MLB Insider Reveals Early Results of Controversial New Rule

The pitch clock was, without a doubt, the most controversial new rule introduced by MLB for the upcoming and future seasons.

Baseball was never played with a time limit on anything, but times are changing.

Pitchers will have 15 and 20 seconds between pitches depending on whether the bases are empty or not.

Batters, on the other hand, will need to be in the batter’s box by the 8th second, or they risk having a strike added to the count.

This rule was implemented in minor league baseball last year, but it’s new to MLB.

As you can imagine, it’s been kind of a struggle for some players so far.

Still, it’s a matter of time before everyone adapts.

MLB insider Jayson Stark showed some early results from early spring training games regarding the new rule.

Here’s another update on the pitch clock:

Average playing time this spring: 2h39
Last spring at this point: 3:01
That’s 22 minutes less!

65 games
113 offenses
1.74 per game – almost identical to 1.73 in Week 1 at the Minors last year

85 on pitchers
28 on hitters

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) March 1, 2023

According to Stark’s data, games were 22 minutes shorter on average compared to last year’s spring training.

So far, there have been 113 violations in 65 games, or about 1.74 per game.

Looking at the big picture, this number is actually not that high.

Between one or two offenses in a two and a half hour game, it’s practically nothing.

There have been some hitting and pitching issues, but players seem to be adapting to their new reality fairly quickly.

Pitchers have been the ones with the most notorious problems beating the clock.

If this study is done in the first month of the regular season, we are sure that the number of offenses will be even lower.

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