Braves: Rules the MLB should keep from the 2020 season

2020 was about as strange of a season as they come, but it gave Major League Baseball a lot of room to experiment with new ideas. Some worked, some did not. Regardless if they’re going to be sticking around or not, these are the rules I liked from 2020 that I would love to see implemented in the future. 

DH in the National League

It was nice to see a lot of baseball traditionalists come around to this rule. Marcell Ozuna was fantastic for the Braves, and he would have gotten a lot more MVP consideration if it wasn’t for some Freddie Freeman guy hogging the spotlight. Maybe I’m biased as a Braves fan since Ozuna had a 1.067 OPS, 18 HRs, & 56 RBIs for Atlanta in 60 games. However, after watching Mike Foltynewicz and Sean Newcomb take swings for the past four years, I think it’s a pretty good trade-off. 

Also, come on… does Atlanta score 29 runs against Miami this year without a DH? That was awesome. Overall, I really like the versatility it offers. With the influx of outfielders Atlanta has coming through the minors, a DH allows Adam Duvall, Cristian Pache, (maybe) Marcell Ozuna, Ronald Acuña Jr, and Drew Waters all plenty of opportunity to take swings.

Shortened Season

This isn’t technically a rule, but you get the point. Sixty games was too short; however, I really enjoyed the intesity of it. Many teams were in it up until the very end, even teams that weren’t expected to compete at all. I think 81-100 games would be a sweet spot with more off days sprinkled in. 

Besides just being a great sport, football is so intense because of the low amount of games. I have to wait patiently on edge for my team’s next matchup. 162 games can get exhausting. I feel like 2020 was more memorable because the season didn’t start to drag at any point; every game felt important. Owners would never go for this because they would lose opportunities to sell tickets, but I think fans would be more eager to actually go to games with less of these opportunities. I would love to cut the season significantly, but it will likely never happen. 

New Playoff Format

I was a little shaky on this at first, but I thought the new 3-game Wild Card Series was pretty cool. It added an extra layer to the playoffs — the time when baseball is at its most intense. As hard as Atlanta tried to kill me in the 5-hour, 13 inning snoozefest that was Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, I still enjoyed the concept. We’ve seen Wild Card teams take it all the way, and it’s all about who gets hot at the right time. I think it’s a lot better than the one game do or die scenario that’s been used in the past… *cough* outfield fly rule *cough*…