Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke in Toronto about the effects of the pace of play adjustments. He drew a consistently positive conclusion and provided insights into possible further changes.
Since the start of the Regular Season, the number of Mound visits has dropped to 3.79 per game. In 2017, the figure was 7.41 per game.
“Every time you change the rules of baseball, people predict all kinds of fatal consequences. “But we’ve avoided even the smallest incidents of mound visit rules or shorter inning breaks.”
Manfred added: “I see the changes positively because they were effective. We have significantly reduced the number of mound visits – I believe by as much as 50 percent – and our inning breaks are also significantly shorter. I see both as positive in our ongoing efforts to produce an entertainment product that has as little dead time as possible.”
Manfred is also known for favoring pitch clocks that are already used in the Minor Leagues. However, he admitted that he is not in a position “where I can say for sure that we will have pitch clocks at big league level”. The players’ union had refused to agree to the introduction of a pitch clock and Manfred withdrew his threat to go through with the change this year.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.