Recently, news came out that baseball plans to implement key rule changes as early as next season. First, the league plans to change its increasingly gigantic strike zone by cutting the bottom of the zone. As it stands, the zone extends to the bottom of the kneecap. Over the years, umpires have extended that definition, calling more and more strikes below the kneecap. Changing the ruling is an attempt to curtail those extra strikes and increase offense.
In addition to the strike zone, baseball will make intentional walks automatic. Instead of lobbing four awkward tosses to the catcher, pitchers and managers can purposefully put a guy on first with a simple hand movement in an attempt to speed up pace of play.