As baseball attempts to turn over every rock to shorten games and hasten the pace of play around the sport, ideas are being offered at every corner.
The latest, from an actual Major League Baseball general manager, could be the most radical–yet simple–one to date: Cut two innings off the game.
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MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince rounded up MLB executives after commissioner Rob Manfred’s Spring Training Media day earlier this week. The question proposed to those willing to answer:
If you could install a Major League rule change for one day, just to see how it affects the strategy or the action, what would it be?
Here’s how Ross Atkins, Toronto Blue Jays general manager, answered: Seven-inning games.
His thought process, and how long it should be in for:
“That’s not something you’d test in Spring Training [or for one day],” Atkins said. “That’s something you’d test over the course of a season. I understand the complexities of that, I understand why you wouldn’t try that. But if it is just a test, I would love to know what the results would be at the end of that.”
“I wonder how it would impact so many different contributing pieces,” Atkins said.
The results would likely be drastic. From less at-bats (counting stats for hitters, changing career numbers) to scoring (22 percent of the game would be gone) to the rise of the ace (guys like Clayton Kershaw, Noah Syndergaard and Max Scherzer could routinely pitch complete games), baseball would be totally different.
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It would also take less time to complete each game.
Joe Giglio may be reached at jgiglio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoeGiglioSports. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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