TV’s challenge: How to work in the tight spaces of the new pitch clock

On Feb. 25 during the White Sox spring opener against the San Diego Padres, he got his first taste of working with baseball’s new pace. It was even more jarring.

After the game he immediately met with White Sox play-by-play voice Jason Benetti.

“We are covering a different sport now,” Benetti said. Withers agreed.

“What Jason said keeps hitting me,” Withers told theScore this week. “Our jobs are completely different now. Having done three spring training games, it is tenfold more impactful than anything I thought it was going to be just from talking about it.”

Those following MLB’s spring action have seen how some players are struggling to adapt to baseball’s new pace and rules, but they’re not the only critical industry employees facing a major adjustment.

During that first game, Benetti felt the change immediately.

“I said to Stoney (color analyst Steve Stone) on the air, ‘Are we talking faster? I think we’re talking faster,’” Benetti said. “It was like, ‘Wow,’ the cadence and rhythm and the pace of everything we do in the booth felt different.”

The majority of fans consume baseball through TV. How we watch the game is going to change - a lot.

God bless the pitch clock. And pizza-box bases. Baseball is fun again!

Already, in spring training, games are finishing in 2 hours and 36 minutes. That’s nearly a week and a half faster than your average Yankees-Red Sox game last year.

On 1st full day with new rules, games ‘better,’ with ‘more action’

All involved were warned that there would be no grace period with regard to the rules. So it was that a game between the Red Sox and Braves in North Port, Fla., ended in the bottom of the ninth (with the score tied, as there was no intention between the two teams of using extra men to play extra innings) when Braves infielder Cal Conley, who was up to bat with the bases loaded, two outs and the count full, was not alert to the pitcher by the 8-second mark of the pitch timer and was therefore assessed an automatic strike.

Struck out lagging.

Game over.

“These are the kind of things that tell you why we’re starting this right now,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker. “You never know what might happen. That instance right there shows you what could happen.”

The teachable moments will be many in this exhibition season, with the hope that most of the wrinkles are ironed out come Opening Day. The new rules were experimented in the Minor Leagues last season, and 90% of Minor Leaguers polled said it took them a month or less to adjust. Pitch timer infractions went from 1.73 per game in the first week in which the timer was in place to 0.53 per game by the sixth week.

An inside look at how the new rules will work

A bit more detail than we’ve seen before on these rules.

The basics: To create a crisper pace of play, there will be a 30-second timer between batters and then a 15-second timer between each pitch with the bases empty and a 20-second timer between each pitch with runners on base.

The pitcher must go into his motion prior to the expiration of the timer or else be charged with an automatic ball. The pitcher is allotted two “disengagements” (a step-off or a pickoff attempt) without penalty. A third disengagement will be ruled a balk, unless an out is recorded on the bases (i.e., a successful pickoff attempt).

The batter must be in the batter’s box and alert to the pitcher by the 8-second mark on the timer or else be charged with an automatic strike.

The pitch timer reduced the average game time in the Minor Leagues last year by 25 minutes, and the limit on pickoff attempts led to a 26 percent increase in stolen-base attempts. While it’s too early to say if those exact numbers will translate at the Major League level, it’s fair to expect a noticeable reduction in the length of games and increase in steal attempts.