The Rule Changes

By Josh:

On Tuesday Major League Baseball officially announced two rule changes.

The first was a change in when collisions at home plate can and cannot occur. I know a lot of people are up in arms saying that this is just because of Buster Posey getting hurt (I will talk about that) and collisions are a part of the game.

I agree that collisions are a part of the game, but even football and hockey have rules on collisions.  I have no problem with the rule that players can’t go out of their path to hit a catcher.  I was never a big guy and so I had to use my agility and athleticism to avoid tags.  I think this part of the rule change does help to protect catchers who have left the plate open to runners and aren’t set up for an impact.

The second part of the rule is that catchers cannot block the plate unless they have the ball.  This truly is the Buster Posey rule in my opinion. Posey got hurt because he was trying to block the plate and hadn’t received the ball yet. He opened himself to injury and this rule should help limit these types of plays.

A lot of people are going to be in an uproar over these changes but let’s be honest, these plays don’t happen that often and can result in a lot of injuries.

The thing that baseball fans really need to be in an uproar about is that MLB slid the increased use of instant replay in behind the collision rule so that it isn’t talked about as much.  I do not like the idea of there being more replay. Yes, I want the calls to be correct but look at how the NFL refs are now just making any call knowing that it can be reversed if they are wrong.

Baseball games don’t need any more delays. I’m a baseball fan but even I get tired after three hours of a game. Heck I’ve been to 9 inning games that have lasted over four hours.  Replay is not the answer to baseball’s problems. In fact it just might be a part of the problem.