Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — The new rules that were announced by MLB have launched a thousand online opinions for baseball pundits large and small. However, it might be nice to check in on those actually affected by these new rules, the players and on-field coaching staff. It will be their job to navigate the new landscape starting in 2022. Jack Harris at the LA Times recently put together a nice smattering of early takes from your Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It will impact, it absolutely will,” manager Dave Roberts said in the article. “But this is something that Major League Baseball, the players side feel that it’s best for the game. I’m on board. So we’ve got to manage within that structure.”
To recap, basically there are three changes coming: a pitch clock, bigger bases, and a ban on defensive shifting.
As for the shift ban, the famously victimized Max Muncy is all in, though he acknowledges it might result in a few weak grounders finding hole in the defense. “I don’t feel like you should get rewarded for that rollover ground ball,” he said. “The one I care about is when you hit the line drive … and there’s a guy sitting there.”
The pitch clock is already in place at the minor league level, which means that pitchers like lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson have already had some experience with it on their rehab starts at triple-A Oklahoma City. Ferguson said that the timer wasn’t much of an issue for him, and added that he thought the change might end up being good for the sport.
“Personally, I think it could be a really good thing,” the lefty said in the same LA Times article. “I think they just might have to make a couple tweaks with it, because it can’t dictate a game … You don’t want a pitch clock running out of time being the reason you lose a game.”
According to some stats shared in the article, all the LA pitchers are currently averaging a little higher than the 15-second limit between pitches.
However, it’s like any discipline. You won’t do something until you have to, and then after a while it seems like second nature.
There may have to be some tweaks to this system. For example allowing only two “disengagements” from the rubber per plate appearances seems a little extreme, especially when a pitcher is trying to control a speedy runner at first. I could see that being bumped up to three or four. Plus, I could see the pitch clock being turned off in the late innings to allow closers the time to get pumped up to max effort every pitch.
According to recent reports from the minors, it seems like the clock is having the desired effect, shaving nearly 30 minutes off the game time of the average nine-inning contest with no noticeable impact on the product on the field.
Roberts agrees. “It keeps the pace of play,” the Dodgers’ skipper said. “I think that’s a good thing.”
