He's Complaining AGAIN??

    Well, in case anyone ever had a doubt, I am. By now I'm sure that most of you know something about MLB's rule changes for 2023, and if you're anything like me, you do not like them. (In case you haven't heard about them, they are recounted below: 

-Expanding the bases from 15x15 inches to 18x18 inches 

-Allowance of two infielders on each side of the field 

-A stinking pitch clock, which allows for 15 seconds between pitches with no runners on base and 20 seconds with baserunners, and limits against how often a pitcher may step off the rubber. A ball will be called against a pitcher who takes longer than the allowed time, and a strike against any "offending" batter who takes "too long" to get himself ready.) 

Let's go through each of the rules and see why each is a bad idea. 

Expanding the bases, supposedly to prevent injury, isn't that big a deal. I don't know if it will prevent injuries (or cause more of them), but the move necessarily requires the bases to be pushed back three inches from home plate and each other. This sounds like a pain for groundskeepers, but doesn't really affect anyone else. 

Allowing two infielders on each side doesn't exactly destroy the shift, but it does weaken it. By standards based on both strategy and plain baseball aesthetics, I really hate the shift, but sometimes it can help. In all honesty I would have preferred to see players and managers abandon the shift on their own, especially since the commissioner should have no power over such things as defensive positioning. 

The worst of the three rules is the pitch clock. The means and the end of this rule change are both simply awful. The purpose of this rule change is to speed up the game. To this, I say BAH HUMBUG! If you don't have the attention span to watch a three hour game, then you can't be a real baseball fan. Besides, what's this pitch clock really going to accomplish? Shave, maybe, five minutes off each game? I can't understand this at all. This new rule also forces slow working pitchers (like old timer Rich Hill;) out of their routine and, eventually, into extinction. The Major Leagues will not be simply looking for the best pitchers, like it ought to; rather, it will look for the best fast working pitchers. I believe that sifting the talent pool like that will water down the quality of MLB play. I really do. 

They also limited the amount of pickoff throws to two per batter (or three if they succeed the third time), with any violations counted as a balk. This rule alone will ruin baseball. After two pickoff throws, runners can take as big a lead as they want, knowing that they have no risk of being thrown out. A runner can steal (really walk to the next base) whenever this happens, which is the same as a balk. 

Not surprisingly, the Major League Baseball Players Association expressed its dislike for the second and third rules. They're the ones who have to deal with it, and they're the ones who didn't get their fair say. Do I smell a hint of tyranny? 

These rules, combined with other egregious rules enacted in recent years (such as the softball runner in extra innings, seven inning doubleheaders, automatic intentional walks, a three batter limit which forces managers against their will to keep struggling pitchers in longer, limits on mound visits, etc., etc.), make today's baseball a vastly different game than it was 20 years ago. Where's the sense in all this? Where's baseball?