CC Sabathia is never shy to express his opinions about the game of baseball on his R2C2 podcast, and he made his thoughts on some of MLB’s potential rule changes clear on Thursday.
The 19-year major leaguer talked about some of the potential changes coming up the pike with Ryan Ruocco this week, and when it comes to the changes in the size of the bases at the Triple-A level this season, Sabathia is not a fan, to say the least.
“I don’t like the base size s--t,” Sabathia said. “That s--t is dumb. Close plays at first…ground balls, that takes away from the timing the infielders head. The base is a little bigger, and the guy gets a ground ball and he usually pats his glove a couple times…I feel like that throws off the game a little bit.”
The Atlantic League implemented new bases in 2019 and noticed an uptick in stolen base attempts, which MLB hopes to have in its league soon to increase action and traffic on the basepaths, but Sabathia doesn’t like the potential tradeoff for infielders. His former teammate Luke Voit didn’t care for it either, calling it “stupid” when asked about the base adjustments.
“You hit a ground ball to shortstop, you should be (expletive) out,” Sabathia said.
One of the proposed changes that will begin in the lower levels of the minor leagues would have directly impacted Sabathia during his playing career, with new rules coming in High-A that a pitcher must completely “disengage” with the rubber before throwing to any base on a pickoff attempt. It would have made it more challenging for Sabathia to keep runners close during his pitching days, but he’s a fan of the change.
“I like that where you have to completely step off,” Sabathia said. “I think it’ll help guys start running more, making righties step off to throw to first base. I have no problem with that. I like that a lot. I actually think it’ll make the game a lot more fun and exciting to bring the running back into the game.”
The former World Series champion and six-time All-Star also liked one of the changes coming to Low-A, where a pitcher has to pick off a runner after two pickoff attempts, or else it is ruled a balk. Sabathia ended his career with 21 pickoffs, but likes the idea of making it harder on the pitcher to help speed up the game.
“I really like the two pickoffs,” Sabathia said. “If you ain’t picked him off the first two times, you ain’t (expletive) picking him off. Throw the ball to the plate. Like, man, nothing I hate more than (expletive) just keep picking it over and over. Especially for base stealer. That’s a way you can tire out a base stealer. It used to piss me off that they used to just pick [Brett Gardner] over like eight times in arrow, now he’s gassed and he can’t take the bag.”
These changes will be tested out in the minors before being moved to the major league level, but Sabathia hopes some of those changes to make it to the bigs.
“I think people would just pick over to gas the runner,” Sabathia said. “So I like that rule.”
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