Is MLB's new slide rule too severe?

Major League Baseball is trying to make sliding plays at second base safer, but, as the season starts, the debate has shifted to whether MLB has gone overboard with regulations.

This started in October's playoffs when the Dodgers' Chase Utley slid late into second base and broke the leg of Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada.

A rules committee was formed.

Now there are rules that put restrictions on the play where a runner can break up a double play.

Are the rules too severe?

The new Rule 6.01 says that a runner, in order to make a "bona fide slide," must make contact with the ground before reaching the base, be able to touch the base with a foot or hand, remain on the base after the slide and not change the path for the purpose of making contact with the defender.

The Nationals caught a break in Atlanta when the Braves' Nick Markakis slid inside toward second baseman Daniel Murphy and was ruled out after sliding over the bag.

In St. Petersburg, Fla., Tampa Bay won a 3-2 game against Toronto when Jose Bautista slid into second in the ninth inning and grabbed the ankle of Rays second baseman Logan Forsythe for a game-ending double play.

Nobody wants players to get hurt, but has MLB disrupted a rough-and-tumble play that's intended to disrupt a double play relay?

It seems like the items of the new rule contradict. If the rule allows a runner to slide and touch the base with either a hand or foot, how then can a runner be called out if he veers one way or the other to interfere with a relay to first?

The rule wants a runner to slide directly into the base. There is plenty of gray area for umpires.

"I don't like the new rule," Nationals shortstop Danny Espinosa said before the team's home opener Thursday. "There's a difference between a malicious attempt and a slide that breaks up a double play."

The sliding rule is different than the home plate collision rule that was changed after San Francisco catcher Buster Posey broke his leg.

Before that rule, runners were coming around third with the idea of knocking catchers into the next area code, much like an NFL back crashes into the end zone for a touchdown.

That rule change was needed because catchers are no longer targets of charging runners. Now catchers are not allowed to block home plate without having the ball.

But that's not what's going on at second base. Yes, Utley's slide was dangerous - and not within the rules - but that was more the exception than the rule.

"A hard slide doesn't bother me," Espinosa said. "There aren't many malicious slides."

Teams used spring training to train runners to slide directly to the base. Defensive players worked to stay on the bag because, in an age of replay, the phantom double play is also being challenged.

Miami manager Don Mattingly says his opinion on the changes doesn't count.

"The rule conflicts with the way we've played," Mattingly said before yesterday's game against the Nats. "In general, all sports rules change. It's our job to adjust. That's just the way it is."