How MLB coaches, pitchers, hit...

Brady Williams is being promoted to the major leagues this season after three years as manager of the Triple-A Durham Bulls, which he led to a.589 record and consecutive Triple-A national titles in 2021 and '22. He'll be the third-base coach for the notoriously astute Tampa Bay Rays, where his understanding of the organization's up-and-coming talent will help him decide whether to send a player.

He also offers useful knowledge with some of the major-league rule adjustments set to take effect this season. Williams has seen the larger bases, sweated anxiously through the pressure-packed pitch timer, and even had to deal with robo-umps (which are at least a year away from infiltrating the majors).

In line with Williams' guidance, several major-league managers speculated at the December winter meetings that this rule in particular will necessitate their attention as they reassess the running game and prepare pitchers to avoid being exploited.

"It's on us as managers to help them handle it and be better in it," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. There's probably some more strategy involved."

Counsell stated that the Brewers began discussing ways to contain runners without having endless pickoffs in their arsenal with their pitchers this past season. "Because it's one of those things where it's not important, it's not important, and then one day we'll realize it's important."

This is a brand-new game within a game. All of the rule modifications have well considered intended impacts, but maybe more crucially, they require adaptability. The most successful teams will anticipate and exploit their opponents' adaptations, mine their experiences to inflict on opponents the conditions that make their players the most uncomfortable.

For example, Wooten discovered that batters, like pitchers, felt the strain of the ticking clock and that they could force a reset by calling a timeout just once every at-bat. "Hitters do not enjoy standing in the box when the pitcher is just gazing at them holding the ball," he explained. "So if a hitter takes timeout, that next pitch we're bringing that bad boy down to one second and making him stand there. You simply have to figure out how to flip these things around and use them to your benefit."