idea to speed up play

[mmmbeer]

interesting and definitely worth considering.  They need to do more to speed up play.

www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/new-york-yankees-joe-girardi-nfl-earpieces-helmets-pace-of-play-rules-changes-022317

[Evil Yoda]

It might work. The Patriots have been accused of causing systems malfunctions, so you'd need to ensure that if either team's system malfunctioned the other team would have to forsake theirs, as well. And, to keep teams interested in maintenance, if the system malfunctions the home team gets fined. If anyone gets caught eavesdropping, it's got to be a serious fine - $1,000,000 for a first offense sounds about right.

[mmmbeer]

if the 3rd base coach could use this, then they could put some restrictions, 1/AB?, on how many times batters can step out of the box. That would save time. It's annoying when I can't see the end of a 7pm game since I'm usually in bed by 10.

[Deleted]

This whole notion of speeding up the game is largely misdirected and misguided. It isn't the pace of the game; rather, it's largely the two minutes and 25 seconds between innings (2:45 for nationally televised games) that accounts for a large portion of the down time. MLB, however, is not about to shrink the space for commercials and I think we can all guess why.

Many factors cited as time-consuming, are actually features of the game. Baseball games would be shorter if hitters didn't work counts (something the Orioles are rarely accused of doing), if pitchers didn't throw over to first base, and if managers didn't make ample use of bullpens. Those all add time to games, but they're also not needless.

As it, baseball will attempt jump-start the pace by eliminating the four-pitch intentional walk. At a total of 1,410 minutes for all intentional walks issued in 2016, that averages to about 35 seconds per game. Don't expect baseball to suddenly reach warp speed under this new rule.

A few practical measures could be taken, however, to keep things moving, such as limiting trips to the mound by both the catcher and the infielder, and also by limiting the time to call for a replay as well as the time of the review as well. And unless you really like watching obsessive-compulsive behavior, start enforcing the rule which prohibits batters from stepping out of the box after every pitch, and let's put some kind of shot clock on the pitcher as well.

Players have expressed resistance over many proposals to speed things up, but go back and look at films of games from the 1950s and 1960s. The hitters stayed in the batter's box virtually the whole time, and pitchers were looking in for the sign as soon as they got the throwback from the catcher. If that was good enough for the likes of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson, it's good enough for modern players as well.

[Evil Yoda]

I have seen batters call for a time out while the pitcher was in his windup, and have it granted. The umpire is not compelled to grant a time out when one is requested. Once the pitcher starts his wind up a time out should not be granted, and if the player steps out of the batter's box in that situation the pitch should always be a strike, even if that is strike three, and even if it does not cross the strike zone. Trains batters to stop screwing around.

I don't know how to discourage pitchers from taking too long between pitches, but that needs to be done as well. I thought there was a pitch timer, but I don't know for sure that it exists or how well it is enforced. If a pitcher doesn't throw the ball (to first or the plate) before the timer expires, then it's a ball and can be ball four.

Increase the number of strikes to four, however, a batter can strike out on a foul ball, whether caught or not. Not sure about this one.

A manager can only use his own request for a replay. If a manager cannot request a review (he has exhausted his requests) and takes any action an umpire interprets as requesting a crew review, the manager is instead immediately ejected. In addition, his action forbids the umpires from reviewing the play in question; it is automatically adjudicated to the detriment of the offending manager's team. Trains managers to stop screwing around.

I've heard that some minor leagues plan to start extra inning games with a running in scoring position (presumably, on second base). I don't think that's a good idea, and I don't think it's going to save much time.

[mmmbeer]

keeping them in the batters box would help for me. I know chris davis re-tightens his gloves and wipes the head of his bat under his arm between every pitch. It drives me crazy to the point I can't really watch him bat anymore. I'm sure there are others that step out every pitch that I don't recall, but he comes directly to my mind.

The catchers won't eve start the signs until the batter is in the box & looking at the pitcher, so it slows the whole process down.