Wainwright: Changing strike zone is a horrible idea

Adam Wainwright would like Major League Baseball to leave his strike zone alone.

The St. Louis Cardinals ace didn't mince any words when asked about the league's intent to raise the strike zone as soon as next season.

"It's a horrible, horrible idea," he told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The league is exploring the change, which would move the zone from "the hollow beneath the kneecap" to the top of the hitter's knees thanks to increased strikeout rates, but also in an attempt to shorten game times. Besides his concern for how the change may affect his pitching style, Wainwright simply doesn't see the correlation between the strike zone and game length.

"One, I'm a pitcher. And I'm a pitcher who likes to keep the ball low," he said. "Two, and mainly, all this talk about making the games shorter - what part of raising the strike zone up is going to do that?"

The 34-year-old also blasted the proposed change to intentional walks, another attempt to keep games moving.

"They want more offense. I understand that," Wainwright continued. "But taking 45 seconds off for an intentional walk one out of every three games isn't going to make up for the added balls in the gap by raising the strike zone, in my opinion."

Wainwright's manager, Mike Matheny, backed up his pitcher. Matheny, a four-time Gold Glove winner as a catcher, believes the changes could hinder catchers trying to frame lower strikes.

"You're taking away from the hardest part of receiving the ball well," Matheny said. "That's usually the differentiator - how a catcher catches the ball at the bottom of the zone. We're continuing to take away, take away from the skill set. It's a lost art and it's going to be completely lost here soon.

"I think you're going to see some unhappy pitchers. There’s no doubt about it."