MLB testing robotic umpires, shift ban in Atlantic League games
Major League Baseball has been examining a number of ways to improve a league that has been decreasing in popularity in recent years, and some of those radical ideas will be tested in the independent Atlantic League this year.
MLB announced on Friday that some rule changes will be explored as part of its new partnership with the Atlantic League. The changes include a robotic umpiring system to call balls and strikes; banning the defensive shift; no mound visits unless there’s a pitching change or an injury; and extending the distance between the pitching mound and home plate by two feet.
Here are some others:
The dawn of robot umpires is upon us: pic.twitter.com/vL3eD9oKb6
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) March 8, 2019
One of the main criticisms against baseball has been that games take too long, so MLB is exploring ways to shorten them. The rule outlawing certain mound visits would help address that, as would shortening the time between innings and pitching changes from 2 minutes, 5 seconds to 1 minute, 45 seconds.
It’s a virtual certainty that most of these ideas won’t stick, especially in the near future. However, there have been signs that at least one new rule is close to being implemented. Whether we see any of the changes in actual MLB games or not, it doesn’t hurt to see them in action.
