Damn it, baseball. You did it. You've created an even more terrible version of extra innings. For those who haven’t heard, the minor leagues of baseball will now be starting with a runner on second in extra innings. That means it will likely be in MLB by 2020.
What. The. Hell.
How did the runner get there? Well, for purely statistical reasons and to keep the pitchers stats intact and not affect their ERA - because that's the important thing - this runner will count as an error. Well, at least the league got that right, cause this is one big error.
First of all, extra innings really isn't that big of a deal. In the majors, extra innings are required about 1 in 12 games. Of those, almost half are done in the 10th and over 80% are resolved by the 12th inning. Apart from TV networks, there probably aren't many people complaining about the few extra innings.
Since we’ve got over 80% of games solved by this 12th inning, why not use that as the total end, and allow a tie? Allowing ties would maintain the same system of games back that already exists in baseball for divisional positions. It’s still a better option than this farce taken from international softball. Oh, you didn't know? Yeah, this is an idea taken straight from international softball. It doesn't work well there either, but there’s significantly less scrutiny in that version of bat and ball. Specifically, what fails is the absolute massive advantage given to the home team. The visitor has to assume the home team will be able to cash in the runner with bunt bunt run, so to get a win, they have to swing for it. Should the visitor fail to cash in a single run, the home team strategy changes to just get that single run, which is generally bunt bunt win. That’s not exciting for anyone. Yes, the home team will win more, but the home team should not enjoy that massive of an advantage.
Could you imagine if the NFL started teams on the 20 of the red zone? It’s no different. The NHL has the shootout, which is laughable, but at least the playoffs go to sudden death, and that is incredibly exciting. Did baseball ever consider just doing a homerun derby to decide the winner? It’s not far off if they're trying this. Kudos to the NBA for getting OT right.
So what should baseball do? Here’s a radical idea - leave alone what isn't broken.