Jays’ Storen OK if MLB throws out intentional walks

But baseball purists argue against eliminating more tradition

The Blue Jays’ Drew Storen, like all late-inning relievers, can have a tactical battle with himself when it comes to issuing an intentional walk.

With baseball having floated the idea of eliminating the intentional walk to help speed up the game, Storen said Friday, “I’m the type of guy who doesn’t lob it up there, I put something on it.

“So when I have to throw four (pitches for an intentional walk), it can disrupt my rhythm. And usually you’re facing a key guy, and you have to come back to the next guy and dot one (throw a strike). It’s feel and you want to keep your feel for things, obviously . . . so I’d be in favour of that (eliminating the intentional walk).”

Storen’s view is shared by several other Jays pitchers, as well as hitters, who agree ditching the intentional walk is a sure bet way to speed up the game.

Baseball’s competition committee, which includes Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro, recently discussed a series of rule changes centred on speeding up the game, including the elimination of the intentional walk.

The idea seems obvious, and arguably, one of the easiest and least painful ways to speed up the game: instead of a pitcher throwing four balls and the batter standing in, waiting for the sequence to complete itself, simply declare the intention to walk a batter and send him to first base without the traditional four pitches taking place.

“I like it,” Jays centre fielder Kevin Pillar said.

“It doesn’t bother me either way, and it’s very rare to see a guy make a mistake on it anyways — so why not?”

According to research done by ESPN, the average intentional walk uses up 45 to 60 seconds. Baseball sees roughly 900 to 1,000 intentional walks per season, which translates into almost 17 hours of accumulated time to go through the process.

But Storen acknowledges that some managers argue eliminating the intentional walk also removes one more piece in a sport where tradition is sacred.

For the purist, the intentional walk introduces a challenge of execution, since not all pitchers are comfortable throwing “four wide” to get the job done.

Storen notes that one such instance occurred in 2014 during the playoffs with his former team in Washington, where a Nationals’ pitcher threw a pitch to the backstop during an intentional walk.

“We got the ball back and made a play at the plate to get the runner,” Storen said. “But things like that can happen.” Baseball historians have recounted 11 instances in baseball’s history where a batter has swung at a pitch and put it in play during an intentional walk, with the batters including legends like Willie Mays and Pete Rose.

Ten-time all-star Miguel Cabrera, in town this weekend with Detroit, was playing with the Marlins in 2006 when he slapped an intentional walk pitch from Baltimore’s Todd Williams for an RBI single.

Toronto’s MVP Josh Donaldson leads the American League with 59 walks, but only four of them have been intentional.

In 2004, Barry Bonds drew 120 intentional walks, which became a “thing” in San Francisco. The Giants created a chicken doll they named “Walk-er” and sold it to fans, who waved it at opposing pitchers every time they gave the free four to Bonds.

Both Pillar and Storen say the have never encountered any such theatrics with intentional walks, but Storen would like baseball to assess its entire package of time-saving changes, and consider a pitcher’s plight.

“There’s 20 seconds off the time we (pitchers) have to warm up right now, so that’s a concession pitchers have to work with. You lose maybe one or two pitches that way, and for a guy like me, I like to have those pitches to warm up properly.”

“I like it. It doesn’t bother me either way, and it’s very rare to see a guy make a mistake on it anyways — so why not?” THE JAYS’ KEVIN PILLAR ON LOSING INTENTIONAL WALKS