New Rules Speeds Up MLB Games

Major League Baseball instituted new rules this year to speed up the game. They added a pitch clock after each half inning. It counts down from 2 minutes and 25 seconds after the last out is recorded for local televised games and 2 minutes 45 seconds for nationally broadcast games. Pitchers and hitters have been encouraged to be ready for play when the clock reaches 20 seconds. Hitters have been told to stay in the batters box between pitches throughout their at-bat. They are allowed to leave the box only when they hit a foul ball or a pitcher throws a wild pitch. Managers can signal instant replay challenges to umpires from the dugout area instead of from the field. Have these new rules sped up baseball games in the first week of the season?

Through Sunday, 79 games have only gone nine-innings. Last year MLB had 85 nine-inning games through the first Sunday. The new rules have, in fact, sped up the pace of play. According to ESPN, the average length of a nine-inning baseball game has been 2 hours and 54 minutes. At this time a year ago an average baseball game lasted 3 hours and 2 minutes. That is a difference of 8 minutes. It will be the first time since 2011 that the average baseball game was less than 3 hours.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred isn’t worried about average time of a game. He hopes that he has made the game faster. Manfred said, “What I hope happens is that, at the end of the season, knowledgeable baseball writers and fans are saying, ‘You know, they got this one right. There’s a crispness to the play. They’ve cleaned up some dead time in the game. And maybe best of all, we feel like they were responsive to what people were saying about the game.”

Baseball games seem a little more prompt. Pitchers are ready when the clock has gone to 20. Batters don’t appear to leave the box as much to fix their batting gloves or knock the dirt off of their shoes.

What might make a difference for the average time being extended could be when pennant races are on the line. This will happen at the end of the year. Pitchers will have shorter leashes on the mound which could equal more mound visits or pitching changes. That could lead to longer baseball games.

How do you feel about pace of play so far in baseball?