Quicker ball games? Not so fast
Some positive signs in rulebook tweaks that save little time
Great! More pace-of-play changes that don’t seem like they are going to speed up play as much as MLB believes.
Clearly the goal of Major League Baseball off the field this winter has been to shorten elapsed time and improve pace of play within the game. On Thursday, in a joint announcement with the players’ association, four new rules were put in place to help move the game along, plus two more and an amendment to existing rules.
The first “let’s get a move on” rule is the already muchdiscussed intentional walk change, wherein a manager will simply signal from the dugout if he wants to issue a free pass to a hitter. The umpires will then wave the hitter to first base.
That begs several questions: Will the hitter have to set foot in the box before he heads to first base? Will the next hitter be allowed to take his usual time to get loose in the on-deck circle, given he just emerged from the dugout? One might think a batter would not step in to hit until he’s ready. Those realities may cut into the time saved via the no-pitch intentional walk.
The second and third changes for the regular season involve the current challenge system with regard to replays. From this point on, a manager will be allowed just 30 seconds to decide to challenge a play, instead of unlimited time. And once the play has been challenged, there is a two-minute “conditional” time limit on the review at MLB video headquarters.
Jays manager John Gibbons has long been in favour of the change with regard to the decision to challenge. He feels it should be made based on first impressions.
“I’ve always thought that if you elim- inate the ability to look upstairs (to someone in front of a monitor), it might speed things up,” Gibbons said. “We’ve done it and we’ve seen other teams do it, and it’s just wait and wait and wait. This way it kind of forces teams . . . how badly do you want to challenge it? I imagine if the (manager) comes out and says ‘hey’ then the clock would start then.”
The question becomes: Will it actually shorten the process? Knowing he only has 30 seconds, will a manager in a challenge-or-not moment have his on-deck hitter advance slowly to the plate and then raise his hand to start the 30-second clock? That does not sound like a time-saver.
As for the two-minute maximum for a review, it still seems too long. Also, that review has never been counted in the official length of a game, so clearly it’s not as much about pace of play as it is about time of broadcast.
By saving extra minutes, it tightens up the overall broadcast time and places more of each local advertiser’s spots in peak, prime-time windows where more money is charged.
The word “conditional” is also worrisome. Gibbons explained his interpretation.
“They said there was some flexibility on that,” Gibbons said of the two-minute maximum, drawing from the meeting his staff had with MLB officials earlier in the week. “If something is real close and they want to make sure they get it right, they could carry over that a little bit.”
The fourth change moves the umpires’ responsibility to request a review forward, starting with the eighth inning instead of the seventh. This means managers can now use their challenges through the seventh.
It’s a very subtle move, but teams that haven’t used their challenge often call for it while they can, just for the sake of using it. Now a manager has to wait that extra inning before the umps take over.
The other three changes, starting on opening day, are interesting but will not save any time — and are not meant to.
Having markers of any kind on the field as defensive reference points is now forbidden.
Also, a pitcher will not be allowed to take a second step towards home plate with either foot, or otherwise reset his pivot foot in his delivery — call this one the Carter Capps rule, after the hop-stepping Padres reliever. If umpires determine the rule has been broken, it is ruled a balk with runners on, and an illegal pitch with bases empty.
Finally, before a pitch is delivered, the third-base coach must be away from fair territory — behind the chalk line that runs parallel to the baseline, and above the line of the coaches box that runs between the dugout and the foul line.
These rules, especially the ones designed to speed up the game, may not be entirely satisfactory when implemented, but at least baseball is trying.
The belief is that they will make adjustments later on, to make them work better.