Cleveland Indians: 3 reasons the new extra innings rules are bad for the game
By Chad Porto
The new extra innings rule will do more harm than good and the Cleveland Indians found that out first hand.
The Cleveland Indians on Saturday fell victim to the asinine new rule change implemented by MLB for the 2020 season. The rule will see a runner start on second base when the game goes into the 10th inning and beyond.
"MLB implemented the rule, which puts a runner at second base to start each extra half-inning, to help speed the game along this season. The league doesn’t want games going deep into extra innings during the COVID-19 pandemic."
This isn’t true, even if the folks at MLB really believe that’s why this measure was implemented. After all, if it was about protecting players from the pandemic, why aren’t they in a bubble and mandating masks to be worn?
Baseball is also a very different game when it comes to scoring things. It’s a game where every movement of sorts counts towards something. Throw a runner out before he reaches first? That’s a “putout”. Fail to field a ball and the runner is safe? That’s an error. Feel that your 300lbs DH isn’t the best guy to have running your bases? That’s a pinch-runner. There is no action a team can do to automatically put a guy on second base without him having earned it.
So how do you randomly insert a player onto second base? Per CBS again;
"For official scoring purposes the automatic runner at second base is said to have reached on an error, though no fielder is charged with an error. Also, the automatic runner goes into the books as an unearned run when he comes around to score, so it does not hurt the pitcher’s ERA. The pitcher is responsible for any runners he allows, however."
Great. So this is Whose Line Is It Anyway? Because apparently nothing matters and the points are made up. By the way, the likely hood that a team scores in this scenario is expected to be over 60% of the time. So have fun with that.
These are the three reasons why this rule makes no sense.