St. Louis Cardinals: Bloggers sound off over new MLB Rules

A select roundtable of bloggers and podcasters offer their opinions on how the new MLB rules impacted the 2020 season and moving forward in 2021.

Major League Baseball announced a series of new rules prior to the start of the 2020 season. Several of the rules dealt with health and safety issues due to the COVID-19 crisis. Some dealt with scheduling, while others with roster and player transactions.

But there were a series of rule changes which dealt with on the field issues and postseason play. These rules added the Universal Designated Hitter, seven-inning doubleheaders, expanded postseason, three-batter minimum for pitchers, and runner starting at second base in extra innings.

Now that the St. Louis Cardinals are in the offseason, it is a good time to look at how these rules impacted the game in 2020. Also, it’s pertinent to ask if these rules should be kept in 2021 and beyond.

We assembled a roundtable of select bloggers and podcasters to offer their opinions concerning the on-field and postseason rule changes. Joining me on this roundtable are:

Daniel Shoptaw (@C70) – Daniel is a co-host with Allen Medlock of the Meet Me at Musial podcast (@MeetMeAtMusial) and blogs at Cards Conclave (@CardsConclave

Ron Nuttall (@ToR_Ron75) – Ron is the host of the Ruffled Feathers podcast at Two Birds on a Bat (@birdsonabatshow), host of N the Cards (@ntznetwork), and co-host on the Team of Rivals podcast (teamofrivalspodcast.com).

Jason Hill (@JPHill_Cards)-Jason is a writer for Viva El Birdos (vivaelbirdos.com).

Matt Benson (@STLAnalyticsUK)-Matt is a fellow contributor here at Redbird Rants.

As with most Cardinals fans, these bloggers and podcasters offered different takes on the rule changes. Let’s get into it.