Will the Atlanta Braves Support the Commissioner’s odd Pace of Play Plans?
By Fred Owens
MLB is currently considering changes to the way the game is played in order to speed it up. Pace of play is the buzzword; idiotic is the best adjective descriptive adjective for their ideas..
Three days ago Jayson Stark wrote about two proposed changes sent to the MLBPA by Commissioner Rob Manfred designed to speed up the game; raising the strike zone and eliminating the actually throwing of Intentional walk pitches. The strike zone will not be changed this year but the intentional walk rule could be done easily and MLB often opts for easy over effective.
At some point the teams will get a vote on these proposals. How should the Atlanta Braves vote when that time comes?
The Strike Zone
MLB tinkers with the strike zone a lot for something that’s really straight forward. In the modern era the zone’s been redefined five times according to the Baseball Almanac.
1950: It resided between the batter’s armpits and the top of his knees
1963: It moved up to the top of the batter’s shoulders and his knees
1969: It slipped back to between the batter’s armpits and the top of his knees.
1988: It was moved farther down to midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants and the top of the knees.
1996 :The Strike Zone became what we know today expanding the lower end by moving from the top of the knees to the bottom of the knees (bottom = hollow beneath the kneecap).
According to the MLB’s definition today’s strike zone is :
"“. . .that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the knee cap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.“ Official Baseball Rules 2016 Edition Page 150"