Baseball is America's pastime. Through 100s of years, the game and players have evolved so much to get to where the sport is now. I used to play baseball and can say it is really fun to play. I was a pitcher so this topic is definitely interesting to me. This week, minor leagues decided to experiment with moving the pitcher's mound back from the traditional 60 foot 6 inches from home plate. They will move it back another foot for every team in the independent minor league starting at the second half of the season. Baseball is timeless, and the mound has stayed the same since the 1800s, so why the need for change? It is common to hear people say baseball is slow and boring. Even I have trouble sitting through a baseball game now and have increasingly lost interest over time. This is largely due to the game slowing down incrementally year after year. Pitchers have developed insane velocity and spin rates leading to an abundance of strikeouts, which means fewer balls in play. No balls in play means no action. The hitter's approach has changed into a power-driven one, and home run rates are at an all-time high. Home runs mean action and the most home runs ever should mean the most interesting to watch right? But no. At bats now end in either a home run or strike out at a higher rate than ever. Batters strike out 25 percent of the time, which is an all-time high. It is boring to sit through. So what does moving the mound back accomplish? It would definitely increase runners on base and decrease strikeouts. It would also hypothetically reduce home runs and increase balls in play as hitters would need to adjust to the new angle the ball is coming in at. I think it's cool that they are able to experimnt with this at a professional level, but as someone that used to pitch every day, I don't see this working. My rotation and motion were muscle memory, and even though a tougher time for pitchers would mean more runners on base, I think they would be from walks not hits. That would mean pitchers need to throw more pitches, which would hurt their arms. The reason I quit was my arm hurt every day. It's cool that they will try this in the minor leagues after the all-star break, but I don't think it will work. Do you see moving the mounds back as a realistic option for baseball at the highest level?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/sports/baseball/pitchers-mound-atlantic-league.html
Hi Zev, this is a very interesting topic. I agree that baseball can be boring at times, but I love watching it on TV and going to games. If something does not change, it is possible that there will less people playing baseball in the future, which is a real shame for the sport. I think it is worth it to experiment with moving the mound back, but as you said it can injure the pitchers. In the tennis world, something similar happened where people wanted to move the service line a few inches closer to the net to make it harder for people to hold serve. That change never happened though.
ReplyDeleteHey Zev, this is actually something I never thought was relevant in baseball, but like it really is. I feel that it's kind of stupid to move the mound farther back because there's just no point in changing baseball to make it harder. It should just stay the same.
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