The Astros are trying to avoid mounds of trouble with new rule.
Hinch, pitching coach ‘inching toward’ what constitutes a trip to mound under new rule
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — What defines a mound visit?
The question never has been so scrutinized as it is now, with Major League Baseball limiting teams to six per game and one per extra inning to speed up play this season.
The conventional meetings with a pitcher are clear: The catcher walks more than 60 feet to get on the same page; a shortstop scampers in to share secrets through the webbing of his glove; the pitching coach (kind of ) jogs over to calm things down; the manager minces over to make a change.
But when baseball announced the rule changes last month, it turned innocuous moments into precious rations. Teams thought about numerous hypothetical ambiguities and emergencies when communication with a pitcher could happen. Then they wondered: What else counts as a mound visit?
An infielder quickly picking up and throwing down the rosin bag?
“By definition of the rule, I think that’s a visit,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said.
More questions
No one wants to see a catcher get crossed-up by an unexpected pitch, but that scenario raises another question.
“What’s the definition of a cross-up versus not a cross-up?” Hinch said.
What about a catcher stepping in front of the plate to coordinate bunt coverage? Will an opposing hitter call out an a infielder for shouting “Bless you!” after his pitcher sneezed?
“Any time there are rule changes or rule additions,” Hinch said, “the gray area’s the toughest to define.”
MLB representatives Peter Woodfork, the senior vice president for baseball operations, and Joe Torre, the chief baseball officer, have toured camps this spring to offer managers and
coaches some clarity. But only some. Hinch and Astros pitching coach Brent Strom recently met with Torre and Woodfork.
“We’re inching toward having a full understanding of what that’s all about and what we need to know going into the season,” Hinch said. “We’re going to have to adjust as the season starts, and because we’re getting a late start, it’s still a work in progress until the kinks get ironed out. The umpires are learning it, we’re learning it, the players are learning it.”
Games are taking longer than ever. The average game lasted 2 hours, 46 minutes in 2005, compared with 3 hours, 5 minutes last season. Years of controversy over the implementation of a pitch clock pushed MLB to get creative.
Mound visits look like they take awhile. They are glaring halts in the action.
MLB showed teams the tracking data on visits but has not made it publically available.
“It got extreme as it got into the postseason and the end of the season,” Hinch said.
According to Rob McQuown of Baseball Prospectus, the rate of mound visits per game the last eight years has been nearly the same in the regular season (more than four per game), but it has increased 31.4 percent in the playoffs (nearly seven) and 54 percent in the World Series (almost eight).
Games might appear quicker with six visits instead of seven, but a team rarely exceeds those limits unless its survival is at stake in the postseason, when stealing signs becomes more valuable and thwarting chicanery becomes more meticulous.
Looking out for pitchers
Hinch is not so concerned that umpires will keep catchers from correcting a cross-up, and he said he or Strom rarely needs to speak with a pitcher during the game. The Astros’ manager is more focused on preventing unnecessary visits — such as a position player using the rosin bag, which counts — that could rob a pitcher of the chance to strategize.
“I don’t want a pitcher to ever throw something that he doesn’t want to,” Hinch said. “If he needs a visit, we’re going to take a visit for the six we’re allowed. I’m not going to punish our guys or tell them not to go visit or make a mistake by not being prepared.
“Maybe we have to prepared a little bit better for a secondary set of signs or whatnot, but we won’t know.”
Improving the optics might come at a greater cost of disrupting managers and pitchers — who feel further hampered in an age when baserunners are studying the sign sequences of opposing catchers on high-definition video.
“It’s much ado about nothing until it eventually impacts you in a major league game, where you need that extra visit or you’re really scuffling with a young pitcher who you want to calm down,” Hinch said.
While managers and umpires get used to the rules, Hinch said he is not going to stress the new world order for his players until the eve of the regular season.
“We’re counting them now more than ever,” Hinch said. “Spring training is not always a prefect model compared to the season. We’re not going to know how it impacts us until we get back to Houston.”