After Successful Experiment, MLB Likely to Use Pitch Clock in 2015
For the second straight season, the Arizona Fall League has proved very beneficial to Major League Baseball.
Its experiment with time reduction has been successful.
The average length of games, a main concern of MLB, has been reduced from 2 hours and 52 minutes.
By implementing several changes in Arizona, ten minutes have been shed from the average game.
The most significant changes are merely enforcements of rules that already exist, such as batters keeping a foot in the box between deliveries and pitchers completing their throws within twenty seconds.
The ballpark at Salt River even used a pitch clock to make pitchers aware of their allotted time.
Rules limiting coaching visits, shorter breaks between innings, and a no-pitch intentional walk have been among the other efforts in Arizona to quicken the pace of the game.
Clearly, though, the pitch clock has been most effective change, for it involves every single plate appearance.
"Thirty years ago, in 1984, a major league game averaged 2 hours 35 minutes," stated Tim Rohan in the October 24 New York Times.
"This season, the average game time crept above three hours for the first time (3:02).
" Thanks to the pitch clock and the other minor tweaks, the Arizona League cut the game time down to 2 hours and 42 minutes.
Of the thirty games played this fall, just one has extended beyond three hours.
More than half have finished in just over two hours, including a game on November 8 that took just 2 hours and 18 minutes.
Overall, the changes shaved ten seconds from each game.
"Ten seconds is a long time in our game," said Major League Baseball's executive vice-president Joe Torre League to the Associated press on November 13.
He and other baseball officials will almost certainly institute the pitch clock and several of the other rules for 2015, much the way they implemented the replay last year after an experiment in Arizona.
Besides making the game go a little faster, the pitch clock will give fans another detail to watch while at the ballpark.
We already enjoy seeing the speed from the radar gun, the pitch count, and the stats of the batter, so now we will be able to keep track of the time of the delivery.
The pitch clock will also allow us to determine which pitchers work the fastest, and which to avoid if we dislike the slower pace.
Its experiment with time reduction has been successful.
The average length of games, a main concern of MLB, has been reduced from 2 hours and 52 minutes.
By implementing several changes in Arizona, ten minutes have been shed from the average game.
The most significant changes are merely enforcements of rules that already exist, such as batters keeping a foot in the box between deliveries and pitchers completing their throws within twenty seconds.
The ballpark at Salt River even used a pitch clock to make pitchers aware of their allotted time.
Rules limiting coaching visits, shorter breaks between innings, and a no-pitch intentional walk have been among the other efforts in Arizona to quicken the pace of the game.
Clearly, though, the pitch clock has been most effective change, for it involves every single plate appearance.
"Thirty years ago, in 1984, a major league game averaged 2 hours 35 minutes," stated Tim Rohan in the October 24 New York Times.
"This season, the average game time crept above three hours for the first time (3:02).
" Thanks to the pitch clock and the other minor tweaks, the Arizona League cut the game time down to 2 hours and 42 minutes.
Of the thirty games played this fall, just one has extended beyond three hours.
More than half have finished in just over two hours, including a game on November 8 that took just 2 hours and 18 minutes.
Overall, the changes shaved ten seconds from each game.
"Ten seconds is a long time in our game," said Major League Baseball's executive vice-president Joe Torre League to the Associated press on November 13.
He and other baseball officials will almost certainly institute the pitch clock and several of the other rules for 2015, much the way they implemented the replay last year after an experiment in Arizona.
Besides making the game go a little faster, the pitch clock will give fans another detail to watch while at the ballpark.
We already enjoy seeing the speed from the radar gun, the pitch count, and the stats of the batter, so now we will be able to keep track of the time of the delivery.
The pitch clock will also allow us to determine which pitchers work the fastest, and which to avoid if we dislike the slower pace.
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