Connect with us

Features

The New Pitch Clock Is Worse Than You Think

The New Rule Of MLB

It’s been a few days into the MLB’s Spring Training. This season, things are different. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has introduced several new rules that will heavily impact the trajectory of the MLB’s future. For starters, each team will now play every single team in the league. In the past, when both the American and National League teams played against each other, it was called interleague play.

Manfred also eliminated the shift and made slightly bigger bases to increase more offense, prevent injury, and leverage pull hitters. But most of all, the MLB now has a pitch clock, and it’s had lukewarm results.

Before the Pitch Clock

Over the last century and a half, the game of baseball used to be “America’s Pastime,” the darling of professional sports. As time went on over the next half of the 20th century, games such as American football, hockey, and basketball became more popular due to the increase of pace during their overall games.

Out of the top four sports of America today, baseball is the slowest and arguably the hardest to watch. From my life experience, if you didn’t grow up watching the sport, chances are it’s unlikely that you’ll enjoy it during your adult years. Due to the impact of technology, people’s attention span are growing smaller and smaller, and the only hype for the casuals is the World Series.

Don’t get me wrong, social media has made the MLB more fun and personable. Players interact directly with their fans online through their personal life, in the dugout, and their extracurricular activities beyond the game of baseball. However, if I were to ask a casual to name five MLB players, it’s rare they would get past three.

Overview

Rob Manfred Discussing the Pitch Clock at the Podium

Photo by Julio Aguilar

Over the last few seasons, Manfred and his crew decided to implement a pitch clock in order to increase the speed of the game. They believe  that making the game faster will increase adrenaline, watchability, and efficiency. Additionally, their reason for this alludes to why other sports in America are doing so well.

Let’s get into the details of the pitch clock. Pitchers will have 15 seconds between pitches when there are no baserunners and 20 seconds when there is at least one baserunner. Additionally, the batter will have seven seconds to be in the stance, ready to hit, otherwise a strike will be called. The clock starts when the pitcher gets the ball and the catcher and batter are ready. If the pitcher does not throw a pitch within the allotted time, the umpire will issue an automatic ball.

Costly Plays

Sounds confusing? It’s even more confusing to me as I write about it. This pitch clock has already issued multiple violations. During a game between the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves, it was tied 6-6 at the top of the ninth, bases loaded, two outs and a 3-2 count. This meant that the pitcher has 20 seconds to throw a pitch. However, during the 20 seconds, the Boston catcher was relaying signs to the infield that the play was at first. This took time off the pitch clock, which confused both teams. After a few seconds, the home plate umpire began waving his hands. Initially, both teams thought that the pitcher ran out of time to throw his pitch. What actually happened was that Conley failed to be in the batters box after seven seconds, signaling a strikeout to end the inning.

Pitch Clock Violation For Exchanging Baseballs

Here’s another violation that happened. During a spring training game between the Texas Rangers and the Cleveland Guardians, the Guardians pitcher requested a new baseball from the umpire. Generally this a normal gesture during a game. However, the pitch clock did’t start over when he was given a new baseball, and he didn’t have enough time to get set, resulting in a pitch clock violation.

If this sticks with baseball, this is going to take players a very long time to make their adjustments. Think about a hitter or pitcher being ahead in the count because either of them fails to get set on time. Believe it or not, pitchers and hitters counts matter a whole lot during a baseball game. If a hitter is ahead in the count because of some measly pitch clock violations, this will very likely cause the pitcher to throw more pitches over the middle of the plate to avoid walking the batter. This will give more chances of getting a hit for the batter.

Because of the violation, the pitcher was now at a 2-2, which is more favorable to the hitter rather than a 1-2 count. Additionally, the Rangers were up by five and they had runners on 2nd and 3rd base with only one out in the top half of the 3rd inning. In this circumstance, this is huge for the Rangers. The pitch clock violation aided in another chance to further extend their 5-0 lead.

Scary Future

There’s no doubt the pitch clock is going to change MLB as we know it. While these are only spring training games and winning doesn’t necessarily matter, it isn’t an oversight to foresee this becoming an issue in the regular and postseason. In general, winning or losing a game should dictate how well your team played. Of course there are rare anomalies that interfered the trajectory of games in the past, it’s more than likely some games will now be decided by a controversial rule. Expect this to upset managers, teammates, and the overall MLB fanbase.

This also affects the strategies of each team going forward. This past weekend, longtime manager Dusty Baker chimed in on his opinion of the pitch clock following a 4-2 Houston Astros win over the New York Mets:

“I’m concerned about that because you’re always aware of people stealing signs. And then there’s the sensitive area. OK, are you cheating? Is that part of the game, stealing signs? If I know you’re hitting and running that’s what I’m supposed to do.”

According to The Guardian, Baker also said there’s less time for the dugout to signal the third base coach, who in turn must relay signs to batters and runners, and therefore less time for to use decoys, making the signs easier to decipher.

This pitch clock puts more pressure on the third base coach to be quicker than years past. On the flipside, the pitch clock also limits the amount of time defenses have to react, even if they know a hit-and-run or bunt is coming. In result, both teams have to react a lot quicker accordingly.

The question is, will this new rule bring in more casual fans as they seek to watch a more “lively” and “fast paced” game of baseball?

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured Articles

Featured Writers

More in Features