On Monday, Major League Baseball revealed new pace of play rules, which included a limit of six mound visits per team, per nine innings, with each team getting an extra mound visit for every extra inning. There were some exceptions to what qualifies as a mound visit, including injuries, a meeting after a pinch hitter is an announced, or if a player needs to clean their spikes in the rain.

But there’s one little thing missing in the talk about mound visit limits – what happens if a team thumbs its nose at the six visit per game limit?

On Tuesday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that a seventh visit would result in an automatic pitching change.

Whoa, that’s significant!

Wait…maybe Manfred was mistaken, MLB Chief Baseball Office Joe Torre says that’s only partially correct – a seventh visit only would result in a pitching change if the manager or a coach visits.

Major League Baseball – continuing to make bold decisions that effects its sport without thoroughly thinking those decisions through.

What’s the point of a limit on something (in this case, mound visits) if there is no punishment? Sure, a manager or coach can’t make a seventh mound visit without spurring a pitching change, but that doesn’t prevent the catcher or an infielder from making a visit – unless, of course, the umpire starts ejecting players, which would be a disaster for baseball.

But hey, this isn’t exactly a new thing for MLB. Remember when the first two weeks of the 2014 season were plagued with way too many challenges regarding the transfer rule and what is or is not a catch? Or how we still don’t know what “blocking the plate” means in regards to home plate collisions, years after the rule was instituted? How about when the neighborhood play at second base was eliminated, and takeout slides were banned…kinda sorta?

This is what Major League Baseball does – they come up with an idea, fail to flesh it out, and then have to clarify themselves a couple of weeks into the season after it turns out no one knows what the hell is going on.

Great job, everyone!

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.