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Everyone knows that the first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club, but under new Major League Baseball rules, everyone will hear about minor league fights, including the team’s parent MLB organization. And they will have to pay up for them too. ²In an attermpt to crack down on brawls and brouhaha in the minor leagues, MLB has instituted a fine of the parent club of any minor league team with a bench-clearing incident. In practice, this means if the players leave either the dugout or bullpen. The fine starts at $500 and doubles with every subsequent incident. So, $1000 after the second one, $2000 after the third one and so on. A team would need to get in 11 scraps to hit the million-dollar mark ($1,023,500, to be exact), which will never happen. MLB overhauled minor league baseball ahead of the 2021 season, including scheduling. Teams now frequently play each other for six straight games. For example, the St. Paul Saints just finished a 6-game home series against our old friend, the Rochester Red Wings. The team is in Columbus for a 6-game series against Cleveland's AAA affiliate this week. As we know from road trips or family get-togethers, too much togetherness can raise some tensions and lead to some short fuses. This change comes as MLB makes a host of moves in the name of player health and safety, including increasing the size of its bases and keeping the somewhat-maligned “ghost runner rule” for another season. There have also been several headline-grabbing minor league fights this year, including a brawl between the Mets and Red Sox Double-A affiliates in April. My take While $500 or $1000 seems like pocket change to billion-dollar organizations (and it is), no one wants to make the big boss upstairs angry, especially when that big boss is the one who controls your fate (whether or not you're called up to the bigs as a player or a coach). To me, the increased parent organization oversight on fights seems to be more of a deterrent than the actual money fine. No one wants to make mom and dad angry. Even though some fans might enjoy the raucousness of fights, no one can argue that they are beneficial or becoming of the sport of baseball, which prides itself in being a family-friendly game. Fans looking to see some fights would be better suited to watch hockey, where the players are wearing protective padding and cannot plant their feet and wind up due to standing on skates. Will the new parent club fine actually serve as a deterrent in the heat of the moment when tensions are high during a game? I somewhat doubt it, but making this move is in line with MLB's other stated health and player safety goals, so its implementation makes sense. View full article

Pace of play has been one of the major focuses during Rob Manfred’s time as commissioner. Timers have been added for between innings and when new pitchers take the mound. In the minor leagues, a 20-second pitch timer has been used at the Double-A and Triple-A levels since 2015. Major League Baseball wants to see some more changes to baseball’s highest level but the Players’ Association doesn’t agree with these changes.On Thursday, the Players’ Association rejected a proposal to add a 20-second pitch clock and limits on mound visits. These rule changes were proposed last season which means the commissioner’s office could implement the rules without the approval of the Players’ Union. A decision could come as early as the next owner’s meeting scheduled to start on January 30th. Even with attempts to shorten games, the average length of a nine-inning game increased by nearly four and a half minutes. In 2017, it took 3 hours, 5 minutes and 11 second to complete a nine-inning game. Just one year earlier, it was 3 hours and 42 seconds. During last year’s postseason play, the average game took three hours and 29 minutes. The amount of replays also decreased so that wasn’t a factor in adding to the time of games. At November’s quarterly owners’ meeting, Commissioner Rob Manfred made it clear that changes would be coming to the game. He said, “My preferred path is a negotiated agreement with the players, but if we can’t get an agreement we are going to have rule changes in 2018 one way or the other.” According to AP reports, MLB can implement the following changes: 30-second clock between batters20-second clock between pitchesHitters would be required to be in the batter’s box with at least five seconds left on the timerThe clock would start when the pitcher has the ball on the moundThe clock would reset when a pitcher steps off the rubber for a pickoff throwWarnings would be issued for a first offense and then a ball is called against a pitcher and a strike is given to a batterA team would be allowed one mound visit per pitcher each inningThe mound visit could be from a manager, coach or playerA second mound visit must result in a pitching changeWhat are your thought on the potential rule changes? Does MLB need to continue to focus on pace of play? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion. Click here to view the article