Can the Pirates compete with a Pitch Clock?

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Just when you thought baseball tracked every stat about every aspect of the game, be prepared for a ton of new stats coming about your favorite pitcher that tell us about his average time between pitches, opponent average against quick pitches, opponent average against delayed pitches, home runs against quick pitches early in the count, etc.  The common theme in all of these new stats is going to be attached to the concept of TIME, because for the first time in history, MLB is seriously contemplating major rules changes to speed up the game via a clock.

In 2012, 2013 and 2014, the average time per game eclipsed the 3 hour mark, and is growing steadily.  In an immediate gratification, no time for nonsense world, length of games is starting to become a major issue in the eyes of league management.  Baseball has recently done some tests in the Arizona League on implementing a Pitch Clock, and has stated that in Double-A and Triple-A in 2015 a 20 second Pitch Clock will be implemented.

Many major sports have play clocks.  This is not a new concept.  Basketball has the shot clock.  Football has the play clock.  But, what Baseball proposes with the Pitch Clock is drastically different than play clocks in other sports.  The key differences are:

– In other sports, the play clocks are not intended to speed up the duration of play.  They are intended solely to try to infuse more offensive possessions into the games.  All other sports that use play clocks are already timed, and play clocks running out actually slow down the duration of play, not speed it up.

– In other sports, play clocks time the offense, not the defense.  A Pitch Clock is a timing of (and potential penalty on) the defense.

MLB should be applauded for constantly trying to tinker with the rules to make a superior product.  MLB should also be applauded for testing the ideas, in this case the Pitch Clock, in the minors to get some hard data on whether or not the idea will work.  When your product is well over 100 years old, and its practices are tried and true, making major change is a tough step to take.  It makes you wonder what kind of metrics Baseball is looking at to pull the trigger on the Pitch Clock.  Some that I can think of are:

– Length of Games.  I think it is suspect whether a pitch clock is going to actually decrease the length of the games.  It seems like it will give advantage to the offense, which should make the games longer, not shorter.

– While the length of games has been increasing recently, run production has gone down.  If the experiment produces more runs, it may make games more exciting for average fans.  Football and Basketball have benefitted a lot from increased offensive possessions, and increased scoring.

– Integrity of the game.  If Baseball perceives that it can put in a Pitch Clock without compromising the integrity of the game, it will do it immediately.

I am extremely interested to see how this experiment works out.  The play clock has really changed how Football and Basketball are played, and has turned them both into more individual sports than team sports.  The shortened Play Clock in Football has taken away a teams ability to shorten the game dramatically by running the football.  As a result, the team with the best quarterback wins a large percentage of the time.  Defenses are now designed to contain instead of dominate, bend but don’t break.  Time of possession for the most part is almost always even.  It is a huge shift in strategy.  In Basketball, the shot clock has completely changed the game.  The team with the player that can hit the most contested jumpers wins.  Having a player that is capable of dribble penetration is paramount, and someone who can create their own shot is a must.  No longer can you have offensive systems (such as the flex offense) that are designed to get any of the players layups, there is simply not enough time to run the systems fully.  The team that has the best individual game breaker(s) usually wins.

It is impossible to predict how a Pitch Clock is going to affect Baseball, but given what we’ve seen from other sports, you have to believe that the best players seeing better pitches is only going to make Baseball more individual as well.  If this is the case, without the salary cap, it is going to be a huge blow to small market teams.  I have to believe that Yankees and Red Sox fans are rejoicing at the prospect of accumulating the games best players, then watching them pound better pitches.  It seems like the Pitch Clock will only make a tilted landscape more severely tilted, but, only time will tell.

I am very interested what Pirates fans think of a Pitch Clock.  Do you think it will help the Pirates?  How so?