Mains: Slaying the extra-innings dragon

From SABR member Rob Mains at Baseball Prospectus on February 9, 2017:

By now, we should know not to freak out over some of the things that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says. There isn’t a pitch clock. He hasn’t banned shifts. Calm down. Deep, cleansing breath. And another. Inhale slowly, exhale slowly. Feel better now? Good.

OMG THEY’RE GOING TO PUT A RUNNER ON SECOND BASE AT THE START OF EXTRA INNINGS!!

Well, OK, it’s only in the rookie-ball Gulf Coast League and Arizona League this summer. And it’s only an experiment. And the force behind it appears to be chief baseball officer Joe Torre, not Manfred. But let’s freak out, by all means!

<snip>

A person might ask, “How big of a problem is this?”

I’m going to answer this two ways. First, the easy/snarky answer. Torre said, “It’s not fun to watch when you go through your whole pitching staff and wind up bringing a utility infielder in to pitch. As much as it’s nice to talk about being at an 18-inning game, it takes time.”

While reasonable people can disagree about the inherent fun-ness of watching a utility infielder pitch, let’s consider the second of Torre’s sentences. While conceding that an 18-inning game does, in fact, take time, how frequent are they?

Read the full article here: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=31132



Originally published: February 9, 2017. Last Updated: February 9, 2017.