Pace of Game: New Rules to be Implemented Throughout Baseball

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb.../pace-of-game/

Maybe the next commissioner will realize this problem threatens the long term viability of the sport and do something aside from talking about changes. This should be the #1 on-field priority for the new commissioner.

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I saw this thread title on twitter and knew who posted it.

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I don't join the conversation, I start it.

[Namaste]

I lold
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I have no problems with the pace of baseball.

Baseball gonna baseball.

[Miamarlin21]

I am in Daft's camp.

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Care to explain why? If games were 29 minutes shorter just 10 years ago, shouldn't the league push to make that the norm again? How do you benefit from being at a ballpark for 29 additional minutes? It's inefficient.

If I go to a weeknight game knowing I have to work the next day at 8:00am, I want that game to end at 9:45 so I can be home by 10:30. I'm sure a lot of parents who take their kids to games during the school year would agree as well.

It may not bother you guys, but it's a problem that will negatively affect the league long term.

[emkayseven]

I generally agree with Festa, it's to the point where some games are too boring for me to watch and I used to park my ass in front of a TV at Gators Dockside and watch baseball for 9 straight hours.

There's a lot of unnecessary dead time. Forget the pitcher, it's the hitter. Per the rule book, the hitter isn't supposed to step out of the batter's box. Just enforce that rule and it will cut down on time.

Joe Posnanski wrote a good piece on this recently.
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http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/20...ction/related/

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CLEVELAND, Ohio – The pitch clocks aren't scheduled to arrive this season at your favorite big-league ballpark, but they might not be that far away.

MLB, according to ESPN's Jayson Stark, has proposed that pitchers be required to finish their warm-up pitches 30 seconds before the end of between-inning commercials for the 2015 season. Batters would have to be ready to hit 20 seconds before the end of such commercials.

It's clear MLB is serious about improving the pace of play. Last year the average time of a game was 3 hours and 13 minutes, six minutes longer than the previous year. The Indians averaged 3:12.

It's believed a lot of that increase came between innings as commercials lasted longer than the required 2:05 on games that were not nationally televised. Add to that the walk-up music for each hitter and slow-working pitchers and it's a snooze-fest in the making.

"When you see fans getting up and leaving in the seventh or eighth inning of a close ballgame, that's not a good sign," said Milwaukee GM Doug Melvin at the GM meetings in November.

The players association would have to approve such a proposal.

Last season in the Arizona Fall League, MLB used several innovations to try and improve the flow of games. Pitchers, with a clock behind home plate, had to deliver a pitch within 20 seconds. Hitters had to keep one foot in the batter's box at all times and a clock on the front of each dugout limited the time for pitching changes and the time between innings to 2:30.

The clocks were used only at Arizona's Salt River Fields. In 2013, the average time for an AFL game at Salt River was 2 hours, 52 minutes. This past fall it was 2:42.

This year a 20-second pitch clock will be used for all Class AA and Class AAA games.

"I think it's great," said manager Terry Francona, when asked about the 20-second clock. "I think it's going to be easy. I'm a big proponent."

Francona said a system was in place last year in the big leagues to try and improve pace of game, but he didn't know how it worked.

"They had these signs last year – red, green and yellow," said Francona. "I guarantee you no player knew what they meant because I didn't know what they meant.

"They had a guy standing over the camera well showing us these signs. I think green meant a minute. It was like a stoplight."

Francona said there will be no mystery with a clock.

"You put a clock up and the pitcher knows that when it hits zero, I've got to be ready to pitch," he said. "Then if you have an offender, you're going to know. Everybody in the ballpark is going to know. When the clock turns whatever, it's time to go."

At the GM meetings in November, baseball executives were shown side-by-side videos of a pitcher in the Arizona Fall League and the big leagues.

"It was amazing to watch the video," said Atlanta GM John Hart. "There was a pitcher in the AFL getting the ball, grabbing a little dirt, scraping his spikes and throwing a pitch in 12 to 13 seconds. He wasn't throwing rapid fire, he was adjusting his cap and doing his thing.

"The other guy was stepping on and off the mound. It was unwieldy."

Hart said the game itself should not be damaged just to get nine innings in under less than three hours.

"I like it because we're trying to improve the pace of game, not time of game," said Hart. "I loved to watch Dennis Martinez pitch when I was in Cleveland. When he got into trouble, he'd step off the rubber, grab the rosin bag and the rally would die. You can't take that out of it."

How close is a pitch clock to the big leagues?

Yankee GM Brian Cashman says MLB should continue to experiment with it in the AFL and minors. He added, "If you're trying to improve the pace of the game, the only real way to do it is to have a clock visible that people have to work off of."

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index...tch_clock.html

I was way ahead of this one.

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I wasn't aware that games were 29 minutes shorter just 10 years ago.

Now knowing that, yeah, they need to do everything they can to trim the fat.