New Extraliga season with new rules
Baseball is a live game, same as other sports, and every now and then we get to see the rules changed. Czech Baseball Association decided to edit a few in order to improve the flow and tempo of the game.
The first change concerns tie-breaks, where we only get to see one runner on a base instead of two from the previous years. Same as in MLB, the runner will be placed on the second base.
The new season should also remove the situations, where batter steps out of the box after a pitch. Based on the new rules, batters have to remain in the batting box with at least one foot. If they don’t comply, even after caution from a referee, they will be given an automatic strike. We can thus potentially get into a situation where a batter strikes out without pitcher throwing a single ball. Batter can only step out of the batting box after a “Time”. This, however, is also limited to one charge through plate apperance.
Another new rules, which is already established in MLB is the minimal number of batters a pitcher must face. Pitchers must throw against at least 3 batters before they can be substituted. The same as overseas the rule is not carried over to following innings, so a pitcher can be substituted in between innings, despite only throwing against one or two batters.
We also won’t see a large number of pickoffs being thrown during a single plate appearance. Based on the new rules, pitcher can only throw two pick-offs during one plate appearance. All the following pick-offs are treated as balks.
Another rule change also concerns pitchers, and mound visits. CBA limited these to 5 through 9 innings. Each extra innings will have 1 mound visit allowed, added to 5 visits already allowed in the game.
Based on the article on baseball.cz, the time rule will now be applied not only in Extraliga, but also in First League, Promotion League, Prospect League, and U23. We will have to wait for the exact phrasing of the rules, but we will keep you posted once it’s clear.
