new minor league baseball rules
 

Went to a Fort Myers Miracle game last night, class A Florida League. They are using a clock on pitchers and batters, but no balls or strikes were assessed during the game. It had to help move it along. Ended up in a tie and then it got quite interesting. They use a tie breaker rule putting the last one who batted on 2nd base to start the 10th inning. Looks like the strategy is to get that runner over to 3rd as the first batter laid down a bunt to do that. Unfortunately his bunt was not long enough and the catcher was able to throw out the runner going from 2nd to 3rd. The visitors failed to score. Home team has their ups. The visitors walk the first batter likely to make a force/double play possible. The intentional walk did not require 4 crappy pitches, but the manager telling the plate umpire to walk him. So with two on and no out, the next batter does lay down a bunt, but another short one that results in a double play at 3rd and 1st. Now, 2 out and runner on 2nd. I'm thinking we're going to11, when the next batter hits a blooper down the right field line that is not catchable and game over.
The new rules war sparked by a desire to speed up the games. It did---10 innings in just under 3 hours. Also, trips to the mound are restricted. I like it
all. Of course $$ is a big issue especially in small minor league parks. Fans typically leave after 9---concession stands are not taking in money and people are getting paid with no revenue coming in. I could live with this in the majors. What say
?

TV money controls the timing in MLB games. If the players were willing to take a substantial cut in pay, they could get by with fewer commercials and shorten the game times.

Don’t bet on it.

You are spot on about MLB, and it is the half ton gorilla in other sports too. Nothing beats a football game and all of a sudden they stop playing for a TV commercial.

"no pitch" IW and restricted mound visits are also part of MLB.

The others are reasonably well known / publicized experiments for MiLB -- as they have done for several recent rule changes

There are also clocks in MLB stadiums beginning this year. Not for individual pitches, but batters have 20 seconds to get in the box after the previous play is over. And the defense has 2 minutes and 20(?) seconds between innings for any warm up pitches, etc. I don't recall what penalties exist, if any.