Thursday Bantering: Rule Changes

The Blue Jays announced their rotation for their first 5 games of the season. We will see Stroman, Shoemaker, Sanchez, Borucki and Richard in the first 5 games. Sunscreen Boy won’t be ready for the first time through the rotation.

I’m hoping Borucki stays in the rotation when Buchholtz is ready to take someone’s spot.

Scott MacArthur gets Mike Wilner’s old job as host of Jays Talk and he will also be ‘third in the booth’ for home games. I’m happy for Scott. I don’t listen to Jays Talk, I figure I can find all the bad opinions I need on Twitter, but I’m sure he’ll do a good job. It is the sort of job that I could do for about a week before quitting. I don’t know how Wilner was able to do it for so long.

Congratulations Scott. I hope you are able to hang on to some, if not all, of your sanity.

$5 beers at Rogers. I can see this going bad. I’m a one-beer guy at games, just because I’m cheap. But, I like craft beers so the stuff they sell for $5 I likely won’t be buying anyway.

There is a excerpt from Jerry Howarth’s book on Sportsnet.ca. It is about his comments on Jose Reyes during Reyes’ last season with the Jays. I’ll admit I really though Howarth was being way too personal in his dislike for Reyes.

And MLB and the Players Association have agreed to some rule changes. Some for this year and some for next year.

This year:

• The big one is there will be a single trade deadline. So we won’t get the fun of telling people “everyone gets put on waivers” this August like we have done every year in the past. No more August trades. That will save us from the circus that was the Josh Donaldson trade of last year, but teams will have to make sure they have depth in all positions. A contending team whose catcher suffers an injury will have to have someone in the minors who can fill in. It should cause more trades at the July 31st deadline.
• There will be a $1,000,000 prize for the All-Star Home Run Derby. They are tire of players opting out. I can’t be bothered to watch the Home Run Derby and this won’t change that. By the third “Back, back, back, back” I’m out.
• They are changing the voting for the All-Star teams starters. Fans will vote online and the top 3, in each position, will take part in a one day online vote. The hope is there will be a lot of social media fun in that day.
• There will be one fewer mound visit allowed. Teams will be allowed 5 from the 6 last year.
• Breaks between innings will be shorter, 2:00 minutes, from 2:05. And in ‘national games’ the break drops from 2:25 to 2:00.

In 2020:

• Relievers will have to face a 3 batter minimum (say goodbye to the LOOGY). I’m not a huge fan. I hate removing strategies from the game.
• Rosters will expand to 26. That loud swearing you heard this morning was from Dalton Pompey when he found out that it wasn’t happening this year.
• September rosters will be limited to 28. Another one I’m not thrilled with, I liked that minor leaguers got a chance to see what life was like in the majors.
• And there will be some maximum number of pitchers who can be on the roster. That’s yet to be decided, but likely 13 most of the year and 14 in September.
• There will be rule to limit the number of position players who get to pitch. I hate fun police rules. “Position players will be allowed to pitch only in extra innings or when their team is ahead or behind by more than seven runs.”

The Jays host the Yankees today and, yes, Tulo made the trip. I really thought he was a good guy and a professional, but I’m downgrading my opinion of him.

Matt Shoemaker gets the start. Mike and Ben have really been talking him up.