Mr. Ed
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Joined: 7/14/2007
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SI.com
Baseball finally stopped talking about its pace of game problem and changed the rules to do something about it, shaving eight minutes off the average time of game virtually overnight last weekend.
One problem: It’s the independent Atlantic League that took action, not Major League Baseball.
Beginning last Friday, smack in the middle of its season, the Atlantic League, watching the same increase in dead time that plagues MLB, essentially told its players, “Enough! You’re not playing that way any more!” A seven-man committee, chaired by former Astros president Tal Smith, implemented five significant changes to address pace of play. With any luck, what happened over the weekend should be a glimpse of the future of MLB. The changes were:
Pitchers must deliver a pitch within 12 seconds with nobody on base (actually, that’s simply enforcement of an ignored rule already on the books) and batters must keep one foot in the batter’s box in between pitches.
Defensive teams get three 45-second timeouts per nine innings — that includes conferences between the catcher and pitcher or infielders and pitcher. Pitching changes do not count as a timeout.
Relief pitchers get six warmup pitches, not eight, upon entering the game, and must complete those pitches within one minute.
Intentional walks are automatic, with no need to throw four pitches out of the strike zone.
The rulebook strike zone will be enforced, allowing for the high strike.
In the 13 games over the weekend, the league averaged 2:51 per nine innings, down from 2:59 through July 31, even though the 13 weekend games averaged five more pitches. More importantly, the pace of the action improved and the players realized they could actually play baseball without dawdling, re-adjusting Velcro and kibitzing on the mound every time a runner reached second or a pitcher was in doubt about what pitch to throw next. The time of game is expected to continue to come down as the sample size grows larger and players continue to adjust their habits.
“Our intent was to enliven the game and to get rid of what we can of dead time and create a better pace,” Smith said. “That’s our intent, to improve the pace. I don’t think it can be measured in elapsed time. If you have an exciting game that runs long, that’s fine.”
I especially love the three-timeout rule, and have advocated that sort of restriction in the past. Baseball is the only sport that allows its teams an unlimited number of timeouts. Players can grind the game to a halt any time they want for any reason they want. Catchers, in particular, have abused this freedom. Night after night, inning after inning, catchers stop the game to review signs or pitch selections with the pitcher or simply give the pitcher a pep talk. It has grown out of control in the past five years or so.
Likewise, pitchers have put more dead time into a game with incessant strolls off the mound in between pitches, and batters do so by leaving the batter’s box or calling time to “focus” much more often than happened 10 years ago. As I wrote earlier this year, in just 10 years, MLB players have managed to add 29 minutes, 11 seconds of dead time to the average baseball game while scoring 13.3 percent fewer runs.
More dead time plus less offense equals a product in trouble when vying for the attention of consumers with more live and on-demand entertainment options. MLB has let this trend continue unabated. At least the Atlantic League is doing something about it.
“I’m not sure the players are aware,” Smith said when asked about how much dead time they have added to the average game. “It’s pitching changes, it’s batters stepping out – all those things – and incessant trips to the mound. I watched three games at Sugarland (Texas). I don’t think the fact that we limited interruptions of play had any effect on the play. I didn’t even see a tendency to approach the mound. I think that really helps.
“I didn’t notice any change in the game or anyone disadvantaged. It does prove you can play the game at a faster pace or implement changes to make the game move faster without affecting the product. We’ll see how it goes.”
In the three games at Sugarland, Smith said, the two teams called a total of only five timeouts.
“We didn’t have any delays with infielders grouping around the mound or catcher’s visits,” Smith said. “I thought it was effective.”
Asked if the Atlantic League could serve as a kind of laboratory for MLB, Smith replied, “That’s not for us to say. I think we have the opportunity. That’s the exciting thing. We have an opportunity to do things on a test or trial basis that would benefit the Atlantic League, and other leagues might be interested in. We still want to be prudent and careful.”
Serving with Smith on the Atlantic League committee were Hall of Fame former general manager Pat Gillick, executives Roland Hemond and Joe Klein, and former big league players Sparky Lyle, Bud Harrelson and Cecil Cooper, all of whom have strong ties to the league.
As an independent league, the Atlantic League is not encumbered by contracts with a players association or umpires association. It can implement or amend rules as it sees fit. For instance, the committee initially decided to allow a courtesy runner for catchers (allowing them to put their gear on to be ready sooner for playing defense), but scrapped the idea after negative feedback from managers and executives.
Major League Baseball seems unwilling to force the players to play faster by changing rules. On the other hand, the NFL literally changes its rules every year to make it a better, updated consumer product. It now floats the idea of getting rid of the extra point, and few people care enough to be upset.
http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/08/05/atlantic-league-pace-of-play-mlb
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