ASA Rule Changes

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by ronald

Hey, we might get to call together in Salem!

That's what I'm hearing! Lookin' forward to it.

[DeputyUICHousto]

Originally Posted by NCASAUmp

Call with me sometime. This won't be an issue.

Do you guys not enforce the batter's box rule? I'm confused.

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by DeputyUICHousto

Do you guys not enforce the batter's box rule? I'm confused.

I always enforce the batter's box issue, and I don't put up with BS from the players who won't step in and keep their feet from going over the lines before the pitch.

You're in the box, or I call strike.

[greymule]

Maybe it would be more simple to base the runner closest to home on where they were at TOP?

For intentional INT on fly balls, that would work. In fact, it would make a good general rule (for INT on fly balls). No runner should be able to advance or score simply because he reached the next base or touched the plate before another runner committed INT on a fly ball. (INT before the BR reaches 1B would probably cover most of this, but there still might be a loophole.)

I would also change the ruling on this play:

Bases loaded, 1 out. Slow runner B4 grounds to F6, who throws to F4 for the out on R3 as speedy R1 scores. F4's throw to 1B is in plenty of time to get B4 and end the inning, but R3 (who is already out) deliberately interferes with the throw. The ruling is that R2 (the runner closest to home) is the third out, and since R3 had been put out, the out on R2 is not a force, and thus R1's run counts.

On such intentional INT, I would give the defense the advantageous third out they were trying to get at 1B.

There are a half dozen ASA rules I'm not particularly fond of, but they don't have the potential for disaster, like letting a team benefit from committing deliberate INT.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by DeputyUICHousto

Make the batter's box more narrow...this way, a pitcher knows he can hit the inside corner with the knowlege the ball won't be coming back at him at 100mph...oops, 98 mph. Make the batter's get up on the plate...and enforce the rule!

A couple years ago the box was widened and then returned using the same excuse.

AFAIC, the excuse is nothing more than just that, an excuse, and a weak one at that, for playing t-ball.

It is slow pitch softball. Anyone who cannot avoid hitting a ball someplace should consider taking up golf, or maybe competitive rock, paper, scissors.

"To avoid forcing the batter to hit up the middle" has also been used as an excuse against home run limits and pitch height limits. The players will use anything as an excuse to be able to keep hitting cheap HRs.

The players are already whining about the .52/275 ball which has been introduced in some areas. The ball sucks, it knuckles, it turns to mush, etc. all which is a load of crap. The ball still exits the bats at 98 MPH, but impact is only a third of that which would fracture a human scull. The present ball being used in ASA SP has an impact at 50% higher than the force needed to cause that fracture. The key is the HR hitters will still be able to hit HRs with the presently legal ASA bats while the pretenders have to start learning how to deal with simple basehits. And, of course, has already surfaced as just another excuse that will inevitably lead to "forcing" the batters to hit up the middle. Go figure.

The good news is that the introduction of this ball may reduce, if not eliminate, the non-approved bat list. But we all know how slow ASA is with this type of change.

[Dakota]

Is ASA going it alone with this ball (that is, what is U-trip, for example, doing)? If ASA is going it alone, will this result in a further defection of teams and then ASA backtracking?

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by Dakota

Is ASA going it alone with this ball (that is, what is U-trip, for example, doing)? If ASA is going it alone, will this result in a further defection of teams and then ASA backtracking?

No, but it shouldn't be an issue except with the ignorant. But, then again, we are talking about softball players. The ball DOES last and can be hit for distance by those who can hit for distance. Now, I'm sure there are different levels of quality which is the same with every other sports product on the market.

All that has been done is what the players demanded. That was for ASA to stop screwing with the bats and do something with the balls. Well, here it is and a replacement is necessary as apparently, the microcells are being banished for ASA ball as it seems they are too heavy and do not meet the specs. And that is a shame as these balls held up in hottest and most humid conditions.