Tag: Pitch clock

Michael Chavis and Willson Contreras both struck out on the weirdest clock violations after foul balls

Old habits are tough to break.

Opening Day is just over a week away, and MLB players are running out of time to get adjusted to the new rules. After all, old habits are tough to break.

In the past couple days alone, we’ve seen two eerily similar strikeouts by virtue of pitch-clock violations. According to the new MLB rules, the batter must be completely in the box and alert to the pitcher by the eight-second mark. Failure to do so results in an automatic strike.

So, you really don’t want that automatic strike to happen in a two-strike count. Both Michael Chavis and Willson Contreras learned that the hard way this week.

During Monday’s Grapefruit League game between the Marlins and Cardinals, Contreras was called out on strikes because he was too busy adjusting his batting gloves following a foul ball.

The umpire even gave Contreras a couple extra seconds to get himself ready, but the Cardinals catcher simply took too long. Then, in another game involving the Cardinals, the Nationals’ Michael Chavis was called out on strikes when he essentially did the same thing as Contreras. He took too long to adjust his batting gloves after a foul ball with two strikes.

That one seemed awfully close as the camera cut away right at the eight-second mark. But Chavis did appear to be in the process of looking towards the pitcher right around eight seconds. And while there’s a reasonable argument to be made that a foul ball deserves more time, players will eventually get used to the new rules.

In spring training alone, we’ve seen progress with violations becoming less common.

Plus, players will likely be more cognizant of the rules once the games actually matter. Until then, many fans had mixed feelings on these two violations.

Yankees’ pitcher Wandy Peralta may have just tossed the fastest strikeout in MLB history

This is video game stuff, man

Major League Baseball’s new pitch clock is something it’s going to take a lot of time for most of us to get used to.

Don’t get it twisted — it’s a good thing. We’re already seeing faster game times. It definitely has its warts, but this is something that will ultimately benefit the sport of baseball in the end. Pitchers also seem to love it — a lot.

Why? This at-bat from the Pirates’ outfielder Tucupita Marcano shows us exactly what the deal is.

He may have just had the quickest strikeout in MLB history against the Yankees’ Wandy Peralta. Not only did it take just 3 pitches to strike Marcano out, but those pitches also all came within a few seconds of each other.

All it took was 8 seconds for Marcano to fall down 0-2 in the count.

Jomboy actually clocked the at-bat at 20 seconds. THAT’S IT.

The pace was jarring for me sitting at home watching this on my laptop. It felt like watching someone repeatedly tap X while playing MLB: The Show where you can move forward quickly.

So, of course, Marcano probably wasn’t completely prepared for the speed Peralta was moving at. He didn’t seem to be, anyway.

Pitchers are going to catch batters off guard with some of these pitches all season long. There’s not a lot of pausing between pitches anymore — batters have to stay at the ready. If they don’t, they’ll end up like Marcano did here.

Again, this is going to take some time to get used to. We’ll see how batters adjust throughout the season.

1 side-by-side MLB video should convince you the pitch clock is the best

If this doesn’t convince you the MLB pitch clock is the best new innovation, we don’t know what will.

I know there are many baseball fans out there — some of whom I’ve heard from! — who aren’t all about the new MLB pitch clock that’s making games faster.

To them, I’ll repeat that the fix is not for old-school seamheads but for future generations of fans who will hopefully keep the game going. And even with some of the kinks and quirks that have popped up like a spring training game ending with a tie due to a violation, it’s going to make the sport better.

If you’re not convinced with what I have to say, then let me show you a video posted by the always-terrific Pitching Ninja, Rob Friedman. It’s a side-by-side comparison of an entire inning being pitched before one pitch was thrown in a pre-clock game.

What’s better? The left, with all that action, or the right?

I thought so.

The MLB pitch clock is already proving to be the best thing for baseball after just a few days

MLB games are already faster thanks to the pitch clock, which is HUGE for baseball.

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As Manny Machado — who had the first violation of 2023 spring training — and Cal Conley (who got a third strike call to end a Braves and Red Sox game in a tie) proved, getting used to the pitch clock is on the list of things MLB players need to do quickly.

But beyond the quirks for batters and pitchers alike, one trend has emerged: It’s working.

As in, baseball games this spring are finishing much quicker. And that’s going to be HUGE for the game.

Per The Washington Post: “The average time of the first 19 spring training games was 2:36. The average time of spring training games in 2022 was 3:01 — or 25 minutes slower.”

You read that right. If that trend holds, you could potentially get home nearly a HALF HOUR sooner from a game. Baseball’s plodding pace will be picked up, one of the many rule innovations that will make the game faster and more action-packed.

Sure, it may result in some weird moments like a called strike three with the bases loaded, or a pitcher may forget to look at the clock (although how can you miss it with those numbers ticking down quickly?).

But once everyone gets used to the rules, the results are going to be there. Speedy games can only help a sport that needs it.

Quick hits: So many NHL trades … SAG awards speeches … and more.

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

— The NHL trade deadline is later this week, but there are already SO MANY trades. Our Mary Clarke put together a trade tracker with grades and a look at what all 32 teams should do ahead of Friday.

— The 2023 SAG awards had a bunch of incredible speeches: One from Brendan Fraser, an F-bomb from Michelle Yeoh and you have to see Jamie Lee Curtis’s delightful reaction

— Jae Crowder shared a hilariously petty request about getting revenge on the Suns.

Braves-Red Sox game ended on a tie after a pitch clock violation struck out an Atlanta shortstop

The pitch clock has struck again.

The Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox concluded their spring training exhibition game in a bizarre tie thanks to the MLB’s new pitch clock violation rules.

With Braves shortstop Cal Conley stepping up to the plate awaiting a ball from Red Sox pitcher Robert Kwiatkowski, the pitch clock caught Conley falling out of its new eight-second window to get set and called him for the new penalty. 

It was the third strike for the Braves at the bottom of the ninth, which ended the game in a tie. MLB games don’t go into extra innings during spring training.

What stung for Atlanta is that the bases were loaded, and Conley had a chance for the dramatic win. All the shortstop could do was laugh as the game slipped out of everyone’s grasp.

The MLB tried to speed up the overall game by installing a pitch clock, and it’s going to be one of the running themes of the upcoming baseball season if it continues to will endings like this into existence.

It’s a tough break for the Braves to get tagged this early in the process by the new rule, but at least for both teams, these games won’t matter by spring training’s end. The real problems could come on Opening Day.

A bizarre ‘automatic’ strikeout in the minor leagues had MLB fans hating the pitch clock rule

MLB games could have this in 2023.

The various levels of minor league baseball have long doubled as a live laboratory of sorts for Major League Baseball. It’s where proposed changes to baseball rules go to test their viability. And as baseball desperately looks to speed up the pace of play, a pitch clock looks to be the most effective way to get that done.

With the new CBA, MLB will be able to institute a pitch clock as soon as the 2023 season. It’s inevitable. But wow, it’s pretty clear that some baseball fans are absolutely going to hate it.

A bizarre sequence out of the Class-AA Texas League went viral over the weekend, showing the Midland RockHounds’ Jordan Diaz getting called out on an “automatic” strike with a 2-2 count because he wasn’t ready for the pitch fast enough. Here’s the video:

A couple minor-league rules came into play there. The first being that a batter is required to keep a foot in the batter’s box at all times unless he’s granted time. Diaz did appear to have a foot in the box as he collected himself between pitches, but home plate umpire Pete Talkington appeared to rule against Diaz for a pitch clock violation.

See: The pitch timer doesn’t just apply to the pitcher. In Class AA, pitchers have to deliver the pitch within 14 seconds with the bases empty (18 seconds with a runner on). But the hitter also has to be in the box and ready to hit at nine seconds remaining on the pitch clock.

And that was where the ruling was a bit harsh on Diaz. He swung and missed, briefly collected himself and was fully in the box right around eight or nine seconds left on the clock. He wasn’t intentionally eating into the pitch clock or holding up the game, but Talkington thought it was enough to call the automatic strike (the penalty for batter pitch clock violations). A pitcher violation, on the other hand, would have been an automatic ball.

Despite the umpire’s announcement of the call seemingly taking up more time than a pitch would have, the rule has been able to cut the average game time down to around 2.5 hours. It’s going to come to MLB soon, but that video certainly did not have fans excited for the change.