Last week, Eric Longenhaven of FanGraphs noticed something odd: outfielders at an Arizona Fall League game he attended were invariably positioning themselves in a much shallower spot than you usually see. Investigating, he found that MLB is testing new outfield positioning rules at one of the AFL’s parks. His article is well worth the read for the full details, but in short: the new system puts markings on the field that outfielders must align themselves with prior to any pitch, and that infielders
must align themselves with when a pitch is thrown with no runners aboard. The Hawkeye system tracks if fielders are abiding by the rules. The goal of the test is to see if positioning restrictions can increase offense.
Per Longehaven’s reporting, the tests are preliminary, and there would be a long road to take before this would be seen in the bigs (if it ever makes it there at all). So while this is all very early, it’s not too early to get your thoughts. So, today’s question is: What do you think about this experiment?
