Tag: Pitch Clock

The Off Day After Opening Day React Post

Because the Cubs play at Wrigley Field, which historically does not have a roof despite being in the Midwest where it can get a) cold and b) wet, this necessitates a scheduled off day right after the official Opening Day, in case they have to make up the home opener later. I guess if Friday had gotten weathered out, they would have thrown in a doubleheader on Saturday, but I believe the most recent CBA marked the return of full nine-inning doubleheader games, so that would be rough that early in a season. Thankfully the weather was good enough that the Cubs got to play and won, and you can check out the box score here at MLB dot com. Barring the invention of force fields or an insta-roof, I guess we will have to deal with this random off day for the foreseeable future. It’s kind of like the commercial break after a score that precedes a kickoff and then you get another commercial, except over the course of a few days rather than a few extra minutes of no football. So now we have to twiddle our thumbs until Saturday (or at least try to be somewhat productive at work) and think about this first win that keeps 162-0 alive.

You’re On the Clock

Overall, it looked like Cubs starter Marcus Stroman was well under control, pitching around traffic and keeping the Brewers off balance for the most part. Stroman worked pretty quickly, mostly out of what I perceive to be a “stretch” position with a quick step back on his plant foot before lifting and throwing, and I blanked on whether this was also the case once there was a guy on first base as I figured there should be a quicker step in those situations. Stroman is now a trivia answer:

I was also wondering how this was officially recorded, but I guess all it took was scrolling down in the box score:

https://twitter.com/CubicSnarkonia/status/1641551772790714368

I don’t know if this is surprising or not, but it was the only pitch clock violation in the game (the other image in my tweet above includes a snooze-K of Rafael Devers, who won’t be signing with the Cubs because he got some money Boston found). It’s surprising that it was Stroman because he seemed to have such a good grasp of gaming the clock, but it’s not surprising there’s only one because they’ve been working through it all spring. I think there were a couple pickoffs attempted by the Brewers staff (the disengagement thing) and most of the batter timeouts appeared to be by the Brewers as well. There was one challenge by the Brewers (lost, like they did the game) and one by the Cubs (won, because the umpire blinked I guess) and those were rapidly taken care of. The game ended in two hours and 21 minutes by the official time listed in that box score, which means I can write this and still go and do a bunch of other things before dinner, because I earned dinner unlike some other bloggers.

If you’re interested, this is what the Cubs/Marquee scorebug does to do the pitch clock, which blips in when it reaches 10 seconds and is actually quite nondescript, or at least I didn’t find it distracting (the on field clock is no longer visible from center field cam, although I saw a clock staring down the first base line when they did a replay of Dansby Swanson on base):

Some other broadcasts did a thing with the clock ticking down inside the baseball diamond icon and I thought that was pretty clever too.

Game Thoughts Not Directly Related to the Clock

The Brewers apparently had a couple speedsters in their lineup today, one of whom forced Nico Hoerner to rush a throw and that baby sailed, it was quite a shock. He probably would have been safe anyway but the throw was uncharacteristic for what we’ve experienced of Nico so far in his career. Despite that speed and the bigger bases and the limited disengagements and what not, no steals were actually attempted in the game, although the Cubs went first-to-third multiple times and also took advantage of some Brewers boo-boos that were likely caused by their aggressiveness on the basepaths.

Marcus Stroman and Yan Gomes took advantage of the home plate umpire’s, uh, generous zone:

I liked the game plan, if he’s gonna keep giving it to you and the catcher can frame it, just keep throwing it, and I’m sure it pissed the Brewers off to no end but I think they gave that edge to Corbin Burnes and company too. Speaking of Burnes, the former Cy Young winner, I kind of thought the Cubs would rack up double digit strikeouts facing him, but he actually gave up three walks and three strikeouts while giving up all four runs (three earned, with one bonus when the Brewers played bomb disposal with the baseball). All told, the Cubs were pesky all day, only striking out five times while keeping that ball in play even if they didn’t all become hits.

On the pitching/defense side, Stroman got a quality start with his six shutout innings, and aside from Eric Hosmer trying to kill him twice, the Cubs kept the Brewers completely off the board. There were a couple of nifty plays all around the horn, and one sliding attempt by Ian Happ that seemed to be mistimed but Cody Bellinger backed him up immediately to prevent the extra base. The only weirdness besides Nico’s bad throw was Yan Gomes being charged with several passed balls and not blocking pitches that seemed like they should have been routine (even if nothing in baseball is ever truly routine but you know what I mean). It almost seemed like his glove wasn’t broke in right because the ball just wouldn’t stick in, unless he was trying to frame and just pulled his glove away a fraction too quickly.

Anyway, as we pondered in the Dreamcast, this game was a shining example of whatever plan was concocted by Jed Hoyer and friends. Essentially, keep the other team from scoring with pitching and defense, and string enough hits through a relatively better contact-oriented lineup than before and suddenly you have a victory. That this was a four-run victory rather than a one-run victory was a bonus.

Just for shits and giggles, I’m embedding our latest podcast episode here again, although you can always access it via this site’s sidebar or your podcast application of choice. It’s an off day before play resumes, so you might as well listen, but I can’t tell you what to do.

The Ever-Changing Rulebook

I think the new rules are probably the biggest topic of the spring other than the inevitable injuries to players that shake up the plans for the entire season, and most of this has to do with the pitch clock. Of course there is also the World Baseball Classic, but as one game famously took like three hours to play four innings, the stark difference between the WBC play and what we’ve experienced so far with spring training games with rigid rules enforcement in place is clear:

That was last week, so there’s another week’s worth of data since, and we should probably wait for the 2023 season to be over before we make too many judgments, but what we’ve seen so far tracks with what I (and thousands of people smarter than I) thought would happen. I know fans (and probably players and agents) hate Rob Manfred, but letting Theo Epstein work with tweaking the game seems to have created a more brisk and enjoyable product, even with the quirks that include the rare and controversial scenario with the automatic strike to end games. This one isn’t a game-ender, but it was pretty funny and you can bet Elvis Andrus probably won’t do this again anytime soon:

I’m guessing that MLB will take a look at the player response to the rules on the field as well as their comments (most of which seem to be coming from Max Scherzer but maybe he’s just more up front about it) and adjust accordingly, but as far as I can tell they are committed to the bit of making sure the rules are strictly adhered to. These new rules were barely introduced in a baptism of fire to MLB players when we got a report from Baseball America that more rules implementations were coming to Minor League Baseball. I recommend you just read the article (I don’t think it’s behind a paywall but who knows with cookies anymore) but it can be broken down thusly:

  • Pitch clock coming to all levels, with slight adjustments for the allotted time with runners on dependent on the level, with more alignment with MLB standard
  • Experiments with placement of the bigger bases
  • Assessing the “pie slice” rule in the Florida State League only (or so it seems)
  • The use of PitchCom at AAA only, but it seems only the catcher can call pitches
  • Variations of the automatic ball-strike system (roboumps)
  • Pre-sticky baseballs?

The Cubs and other teams will already be trying to squeeze any advantage they can from the current rule changes, but if these rules as outlined above test well in the minors, you can almost guarantee that they’ll show up in some form at the MLB level. Here are the snippets I found most interesting from the Baseball America report…

All Your Base Are Belong To Us

So the bases are going to be 18 inches to a side again, just like the new big pizza box base that has improved stolen base success, but I recall Jayson Stark wrote about how second base is actually centered along the baseline rather than tangent (maybe tangent? Usually it’s a term for circles but I mean how the square will hug a line with its edge, math majors help) to the baseline. The league apparently has the right to move second base completely within the boundary of the baselines, which will move the inside edge effectively closer to the other bases.

I Like Pie

One of the concerns (even from our last Dreamcast) was that even with the shift restrictions on defense, a middle infielder can just be right next to the bag and snag liners and ground balls up the middle anyway. The numbers outlined above in Passan’s tweet suggest that is not the case, possibly because they simply don’t have as much time or space to react, so I don’t think this next rule is going to come to the big leagues right away. That being said, the Florida State League is apparently the only testing ground for the “pie slice” rule, which the Athletic wrote about last summer but I was unable to find any actual images of boundaries painted in the infield dirt. The idea is that there are lines extending the baselines past second base to create a sort of “demilitarized zone” where the infielders cannot stand before the pitch and let more ground balls potentially get through the middle. Again, because more balls are going through already even without the “pie slice” in spring training, I don’t think MLB wants to do this imminently, and it seems most middle infielders are giving second base a couple feet of breathing room anyway so they don’t get called for a violation, but I thought this was interesting, and more baserunners means more fun so I’m all for it if they decide to do it.

Has to At Least Be Better Than Angel Hernandez, Right?

I shared this in the other thread, but this is our favorite umpire to hate since Joe West retired doing a typically awesome job behind the plate:

We know the so-called “robo ump” has been tested in various capacities in the minors, but it sounds like AAA and the Florida State League will be testing two versions of the automatic ball-strike (ABS) systems. In some games, ABS gets all the calls, whereas in others, there will be a challenge system in place where either the batter or the battery can dispute a call by the home plate umpire. If you want to listen, Harry Pavlidis hung out with me once upon a time (before the technology vastly improved) where he was mostly against the roboump, but then he kind of relaxed his stance last spring. Since most fans and broadcasts have some form of pitch tracking anyway and every mistake by the human umpire is highlighted for all to criticize, I’m guessing ABS in MLB is coming as soon as next year since Rob Manfred can probably unilaterally implement it anyway.

Mud!

One of the last rules discussed was “Enhanced Grip Baseballs,” in which the league worked with Dow Chemical to find a standardized grip substance that wasn’t that secret Delaware mud that is known only to one family. I think MLB baseballs are still rubbed up with family secret mud, but these new baseballs to be tested in the minors are allegedly identical to baseballs to be used in MLB this season. Only Southern League teams will be using these balls for half the season so they can compare data between the “enhanced” balls and the “traditional” balls. I bet you never thought you’d learn so much about rubbing balls, but that’s what you can expect from the 478th-best Cubs blog (or whatever it is now).

Onward!

The New Rules and Player Health?

Happy February, we’re just a couple weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting, then shortly after, we will see the MLB players ease into the new rules that include the pitch clock and shift restrictions. AC also spurred some thought with a share of pitchers with weird arm angles in the previous post, which is a fun excuse to use this gif that you will read in Ian McDiarmid’s Palpatine voice.

Have you heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis?

Regardless of funky deliveries and the associated deceptiveness to opposing batters, the idea was that a pitch clock would remove a built-in “break” for pitchers on the mound, and they would have to know the pitch sequence and selection more expeditiously while having less time to recover between pitches, which may mean fewer maximum effort pitches (which might need a Deadpool gif but maybe later). The limited disengagements from the pitching rubber also removes another break, and of course the limited mound visits per game means they wouldn’t get a breather that way either since the catcher can’t do the buddy-buddy thing anymore to reset his batterymate. So one theory was that the pitcher does have to reduce max effort to avoid injury, or if they’re unwilling to adapt, could mean more risk of injury.

Another angle I hadn’t thought about was the whole sleep thing. I’m usually someone who gets maybe six hours of sleep because my body is weird now and won’t let me sleep much past about five or six in the morning (I’m usually up earlier) but it seems that sleep is of huge value to baseball players to recover since they play nearly every day for six months and then more if they make the postseason, and that doesn’t include the ramp up in spring training. MLB sends me a morning digest every day and the top article from Castrovince was about how the pitch clock could benefit player health, which is obviously counter to what we thought earlier. This article starts with Brandon Guyer, who you might know as one of the guys the Cubs traded to get Matt Garza way back when, and then he was on the Cleveland team that blew a 3-1 lead (and the Cubs won the World Series, people forget that). Anyway, he has some thoughts on the great benefits of sleep in postgame recovery that you should read about.

The immediate impact on the field of play is that the game would shorten by 20 to 25 minutes or so, and maybe even half an hour if they could do picture-in-picture commercials over mound visits and dead time in between plate appearances, and maybe they can also shorten the ad breaks between innings so players aren’t just waiting for the two minute timer to expire when they’re already set to go. Since games are over three hours long as of last season, shaving 20-30 minutes off that time means less time on your feet, and also more sleep when you get home:

Think, though, about the longer-term impact the removal of that dead time can have on the players themselves. A single game wrapping up 20 or 25 minutes earlier than they are accustomed to does not make much of a difference. But the cumulative effect of shorter games over the course of 162 games could be substantial.

From MLB.com

The interesting tidbit was from the minor league data, which actually showed fewer injuries:

When MiLB adopted the pitch timer across all levels last year, some expressed concern that speeding up pitchers would result in an increase in injuries. On the contrary, pitcher injury events decreased 11% from 2021 to 2022, and some players espoused the benefits of the better pace.

“Just from a recovery standpoint, getting back in at a reasonable hour and getting a good night’s sleep is a game-changer,” Dodgers pitching prospect Nick Nastrini said last year. “It could be the difference between being able to play for five years and being able to play for 12. Because there’s the accumulation of getting back at 11:30 [p.m.] and 12:30 [a.m.] and getting into bed by 1 [a.m.] and having to do it all again the next day for 132 games in our season or 162 games in a big league season, it takes a big toll on your body.”

Trevor May has a fun YouTube channel and one of his more recent videos talked about perks of being in MLB, including a nap room. It actually makes sense to fit sleep into the workout regimen because the body needs at least some rest to fully recover, and it’s probably better not to do it in the dugout or bullpen where the benches are probably not the most comfortable. So even with less recovery time on the mound, pitchers and their defense will be on the field less with the pitch clock, and get home earlier, which means more sleep in a comfortable bed, and then they have more opportunities to squeeze in power naps along with their baths in the cryo cubicle or whatever. We likely won’t see a lot of challengers to Cal Ripken’s iron man record due to the knowledge gained regarding the management of work loads, but that should make for a better game for fans and a longer career for players if they’re not succumbing to as many injuries, and perhaps the pitch timer actually helps here, but I guess we’ll wait for the end of the season for someone smarter than me to compile the data and compare to 2022 and prior.

I did take a peek at the Cubs schedule again even after the preview, because I realized I forgot to check the off-days, not taking into account the inevitable rainouts or other natural disasters that will necessitate makeups or double headers. I won’t delve into Spring Training too much because guys don’t play every day anyway, and they don’t do back-to-backs or full games until the end of the Cactus League, so that doesn’t matter too much. However, they do get scheduled off days on March 13, 20, and 29 (the last one is the travel day to get to Opening Day) during which I assume there will still be light workouts unless David Ross just tells them to catch a movie or play golf.

Here’s the regular season breakdown with scheduled games and the off days sprinkled in:

  • First “stretch”:
    • Opening series – 3/30, then 3/31 off, then 2 more games
    • Travel to Cincinnati
    • 6 total games, 1 off day in between, then a travel day after (3 total off days, 2 for travel)
  • Second stretch includes six home games and then a travel day after (1 off day for travel)
  • Third stretch has six games on the West Coast and then immediately coming back for four home games
    • 10 total games, two in-stretch travels needed, off day after (1 off day at home)
  • Fourth stretch to end March
    • 3 at home against Padres
    • Then 7 games at Miami and Washington
    • Then 6 games at home
    • 16 total games, two in-stretch travels needed, then a travel day (1 off day for travel)
  • Fifth stretch is an extended road trip
    • 6 interleague games requiring one travel stop
    • Then an off day for travel
    • Then 3 at Philly to end the road trip before a travel day
    • 9 total games, two in-stretch travels needed (2 off days for travel)
  • Sixth stretch is a homestand to end May with 9 total games, then the travel day (1 off day for travel)
  • Seventh stretch to begin June is a long West Coast road trip
    • 10 total games with two in-stretch travels needed, back-to-back-to-back
    • No off days between series, travel day after (1 off day for travel)
  • Eight stretch includes six home games and then three road games immediately after before two travel days to London
    • 9 total games stateside with one in-stretch travel needed
    • I assume only one of the days is used to fly across the ocean while the other one is where they go get fish and chips and spotted dick in London
    • Two games, then they come back to the USA (count 3 off days, at least 2 for travel)
  • Ninth stretch before the All-Star Game
    • 6 games at home
    • Then immediately go on the road for 7 games with one in-stretch travel before the All-Star Break
    • The All-Star Break is four full days unless someone on the team actually gets selected (I guess they need at least one representative) but most of the team will get to go fishing unless they also have to do Home Run Derby (we’ll say 4 off days)
  • Tenth stretch is a long home stand with 10 total games before their travel day (1 off day for travel, but not really because they’re still in Chicago)
  • Eleventh stretch is a home stand sandwiched around two road trips
    • Two games on the South Side before going to STL (one in-stretch travel here)
    • Immediately back home for 7 games before heading to 3 road games (so two travels to and from)
    • That’s 13 total games (1 off day for travel)
  • We’ll call this stretch 11.5 because they have to do a quick hop to Toronto and then come back stateside, 3 total games against the Blue Jays and then a travel day to come home (1 off day for travel)
  • Stretch 12 is wacky because of the two game set
    • Five game home stand with a day off in between (1 off day at home)
    • Immediately hop to 7 game road trip (2 in-stretch travels)
    • Then they’re home again for 3 before an off day (1 off day for travel)
  • Stretch 13 is a long hop too
    • Three in Cincinnati starts it off, then travel immediately home
    • 7 games at home
    • Then six games against the West with a travel day in between and a travel day to get back home (2 off days for travel)
  • Stretch 14 is a six game home stand with a travel day after (1 off day for travel)
  • Stretch 15 is the final stretch of the season as the Cubs are on the road for the last six games with one in-stretch travel and then they obviously either go home or go to whichever site they need to play the first series at, so they’ll either have four or five months off, or less than a week, it could go either way

That’s 25 days off although only about seven of them are true “you have nothing to do so relax” days because the rest they have to pack and tumble onto planes and buses and stuff. Hope they get plenty of sleep!

The Shifting Narrative

I’m bored because nothing major is really happening in terms of baseball transactions, Cubs or otherwise, and spring training is still a few weeks away, so I thought I’d explore the coming rules changes again.

Last time, we discussed mostly the pitch clock and how either side could try to game the system to gain whatever advantages they can within the 20 or so seconds they have to play with. The pitch clock, along with the larger bases, should make it easier to swipe a bag, and with the Cubs being among the leaders in stolen base attempts and TOOTBLANs last season, at least reducing the TOOTBLAN rate could be a win, along with acquiring a few folks who have better than average speed on the basepaths. This would include Nico Hoerner and new additions Cody Bellinger and Dansby Swanson, but probably not Trey Mancini, who apparently almost never tries to steal because he’s a good boy or something. We covered that part pretty thoroughly, so this one will mostly be about the defensive shift restrictions. Here’s what the MLB.com release says:

DEFENSIVE SHIFT LIMITS

The defensive team must have a minimum of four players on the infield, with at least two infielders completely on either side of second base.

From MLB.com
  • The four infielders must be within the outer boundary of the infield when the pitcher is on the rubber.
  • Infielders may not switch sides. In other words, a team cannot reposition its best defender on the side of the infield the batter is more likely to hit the ball.
  • If the infielders are not aligned properly at the time of the pitch, the offense can choose an automatic ball or the result of the play.
  • This rule does not preclude a team from positioning an outfielder in the infield or in the shallow outfield grass in certain situations. But it does prohibit four-outfielder alignments.

In addition, here is a clarification on the “not switch sides” part:

  • Lateral Positioning: Two infielders must be positioned on each side of second base when the pitch is released.
  • Depth: All four infielders must have both feet within the outer boundary of the infield when the pitcher is on the rubber.
  • No Switching Sides: Infielders may not switch sides unless there is a substitution.

So obviously that means Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner cannot be on the same side of second base, and also that Dansby can’t switch spots with Nico unless they sub out one of them and the other switches from 2B to SS or vice versa. This prevents the thing that Lou Piniella once did where Alfonso Soriano and Jeff Baker ran back and forth across the diamond to finish out a game. As you can see, there is no restriction on five-man infields, but you can no longer have a four-man outfield, and certainly not a Nico Hoerner planted in the outfield grass on the right side.

Let’s take a look at the diamond with this new imaginary line (or maybe they just paint it in so the umpires remember they’re supposed to call it):

I chose Wrigley because obviously.

And here’s the straight-up defensive alignment:

The pitcher and catcher, by rule, stay where they’re at in the picture before the delivery of the pitch. The catcher is the only defensive player allowed to be stationed outside of fair territory, also by rule (it’s 4.03 if you wanna read it, oh wait here’s the 2021 rules, updates in the comments), and it doesn’t really make sense to have any of your fielders already in foul territory anyway, although it does prevent the type of situation where you have a player back up the catcher because the pitcher is nasty and keeps spiking pitches into the dirt, as a team in the KBO once tried to do. I mention that not because it’s super relevant, but because I thought it was hilarious at the time and I’d like to share it. Per the picture above, the outfielders can be anywhere in fair territory, even serving as an additional infielder, but the four standard infielders are now locked into the infield and we’ll start by showing this:

Subsequently, I won’t show the outfielders or the battery because the battery again is stuck where they are by rule, and the outfielders can be anywhere they want and there are probably myriad alignments that could be done with the extra infielder. For my convenience because Paint is annoying and I didn’t feel like busting out Photoshop, here are the color codes (which you probably could have guessed):

  • Red = third baseman
  • Blue = shortstop
  • Green = second baseman
  • Yellow = first baseman

The rule also brings to mind the situation that Joe Maddon and the Cubs used to set up with Anthony Rizzo switching to a second baseman’s glove so the actual second baseman can now be at first base, but note that the shift rules don’t care about this so long as the first baseman and the second baseman are on that side of second base, and again I only share because this was weird and also Clint Hurdle sucks. This theoretically shouldn’t prevent the defense from having the second baseman do the Rizzo-crash on a bunt while the first baseman remains at his normal position. Anyway, with two on each side of the bag, here’s what the new limit on an overshift looks like against a right handed batter:

And then here’s the extreme shift against a left-handed batter:

The line demarcating second base is probably not completely straight and aligned up the middle but it serves as a reference, and I guess if you had a guy who always shoots one right up the middle, you can always have the SS and 2B standing next to each other. The rule doesn’t say the infielders can’t just stand right next to the pitcher (on their side of the black line), or they can even stand 10 feet in front of the plate and risk getting their face broken by a line drive. But I’m racking my brain and can’t see a situation where, absent a speedy Gold Glove second baseman (oh right, hi Nico Hoerner, even though you didn’t win), a lot more of those hard hits by lefties will get through now, especially since that defender can no longer stand in the grass and get extra time to field the ball cleanly or even get to it. I imagine it’ll be the same for right-handed batters firing through the left side though possibly to a lesser extent. The limit at the infield/outfield dirt line might be an opportunity for some home field shenanigans by a resourceful groundskeeper, but even that has its limits:

So here is how MLB is about to start dealing with that dirty little secret:

• Let’s start with the rule itself. It says the outer edge of the infield dirt is supposed to extend no more than 95 feet from the center of the pitcher’s mound. OK, good to know.

• So MLB now does plan to enforce that rule, beginning next season. That makes sense.

• But it does not plan to enforce the rule literally, according to sources. It will allow up to a foot of leeway in either direction, to account for what one source described as groundskeeping “error.” So it’s still possible the back edge of the dirt in various parks could extend anywhere from 94 to 96 feet from the center of the mound.

From The Athletic

The rule only says that these are the legal “start” positions for the fielders, but it doesn’t prevent them from running like hell to their spot in short right field once the pitch is released, and as Stark and his sources say, there’s no reason why the groundskeeper won’t choose to go 96 feet with the dirt boundary to give the fielders extra space to work with, legally of course. I do wonder if we will see anything quite like that, and how often a team with a corner outfielder with a strong arm will try to “cheat” and crash in to get a rare 9-3 (or even a 7-3 or 8-3, ha) putout if the runner is slow or just assumes it’s a hit. However, with the anticipated increase in stolen base attempts, that may force the infielders to stay closer to their assigned base, which could open up opportunities for batted balls to sneak through as well. So it will be intriguing to see how the game of baseball rebalances itself as each side adjusts to the new rules.

I am hopeful that we will see some video clips in Cactus League play that show some “adjusted shifts” in action. I imagine there will be plenty of grousing at umpires regarding interpretations of whether a fielder was positioned legally, and league mandates every week or so to redefine the umpires’ enforcement of the rules, or even additional clarifications. For now, we can continue to ponder how front offices and field managers conspire to take advantage of any edge they can even if it seems they have been greatly restricted here.

Bending the Rules

Towards the end of the previous post, in between waiting for the Cubs (and really all of MLB) to show signs of life on the transactional front, AC and I started pondering how batters might mess with pitchers with the new pitch clock rule coming in 2023. As a reminder, in addition to the defensive shift restrictions and the larger bases, MLB is implementing a pitch clock:

PITCH TIMER

From MLB.com

In an effort to create a quicker pace of play, there will be a 30-second timer between batters. Between pitches, there will be a 15-second timer with the bases empty and a 20-second timer with runners on base. At last check, the pitch timer had reduced the average time of game in MiLB by about 26 minutes. This rule, which includes limits on throws to first base, has also increased stolen-base attempts. With this rule in place in the Minors this season, steal attempts per game have increased from 2.23 in 2019, at a 68% success rate, to 2.83 in 2022, at a 77% success rate.

The pitcher must begin his motion to deliver the pitch before the expiration of the pitch timer.

Pitchers who violate the timer are charged with an automatic ball. Batters who violate the timer are charged with an automatic strike.

Batters must be in the box and alert to the pitcher by the 8-second mark or else be charged with an automatic strike.

With runners on base, the timer resets if the pitcher attempts a pickoff or steps off the rubber.

Pitchers are limited to two disengagements (pickoff attempts or step-offs) per plate appearance. However, this limit is reset if a runner or runners advance during the plate appearance.

If a third pickoff attempt is made, the runner automatically advances one base if the pickoff attempt is not successful.

Mound visits, injury timeouts and offensive team timeouts do not count as a disengagement.

If a team has used up all five of its allotted mound visits prior to the ninth inning, that team will receive an additional mound visit in the ninth inning. This effectively serves as an additional disengagement.

Umpires may provide extra time if warranted by special circumstances. (So if, as an example, a catcher were to be thrown out on the bases to end the previous half-inning and needed additional time to put on his catching gear, the umpire could allow it.)

Note that the rule that will be used in MLB is slightly altered from the rule that was used in MiLB this year. In MiLB in 2022, it was a 14-second timer with the bases empty and 18 seconds (Double-A and lower) or 19 seconds (Triple-A) with runners on, with batters required to be in the box by the 9-second mark and a strict limit of two disengagements per plate appearance (that did not reset if the runner advanced). In its most recent week of play, the Minors have seen an average of .45 violations per game.

While I would love to see what the batter and pitcher might do to get each other off their game, I feel like there simply isn’t enough time. If the bases are empty, the pitcher has basically 14 seconds to toss the pitch once he receives the ball from the catcher. The 8-second alert rule means the batter has about 7 seconds to mess with the pitcher however he wants (which seems a long time but he has to set and be ready to swing so I don’t know) or else be charged with an auto-strike. I think there’s probably not a lot of leeway to do much here, although the time between batters (i.e. the ball is thrown around the horn after the previous play is completed) gives the new batter about 20 seconds to moon the pitcher or whatever.

I think the additional level of stress due to the limited disengagements (step-offs and pickoff throws) will be more telling, and will give the batter and baserunner(s) extra time to generate a violation or draw a balk. With 20 seconds to play with and only two disengagements before an auto-balk, the batter and runner have about 12 seconds to spook the pitcher, and that’s where I think AC’s philosophy might come into play more effectively. With bases empty, the batter is just trying to get himself on base somehow, but with runners on and those additional wrinkles with both the clock and the knowledge that pickoff attempts are at a premium, this could get entertaining. I’m desperately trying to find out where I saw the nugget about the batter only getting one call for time per plate appearance but I imagine that timeout request will be much more strategically employed, so there ya go.

The last bit is about the Cubs staff as constructed last season, and obviously some of these guys won’t be on the roster in 2023, but it was still quite telling when most of the pitchers not named Wade Miley would have violated the pitch clock whether there were runners on base or not. This is definitely something they will have to work on in the spring, and I’m sure we’ll see lots of reports of players and managers and umpires freaking out as they learn and adapt to the new rules and enforcement patterns (if any, umpires are a fickle lot).