Hunt and Peck

Stealing first base might become A Thing - A Hunt and Peck

Kind of interesting...

By lil_scooter93 Jul 11, 2019, 1:00pm EDT

2019 MLB All-Star Game, presented by Mastercard

Major League Baseball has tinkered around with the idea of making a few rule changes to speed up the pace of the game and draw more interest. The league has been testing these ideas in the Atlantic League. The two leagues have a three-year agreement in place for the Atlantic league to experiment with the new rules to better gauge what type of impact, if any, they might have on the game.

The newest rule the Atlantic League has been asked to test? Stealing first base. Per Jacob Bogage of The Washington Post:

In the second half of the season, the league will allow batters to steal first base: Any pitch on any count not caught in flight will be considered a live ball, and a batter may run to first base, similar to a dropped third strike.

Basically if the catcher does not catch it, the batter can try to advance to first. I am not sure how I feel about this. This would mostly apply to passed balls, which are not super common to begin with. The rule just seems weird and out of place for baseball. On the flip-side, it might contribute to Weird Baseball, which is fun. I guess time will tell how it works out!

What do you think?