Angel Stadium, Anaheim (In Praise of New Rules)

I’m an old-fashioned baseball fan, which is why I wholeheartedly support the numerous rules changes made before the 2023 season to speed up the game. The last two games illustrated why.

I go to the games to see the players pitch, hit, field, and run. I don’t go to see conferences on the mound, endless throws to first base, the pitchers shaking off four signs from the catcher before finally agreeing to throw a pitch, batters adjusting their batting gloves before every pitch, and LOOGy’s.

There were a number of changes, to address each of those issues. At first, I thought they were fine, but wouldn’t make much difference. But in fact, they combined to reduce the average length of a major league game by 24 minutes, from 3:03 to 2:39. That’s a reduction of more than 15%. Another way to put it is that most 9-inning games lasted more than 3 hours in 2022; in 2023, games longer than 3 hours were a rarity. The last time the average length of a game was that low was 1985. I’m old, so getting to bed nearly a half-hour earlier makes a difference to me. The last two games we’ve been at took 2:29 and 2:18, respectively.

One of the most controversial is the pitch clock. If there aren’t any runners on base, once the pitcher has the ball, he has 14 seconds to deliver the next pitch to the batter. He has to wait for the batter, but the batter has to be ready by the time the clock hits 8 seconds. Also, a batter can take one time-out per at-bat, the pitcher can step off the pitching rubber twice per at-bat. A violation by the batter is an automatic strike, by the pitcher is an automatic ball, but I don’t think we’ve seen a single violation this year.

With runners on base, the clock changes to 18 seconds, but the two step-off rule still applies, so the pitcher can only try to pick a runner off twice during an at-bat. Actually, he can try a third time, but if he doesn’t pick a runner off, all runners move up a base. We haven’t seen that happen yet (although I think it did in Arizona’s game today). But stolen base attempts are up (also helped by a rule that expanded the size of the bases, so the runner has more room to avoid a tag), which I think is an improvement.

There are complaints that the number of injuries to pitchers’ arms has increased because of the pitch clock. I agree with half that statement. The number of injuries to pitchers is up, but it continues a trend that goes back a few decades, so I don’t think the pitch clock is to blame. Pitcher injuries is a problem, but I think it comes from teams using more and more pitchers who are throwing as hard as they can, using an anatomically unnatural (but effective) motion. I have no idea how to cure that problem.

And then there are the LOOGy’s, the Lefthanded One-Out Guys. It had gotten to where most teams had at least one, maybe even two, lefthanded relief pitchers who would seldom pitch to right-handed hitters (lefty hitters have more trouble with lefty pitchers than with righthanders, and vice-versa). So the LOOGy’s would often be called on to pitch to just one hitter, the opponent’s best left-handed hitter. That meant that you’d have two pitching changes in the space of two hitters. Now, a pitcher has to pitch to three hitters once he comes into the game, so the left-handers have to pitch to one or two right-handers as well. It changes the strategy some, but I don’t mind a rule that makes it harder to sub-specialize.

And there are other changes, limiting the amount of time between innings (the TV broadcasters are still occasionally having trouble working in as many commercials as they want) and between batters.

I think the game has gotten better.

More about the venue:

We sat in the upper deck of “Big A” (Angel Stadium) last night, in the lower deck 12 rows behind the Angels’ dugout tonight. The game feels very different in the two places. From the lower deck, you don’t see the mountains in the distance – or the freeway just beyond the outfield. And the players look much bigger and faster.

The crowds were in the 30-35 thousand range, with almost equal numbers of people in Angels and Padres gear (I did a count yesterday of the first 125 people I saw). That makes for a fun atmosphere.

One thing that I haven’t seen anywhere else is hot dog stands that pop up between the stadium and the parking lot at the end of the game. Most stadiums are now cashless; the hot dog stands are cash only. I treated myself to a dog this evening while walking back to the hotel. It was tasty, although we’ll find out how my digestive tract feels about it in a few hours.

More about umpires

One rule change that came in a decade ago that I really, really like is the set of rules that allow a limited number of challenges based on instant replay. A team can challenge any call (except balls and strikes), but once a team challenges a call and it isn’t overturned, they get no more challenges. Teams have 15 seconds to decide whether to challenge, so each team has an individual who sits with feeds from cameras all over the stadium and looks at any play that might be close, and has to tell the manager whether to challenge in less than 15 seconds. I wouldn’t want the job of the replay gurus, but I admire them.

In 19 games we’ve been to this  year, we’ve only seen seven calls overturned, which speaks well to the umpires’ abilities. And we’ve only seen two challenged that weren’t overturned, which speaks to the abilities of those folks watching replays for the teams.

Last night was the first time we saw two overturned in a single game, and they were both very close plays. Tonight, the Padres unsuccessfully challenged a call in the 9^th inning on a chaotic play at first base where the  pitcher was late to cover 1^st on a grounder to the first baseman, but tagged the runner just before he got to first. I like to feel that those calls are going to be correct. I just wish those rules had been around in 1985, when my St. Louis Cardinals were three outs away from winning the World Series and the first base umpire missed the call on a play that was very similar, and the Cardinals unravelled.

Last night’s two overturned calls were both by C.B. Buckner, who, with Ángel Hernández retired, probably has the worst reputation of any umpire out there. But as I said, they were very, very close plays.

Tonight, Buckner umpired behind home plate, so I compared his calls to what was shown on the MLB app. As a control, I did the same for the Diamondbacks’ game this afternoon, where Chris Guccione (I’ve never heard he was particularly good or bad) was behind home plate. Things were looking bad for C.B. when he missed (according to the app) three straight calls to a single batter in the first inning. But he missed only 7 of the other 112 calls he made, for an overall percentage of 91.3%, almost identical to Guccione’s 91.7%.

I have three takeaways from that: 1) Tracking that is a lot of work, so I probably won’t do it again. 2) C.B. didn’t look bad at all in the comparison. 3) I once heard an MLB exec say, in a discussion, that the umps got 95% of the calls right. Neither one of the two I checked on did that well.

I want a computerized strike zone.

The game

The Angels got home runs in each of the first two innings to take a 3-0 lead, and hung on to win 3-2, to sweep the three-game series.

I mentioned yesterday that Fernando Tatis Jr., he of the 14-year contract, was not hitting well this year, although he did get two hits last night. He got four more tonight, in four at-bats. He may be heating up. And he also made one diving catch in right field. He does have talent.

I also mentioned that Manny Machado, he of the 11-year contract, wasn’t hitting well this year, although he got three hits last night. Tonight, he hit into a double play his first at-bat, then hit a potential double-play ball again in his next at-bat. He hustled down the line, the hardest I’ve seen him run in a couple of years, and beat the throw to first. And pulled up lame and left the game, I’m guessing with a hamstring injury.