By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Major League Baseball is always looking to improve the game through various changes including pace of play — while protecting it's integrity — more so than ever under Commissioner Rob Manfred.
On Tuesday, June 12, the league's 16-member Competition Committee met to discuss these changes, specifically whether MLB should "ban or limit" defensive shifts, according to SNY.tv's Andy Martino.
To no surprise, one former Philadelphia Phillies player who was significantly impacted by defensive shifts during his 13-year career, first baseman Ryan Howard, is in favor of MLB imposing such restrictions. Monday afternoon on SportsRadio 94 WIP's Midday Show with Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie, Howard said analytics are "overstressed" and that defensive shifts are "taking away from the excitement of the game."
"Obviously playing the game, I always watch it in a different aspect than like your everyday, average viewer. So, it's always different for me, but I'm not going to lie … at times, it can be very long. It can tend to get boring," Howard said. "I've always said that there's a place for the analytics. At times, I think that there's too much put on analytics. I think they're overstressed. I think it's slowly killing certain aspects of the game."
Howard cited declining use of hit-and-runs, stolen base attempts and pitch-outs — "like the chess game between the managers" — as examples of how MLB has been negatively impacted from the rise of analytics. "You're missing out on a lot of those different types of aspects of the game, which I think made the game a little more exciting," Howard said.
"The shift starts to take away from the excitement of the game. Some of those balls might be base hits that are either a tying run or it's a go-ahead run. People come to the games and want to see excitement and action. They want to see movement. A guy hits the ball into the shift, and instead of it being the go-ahead run, now you're still tied 2-2 and the next thing you know, you're playing a 21-inning game.
In terms of trying to speed up the game, yeah, [the shift] can have tendencies of taking away a lot of hits. … Guys numbers are down. … it's 'feast or famine,' where the value is in home runs, but strikeouts are up. It takes a lot of things to where I first came up, the only numbers that mattered were home runs, RBIs and batting average. Nothing else was really as important.
So, you understand where all that stuff plays a role, but it's kind of like to what extent? To now, you're kind of sacrificing the excitement and some of the integrity [of the game]. …"
Howard, a partner of SeventySix Capital, will speak more on the future of sports technology at its "The Future of Sports Tech & Sports Betting Conference" on Tuesday, June 26, at
