Rob Manfred Said He Would 'Consider Limiting The Number Of Pitching Changes' In An MLB Game
Let me just preface this by saying that I like the new MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred. I think he’s a breath of fresh air in that he’s open to new ideas in order to not just speed up the game, but to just make the game better overall.
I care about the growth of the game, and the overall interest in baseball from youth levels all the way to the top at the MLB level. I want baseball to thrive. Manfred has discussed things like banning defensive shifts, and introducing the designated hitter to the National League. I don’t think that you’re going to see either of those things happen, but it’s just the idea that the commissioner is proactive in trying to find new ways to improve the game. I like that. This idea, though, is just not good.
Here’s the full quote:
“Relief pitchers have really changed the game. The use of relief pitchers — obviously every time you have a pitching change, it goes contrary to our pace-of-game efforts. And the other thing it does — and hats off to them — our relievers now are so good that they actually make the back end of the game — seven, eight and nine — with less action in it. And when you think about keeping people engaged, you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘Is this a good thing for the game?'”
You can also file this under: never going to happen. You can’t limit the number of pitching changes that a manager can make. I guess a spinoff of this would be to limit how many pitchers you can use after September call-ups, when teams have small villages sitting out in their bullpens, and managers like Joe Maddon make 14 pitching changes in one game. That’s absurd. Once rosters expand, you should have to set a 25-man roster for that day that you can change day-to-day if you’d like. But that’s really only an issue for one month out of the season.
Personally, I think we make too big of a deal out of pace of play. I’ve got two suggestions that MLB should implement to shave some time off of these games, but I’m not entirely sure it would make a significant enough difference to say that the pace of play “problem” has magically been solved. First, there should be a time limit on replay reviews. I understand wanting to get the call right, but some of these reviews take WAY too fucking long. I think umpires should be given 90 seconds to confirm or reverse a call under review. It doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but think about how much time you, as a fan watching at home, need in order to see if he was safe or out, if it was a home run or foul, or if it’s inconclusive so the call stands. You’d probably need, what, 30 seconds max with the best camera angle? I’m giving you triple that time. It’s insane that some of these reviews need more time than that.
And I’d also add another clock. This one’s for pitchers. You see these young kids coming up from the minor leagues, working fast as shit? That’s because they have pitch clocks down in the minors, and they’re now conditioned to work faster. All these complaints about how batters need to stay in the box — how’d that rule work out, by the way? — but it’s these pitchers who take forever in a fucking day to just deliver a pitch, especially with runners on base. They already have the clocks installed in major league ballparks for in between innings. Now they need to use the clocks for pitchers who take hours in between pitches on the mound. It speeds up the game, and it also keeps the fans at home, and the fans in the stands more engaged, instead of them being able to catch several Pokemon and take multiple selfies in the duration of one at-bat.