PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. _ The introduction to baseball's latest rule revolution begins Thursday, as teams can starting getting familiar with the impact of pitchers being required to face a minimum of three batters unless they end the inning first.
Also, the considerations, conversations and controversies that the change will entail.
"It's really poorly designed," said Joe Maddon, the new Angels, and former Rays and Cubs, manager. "The purpose of it is, I guess, to speed up the game, and the pace. I don't quite understand how they put it together. ...
"But now you're messing with strategy. And that makes it so much more difficult."
Realistically, the consequences _ intended and otherwise _ won't fully be known for at least a few months of regular-season play, if not the full season.
"We've had a lot of discussions about it," Rays manager Kevin Cash.
Here are some of the many, certainly more than three, points of conversation:
