boone said. “My initial response is ‘whoa, that’s pretty aggressive,’ but I think it’s good that MLB is trying things out to see what it looks like and always look for ways to improve and move our game forward.”
Baseball could certainly use more balls in play as strikeouts continue to set yearly records, as well as foul balls slowing the pace of the game, but many will certainly be opposed to an alteration of this level. But with the level of velocity in movement by pitchers in the modern league, hitting is struggling to catch up in terms of contact.
“It’s different now than it was 15-20 years ago in that you see batting averages down and that’s a lot to do with how we use pitching, but teams still score at a normal clip,” Boone said. “The game, teams go a little different about doing it now because hitting is so hard with the amount of nasty pitchers these guys see on a nightly basis.”
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