Major League Baseball (MLB) will install radar tracking technology at eight ballparks under a partnership with the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) that will allow it to test experimental playing rules and equipment during the latter’s Championship Season.
The ALPB has eight member teams in the Mid-Atlantic and Texas, with the league serving as a player gateway to MLB. The new three-year agreement includes rights for MLB to implement changes to Atlantic League playing rules in order to observe the effects of potential future rule changes and equipment. MLB will work with ALPB to modify the experimental playing rules and equipment each season during the agreement.
MLB also will enhance its scouting coverage of the Atlantic League, installing radar tracking technology in the eight Atlantic League ballparks and providing statistical services to ALPB clubs.
The new agreement continues MLB’s longstanding practice of testing potential new approaches under game conditions. In recent years, MLB has utilised and evaluated experimental rules in its Arizona Fall League, the game’s top off-season developmental platform.
Atlantic League president Rick White said: “The Atlantic League prides itself on innovation. In that spirit, our board of directors, led by chairman and founder Frank Boulton, enthusiastically and unanimously approved this forward-looking agreement.”
The ALPB’s reigning champion, Sugar Land Skeeters, play at Constellation Field (pictured).
Image: Sugar Land Skeeters
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