SWING AND A MISS
MLB’s pitch clock rules are not exactly a hit with IronPigs
Michael Mariot’s last pitch of his April 23 start against visiting Rochester was one he never threw. He was called for an auto ball by home plate umpire Dave Martinez.
It came on a 3-2 count to walk Josh Palacios to load the bases.
Mariot said that instance highlights why Major League Baseball’s experimental rules in Triple-A should cease.
“In situations like that,” he said, “you have to be able to take a deep breath and collect yourself. [But] in those situations with the pitch clock, you can’t do that.
“It’s really frustrating because there are definitely some times when you need to take a little more time. You really are bearing down and then, boom, zero [on the pitch clock]. Ball four. Takes you out of the game.”
Mariot has made his opinion clear in the IronPigs clubhouse.
He also did so in an MLB questionnaire sent to all Triple-A players.
“Basically, one of the things I said is that it seems to be that whoever is making the rules kind of doesn’t really care about the players,” Mariot said. “It’s kind of what it seems like, especially with the pitch clock.”
MLB is experimenting this season with a series of rules at all levels of the minors to shorten games and keep fans engaged. Triple-A pitchers must deliver a pitch in 14 seconds — 19 seconds if there is a runner on base. A hitter must be in the box with nine seconds left on the clock.
Pitchers are afforded two pickoff throws/step-offs per at-bat. Batters can only call one timeout in each at-bat.
A relief pitcher has 2 minutes, 15 seconds from the time he enters the playing field to warm up, which is 30 seconds less than it was previously.
IronPigs games this season have been shorter with the new rules. Their first six games when players were given a grace period lasted an average of 3 hours, 8 minutes.
Lehigh Valley’s games averaged 2:50 in the 24 games since leading up to Sunday’s series-ending doubleheader with Buffalo.
Lousy weather wreaked havoc on the 2022 early season schedule, which can affect players coming from spring training’s warmer climate. But a 24-game stretch from May of last season (2:59) shows the effects of the rules.
Pace of play has been better, but at what cost?
Pitchers are pinched by the clock and the inability to keep runners close.
“You can’t control the running game at all,” Mariot said. “[The runners] know you have to throw a pitch by zero. And they know if you have come set at three, they can get a walking lead and they know if you’ve already thrown over twice, they’re off.
“Now, the next pitch you could get a ground ball that would have been a double play, but he’s probably at third and maybe scores on the next play.”
Stolen bases, a lost art in recent years at all levels, are up in 2022. So, too, are success rates.
Tacoma of the Pacific Coast League leads all 30 Triple-A teams with 60 steals (in 71 attempts) in 35 games. Lehigh Valley stole four bases in Game 1 of Sunday’s doubleheader and has been successful in 38 of 44 attempts this season.
And IronPigs catchers have only thrown out seven of 51 would-be base stealers.
A provision that turns the pitch clock off when a major league player is on a rehabilitation assignment also has been met by skepticism.
It was part of the confusion during the sixth inning of the April 21 game against Rochester for Red Wings reliever Tyler Clippard, who has more than 12 years of major league service with 10 teams. He was called for an auto ball on a 3-0 count to catcher Austin Wynns, who hit his first major league home run off Clippard in 2018.
Clippard thought he stepped off before the pitch clock hit zero, but home plate umpire Randy Rosenberg disagreed.
“I closed my eyes and was like, ‘Damn, you do not want to do it to a guy with that much time, that much respect,’ ” Wynns said. “He just got out there. Doing his routine, two seconds, gets to one, I close my eyes. Time out. Violation. Oh, man. That is messed up.
“But it is what it is. You’ve got to make the adjustment, even though it sucks that it happened to him.”
Still flustered, Clippard then faced Odubel Herrera, who was a on rehab assignment for an oblique injury. With the pitch clock off, Herrera took more than 20 seconds to go from the on-deck circle to the batter’s box.
“It almost looked like we were in slow motion when that happened,” IronPigs manager Anthony Contreras said.
That type of wasted time was partially why MLB sought potential rule changes.
Outfielder Matt Vierling recently was sent down to Triple-A from the Phillies. Demoted pitchers and position players are not subject to the same breaks as those rehabbing, so they have to quickly adjust to the new set of rules.
“I feel like maybe I shouldn’t even step out of the box,” Vierling said. “I like it because it keeps me from thinking in between pitches, but at same time it feels a little bit rushed sometimes.”
Connor Brogdon, who was sent down last month, felt the rush in his third minor league outing when he was hit with an auto ball call.
Mariot, who was called for another auto ball in Friday’s stellar, seven-inning outing, said the pitchers are punished most with the latest set of rules.
The 33-year-old was molded by a college coach who preached his pitchers to work quickly. Mariot has done that throughout his career, especially as a starter.
But these rules force you to work quickly all the time.
“[You] throw two balls in a row, a lot of guys are like me,” Mariot said. “I like to get off the dirt, reset, take a deep breath, get back on.
“[But] by the time I get back on the rubber, it’s eight seconds and then if I shake [off the catcher] once, it’s down to three seconds and it’s like, ‘Oh, crap. What am I going to do?’
“Because of these new rules, I come set looking at that clock.” Things could be worse.
MLB used a computerized strike zone for all of 2021 and moved the mound back a foot for the second half in Independent ball’s Atlantic League.
Neither are being implemented this season, but the damage was done.
Jordan Pacheco, who played in 377 major league games in six seasons with the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Reds, retired from the Lexington Legends on Aug. 1, 2021, the day after he was called out on strikes by the computer on a pitch that was in the other batter’s box.
The big question now: Will any of the existing pitch clock rules reach the major leagues?
“I don’t think it’s ever going to get there,” Mariot said.
“I don’t know if I’ve heard anybody talk about how happy they are about it. Hopefully they actually read what we’re saying and take that into consideration. Unfortunately, I don’t think they care. They are going to do what they want to do.”