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Baseball: Pace of play

A change in the strike zone has been suggested to create more action in the game.
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NO-PITCH INTENTIONAL WALKS
A new rule in which a batter being intentionally walked is immediately given first base without the need to throw four deliberately outside pitches was approved for the 2017 season following a recent agreement between MLB and the MLB Players Association.

That set of amendments also includes new time limits on instant replay reviews. In terms of MLB’s average time of game, removing the need to throw four pitches for an intentional walk won’t change much, as there is on average only one intentional walk for every 2.6 games played. But beyond sheer numbers, the shift is primarily designed to create a crisper on-field product with less meaningless action.

ADJUSTED STRIKE ZONE
A proposal to raise the bottom end of the strike zone for batters from the “hollow beneath the kneecap,” where it’s been since 1996, to the top of a batter’s knee is under discussion and review between the league and union. The idea has been kicked around for more than a year, though without any firm resolution.

JEFF SHIFRIN

CEO, CSM Sport & Entertainment

SUGGSTION: More doubleheaders
“We have to find a way to keep the baseball season from approaching or being in November. The easiest way I see to do that is to go back to playing scheduled doubleheaders. You could easily knock a week off the MLB season that way and it would be a fan’s dream. … The way you get the player buy-in is that at the same time, you create one or two extra roster spots for every team. The [players association] would love that, of course, and we shouldn’t have to worry about having ‘Mr. November’ in the World Series anymore.”

The idea is to put more balls in play and in turn create more action during games. Nearly 30 percent of all hitters now either strike out or walk, the highest such rate in league history. And in a rough sense, many around the sport want to force fielders to do more to create outs. But there is a chance such a move could backfire and create unintended consequences. Shrinking the strike zone would be generally beneficial to hitters and bad news for pitchers. More hits and runs also theoretically extends game times instead of reducing them.

“We’re not suggesting that we change the strike zone to shorten games. We’re suggesting that we change the strike zone to get more action in the game,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier this year. “The theory is that the pitch below the knee is being called a strike more frequently, that that particular pitch is hard to hit, and that forcing pitchers up in the zone would produce more action.”

PITCH CLOCK
A 20-second time limit on pitchers beginning their windup or coming to a set position after receiving the ball from the catcher was first tested in the Arizona Fall League in 2014. The Class AA and AAA ranks of the affiliated minors followed suit in 2015, and a pitch clock is now entering its third season of use there. Manfred openly supports a similar implementation at the major league level, but an agreement with the union has not been reached.

The idea behind the change is to create a steadier flow to games from pitch to pitch. Part of the complication around the pitch clock discussion is the existence of MLB rule 8.04, which already requires a pitcher to deliver the ball within 12 seconds if no one is on base. Enforcement of that rule, however, has been inconsistent. And even with the presence of the pitch clock in Minor League Baseball, some within baseball, including many big league players, remain resistant to creating a timed element at the majors to what historically has been an untimed sport.

MOUND VISITS
Like several other elements, a limit on the number of mound visits by catchers, coaches and managers not involving a pitching change has been a proposal by MLB but has not generated an agreement with the players union. It remains under study and discussion.

Similar to the no-pitch intentional walk and pitch clock, the core idea with limited mound visits is to create a steadier flow of game action and less dead time. A lengthy mound visit was the source of the famous “candlesticks always make a nice gift” scene in “Bull Durham.” But in real life, mound visits have been targeted by the league as a particularly notorious culprit of lagging game pace.

— Eric Fisher

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