The pace of play needs to be picked up in baseball. That is why a set number of timeouts must be added.
Sounds counterintuitive – to speed up the game, we must supply managers the ability to stop it.
But there already are timeouts. The problem is they are unlimited. A catcher wants to visit the mound, sure, go for it. The same for an infielder. A pitching coach literally could come out once every inning to chat with a pitcher, no problem. A hitter can wander down to a third-base coach to make sure he has the squeeze sign.
We have too many accepted stoppages that disrupt the flow of the game. So give each team five timeouts and – aside from injury – make those the only points at which the game can be stopped for chats.
And I mean for any stoppage in which uniformed personnel get together on the field. Why exactly does a manager have to go to the mound to remove a pitcher? In the NFL, players shuffle in and out on every play without a coach going on the field. If a pitching change is necessitated, the manager must do it from the dugout, unless he is forced to use a timeout because he didn’t have a reliever ready.
That would be part of this change: An advantage goes to the best managers and the most prepared teams.
Over the last decade in particular, the number of catcher visits to the mound has soared. In particular, the paranoia that every runner who reaches second is a world-class code breaker is ridiculous. A runner gets to second and the catcher heads to the mound to change signs. I have talked to catchers and pitchers: The signs can be changed non-verbally from 60 feet away. Work out a system in spring training, or in the meeting to go over the hitters before the game, or in the dugout between innings. But stop wasting time during games.
Every team has pitcher meetings prior to at least a series, if not every game. Yet, as soon as a pinch-hitter is summoned, boom, here comes the pitching coach to discuss the hitter with the pitcher. What exactly is going on in these meetings? If you can’t retain the information, then you should be punished for it. This is the major leagues. Let’s respect that the players are capable of thinking on their own.
Again, let’s honor the managers who know when to begin to get relievers ready. Can we end the act where the manager uses that Pac-Man hand signal to tell his catcher to talk to the pitcher, the catcher walks slowly out, slowly back and then the manager begins the slow walk to the mound all to create the extra two minutes to warm up a reliever?
The smart players who have absorbed the lessons and can apply them or think for themselves on the field should gain an edge. In particular, can we get to the point where the only guy on the mound is the pitcher? It is a place of business. For one player. Not the United Nations. Forgive me, but can everyone else get off the darn mound?
When you are watching a game, the problem is not length as much as pace, though of course slowing down the pace also creates greater length. Commissioner Rob Manfred has made improving pace central to his administration, which is why there will be further emphasis this season on getting play initiated each half inning and having managers hustle more during pitching changes.
Baseball is trying to appeal to younger fans. That means addressing all the non-action, all the walking and talking – all the endless timeouts.
So formalize timeouts. Give each side five (you get one more per extra inning). Like NBA coaches who save them for end-game situations, the smart managers will preserve them for critical moments, which means thinking twice about that second-inning mound visit or potentially wasting a timeout with a 50-50 replay challenge.
A fringe benefit could be the pitcher/defense will not be as polished with less endless consultation. That could lead to an offensive uptick when the sport would like to see just that. And this would be organic, as opposed to making shifts illegal or forcing relievers to face more than one batter.
All that is being requested of the players is that they play. The lack of a fixed number of timeouts has led to an abuse in halting the game constantly. No one came to watch grown men chat. That needs to stop. Give each side five timeouts and this piece of advice: Use them wisely.
