Thursday, October 2, 2014

The Pace of Play Is Fine

Lots of stuff to blog about.  Oslo dropping out of the 2022 Winter Olympic race, leaving just Almaty, Kazakhstan and Beijing.  The state of the Yankees and what I'd like to see them do in the offseason.  The imminent start of hockey season.  But my topic du jour is baseball's pace of play "problem" and the experimental rules they'll be trying out in the Arizona Fall League in order to "solve" it.

Taking a look at the proposed rules changes, some of them seem simple enough, while others seem incredibly stupid and unnecessary.  But this is also coming from a person who doesn't think baseball has a problem with the length of games. 

The real problem is when the game is humming along through six innings, then slows to a crawl when a manager decides to make three pitching changes in the top of the seventh, turning a brisk three-hour game (which, I don't care what anyone says, is reasonable) into three-and-a-half hours that seemed much longer.  The perfect example is Tuesday's AL Wild Card Game.  That memorable game took 12 innings, lasted nearly five hours and ended at 1:30 in the morning.  Did anyone complain about the "pace" or length of that one?  Of course not!  Because the game was simply fantastic.

That's part of my point.  Five hours can seem like nothing, while three-and-a-half can be unbearably long.  The length of games isn't baseball's problem.  It's the pace.  (Sometimes.)  And that's, I think, what these rules are designed to help.  If they can do that job and more people start watching/going to games as a result, they've achieved their purpose.  So, even though I may disagree with some of them, the reality is we're likely to see at least a couple of these rules making their way into a Major League Baseball stadium near you in April 2015.

With that in mind, let's check out the new rules and rate their level of practicality/stupidity.  I might even throw out an idea or two of my own.
  • No-Pitch Intentional Walks: Very Stupid-Apparently the idea of a pitcher lobbing four balls nowhere near the plate in order to issue an intentional walk is a serious problem in the game of baseball.  So much so that the act of pitching is unnecessary when intentionally walking a batter.  Sorry, but I find that entire notion completely ludicrous.  How many times have you seen a guy throw a wild pitch while trying to intentionally walk somebody?  What if the pitch is too close to the plate and the batter ends up getting a base hit (I've seen that happen...it was in the Little League World Series, but the point remains)?  What if they only decide to intentionally walk somebody after the guy on first steals second and first base becomes open?  Way too many variables to be able to simply say, "Go ahead and walk to first."  If you want to walk somebody, actually walk him.
  • Pitch Clock: Stupid-There's already a time limit on how long a pitcher is supposed to take between pitches, but it's rarely applied.  The penalty for not delivering a pitch within 20 seconds is supposed to be an automatic ball.  Well, now they want to put up a clock in the outfield (like the play clock in football or shot clock in basketball, which are both extremely necessary) that will enforce this countdown.  For the most part, pitchers don't take more than 20 seconds to throw a pitch when nobody's on base, so I'm not sure I see the point of enforcing it.  If it takes them 22 seconds, so be it.  The real issue here is how long it takes some of these guys to throw a pitch once there actually is a runner on base.  Yet there's no limit on how much time you can take when there's somebody on, and this rule won't change that.
  • Three "Time Out" Limit: Somewhat Stupid-I'm not sure where I sit on this one.  Because I like the idea, I'm just not sure about the execution.  Teams will only get three conferences per game.  Whether it's manager-pitcher, pitcher-catcher, third base coach-batter, it doesn't matter.  You only get three.  When there's an injury, the "time out" conference doesn't count towards the limit.  While I don't think this is necessarily an epidemic, I can see where people think these conferences are excessive.  After all, that's what they have signs for.  But I can also see where sometimes you need to make sure you're on the same page.  That's why I'm torn on this one.  For the most part, I think it'll have little impact, since I don't think I've ever seen a team have more than three such conferences during a game.  The only change I might make is that I wouldn't count pitcher-catcher meetings against the three.  Only if a member of the coaching staff is involved.  (Or if they have one of those entire infield powwows.  Those count, too.)
  • The Batter's Box Rule: Practical-Why do batters feel the need to step out of the box and do their little routine with the batting gloves and smacking the bottom of their spikes and take their little practice swing after every pitch?  Especially when they don't even swing?  This rule would change that.  Unless there's a foul ball, brush back pitch, wild pitch/passed ball, etc., batters will be required to keep at least one foot in the box throughout their at-bat.  This makes sense.  Because a lot of the time it's the batter that makes the pitcher wait, not the other way around.  There's no need to do your little pre-pitch ritual when you didn't even take the bat off your shoulder!
  • Actually Enforcing the Length of Inning Breaks: Very Practical-This is the experimental rule that makes the most sense, but good luck implementing it in the Majors.  The inning break would be 2:05, with the batter having to enter the box at 1:45, with the break for pitching changes being 2:30.  I don't think the automatic strike penalty if the leadoff batter doesn't enter the box by the 1:45 mark is fair, though, especially if the pitcher is still taking his warm-up throws.  They have to start walking to the plate as soon as the catcher throws down to second.  That should be the rule.  And why an extra 25 seconds on pitching changes?  Starting the clock at 2:30 as soon as the bullpen door swings open doesn't seem right, either.  Especially since it might take 15-20 seconds to jog out to the mound, then you get the instructions from the manager.  Ninety seconds to make your eight pitches as soon as the manager leaves the mound.  That's my solution.  But again, as good an idea as this rule might be, good luck implementing/enforcing it at the Major League level.
Now I'd like to make two proposals of my own, which could be considered slight modifications of both existing rules and these experimental ones.
  • Limit the Number of Throws a Pitcher Can Make to First Base: Nothing kills the pace of a game more than when a pitcher puts somebody on, then is more preoccupied with the guy on first than the actual batter.  How many times do you see a pitcher make three or four throws to first before even looking at the plate?  This is what makes games grind to a halt and crowds grow restless.  While I don't think you can set an actual maximum number of times a pitcher is allowed to throw to first, I'd like to see a rule where they have to throw at least one actual pitch between throws to first base.  You can alternate if you want, but no more of this three throws to first, one pitch, two more throws to first nonsense.
  • Limit the Number of Coach/Manager Pitching Conferences: The rule right now is that the manager or pitching coach can come out once, and the next time he comes out, the pitcher has to come out.  But that's one visit per pitcher, per inning.  If you've got one of those managers who loves his lefty-lefty matchups and makes three pitching changes in one inning, he can theoretically come out to the mound six times during that inning.  Seven if he wants to talk to the fourth pitcher.  That's why games drag when teams get into the bullpen.  All those pitching changes and meetings on the mound.  While I would love to see a limit on the number of pitching changes a team is allowed to make in a given inning, that would effect the strategy too much and would never happen.  So, instead, the rule change I propose would be limiting the manager/pitching coach to only one strategy mound visit per inning.  After that one, the only other time the manager's allowed to go out to the mound would be with the trainer for an injury or to make a pitching change.
Again, I don't think baseball has a pace of play problem.  I think America's collective attention span is the problem.  But who knows?  Maybe these rules changes actually are solutions.  And maybe they'll make the game better.  After all, I think we can all agree that instant replay was a change for the better, and we all know how much resistance that met.

No comments:

Post a Comment