Colorado Rockies: Bud Black’s thoughts on the 2020 rule changes

Seven inning doubleheaders

Once again, like the extra inning baserunner rule, Black liked this one but he would still like to tweak it a bit.

"“[For] the seven inning doubleheaders, I think that was a good one as well as far as expediting what we needed to do as far as the health protocols this season, for sure,” said Black. “And I think [it was necessary for] where the pitchers were as far as stamina and durability, especially early in the year. But, again, I think that one has merit. [I would m]aybe add a little adendum there where the first game is nine [innings] and the second game is seven [innings] or something like that. That could be discussed to change that up a little bit.”"

Expanded postseason (both the number of teams and games in the Wild Card series)

This is yet another change that Black likes and would like to keep going forward.

"“I like that one too,” said Black. “You know, I like that one, whether it’s 16 teams or 14 teams or whatever works, I do like the added clubs in there. I think it lends itself to more teams, obviously, in a pennant race but I like that one. And I like the two out of three scenario as opposed to the one-game Wild Card. There’s a lot of variables along with that–if we have to knock [the]162 [game schedule] down a little bit to make this work in October–there’s a lot of discussion but I do like expanded playoffs.”"

For a team like the Rockies that has had troubles playing playoff baseball consistently, this could be a way to have more of an avenue into postseason play and revenue. Perhaps, the regular season schedule would be trimmed down to 154 games (like it was prior to the expansion era, aka 1961 to the present).