It's obviously good to experiment with stuff in the minors before implementing it in the majors. It'll be interesting to see how moving the mound back plays. It's possible that it just makes breaking stuff nastier - curves will have more time to curve - and thus doesn't suppress strikeouts. But I'm open to the idea that it could be beneficial. Interesting article about the idea:
https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2021/3/15 ... e-distanceThe change that needs to happen most is automated balls and strikes. Then if you want to suppress strikeouts you can easily shrink the strike zone a smidge. I'd also like to see bigger fields - triples are more exciting than homers IMO. But SF had the biggest field and most triples until last year when they moved their fences in. Seattle, Detroit, and San Diego have also all moved their fences in in recent years. Wish someone would just go full-on Forbes but teams seem to be doing the opposite.
In general I think the balls-in-play and pace-of-play complaints are way overblown. I'm open to tinkering to address them but also just sick of hearing about it. It's a leisurely game. You're never going to satisfy the people who want nonstop action. And it's just terrible marketing for the commissioner to be constantly publicly harping on the game's problems rather than the positive things. Contrast with the NBA: it's pretty fun to watch until what should be the most exciting part of the game, the last couple minutes, when the game comes to a screeching halt and devolves into a horrendously boring and ugly exchange of fouls and free throws. That to me is a way bigger structural problem than anything baseball is currently dealing with. But I never hear anything about that, from the league, the broadcasters, no one. So maybe there wouldn't be so many complaints about balls in play and pace of play if the league wasn't so publicly obsessed with them? Just a thought.