Why some MLB pitchers want to add time to the pitching clock – and why it should stay that way

news7g04/05/2023

2 6 minutes read

Why some MLB pitchers want to add time to the pitching clock - and why it should stay that way

NEW YORK — Initial results of Professional Baseball TournamentThe new pitching clock era has satisfied both fans and players – the latter to some extent.

Games are proving to be shorter, averaging 2:38 per competition through the opening weekend of the season. It marks a 30-minute drop from the first four days of last year, a difference that has been happily received, even accepted by most people.

“I may have felt rushed a few times yesterday, but not to the point of making me extremely uncomfortable,” U.S army left-handed Nestor Cortes said Tuesday, a day after its 2023 launch. “And being out there in two hours and 40 minutes is a huge plus.”

Most importantly, baseball remains as dynamic as it has been for decades. More continuous activity than taking a nap from the third to the seventh set. Maybe your grandparents are confused by all the drama they missed while their nap took priority, but for the rest of us, the faster pace makes them I could hardly take my eyes off the game for fear of missing a good play. Led by the clock on the field, MLB’s new rules have undeniably made the sport even more exciting.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone believes shorter matches can also help improve player health. It’s hard to prove that mindset is less than a week away from the regular season, but there’s logic in the idea that players are more resilient in the long run when they don’t spend as much. Time stands on its own two feet. The clock was expected to shave off about three hours of weekly gameplay time—or, more than one game’s worth per week. In a sport with only 26 weeks in the regular season, that’s a lot of extra time for players to enjoy doing other things; something less demanding and exhausting than sprinting around bases or pushing three-digit fast balls.

Boone explains: “I think the outcome of that will be really good for our product as well as for the players and the health of the players. “It could be, you add the time away from their feet, on the bus, in the hotel room, in bed, whatever that is. You keep repeating 20, 25, 30 minutes 162 times, I mean. I’m a lot of time hoping to serve the players well not only throughout the season but also their careers.”

More action? Great. Faster speed? Great. But not all are fairy dust and fairy tales are for everyone.

Let’s review Cortes’ pitching watch. Currently, the overall speed of the game outweighs any pitch-clock-related crashes Cortes may have encountered on the field. But he’s not sure if that prospect will hold up throughout the season. Monday night against Phillies was his first day of the year and the first time he worked the pitch timer in the regular season. Looking at Cortes’ final line – a sword run allowed seven hits in five innings without walking and three strikes – it was a solid performance, against the defending League champions country, nothing more, nothing less.

Although it won’t show up in the box score, there have been a number of times during those five innings that Cortes was badly hit by the clock. At one point, Southpaw looked up and saw that the clock had only three seconds left. At that point, Cortes knew he had to throw anything that caught the sign Jose Trevino was put down. In that hasty sequence, the pitch position can be affected and lead to a disastrous outcome. If Cortes fails to throw the ball in time, a field violation will result in a ball. Cortes describes that scramble sequence as “trying to avoid a bullet.” The bullet, of course, is to walk, hit or run home.

“In different scenarios in the game,” Cortes said. “There could be another runner. Maybe you’ve been hit twice by a guy, and he’s watched a few of your throws, and you’re trying to think, ‘Okay, maybe I can throw. Give him this throw and prepare him for the next or just go right behind him.’ And yesterday I caught myself thinking, OK, I just threw the ball, and I’m getting the ball back from Trevino, and I see the clock running :13, :12, :11, :10. try thinking, and I’m trying to perform and compete. I can say I caught myself doing that three or four times yesterday.”

Why the new pitch clock is a game changer for MLB

John Smoltz joins Craig Carton to discuss the new pitching clock in baseball.

Cortes was certainly not the only starting pitcher to express his displeasure at feeling rushed for time. Right-handed Phillies Zack Wheeler details another scenario in which he looks up to see the stopwatch has four seconds left and is forced to throw whatever catches the ball JT Realmuto call. Wheeler, who made four runs in 4.1 innings in his opening game, said he can almost expect lousy positions on pitches where he feels rushed. He believes that just a little more time will lead to better performance.

“An extra 2-3 seconds won’t change the game time much,” argued Wheeler. “But it will be day and night for us.”

Commissioner Rob Manfred is open to feedback from players, which could lead to changes in the season, but adding 2-3 seconds to the pitch clock is really a big request. Simply changing the time between pitches from 15 seconds (current time without runners) to 17 seconds (time some pitchers are suggesting) can add about 15-20 minutes for the match. Suddenly, the encouraging two-hour and 38-minute competitions are back to almost three hours.

meet right-handed Carlos Carrasco also struggled with the yard clock in the last week. He was even fouled before stepping onto the mound, starting his first game 1-0 before throwing a pitch. In Carrasco’s case, his quick ball speed also drops when he starts. The veteran later admitted his stamina was affected by the fast pace as he became fatigued towards the end of a four-round, five-run, 96-throw match.

“It’s crazy,” Carrasco told reporters. “I only have 15 seconds.”

Midfielder of the Yankees DJ LeMahieu Debaters may also struggle with the timer. When a pitcher is pitching well, LeMahieu can’t step out of the box or call the timeout as much as he used to when trying to throw the pitcher out of his game. There is less opportunity for batters to mess with the pitcher’s rhythm under these rules.

So what should we do with all of this? It’s still possible we’ll see changes from the MLB, especially during the warmer summer months. If Carrasco thinks the start of his fitness challenge, expect a hot game in the afternoon in Atlanta. The pitchers’ stamina is sure to be tested during the sweaty days of high humidity and scorching heat in July and August.

But the most likely scenario is that there are no further changes to the clock on the field, largely because the initial results have been so successful. At least from the start, it makes more sense for pitchers who feel rushed to find a way through it, or are obviously used to it.

The timer will force players to adjust to a different style of play, faster than when they first appeared, and it’s possible that some players simply didn’t survive this era. There are certainly pitchers who are better equipped to handle the adjustments than others, never needing time to get around the mound and blow off steam. They are used to working quickly. People who lack stamina and pace may have to find new habits.

Their time should be spent adapting rather than resisting. Players will benefit from relying on the advice of a four-times Manager of the Year, the only captain to have won that award in four different decades. Although his team soon set a record for the most number of pitching meter violations (four) in a single game on Monday, Mets manager Buck Showalter advised his club to look into mirror.

“You should find it,” insists Showalter, “because it’s not going to go away.”

Deesha Thosar is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. Previously, she covered the Mets for 3.5 seasons as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. She never misses a single Rafael Nadal match, no matter what country or time zone he plays in. Sleep can always be sacrificed for sport. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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