MESA, Ariz. — The new pitch clock rule meant to speed up games has been welcomed by most Chicago Cubs and White Sox players, and we’ll begin seeing it next weekend when Cactus League games begin in Arizona.
Baseball is changing at a rapid pace, thanks in part to Theo Epstein, MLB’s master of change as Commissioner Rob Manfred’s consultant.
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Last year brought the adoption of the universal designated hitter, which Epstein was in favor of before well became he became president of the Cubs in 2011. This year’s big changes are the installation of a pitch clock and limiting defensive shifts and disengagements from the mound (pickoff attempts and step-offs). Bases also are larger to encourage more stolen-base attempts.
As expected, not everyone is gung-ho about the changes.
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“I go back and forth on it,” White Sox starter Lucas Giolito said. “I can see both sides of the argument. I’ve heard they’ve had success at the minor-league level, but the big-league level is a little different so we’ll see how it goes.
“I’m obviously open to whatever ends up being implemented, so we have to adapt and adjust to them.”
Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson also is in wait-and-see mode.
“The intentions are good,” Swanson said. “I hate that we have to have rules to make it how the game should be played. So I’m kind of excited to see how it is in spring, how you can use those to your advantage, whether it’s the (bigger) bases, whether it’s the pitch clock stuff.
“It’ll be interesting to see. I’m sure there are a lot of ideas being brainstormed and collaborated on in the coach’s office. We’ll see how it pans out.”
Teams have begun preparing for the pitch clock, which will be 15 seconds with the bases empty and 20 when a runner is on. They’ve been using the clocks during live batting practice. According to sources, Marquee Sports Network will have a pitch clock as part of the on-screen graphics during regular-season games but might not have it available during the Cactus League.
The Sox had a rules meeting Saturday at Camelback Ranch, where pitching coach Ethan Katz ran the show. The exhibition games will have a little more meaning than most years because teams will be experimenting more often to see what works best for them.
“We’re going to have our hiccups, for sure, in spring training,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “And we’re going to have our violations and we’re going to learn from them and what we need to do is cross our t’s and dot our i’s before Game 1.”
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Cubs manager David Ross said they also would push the envelope but pointed out they began “pushing the envelope” two springs ago with ultra-aggressive baserunning in Arizona.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations already,” Ross said, adding that the research and development department is involved. “We’ve definitely thrown a lot of things against the wall, and R&D has some input on what are the tendencies, where do we need to get to to be successful. There was a lot of analyzing how we ran the bases last year.”
Ross said the Cubs are leaning on their minor-league coaches to see what teams did “to circumvent the rules” when they were tested in the minors. It could be fun for fans to see players failing in their first test.
“I’m sure there will be some struggles, some pitchers that struggle with the clock, some strange things that happen on the bases,” Cubs President Jed Hoyer said. “But hopefully we can get that stuff out of the way and test our boundaries baserunning-wise here and get it going during the season.”
With only two disengagements allowed, a pitcher will be called for a balk if he throws to a base a third time and doesn’t nail the runner. If someone is on third base it would bring home a run.
Grifol said that was the rule change the Sox spent the most time going over. He’s hoping to test the rules in games to make sure players get a feel for how it will be.
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“I’m actually hoping there are a lot,” Grifol said. “The more that happens, the more we learn. What we don’t want is to go through a fairly clean spring and then all of a sudden here we are and you get a few things pop up that we didn’t go through in the spring. We’re trying to do our best coming up with different types of scenarios for every one of those rules.”
This could be only the beginning of Epstein’s master plan to change the way the game is played. The automated strike zone, also known as robo-umps, is probably on deck. Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president for baseball economics and operations, has said any and all rules changes have been discussed, including ones that would make fans’ heads explode.
“Change the bats, change the balls, change the bases, change the geometry of the field, change the number of players on the field, change the batting order, change the number of innings, the number of balls and strikes,” Sword said. “We talked about regulating the height of grass on the infield to speed up ground balls and create more hits. We’ve never talked about this in any serious way, but we talked about allowing fans to throw home-run balls back and keep them in play.”
That would make Cubs bleacher fans trend-setters. No need to worry about that crazy idea yet. But who knows?
Hoyer said the changes are needed to bring back the action the game has lacked in the era of the so-called three true outcomes (strikeout, walk and home runs).
“The more we can put action into the game, the more people are running, the quicker pace it is, the better,” Hoyer said. “No one wants to go to a 3-hour, 45-minute game and have that be a common occurrence. There will be some quick games this year. If you have a pitchers duel and everyone becomes Wade Miley, it’s great.”
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At the very least, players should be able to get home at a decent hour with shortened games. Though Giolito said he’s in no hurry.
“I’m a night owl,” he said. “Guys with kids and families (will like it) for sure. I’m not there yet. It’s never been an issue for me. I’m used to the baseball schedule we’ve got.”
Life is all about change, and Epstein is making sure baseball is all about emulating life.
