August 15, 2024 • 11 mins
More rule changes could be coming to Major League Baseball and once again it would affect those on the mound. Specifically, it would affect starting pitchers. Listen to what the rule change could be and how it would change the game of baseball.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's the Craig Way Show with the voice of the
Texas Longhorns and all of broadcasting.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Craig care on a Thursday afternoon on the program You're
on sports radio in thirteen years. I'm going to kind
of go in reverse of the way i'd presented the
(00:33):
topics going into the break, because already events and people
ask me some questions about this.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
What do you mean about the pitching? What's going on
with the pitching?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So with major League Baseball now again, I kind of
have a hard time.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Believing that this is going to go through.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
But put it this way, It's being discussed seriously, and
this goes back. It started off with pitchclock being instituted
in twenty twenty three. They also eliminated the shift, They
enlarged the bases, they placed a limit on pickoff throws.
We became familiar, quite familiar. If you follow baseball with
(01:18):
a term disengage or disengagement. It had nothing to do
with matrimony. It was all about a pitcher disengaging from
the stretch, tepping off and throw in the first base
to either pickoff run or at least keeping close. And
the rule of course changed where you can only do
it three times, and if you don't pick him off
(01:38):
on the third time, it's a back he gets awarded
second base. So there's always if you're watching him, there
there's a second disengagement, which usually is a signal at
that point where you might often see the runner take
off by the time the guy goes the end of
the stretch on that So these changes have led to
shorter games. But there's been more controversy or at least
(02:04):
conversation with regard to the pitch clock and whether it
has brought about all of these significant arm injuries that
we've seen in baseball across the game, and it seems
like I could be wrong about this, but it seems
like no team has been immune to it. That all
thirty teams have been affected in one way or another
(02:25):
by arm injuries, not by the pitchclock. I'm talking about
the arm injuries. I can tell you this as a
Dodger fan. Probably no team's been affected more by the pitcher.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
They have had.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I think currently they have nine pitchers on the injured list.
They had as many as ten. They have gotten Clayton
Kershaw back and Walker Buehler came back last night and
looked like he needed to stay on the list a
little longer. He wasn't very good. But they have a
lot of other guys. But there's other teams that are
going through this. And there's this big debate right now
that over whether the hitch clock has anything to do
(03:02):
with these arm injuries, and that pitchers.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Are in more of a hurry and there's more.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Urgency to get ready to throw the decks pitch within
twenty seconds and also to throw it hard and all
that the counter to that, because Major League Baseball has
been adamant in its opposition to that theory, saying it
has nothing to do with that. I think a lot
(03:33):
of folks realize that the number one thing. And we've
asked Gene Watson about it on this program from the
Chicago White Sox front office, and Gina will join us
tomorrow for his weekly conversation with us. He thinks it's
all about VLO and that's what we're hearing a lot
more people say about what scouts and what teams are
looking for is they want to see you in the
mid to upper nineties. If they're going to take you
seriously as a pitching prospect. Well, eventually that winds up
(03:56):
doing damage well. Now, against that backdrop, the Commissioner's office
is looking into proposing that starting pitchers go a limit,
excuse me, a minimum, not a limit, a minimum of
(04:19):
six innings in a game. Now, there are exceptions to
the rule. That would be four more earned runs or
if there's a health injury, health issue, or also one
hundred pitch limit. But an MLB official told ESPN, and
here was the quote, We're interested in a cree increasing
(04:41):
the amount of action in the game, restoring the prominence
of the starting pitcher, and reducing the prevalence of pitching injuries.
There are a whole host of options in addressing those issues.
They've discussed the limit to the size of pitching staff
and the double hook DH. There's some belief around the
game that one I idea would require starting pictures to
(05:03):
go at least six innings every time they take them out.
But there's a great deal, great deal of conversation about that,
and the some instances were started would be allowed to
leave early would include, like I said, if he throws
one hundred pitches or gives up four or more earned runs,
or is injured. Outside of those exceptions, pictures would have
(05:25):
a mandate to make it through at least six innings.
That would force teams to rethink their pitching staffs to
meet these new standards. Now, the knee jerk thing might
automatically say, well, you know, that's all that's going to
do is bring about more injuries. Maybe it would and
maybe it wouldn't. I don't know. And the last gene
(05:48):
about it tomorrow as well, But it's but maybe they're
trying to think outside the box and do something radically
different because all of these injuries have started and pictures
are on four and two thirds or five. Just again
using my team in his example, I think the Dodgers
have had a picture go a starter go six innings
(06:12):
in over a week, and that's without a day off
playing every day. They've you know, a couple of nights
ago and then one Gavin Stone went five innings last night,
Bueller went what three and two thirds and he had
to piecemeal it together and ended up taking the loss. Anyway,
Clayton Kershaw went five and two thirds a couple of
nights ago. But it just but they're not the only team.
(06:34):
Lots of teams are struggling to get their starting pitchers
through six innings because remember that the definition of what
a quality start is it's six innings allowing three earned
runs or less. I believe, I think that's the definition
of a quality start. And I know there's a lot
of old timers who kind of like the fall at
that that's a quality start in this day and age
(06:57):
in baseball probably is you know. So it's it's a bizarre,
bizarre thing. So the focus then is by mandatory six innings,
the pitcher and the teams would have to put more
emphasis on command and not felo, because I do agree.
(07:18):
I think a lot of kids before you even get
the college, high school, playing summer ball, travel ball, there
is an emphasis on your velo and throwing harder, and
that's that's racking a lot of kids before they even
get to the next level. Didn't you even say Travis
Acora had it kind of called his head coach to
(07:38):
ask him about some.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Video reviews just the celo stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean it it, it can happen. So guys are
teams are consumed with it. I can tell you from
watching as much baseball so as I watch.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Eh, I mean, it's it's not necessarily a ninety seven
ninety eight mile an hour fastball.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
That's the best pitch thrown.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's where you're locating and if you've got movement on it.
If you're just throwing to Keith Morland used to say,
if you're throwing me fastballs, I'll figure out a way
to hit it. You can throw it two hundred miles
an hour, I'll start swinging yesterday, he said.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
But I'll learn to time it. And they do.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
It's about movement on that. But I guess, you know,
coaching staffs they want that. They want. They want vila
from these guys, There's no doubt about it. But I
think they want you know, I think they also want
movement on the ball as well. So they're going to
continue to discuss that. The new power rankings have come
(08:45):
out for baseball. Not sure I agree with number one.
It puts LA at number one. They had a five
game winning streak snap last night by the Brewers and
they're fighting them right now. Walker Buela did not look
very good last night. But they are supposed to get
Max Munsey and Tommy Edmund back. They're hoping that Yoshinoba
Yamamoto will be back within a couple of weeks. They
have the Yankees two, the Orioles three, the Phillies four,
(09:07):
the Guardians five. I think you can really just barely
stick a piece of paper between anyone that's that close
with all of those teams. Then you have the teams
that are really coming on, like Arizona and San Diego
who are six and eight, Milwaukee at number seven, minnesotat nine.
The Astros are have been hot of late eight in
(09:28):
a row for Houston and up to ten above five hundred.
They're high point of the year, and now they're going
home to open up a weekend to open up a
home stand, starting with a weekend series against the White Sox.
After that, second tien begins with Kansas City, followed by
Seattle Atlanta. Atlanta looked to be dead in the water.
(09:50):
Now they've turned it around and won three straight in
San Francisco. Boston had kind of perked back up after
struggling because they got well against the Rangers, but they
did lose to them last night. Then the Mets, Giants, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs,
and Tampa Bay at twenty the Rangers at twenty one
(10:12):
in the power rankings, followed by Pittsburgh, Detroit, Toronto, Washington, Oakland,
the Angels, Miami, Colorado, and yes, the White Sox at
twenty nine and ninety three. So the the White Sox
are on one game behind the pace of the sixty
(10:39):
two Mets who went forty and one to twenty, which
is in the modern one hundred and sixty or more
game schedule is the is the schedule for futility, and
the Socks are twenty nine to ninety three right now,
so they're.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Struggling with that. All right. We have inconceivable coming up next.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
We'll get to that when we continue on Sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone in the IR Radio AM
It's the Craig Way Show with the voice of the
Texas Longhorns and all of broadcasting.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Craig care on a Thursday afternoon on the program You're
on sports radio in thirteen years. I'm going to kind
of go in reverse of the way i'd presented the
(00:33):
topics going into the break, because already events and people
ask me some questions about this.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
What do you mean about the pitching? What's going on
with the pitching?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So with major League Baseball now again, I kind of
have a hard time.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Believing that this is going to go through.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
But put it this way, It's being discussed seriously, and
this goes back. It started off with pitchclock being instituted
in twenty twenty three. They also eliminated the shift, They
enlarged the bases, they placed a limit on pickoff throws.
We became familiar, quite familiar. If you follow baseball with
(01:18):
a term disengage or disengagement. It had nothing to do
with matrimony. It was all about a pitcher disengaging from
the stretch, tepping off and throw in the first base
to either pickoff run or at least keeping close. And
the rule of course changed where you can only do
it three times, and if you don't pick him off
(01:38):
on the third time, it's a back he gets awarded
second base. So there's always if you're watching him, there
there's a second disengagement, which usually is a signal at
that point where you might often see the runner take
off by the time the guy goes the end of
the stretch on that So these changes have led to
shorter games. But there's been more controversy or at least
(02:04):
conversation with regard to the pitch clock and whether it
has brought about all of these significant arm injuries that
we've seen in baseball across the game, and it seems
like I could be wrong about this, but it seems
like no team has been immune to it. That all
thirty teams have been affected in one way or another
(02:25):
by arm injuries, not by the pitchclock. I'm talking about
the arm injuries. I can tell you this as a
Dodger fan. Probably no team's been affected more by the pitcher.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
They have had.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
I think currently they have nine pitchers on the injured list.
They had as many as ten. They have gotten Clayton
Kershaw back and Walker Buehler came back last night and
looked like he needed to stay on the list a
little longer. He wasn't very good. But they have a
lot of other guys. But there's other teams that are
going through this. And there's this big debate right now
that over whether the hitch clock has anything to do
(03:02):
with these arm injuries, and that pitchers.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Are in more of a hurry and there's more.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Urgency to get ready to throw the decks pitch within
twenty seconds and also to throw it hard and all
that the counter to that, because Major League Baseball has
been adamant in its opposition to that theory, saying it
has nothing to do with that. I think a lot
(03:33):
of folks realize that the number one thing. And we've
asked Gene Watson about it on this program from the
Chicago White Sox front office, and Gina will join us
tomorrow for his weekly conversation with us. He thinks it's
all about VLO and that's what we're hearing a lot
more people say about what scouts and what teams are
looking for is they want to see you in the
mid to upper nineties. If they're going to take you
seriously as a pitching prospect. Well, eventually that winds up
(03:56):
doing damage well. Now, against that backdrop, the Commissioner's office
is looking into proposing that starting pitchers go a limit,
excuse me, a minimum, not a limit, a minimum of
(04:19):
six innings in a game. Now, there are exceptions to
the rule. That would be four more earned runs or
if there's a health injury, health issue, or also one
hundred pitch limit. But an MLB official told ESPN, and
here was the quote, We're interested in a cree increasing
(04:41):
the amount of action in the game, restoring the prominence
of the starting pitcher, and reducing the prevalence of pitching injuries.
There are a whole host of options in addressing those issues.
They've discussed the limit to the size of pitching staff
and the double hook DH. There's some belief around the
game that one I idea would require starting pictures to
(05:03):
go at least six innings every time they take them out.
But there's a great deal, great deal of conversation about that,
and the some instances were started would be allowed to
leave early would include, like I said, if he throws
one hundred pitches or gives up four or more earned runs,
or is injured. Outside of those exceptions, pictures would have
(05:25):
a mandate to make it through at least six innings.
That would force teams to rethink their pitching staffs to
meet these new standards. Now, the knee jerk thing might
automatically say, well, you know, that's all that's going to
do is bring about more injuries. Maybe it would and
maybe it wouldn't. I don't know. And the last gene
(05:48):
about it tomorrow as well, But it's but maybe they're
trying to think outside the box and do something radically
different because all of these injuries have started and pictures
are on four and two thirds or five. Just again
using my team in his example, I think the Dodgers
have had a picture go a starter go six innings
(06:12):
in over a week, and that's without a day off
playing every day. They've you know, a couple of nights
ago and then one Gavin Stone went five innings last night,
Bueller went what three and two thirds and he had
to piecemeal it together and ended up taking the loss. Anyway,
Clayton Kershaw went five and two thirds a couple of
nights ago. But it just but they're not the only team.
(06:34):
Lots of teams are struggling to get their starting pitchers
through six innings because remember that the definition of what
a quality start is it's six innings allowing three earned
runs or less. I believe, I think that's the definition
of a quality start. And I know there's a lot
of old timers who kind of like the fall at
that that's a quality start in this day and age
(06:57):
in baseball probably is you know. So it's it's a bizarre,
bizarre thing. So the focus then is by mandatory six innings,
the pitcher and the teams would have to put more
emphasis on command and not felo, because I do agree.
(07:18):
I think a lot of kids before you even get
the college, high school, playing summer ball, travel ball, there
is an emphasis on your velo and throwing harder, and
that's that's racking a lot of kids before they even
get to the next level. Didn't you even say Travis
Acora had it kind of called his head coach to
(07:38):
ask him about some.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Video reviews just the celo stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean it it, it can happen. So guys are
teams are consumed with it. I can tell you from
watching as much baseball so as I watch.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Eh, I mean, it's it's not necessarily a ninety seven
ninety eight mile an hour fastball.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
That's the best pitch thrown.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
It's where you're locating and if you've got movement on it.
If you're just throwing to Keith Morland used to say,
if you're throwing me fastballs, I'll figure out a way
to hit it. You can throw it two hundred miles
an hour, I'll start swinging yesterday, he said.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
But I'll learn to time it. And they do.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
It's about movement on that. But I guess, you know,
coaching staffs they want that. They want. They want vila
from these guys, There's no doubt about it. But I
think they want you know, I think they also want
movement on the ball as well. So they're going to
continue to discuss that. The new power rankings have come
(08:45):
out for baseball. Not sure I agree with number one.
It puts LA at number one. They had a five
game winning streak snap last night by the Brewers and
they're fighting them right now. Walker Buela did not look
very good last night. But they are supposed to get
Max Munsey and Tommy Edmund back. They're hoping that Yoshinoba
Yamamoto will be back within a couple of weeks. They
have the Yankees two, the Orioles three, the Phillies four,
(09:07):
the Guardians five. I think you can really just barely
stick a piece of paper between anyone that's that close
with all of those teams. Then you have the teams
that are really coming on, like Arizona and San Diego
who are six and eight, Milwaukee at number seven, minnesotat nine.
The Astros are have been hot of late eight in
(09:28):
a row for Houston and up to ten above five hundred.
They're high point of the year, and now they're going
home to open up a weekend to open up a
home stand, starting with a weekend series against the White Sox.
After that, second tien begins with Kansas City, followed by
Seattle Atlanta. Atlanta looked to be dead in the water.
(09:50):
Now they've turned it around and won three straight in
San Francisco. Boston had kind of perked back up after
struggling because they got well against the Rangers, but they
did lose to them last night. Then the Mets, Giants, Cardinals, Reds, Cubs,
and Tampa Bay at twenty the Rangers at twenty one
(10:12):
in the power rankings, followed by Pittsburgh, Detroit, Toronto, Washington, Oakland,
the Angels, Miami, Colorado, and yes, the White Sox at
twenty nine and ninety three. So the the White Sox
are on one game behind the pace of the sixty
(10:39):
two Mets who went forty and one to twenty, which
is in the modern one hundred and sixty or more
game schedule is the is the schedule for futility, and
the Socks are twenty nine to ninety three right now,
so they're.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Struggling with that. All right. We have inconceivable coming up next.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
We'll get to that when we continue on Sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone in the IR Radio AM
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.