Good article Nick - interesting thoughts. If Ryan has better executable secondary pitches he'll spring up the depth chart. I listened to a national baseball pod many months ago with Theo where he talked about the many ideas they were cooking up to get more action back in the game, and decrease game times. Along with the larger bases, he noted that second base has been misplaced, relative to the placement of 1st and 3rd bases, since the inception of the game. 1st and 3rd bases are "inside the diamond" whereas the point of the baseline intersecting 1st and 3rd is in the middle of 2nd base, rather than the corner farthest towards center field. The combo of a larger base and moving 2nd closer by a few inches to the pitcher's mound would, in total, reduce the distance from 1st to 2nd by 13". I'm guessing they thought that was a bridge too far when implementing the larger bases.
Keep up the missives!
TheRealJemmer
