Pitch clocks haven’t affected much in minor leagues

Pitch clocks won’t be used in the major leagues anytime soon, but they’ve been in place at the Double-A and Triple-A levels since 2015, with balls and strikes called for violations. A sampling of opinions from Giants and A’s pitchers with experience:

Daniel Gossett, A’s: “Personally, I don’t think it’s the way to go. I’m a purist. That’s just the way I think. But it didn’t affect me at all. I tend to work fast, and I couldn’t even tell you if it was a 20-second clock, or 30 seconds, or what, because I never paid attention to it. I think a lot of pitchers thought that way. You can’t be out there wondering how much time you’ve got. And if you feel you’re just not ready to throw a pitch, you can always gesture to the catcher and have him call time. But why have him come out to the mound when you can figure out the pitch in an extra three seconds or so?”

Josh Osich, Giants: “I’m not a big fan of it, to be honest. I think they have to figure out instant replay, which can take forever sometimes, before you start talking about a clock. I got busted once or twice, but I wonder: Say you’ve got a pitcher who buys time by constantly stepping off, or throwing over to first. That could make the game even longer! I saw that happen in the minors, and that’s one of the reasons I’m not behind it. Guys would see the clock, just a couple of seconds left and they’d just step off the rubber and the clock resets.”

Chris Smith, A’s (currently unsigned): “I was never called for a violation because I work pretty fast. I don’t think I saw it called more than once or twice in three years, where the ump calls a ball, or a strike on the hitter. They say it will speed up the game, but we don’t really know that, not in the big leagues. I have a hard time believing it will be some magic wand that reduces the game by a half-hour. If you ask me, we’re only talking seconds here. We’ll still have replays that take five minutes.”

Kyle Crick, Giants (traded to Pittsburgh): “I never really even looked at it. If you get down to business out there, you don’t have to worry about anything. The problem is that for guys who like to take their time, it can be a 1-and-0 count and you haven’t thrown a pitch. I saw that called a number of times. The big thing is that you can’t change the way we hold runners on. Step off, or throw over to first, and the clock resets. Just go about your game the same way you always have.”