SEATTLE — The pitch clock has been a success. It’s perhaps the best rule change implemented by the powers-that-be in Major League Baseball since adding a wild-card berth.
The change has been a success because it’s solved a problem. It has been a success because it’s returned baseball to the crisp, faster-paced game it used to be. There was no reason for the average baseball game to last more than three hours every night, and now it doesn’t. The average game time so far in 2023 is 2:38, down from 3:04 in 2022.
The number of pitch-clock violations has gone down as the season has progressed, according to numbers provided by MLB to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on Tuesday morning. Only 12 percent of games have featured multiple violations, while 60 percent of games have featured zero violations. That’s great news.
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So the question is this: Will the pitch clock remain the same in the postseason? Because let’s not pretend a game in June is the same as a game in October. A pitch-clock violation might cause almost zero ripple in a Royals-Cardinals game in August, but could be a tidal wave-type impact on a Braves-Dodgers game in late October.
Baseball should be careful not to let this wonderful solution — the pitch clock — become a problem all its own. As is tradition, both MLBPA director Tony Clark and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred met with BBWAA members the morning of the All-Star Game. This, of course, was a topic of conversation.
Clark’s session was first.
Tony Clark says the union is “hopeful that as each next conversation (with MLB) happens, we find ourselves in a world where we can make some adjustments” to pitch clock. Don’t want postseason games determined on violations, said player feedback suggests it’s a concern.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) July 11, 2023
And next up was Manfred.
Rob Manfred: "In general, I think you ought to play the postseason the way you play the regular season." He'll talk with Tony Clark about this.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) July 11, 2023
On Monday, during media availability, I asked seven All-Stars for their thoughts on whether the pitch clock needed to be tweaked for the postseason.
Will Smith, Dodgers
“I mean, I’ve heard the idea of making it a little bit longer for the postseason, and that would probably be smart. You don’t want games decided by the pitch clock. But also, those are the rules and we know them, we’ve been dealing with them since spring training. Come October, you’ve had seven months and everyone knows them, knows how to adjust to them and if you don’t, it’s a strike or a ball. So I think I can look at it either way.”
Pablo Lopez, Twins
“I think it’s good the way it is. I think once we embraced it, we realized that it was for the better of the game. I do think that maybe one thing they should try to consider is, you know how the batter gets a timeout? I think the pitcher should get a time-out. It doesn’t necessarily have to be one per at-bat but maybe one per inning. Because sometimes you shake, you shake, you shake and without people on base you can’t step off. At least with people on base, you can play around with the two disengagements you get. But without men on base, if the clock goes down, that’s a ball. So sometimes you go through pitches or you might not feel convicted about one. I think maybe just adding some sort of clock reset would be good. Doesn’t even have to be a timeout. I’ve talked about that with some of my teammates, and we think that could be something that could be beneficial.”
On the idea of a pitch-clock violation impacting an October outcome: “I’m sure everyone’s thought about that, that you don’t want to a pitch-clock violation to determine a big moment. I’m sure people are looking into it because those are the most important games of the year, you know? You don’t want to miss out on any action. You want all the action to be happening with a pitcher throwing the ball and the batter hitting the ball and all that. So maybe they’ll find some ways to make sure that the action stays the way it should stay for the postseason.”
Sean Murphy, Braves
“I think it would be weird to change what guys have been doing over the course of 162. Hopefully everybody’s settled in, for the most part. I haven’t seen any big game-deciding pitch-clock violations. But it is an interesting idea because the game does slow down in the playoffs, for the most part, but I think everybody’s probably a fan of the shorter games. There’s more action, more stuff going on. That’s a good question. But I think it’d be weird to change it after a full season.”
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Shane McClanahan, Rays
“I think it should be adjusted a little bit. I don’t think a game should be decided by whether or not a guy took an extra second to make a very important pitch. Obviously, we’ll see. But it’s one of those things, baseball keeps you on your toes and you just got to adapt to it. So if that’s the case, great. If not, you know, we’ll just keep doing we're doing.”
Spencer Strider, Braves
“I don't know. I think it’ll be interesting to see, as we get down the stretch and there are some divisional games that are meaningful and high-leverage moments at the end of the game, how it operates that point, and how it impacts the game, if at all. Hopefully that will provide the guidance for what they do in the postseason. I think there’s a benefit to the pace increase, but I’m a baseball purist, so I certainly don’t want it to detract from the quality of the play on the field.”
On the idea of a pitch-clock violation impacting an October outcome: “Yeah, that concerns me. I don’t think that fans would like to see that, either. So hopefully, either everybody’s all capable of following the clock or we get it to a point where it’s very unlikely that it will make a big call.”
Austin Hays, Orioles
“I just know everything’s heightened. I’ve never played in the postseason, but just from what I’ve heard, it just requires a lot more time for a pitcher or a hitter to take their breath to try to get into the moment just because it’s like the bottom of the ninth inning every single pitch for an entire game. So I don’t know if you can play at the 2:15 pace that we’ve been playing at during the season. I don’t know if you can do that in the postseason.”
Nathan Eovaldi, Rangers
“I mean, I feel like when you’ve been dealing with all year, I feel like just keep it the same for the postseason because, again, it’s part of the game. We had to get used to it.”
On the idea of a pitch-clock violation impacting an October outcome: “I mean, you don’t want to have a game decided by the pitch-clock violation or anything like that. But, again, you know, that’s where we are right now in the game.”
