Former Giants pitchers pan Major League Baseball's 3-batter minimum for relievers

Starting in 2020, Major League Baseball will change forever.

It will impose a new rule forcing relief pitchers to face no fewer than three batters, unless the reliever gets injured or the inning ends. The league wants fewer pitching changes and shorter games.

Imagine if this rule were in place 10 years ago.

Imagine it's 2010, or 2012, or 2014, the years the Giants won the World Series. Imagine their manager, Bruce Bochy, a future Hall of Famer and a brilliant baseball strategist, isn't allowed to use his bullpen the way he wants. Isn't allowed to bring in left-handed specialist Javier Lopez to face only one hitter, a lefty, before being removed, or isn't allowed to bring in right-handed specialist Sergio Romo to face only one hitter, a righty. Imagine Lopez and Romo each have to face three hitters, potentially both righties and lefties.

Would the Giants win three World Series?

“No,” said former Giants left-handed pitcher Shawn Estes. “They weren't the best team any of those years. They simply had a manager who always was a step ahead.”

Estes is vehemently against the three-batter rule change, as are fellow former Giants pitchers Vida Blue and Bill Laskey. Here's why:

1. The rule will dumb down baseball and put certain people out of business.

All three pitchers agree on this point.

“It will take strategy away from the endgame,” Laskey said. “And most of the time now, the endgame is where you win or lose.”

Blue doesn't like the effect the rule will have on managers in particular. “It will take all of the strategy out of their hands,” Blue said.

Blue, Laskey and Estes are old-school pitchers. They appreciate old-school managers who understand the strategy of pitcher-batter matchups. Managers such as Bochy, Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox. “This rule would take those type of managers out of play,” Estes said. “The game will become more scripted.”

Specialist relievers like Lopez and Romo would be out of jobs.

Managers may be obsolete soon, too. “These days, you've got a GM and a stat guy working together - they're the guys helping you win,” Estes explained. “The manager is more of a team psychologist now. A guy who deals with egos.”

In other words, he's becoming an ego manager, not a baseball manager.

2. The rule will lengthen games, not shorten them.

This is what could happen:

A reliever enters the game, but just doesn't have it that day. He can't find the strike zone, or his breaking pitches don't break, or both. Happens all the time.

In the past, the manager would yank that poor pitcher from the game immediately.

“Now, you're going to have to sit through three batters and 20 pitches, and inevitably make the pitching change anyway,” Estes said.

The three-batter minimum will backfire, according to Estes. It will result in more scoring and longer games.

“You're going to have lots of unfavorable matchups within that three-batter minimum (lefties facing righties, or vice versa),” Estes said. “Unfavorable matchups lead to more offense. More offense leads to the inevitable pitching change that could lead to another unfavorable matchup. That's more offense and longer innings. Trust me, that's going to happen.”

Until, eventually, teams figure out how to violate the three-batter minimum. Perhaps they already have.

3. The rule will compromise the integrity of the game.

“You do whatever it takes to win,” Blue said. “Obviously, you play fair and clean, but teams will come up with ways to work around the three-batter minimum. Some of these managers and players are pretty shrewd in their ability to get the job done.”

Shrewd how?

According to Estes, relief pitchers will fake injuries to leave games before they've faced three batters. “A guy goes out there, all of a sudden he's got a cramp. Or a blister. Or he's sick. Or he's going to throw up. You could come up with multiple injuries that won't raise a red flag. That's going to happen, period. It will. And that's terrible for the game. Baseball will need to have the fake-injury police. Who's going to do that?”

Laskey knew injury fakers when he was a big leaguer. “Back in my day, a pitcher told me, ‘I'm going on a two-week vacation because the team isn't scoring any runs.' I looked at him and said, ‘Are you serious?' And he said, ‘Yeah, why do I want to jeopardize getting two or three more losses when the team's not scoring runs?' So, he said his lower back hurt. You don't have to get an MRI for back spasms. You just fake it.”

We might see a back-spasm epidemic among relievers starting in 2020.

4. There are better ways to shorten games.

First, MLB can ban the manager from walking to the mound. Tell him to call time, signal to the umpire and make the pitching change from the dugout.

“Also, eliminate the stall,” Estes said. “The manager goes out to the mound. He waits for the umpire to come to the mound. He has a meeting with the umpire for a minute. By that time, the reliever is ready. Eliminate that. That's a two, three, four-minute delay right there.”

Second, the league can get rid of extra innings during the regular season. “I have no problem calling it a tie after 10 or 11 innings,” Laskey said. “Then, the game doesn't last four, five, six hours. How many people are left in the ballpark during extra innings? Ten percent? Twenty percent? In playoffs, sure, you've got to play it out, but during the season, no.”

Third, enforce the rule that requires hitters to stay in the batter's box the entire at-bat. “I don't know why guys step in and out of the batter's box during an at-bat, anyway,” Blue said. “Find some gloves that fit. They adjust their gloves after every pitch. Maybe get a larger size or a smaller size.

“Another one that drives me crazy is when you're losing 9-0 and you're at bat, you step out and the third-base coach gives you signs. What the hell is he telling you? You're getting your butt kicked.”

Blue wouldn't make any more changes. He actually likes the casual pace of baseball. Finds the games entertaining even when they last four hours. Especially when they last four hours.

“Let me tell you what - I'm glad I'm not playing now,” Blue said. “Obviously, I would like to make the money, but I think the game is going backward in a sense. Where did they get these ideas from?”