Yahoo Finance By using a new pitching distance, the Lexington Legends are shaping baseball’s future
Experimenting with baseball tradition, in the name of spearheading baseball innovation, has been a recent hallmark of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.
The league is an official partner league of Major League Baseball, and in 2019 the leagues entered into an agreement that allows MLB to test experimental playing rules and equipment in the Atlantic League.
Rule changes quickly followed.
These included an automated strike zone and 18-inch bases, as well as defensive positioning restrictions. The Atlantic League was also the first league to use the minimum batter rule for pitchers that’s now used in MLB.
The Lexington Legends are now part of these tests, having joined the Atlantic League in February after losing their attachment to Major League Baseball’s farm system in December.
While several experimental rules are being used in the Atlantic League this season, one that began Wednesday for the Legends has garnered the most attention and raised the most questions.
For the second half of the 120-game Atlantic League season, the pitching rubber has been moved back 1 foot, meaning the distance between the rubber and home plate now measures 61 feet 6 inches, altering a sacred baseball number.
“We know that Major League Baseball is serious about the potential impact these rules or equipment changes could have on the game in the future,” Rick White, the Atlantic League president and a former MLB executive, told the Herald-Leader. “These are legitimate tests that are evaluated against a dynamic set of rules and analytics. They (MLB) wouldn’t come to us if they weren’t seriously contemplating the idea that this, or some derivation from this, could end up in the big leagues someday.”
From high school baseball through the professional ranks, 60 feet 6 inches is the normal distance from the back of home plate to the front of the pitching rubber. The 12-inch increase is among several experimental rules in place for the Atlantic League’s eight teams this season, along with an adjustment to the league’s automated strike zone and a rule preventing teams from using a designated hitter after a team removes its starting pitcher.
The Atlantic League had planned to increase the distance between the pitching rubber and home plate by 2 feet to 62 feet 6 inches in 2019, but the plan was eventually shelved. The league didn’t hold a season in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
When the Atlantic League and MLB jointly announced the pitching distance change in April, the accompanying press release came with nine bullet points of information related solely to the change.
According to the announcement, the distance increase will provide batters with more time to react to pitches, with the expectation this will help batters more frequently make contact with pitches and put more balls into play.
The MLB strikeout rate has increased in 15 consecutive years, reaching an all-time high of 23.4% last year.
When the National League moved the pitching rubber back 5 feet in 1893, setting the pitching distance to 60 feet 6 inches, the strikeout rate decreased from 8.5% in 1892 to 5.2% in 1893.
The distance increase could lead to pitcher success with an extra foot for ball movement, potentially increasing strikeout rate. Conversely, the distance increase could lead to pitcher struggles with accuracy, potentially increasing walk rate.
Despite the 60 feet 6 inches distance having become the baseball standard, in-game factors such as the positioning of the catcher from batter to batter, the way a catcher receives the ball and the positioning of the umpire mean the distance each pitch travels varies.
It also remains to be seen if the increased pitching distance affects the game in other ways, like providing pitchers more time to react to line drives hit back at them.
According to Baseball America, 1 foot of increased distance is roughly equivalent to reducing a pitch’s velocity by 1.5 mph.
The last time pitching dimensions in professional baseball were altered came in 1969, when MLB lowered the height of the mound from 15 inches to 10 inches.
The Atlantic League and MLB are using upgraded TrackMan tracking technology to project and measure pitches at Atlantic League ballparks during the 2021 season.
“I don’t know what the result will be, but I do know there will be reams of data generated by those systems and by the on-site, eyeball test with representatives from Major League Baseball,” White said.
How to change the pitching rubber?
The logistics of implementing the pitching rubber change are further evidence of the Atlantic League’s innovative attitude.
Two of the league’s teams, the Gastonia Honey Hunters and the High Point Rockers, play on artificial turf surfaces, and use a portable mound for games.
For natural turf surfaces, like the one at Lexington Legends Ballpark, the league has developed a dual-anchor pitching rubber system.
“We literally can remove the pitcher’s rubber. We can put plugs into that receptacle, cover it with clay and top dressing, re-insert the mound to a similar receptacle 12 inches forward of that, topdress the slope and make a modest adjustment on slope and use that rubber for other events,” White said, crediting Mike Logan, a front office member of the Atlantic League’s Lancaster Barnstormers, with inventing the system.
Using the system, teams will be able to move the pitching rubber, but not the mound, allowing the rubber to be set at different distances from home plate.
“It’s not as tedious as say, rebuilding the pitching rubber in the mound and changing the slopes and degrees and things like that,” Jesse Scaglion, chief operating officer for the Legends, said. “This device is definitely going to be a time saver for the whole league, for everyone who’s got a grass field that has to make that change on the fly.”
Scaglion said the ability to adjust the pitching rubber distance at the ballpark between high school, college and Legends games, if needed, is a huge advantage from a business perspective.
“We’ve said every day since the existence of the team that because we own the ballpark ourselves, and we outright operate it without any government or city assistance, that it’s in our best interest to have as many events and as many games as possible,” Scaglion said. “It’s really cool to have the ability to host a Legends game one night, Frederick Douglass High School the next day, Transy the next day and then maybe a Little League all-star game on the field or a softball all-star game or something of that nature.”
Distance change yields injury concerns
When the distance change was announced in April, an American Sports Medicine Institute study from October 2019 was cited, in which 26 college baseball pitchers threw five fastballs each from three different pitching distances between 60 feet and 64 feet in a randomized order. The result was consistent ball velocity and strike percentage, as well as no significant differences in rotational motion or acceleration from the different distances.
The Atlantic League and MLB have used this data to try and quell fears about the injury risk posed to pitchers by distancing the pitching rubber.
Still, skepticism persists among Atlantic League coaches and players.
Several members of the Atlantic League’s West Virginia Power have spoken out strongly against the change.
Power pitcher David Kubiak told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that the distance change may affect the way Atlantic League players are scouted for international leagues.
“I think it’s terrible,” Kubiak said of the distance change. “I think it shows the lack of thought that went into this on the league’s part. I don’t think they took the players into consideration.”
Power pitching coach Paul Menhart and Power Manager Mark Minicozzi both told the Gazette-Mail they were not allowed to speak publicly about the distance change per the orders of White, the Atlantic League’s president.
“If we have an opinion we would be suspended indefinitely without pay,” Minicozzi said.
White later told the Gazette-Mail that he told coaches and managers in the Atlantic League that he’d like them to support the league’s relationship with Major League Baseball.
“If anybody’s gonna speak on the record on behalf of the league, it’s gonna be me,” White told the Gazette-Mail. “I certainly have not told people they’re gonna be suspended if they express their opinion.”
The Legends didn’t make coaches or players available to speak to the Herald-Leader about the distance change.
White told the Herald-Leader that, dating back to the start of the experimental rules partnership between the Atlantic League and MLB in 2019, team personnel don’t comment on specific rule changes so the league can speak with a clear voice on the subject.
But, White said he’s aware that some coaches and players aren’t in favor of the new distance.
“We know players have reservations about doing this. Why wouldn’t they? It’s something they are unaccustomed to. It’s new, it’s different, it’s a change,” White said. “We’re dealing with a very high level of athletes playing to win every night and that gives these tests a far more authentic, legitimate value than a test in spring training or a test at a low-level, developmental league. We have a commitment to the sport of baseball. We believe baseball is going to evolve and we would like to be a part of it.”
It also remains to be seen if the pitching distance change has a meaningful effect in the win-loss column for the Legends.
Lexington went 33-24 in the first half of the regular season, securing a playoff spot by leading the South Division at the midway point.
In their first game with the new pitching distance Wednesday night, the Legends won, 13-4, at home against High Point.
“I think from a fan’s perspective, it’s got to be cool,” Scaglion said. “Not just to see the development of players, but the development of the game as a whole.”
