The first week of South Korean baseball is in the books, and while it may not have become a global phenomenon, it is reaching a brand new demographic of sports-starved Americans. With the Major League Baseball and the Players Association gearing up for a potentially ugly fight over revenue sharing, it may end up being the only baseball to reach American audiences this year, too.
While fundamental the same game, the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) is just different enough from its MLB counterpart. Some changes are somewhat minor, like that the designated-hitter is universal. However, some of those small differences are arguably better than the rules MLB has in place.
It's apparent MLB will follow KBO and other leagues for how they protect players from COVID-19, like playing in empty stadiums. Putting those changes aside, here are three lessons MLB can take from KBO games.
DE-JUICE THE BASEBALL
MLB is quickly becoming a "three true outcome" league, with more and more plate appearances resulting in a strikeout, a walk or a home run. While home runs make highlight reels, the abundance of them in recent years has started to irk people, especially since it has been proven the ball is different and more hitter friendly.
This home run explosion has had ripple effects too, like longer games and fewer stolen bases. For example, players like Kevin Newman and Bryan Reynolds are both quick and could steal 20-30 bases per year if they so chose, but the risk of being thrown out is not worth it with Josh Bell at the plate. If he homers, it doesn't matter what base they were on.
The KBO is known as an offense-heavy league, but they decided to de-juice their baseballs for the 2019 season. I won't bore you with the details on how they did it, but this article gives a good primer. The main takeaway is the league had been trying to curb offense for a couple years, and after expanding the strike zone failed, they looked to the ball itself. These changes helped shorten games, something MLB has been actively trying to do.
There has been an offensive spike early in the 2020 season, but that might just be the product of small sample size or rusty pitchers. MLB insists they do not know why there has been a home run explosion, but the KBO proves that there is a way to curb it.
WILD CARD STRUCTURE
Five of the ten KBO teams make the playoffs, but those playoff spots are not created equal. While MLB has a division series where the wild card winner and the three division champs play in the division series, the KBO playoff structure is a rise to the top. The winner of the wild card round plays the three seed, then that winner faces the two seed to determine who faces the best team in the Korean Series.
While the other rounds are normal series, the wild card round is different. It's a best of three where the home team is already up 1-0. The fifth seed needs to win two games on the road or be eliminated.
The problem with the current MLB wild card game structure is the team with the better record doesn't have much of an advantage. Sure, they get to play the do-or-die game at home, but the visitors are 9-7 in these games thus far. Across baseball, home field advantage is becoming less and less valuable:
Sixth Inning Recap: 2 Solo HRs. 1 Epic Bat Flip.@NCdinos_fan | #KBO pic.twitter.com/WapUCxNxgn
— bear's kbo acc (태웅) NC 4-1 (@taewoongii) May 5, 2020
Not sure what went further ball or bat. Look at em fly. pic.twitter.com/x4sLEuX6XF
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) May 10, 2020
Another crazy game-ending #BatFlip by Moon Gyu Hyun #LotteGiants #KBO #KBO_IS_WILD pic.twitter.com/foXb973TxI
— Flip That Bat (@FlipThatBat_KBO) May 12, 2020
