MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said the league is continuing to seek reforms with the NCAA about harmonizing the sport’s often conflicting calendar, with shifts potentially arriving in time for the ’18 Draft. Even with no tangible progress on long-running schedule conflicts between MLB and several levels of amateur play, Manfred said he remains committed to reforms. "We've had some good conversations with the NCAA. They've had some personnel changes," he said, referring in part to the departure last fall of NCAA Managing Dir for Championships & Alliances Damani Leech and the hire of Ron Prettyman to succeed him. "We're working with the new folks. We are hopeful we will do a better job in terms of harmonizing the calendar. I would hope we would have something done certainly for '18 Draft. I’m not sure about '17."
FOREIGN RELATIONS: The Draft, which began Thursday night featured the on-site attendance of Nippon Professional Baseball Commissioner Katsuhiko Kumazaki, who attended as a guest of Manfred. Kumazaki and Manfred met earlier in the day and discussed a variety of topics, including attendance, TV ratings, pace of play, and the upcoming '20 Tokyo Games. Manfred, as he has several times in the past, stopped well short of making any sort of commitment of MLB player participation in Tokyo. "We think the Olympics is a really important event, and we think baseball being in the Olympics is really good for the sport," he said. "But until we know a little more about what the program is, how long the tournament is going to take, I'm just not going to comment on what's realistic or not." Manfred said MLB will meet with the Int'l Baseball and Softball Federation prior to a scheduled IOC vote in August on approval on sports to be added for Tokyo regarding the specific parameters of a baseball tournament there.
ATTENTION PLEASE: Manfred said MLB has some recent progress on improving the pace of play after surrendering prior gains early in the '16 season. After a reduction in '15 to an average game time of 2:56, games this year again swelled past three hours. But more recently, the average has dipped back down to 2:58. Manfred in part credited ongoing efforts by both MLB and the MLBPA to contact particular players regarding pace of play. "It's a question of focus, us making sure that players, when they go out on the field, are focused on this," he said. "There were calls made, the union has been very cooperative. It's not about singling out individual players. It's more about creating that buzz that we're making calls, we're concerned about it, and you get players thinking about it."
