 a pitch clock will be instituted so will a cap on how many pickoff attempts or stepoffs a pitcher can have during a plate appearance there will also be restrictions on defensive shifts plus the size of bases will be increased let's start with the shift or the lack thereof it's regulated it's legislated a little more but our team's still going to find a way do you think around that well there already is talk about one potential loophole or one potential strategy I would call it so you do have to have both infielders as you just described Bob on either side of second base and they have to be on the dirt there's no restriction on where your outfielders can play where is the area that most teams were stealing base hits from it's in that shallow right field area where the likes of somebody big poppy in his day would hit a bullet right there that for however many years was a hard single to right field and there's a guy right there to catch it well if you think a hitter is such a pole happy hitter would you take your left fielder and slide him into that spot it already has a name they're calling it the champagne glass defense where you'd kind of have a guy right in that right field spot flash you'd better have some quick outfielders who can cover the rest of that outfield but that has been discussed can you explain the champagne glass part of this well I'm guessing that it's there's a lower level and then there's two I guess you have the outfielders like that I like that I'm thinking martini glass I don't know why it's seven forty eight I'm this always goes back to me that if you're a major league hitter right the ability to be able to hit the ball the other way hit the ball away from the shift as Jack is now explaining the champagne glass shift will you be able to maybe make a team pay for being that aggressive with your shift in the outfielders obviously you're leaving a lot of room in left field left center right center field if you if you choose to go that way it's going to be fun to watch I mean Anthony Rizzo everybody saying his batting average is going to go up now it's going to be more action in the game I think a lot of these rule changes are made to get some more action and to pick up the pace a little bit I am eagerly waiting for a somewhat larger left-handed hitter let's say to smoke one to left field in that kind of alignment and then the races on the guy who's playing left center field or whatever is dashing into the corner to try and get the ball I don't know why I said that it was a larger runner but that would be a little slower he's chugging around the bases trying to get the third that's exciting so I'm actually looking forward to that and I think we're going to see it all right so you mentioned the idea that you get more runs you get more action on the base pads the pickoff move you only get three attempts and if you overdo that the runner gets the base what do you think of that and do you think it'll be effective yeah well I think obviously they're trying to create more action out on the base pads and also with the bags being bigger this year maybe the possibility of more stolen bases my first initial thought was as a catcher I would call throwovers the first base all the time maybe to give myself a little bit more time to think about pit selection maybe to throw over to see if the hitter is going to give away if he's going to be squaring around the bunt obviously you're going to have to do away with those now because you can only throw over a few times out of all of these changes that's probably the one I'm not the biggest fan of the pitch clock is the one I'm the biggest fan you know what's weird the bigger bases that it's going to I feel like we're so used to that size base that the larger base remember when the few pitchers had that protective hat that looked like a helmet looked like a oversized slurpee cup or some or helmet yeah I don't know kizu anyway kizu yeah the great kizu