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It has been only a few weeks, but the pitch clock already has changed baseball, from the beer stands and bathrooms to the on-deck circle.
The unintended consequences of installing a clock in the game without a clock include fewer chances to go to the concession stands or take bathroom breaks and a penalty for being so popular the fans give you a prolonged standing ovation upon stepping to the plate, as happened to Chicago Cubs center fielder Cody Bellinger on Friday at Dodger Stadium
Some teams have extended beer sales because of the quicker games, but Bellinger and other stars returning for “homecoming games” against their former teams are at the mercy of the plate umpire’s interpretation of the pitch-clock rules.
One manager told me the clock also will lead to more big innings, such as the eight-run third the Cubs hung on the Seattle Mariners in a 14-9 win last Tuesday or the nine-run first the Minnesota Twins put up against the New York Yankees in an 11-2 victory two days later.
His theory went something like this: Pitchers with control problems will be unable to correct them while also focusing on the pitch clock, and the momentum quickly shifts to the hitters, who cash in on the wildness. If it’s a starting pitcher and early enough in the game, the manager probably won’t have someone warming up in time to make a quick change, adding to the woes.
Stalling tactics also have been removed — the multiple mound visits by catchers, nonstop throws to first or just taking forever between pitches while a reliever warms up.
Conversely, if a pitcher is throwing strikes and dealing, it’s tough for hitters to break that momentum. That always has been the case, but the clock means less time for hitters to regroup if they’re behind early in the count, often leading to poor swings.
Cubs starter Marcus Stroman is an example of someone who has used the clock to near perfection. He has been scored upon in only one of his 18 innings pitched, giving up two runs in the third in his last start. Stroman also walked two in that inning but regrouped in the fourth, like resetting the clock, and ended with three more scoreless innings.
Being “in a groove” isn’t a new concept. But when the games move faster, the groove becomes more apparent.
What I like to call the “Buehrleization of baseball” remains a work in progress. And not everyone can pitch as quickly — or as well — as former Chicago White Sox left-hander Mark Buehrle. But everyone seems to like the pitch clock, even with its unintended consequences.
Meanwhile, a new baseball season means new terminology to learn, a daunting task for dinosaurs like me. The latest buzzword is “pocket,” as in finding a pocket in the opposing lineup to use your high-leverage relievers.
(In case you missed it, the high-leverage relievers used to be called the closer and setup men. Those roles are often interchangeable now, depending on the hottest pocket.)
Cubs manager David Ross said he doesn’t like to label his relievers and pointed out in spring training that he never called David Robertson his closer last year, even after it became obvious. No manager likes having a closer controversy, as we’ve witnessed over the years at Wrigley Field with LaTroy Hawkins, Carlos Marmol, Craig Kimbrel and many others.
“If I go to somebody else in a different pocket or somebody is a little tender that day from having gone two days in a row, it doesn’t have to be a story,” Ross said.
Duly noted.
Former Tribune baseball writer Jerome Holtzman made a lot of late-inning relievers rich when he invented the save statistic. But having a traditional closer isn’t essential to many modern managers.
“I don’t like to put ourselves in that box,” Ross explained. “If you have somebody that feels like they need that label that has earned it, I would definitely do that. I don’t think we have that guy, a Craig Kimbrel or a Mariano Rivera, floating around.”
The would-be “closer” can be used in any inning from the sixth on, like the Sox’s Reynaldo López or the Cubs’ Michael Fulmer. Starters don’t last as long as they used to, and managers’ thinking has evolved with analytics and “bullpenning,” which changed roles for everyone.
“It’s not just, ‘This is the long guy in case the starter doesn’t do well,’” Fulmer said. “Now it’s like, ‘OK, you have this guy who can throw in the sixth and the seventh.’ Those are still leverage innings now. I feel like that’s where the game is going.
“When I was a starter (with the Detroit Tigers), I tried to get as deep in a game every time out, basically going to 100 pitches. I don’t know whether it’s the numbers or what, but the way the game is going, you try to get to your bullpen as early as you can.”
Fulmer posted a two-inning save April 7 against the Texas Rangers. Ross used him Saturday in the traditional closer’s pocket — the ninth inning — and he blew a 1-0 lead against the Los Angeles Dodgers on a two-out, two-run single by David Peralta with first base open.
Ross told reporters afterward he wanted Fulmer to pitch around Peralta instead of just issuing an intentional walk to set up a force at any base. He used Fulmer again Sunday in the eighth inning with a one-run lead, and Fulmer notched a hold as Brad Boxberger got the save.
The Sox used López in the seventh inning Friday against the Baltimore Orioles after left-hander Jake Diekman walked two of three hitters to start the inning with a 3-0 lead.
“It was a good pocket, we thought, for Diekman,” manager Pedro Grifol said.
López gave up an infield hit and a walk before Adley Rutschman’s three-run double handed the Orioles the lead and eventually a 6-3 win.
“He wasn’t trying to throw the ball in the middle of the plate,” Grifol said. “He just missed there. I think it was a 100 mph fastball. He put a good swing on it.”
López earned the chance to be the temporary Sox closer while Liam Hendriks recovers, and he earned the save on opening day in Houston. But Grifol has used him in different situations when seeing a pocket that works. General manager Rick Hahn said López “came in absolutely on a mission” this spring and “wanted that ball in that closer’s role.”
The Sox already have one of the game’s best closers in Hendriks. Could López be one in the future?
“Pedro has gone out of his way to explain to him, ‘You may close the eighth, you may close the seventh. It depends on the game situation, but bring that same mentality every time you go out there,’” Hahn said Friday. “The stuff has been fantastic. … I absolutely think he’s capable of handling a closer role on a regular basis, if that’s how someone want to use him.”
Whether traditional closers will still exist down the road is a question that can’t be answered.
