What Terry Francona Thinks About MLB Rule Changes Coming Next Season
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Baseball is going to look quite a bit different next year. Just like any controversial change being made, some people are excited about it and there are some who are not.
Guardians manager Terry Francona seems to lean towards caution on some of them.
When asked about the banning of the shift, he said:
“I do worry about the shifting thing that … the unintended consequences. Like are you rewarding guys that just pull the ball instead of trying to get back to using the whole field? Like I keep hearing people say, ‘Guys are tired of hitting into the shift.’ Then hit the ball the other way. There are solutions other than just lift and separate.”
Tito does make a fair point. Will we see players continue to pull the ball or will they go back to using as much of the field as possible?
He also chimed in when asked about how he thinks pitchers will react to the new pitch clock. This is one of the main rules that the league hopes will speed up games. It's successfully done this in Minor League games this season.
Francona doesn't seem too worried about the way his pitching staff is going to respond to this change saying, “I think the guys are gonna get used to the pitch clock. I think (in) April, there will be some confrontations. But I think guys will learn quickly and adapt. The bases, I don’t know. I’ve never seen that before. We’ll adapt. We’ll adapt to whatever.”
This one doesn't seem like it'll be a huge issue, especially with PitchCom being used by a large portion of pitchers in baseball.
Of course, there will be pitchers such as James Karinchak who enjoy taking their time between pitches and will need to make some adjustments. But then there are also pitchers such as Shane Bieber who needed to slow down their routine after starting to use the system.
Once they make a few appearances with it there, both the players and fans will forget it's there.
Whether you are excited about these changes or not, 2023 will be an interesting year for baseball as they try to change the sport for the better.
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