New rules being tried in AFL to shorten games

olerud363 · Oct 18, 2014

Just read an article in today's Toronto Star about some new rules being tried in the Arizona Fall League to help quicken the pace of baseball games. A couple I like, a couple a can see being problematic.
1. Hitters must keep one foot in the batter's box at all times. There are a few exceptions such as wild pitches and getting out of the way of a pitch.

2. No-pitch IBB's. The manager just signals to the umpire with four fingers indicating his intention.

3. Only three timeouts per game, not including injury-related timeouts. This mainly affects mound visits by the catcher or manager.

4. The batter gets an automatic strike if he's not in the box within 1 minute, 45 seconds after the previous half inning. He gets an automatic ball if the pitcher doesn't deliver within 20 seconds after that.

5. A 20-second pitch clock, visible to everyone on the field and both dugouts. Batter gets an automatic ball if it runs out.

I can see the IBB rule being problematic since there are times when the ball gets away and the runners can advance, or they change the plan mid-AB and decide to pitch to the batter.

What do you guys think?

jpruitt2 · Oct 18, 2014

They tried the same thing back in the 90's and nothing changed. I don't see this making it to the MLB regular season.

RStadlerASU22 · Oct 18, 2014

I just don't like all the clocks in baseball. I'd like it better if the umps put the pressure on the players when needed with a "hurry the f up".

Ryan

rsmath · Oct 18, 2014

There was a story about Mark Appel with some of his comments about the new rules:

http://www.milb.com/news/article.js...id=98562782&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb&sid=milb

If MLB is going to enforce a pitch clock with runners on base, you're going to kill the pace of play.

SINFULONE · Oct 19, 2014

I agree, I hate pitch clocks.The game is fine the way it is, leave it alone.I really don't think shortening a game by a few minutes is all of a sudden going to bring in droves and droves of new viewers:

rsmath · Oct 19, 2014

SINFULONE said:
I agree, I hate pitch clocks.The game is fine the way it is, leave it alone.I really don't think shortening a game by a few minutes is all of a sudden going to bring in droves and droves of new viewers:

I think speeding up the game when there is virtually no strategy may help some, but don't do it with a pitch clock. Do it with the ump using his senses and warning pitchers/batters about automatic balls/strikes if he feels they are goofing off too long between pitches with no runners on base.

I wonder if soccer-style would improve viewership among the young ADD'ers. Cut commercial breaks by 60 secs each half inning and replace them with advertising chyron like you see on soccer games where the telecast advertisers get lots of minutes of viewer exposure time with their logo on the score bug/bar and occasional lower third visual ad.

u2me57 · Oct 19, 2014

I think they need to leave the game alone. The longer the game the better. But that's just me.

rsmath · Oct 19, 2014

u2me57 said:
I think they need to leave the game alone. The longer the game the better. But that's just me.

In person, 3 hour games are perfect for me. I hate those 3h30m-4h 9-inning games where there is a big slugfest (15-13 final) or one or both SP's didn't have their stuff and the first 3 innings take 2 hours to play because the pitchers are always trying to work out of trouble.

on TV, I couldn't care less how long they go.

BTW, a video of the pitch clock has been posted on mlb.com:

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/vtp_top_50/v36826067

olerud363 · Oct 19, 2014

At first I thought a pitch clock might be a good idea, just maybe a little longer than 20 seconds. It'd give the umpire something black and white to base his call on.

Now I think the idea of leaving the call up to the ump's discretion is probably better for the flow of the game. Putting a clock on a pitcher puts artificial pressure on him, watching a clock on the field counting down. The main time savings should be had via eliminating all the pacing around the mound, adjusting of various uniform parts, etc.

Brewer Andy · Oct 19, 2014

How does the pitch clock affect the running game if pitchers can't hold the ball to mess with the runner? Just a thought, overall I like the idea not sure about implementation yet

rsmath · Oct 19, 2014

Brewer Andy said:
How does the pitch clock affect the running game if pitchers can't hold the ball to mess with the runner?

Running game is non-existant other than maybe an increased number of balks.

The pitcher will play catch with his infielders when the pitch clock gets close to zero. I'm sure there would be many times when the pitcher will balk by not making a proper throw to his infielder to reset the pitch clock.

That's why I think the AFL having a pitch clock with runners on base is horrible and should be turned off with runners on base and the pitch clock will be in effect when the bases are empty.

Wes · Oct 19, 2014

The length of the game problem is primarily driven by the commercials. Minor league and college games are much faster despite players behaving the same way. If the complaint is pace of play then it's on the pitchers IMO. Guys like Buerhle can consistently keep game times down by working faster.

SINFULONE · Oct 20, 2014

rsmath said:
I think speeding up the game when there is virtually no strategy may help some, but don't do it with a pitch clock. Do it with the ump using his senses and warning pitchers/batters about automatic balls/strikes if he feels they are goofing off too long between pitches with no runners on base.

I wonder if soccer-style would improve viewership among the young ADD'ers. Cut commercial breaks by 60 secs each half inning and replace them with advertising chyron like you see on soccer games where the telecast advertisers get lots of minutes of viewer exposure time with their logo on the score bug/bar and occasional lower third visual ad.

I would love to cut commerial breaks by a minute, I just don't see it happening though.Years ago ABC put a Mastercard logo or some other graphic by the box in the corner of the screen with their NHL coverage.I wouldn't mind something like that.

Personally, I don't give a you know what about the length of the game.There is little better to watch on TV during the summer, and I'm not someone who needs 15 hours of sleep every night.Someone conducted a study, and found that NFL games are just as long as MLB, but for some reason no one ever ******* about it.College games frequently even last longer.

If something else has to happen though, I would be open to umpires using their discretion adjusting the count if pitchers or batters take too long.Ultimately, I just don't see it making much of a difference though.

DaClyde · Oct 20, 2014

I like the idea of forcing the batter to stay in the box, but that has always been at the umpires' discretion anyway, so it's not really a "change". If they REALLY want to speed up the game, start calling the rule book strike zone and watch those batters start hacking. Knees to letters puts a LOT more pressure on the hitters to swing, which would result in a lot more balls in play and make the game more exciting, as well as eliminate a lot of talk about lowering or raising the mound. Any clocks attached to pitching or batting should be tied to the umpire, not the player. If the umpire can't get the players to get on with the game, HE should get some sort of infraction. It is HIS job to keep the game moving. The umpire has the discretion on calling time, he is not supposed to be doing the bidding of the players in that regard. If a catcher is making his 3rd trip to the mound in a single at-bat, the um[ire can refuse the request for time. Same with batters constantly bailing out of the box. All the ump has to do is say no, and let the pitcher deliver the ball while the batter is stalling, and there's your automatic strike.

I don't see the commercial breaks as that big a deal. MLB can just speed up the game between breaks.

No new rules are needed. It is just like with so many areas of regular life. Passing new laws doesn't fix problems caused by lack of enforcement of existing laws.

Brewer Andy · Oct 20, 2014

DaClyde said:
I like the idea of forcing the batter to stay in the box, but that has always been at the umpires' discretion anyway, so it's not really a "change". If they REALLY want to speed up the game, start calling the rule book strike zone and watch those batters start hacking. Knees to letters puts a LOT more pressure on the hitters to swing, which would result in a lot more balls in play and make the game more exciting, as well as eliminate a lot of talk about lowering or raising the mound. Any clocks attached to pitching or batting should be tied to the umpire, not the player. If the umpire can't get the players to get on with the game, HE should get some sort of infraction. It is HIS job to keep the game moving. The umpire has the discretion on calling time, he is not supposed to be doing the bidding of the players in that regard. If a catcher is making his 3rd trip to the mound in a single at-bat, the um[ire can refuse the request for time. Same with batters constantly bailing out of the box. All the ump has to do is say no, and let the pitcher deliver the ball while the batter is stalling, and there's your automatic strike.

I don't see the commercial breaks as that big a deal. MLB can just speed up the game between breaks.

No new rules are needed. It is just like with so many areas of regular life. Passing new laws doesn't fix problems caused by lack of enforcement of existing laws.

Yup all around

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New rules being tried in AFL to shorten games

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