Tampa Bay Rays: Rules, Pecota, Pham and Loney

The Baseball Prospectus PECOTA projections were released. Pham won his arbitration case and some new MLB rules may be on the horizon.

Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic has been covering the recent discussions between Major League Baseball and its players union. They have been toying with the notion of a few rather dramatic yet unlikely rule changes for the 2019 season and I discussed them.

Here is part of my take on the proposed 3 batter mandate for pitchers:

I get that mid-half inning pitching changes can get tedious and time-consuming but those small moves embody the true beauty of the sport. Baseball is a chess match and a beautifully challenging and engaging (in my opinion) one at that. When…