New rule changes are exactly what baseball needs

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Major League Baseball’s competition committee approved rule changes on Friday that are going to have a major impact on the future of the game. The goal is to increase the amount of action in the game while reducing the amount of time between that action. The changes are exactly what baseball needs.

Avid baseball fans love the sport regardless of what the pace and action are in any given game. But the fan base is skewing older, as the average baseball fan is 57 years old. I often hear from younger fans that the game is too slow and boring.

Pace of play has been a pet peeve of commissioner Rob Manfred since he succeeded Bud Selig in 2015. Remember, pace of play doesn’t necessarily mean how long a game takes to be completed. Pace is more about the time between the action. A game played at a faster pace with more action might last as long as the games do now, but it will be much more interesting to watch.

Analytics have changed the game in many ways. One of the most notable is how the team in the field defends the hitters. Shifting infielders to one side of second base or the other has become rampant. If the statistics indicate that a hitter pulls the ball on the ground, the defence compensates accordingly. For a big left-handed pull hitter, it is fairly common to see the shortstop or third baseman moved to the right side of the infield. The infielders are also moved onto the outfield grass to give them better range to snag ground balls or catch sinking line drives. Some teams, including the Blue Jays, have implemented a four-outfielder defence with no one on base at times.

These defensive alignments have dramatically impacted batting averages in the game. The league’s batting average is .243,