Milwaukee Brewers: 5 Reasons Why The Pitch Clock Is A Bad Idea

Major League Baseball is giving a trial run for a 20 second pitch clock in Spring Training. It could possibly be implemented in time for the 2019 regular season.

In MLB’s mad desire to quicken the pace of play, they have begun the process of installing a pitch clock against the wishes of the Player’s Association. This would be a mistake of epic proportions from Commissioner Rob Manfred. The pitch clock is the exact opposite of what baseball needs.

I know that he’s worried about games taking longer to finish and a lot of other people are too. But a pitch clock is not the way to go. It will not grow the game, it will not make baseball appeal to the younger generation like they claim they’re trying to do. I’m a part of this younger generation that MLB is trying to get to enjoy baseball. Making the game faster and adding a clock on to the only professional sport that doesn’t have one, is a bad idea.

The pitch clock will be implemented in Spring Training in 2019. MLB holds the right to unilaterally implement the clock for the 2019 regular season. Manfred wants the MLBPA to approve of the idea, but the players are universally against this.

With tensions already high between the player’s union and the Commissioner’s office, putting this into the game would only make that worse.

There are several reasons why the pitch clock is the wrong way to go for baseball.

Reason #1: It’s unrealistic

A 20 second clock is in no way, shape, or form, a realistic amount of time for every pitcher in baseball to adhere to. Out of all of the 57 qualified starting pitchers in MLB in 2018, not a single one of them averaged less than 20 seconds in between pitches. None of them. Some were close. Mike Foltynewicz of the Braves averaged 20.5 seconds between pitches. But not a single qualified starting pitcher averaged less than 20 seconds between pitches.

Of all pitchers that threw at least 50 innings last year, only three actually averaged less than 20 seconds between pitches. There were 336 pitchers with 50 innings and only three were able to accomplish this task of a 20 second clock. Milwaukee Brewers starter Brent Suter actually led the league with an average of 18.6 seconds between pitches. It seems to everyone that he’s going at lightning pace but he’s only a second and a half ahead of the clock.

The other two, Steven Matz and Wade Miley, averaged between 19 and 20 seconds between pitches. That is the entire list of pitchers in baseball who pitch at a pace that MLB is now requiring. This is simply an unrealistic number for many to attain.

The vast majority of Brewers pitchers averaged between 22 and 26 seconds between pitches. Brent Suter went the fastest, averaging 18.6 seconds between pitches. The pitch clock would be a major adjustment for Jacob Barnes, who averaged 29.1 seconds between pitches, the highest on the Milwaukee Brewers.

There are a lot of things that happen on the mound that few fans understand. They only see pitchers walking around the mound, adjusting their hats, playing with their glove, the rosin bag, etc. and just seemingly taking their sweet time. All of that has a purpose.

When pitchers are doing that, their mind is racing, with thoughts like “Should I throw a curveball here, or try to set him up with a high fastball”, “He won’t be expecting a slider here”, “That should’ve been called a strike, now I’m behind, now what?” “He’s probably expecting a changeup, I need to go fastball, should I go inside or outside”, and it’s a conversation with yourself on the mound. They’re trying to figure out what they want to do next. All of those seemingly nervous ticks and time wasters have a purpose.

This doesn’t only affect pitchers. It affects hitters too. Hitters use the time in between pitches to guess what’s coming next. It may look like they’re just adjusting their batting gloves or practice swings or tugging their sleeves, but they’re thinking to themselves too. They’re thinking things like “He just went fastball, now he’s probably going to go curveball”, “Last one was inside, now will he go inside again or try to pitch outside”, “If it starts low, lay off, it’s going in the dirt”. Most of the time, hitters are guessing what’s coming from the pitcher. When they guess right, they get base hits. When they guess wrong, they look foolish and strike out.

Pitcher vs. Hitter is more of a mental battle than it is a physical one. Each side is playing mind games with the other. Pitchers make pitches to set up hitters into believing a certain pitch is coming all the time, and then they throw the exact opposite of what they made the hitter believe. The legend, Yogi Berra, once said “Baseball is 90% mental, and the other half is physical”, and it couldn’t be more true. As a catcher, Yogi knew all about the mind games that pitchers played on hitters. Yes, physically throwing and hitting the ball is half the battle, but a majority of the battle, let’s say 90%, comes from mental preparation.

Pitching is an art form. Hitting is an art form. And you know what they say about art? YOU CAN’T RUSH IT! The pitch clock will only diminish the product on the field. Pitchers will be forced to rush through their thought process, giving flawed results and the hitters won’t be mentally ready for the pitch and a result will have less success. This can lead to nothing other than sloppier gameplay.

Reason #2: It increases risk of injury to players

According to a recent study by McMaster University, pitchers are statistically more likely to suffer arm fatigue if held to the 20 second pitch clock. The arm needs a certain amount of time to recover from a throw before it is ready to throw again. Reducing this recovery time leads to arm fatigue, especially in the elbow, making the pitcher more susceptible to UCL tears.

Brent Suter has led MLB in the quickest pace between pitches for the past couple years. And in July 2018, Suter went down with, you guessed it, a UCL tear. He needed Tommy John surgery and now will miss most, if not all, of 2019.

Baseball has already been suffering through an epidemic of Tommy John surgeries and has been working hard to fix that problem. Part of it deals with players being overworked as kids and it has a long-term effect on the players as they move up to professional baseball. Pitch counts in youth baseball is a great step to cutting down on these injuries in the future.

But Manfred is now speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He’s put in all this work to cut down on pitcher injuries, but now he wants to enforce a pitch clock, giving pitchers’ arms less time to recover, giving them a higher chance of injury. It’s hypocritical!

Fangraphs did some research on the topic as well. They found that relievers are especially susceptible to arm fatigue in a pitch clock game. They go all out 100% on every pitch because they generally only pitch one inning in a game. Starters have to pace themselves, but relievers have been more likely to get injured regardless. With a pitch clock, that risk increases significantly. And with relievers receiving record paydays this year, it’s now a big gamble for MLB GM’s to sign any of them. The bullpen has a newfound importance in today’s game and the pitch clock rule hurts relievers.

This rule is not in the best interest of the players. Pitchers are injured way too often and Tommy John surgeries have been on the rise for the past several years. The last thing MLB should want to do is make a rule that increases the likelihood of arm injuries.

Reason #3: Players will find a way around it

Considering this pitch clock will force the players to rush through their routine, they will find loopholes to get around the 20 second clock. It’s inevitable. Hitters were finding loopholes around the pace of play initiatives a few years ago about staying in the batter’s box. They still took the same amount of time between pitches doing their routine.

The easiest loophole I can see being exploited is a hitter calling timeout. They can get in the box and look ready and as soon as there’s two seconds or so on the pitch clock, they call time. As long as the pitcher hasn’t started his motion, the umpire will grant time. Then what happens? Does the clock stop? Does the clock reset? Either way, it will take more than 20 seconds until the next pitch. Unless MLB will stop allowing players to call for time, which will cause a riot amongst players, that’s what’s going to happen.

If a hitter feels like he’s being rushed, he’s going to call timeout. Milwaukee Brewers fans have seen that happen to Brent Suter time and time again. He’s ready to throw the next pitch too quickly, and the hitter, caught off-guard, calls timeout to throw off Suter’s rhythm.

Catchers will call time as well. If they don’t feel like they know what they want to call or their pitcher isn’t ready and shakes off all the signs, they’ll call timeout. The umpire will grant the catcher time and we have the same issue all over again. The clock may stop or reset, either way, it will take longer than 20 seconds between pitches.

And the players can do this all game long, and it will slow the pace of the game to a crawl. The players will stick it to the Commissioner that way. Fans will get upset that everyone is calling time and the game will slow down because of it but it’s a better way for the players to protest than calling for a strike and bringing baseball to a complete stop. And that may be where we’re headed if Manfred makes more unilateral changes.

Reason #5: It’s not the way to grow the game

MLB is making all this fuss about pace of play because they want to appeal to the younger generation with a fast-paced game. But that’s not the way to appeal to this generation. The young generation enjoys drama, personality, and social media.

The action has shown an increase with the record amount of home runs hit in 2017 and 2018. Everyone loves the long ball. The postseason gave us plenty of drama and there should be more drama mid-season. Bat flips cause drama and it makes the game interesting. And young kids imitate their favorite players batting stance, swing, and, you guessed it, bat flips.

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Putting the personality of star players on display is what baseball needs to do to grow the game. Baseball players need to forget about the unwritten rule regarding bat flips and showing up the pitcher to grow this sport. Young fans love bat flips and displays of emotion from players. That needs to be encouraged if the game is to appeal to younger fans. In basketball, players get dunked on and posterized all the time and kids enjoy it. A bat flip should be on that same level.

The thing the young generation loves most of all is fun. They want to have fun and if they are to be convinced that baseball is a fun sport to play and to watch, the players need to go out there to have fun. Everyone needs to join in Bryce Harper’s quest to “Make Baseball Fun Again”. If the players look like they’re out there just having fun, having the time of their lives, kids will see that and want to join in. The Milwaukee Brewers are a model example of this.

Young kids want something that can be put into GIFs and memes. They want something they can laugh at and enjoy. Player celebrations are easily converted into GIFs and memes and it makes the kids want more. You can’t do anything with a countdown clock. That’s not something kids can enjoy seeing. It doesn’t appeal to them in the slightest.

MLB needs to market its star players much better if they’re going to grow the game to the younger generation.

When there’s a big strikeout to end an inning, we love to see the fist pumps and the screaming as the pitcher walks off the field. When there’s a big hit, fans love the celebrations. Remember when Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers hit a walk off home run and he jumped on to home plate and the entire team fell down? You can bet there were a lot of youth baseball teams that re-enacted that same celebration when they hit a home run after that, and they still do, all over the country, all over the world.

Look at the Gauntlet the Milwaukee Brewers ran in 2017. After every home run the team would go through the Gauntlet and Brewers fans couldn’t get enough of it. It was something that fans fell in love with and Brewers fans identified with the team more, they engaged with the team more, and the Gauntlet with the seemingly free spirit personality of the 2017 Brewers brought more fans to the team, and probably, the game of baseball itself.

The Gauntlet was so big that the Brewers even had a Gauntlet Bobblehead giveaway last season. It’s that display of emotion and personality and fun that young fans enjoy. And it’s what will keep them coming back.

It’s inconceivable to me, that cutting the game down, is going to help grow it. It doesn’t make any sense. With shorter game times, it means less time to sell beer, hot dogs, brats, burgers, popcorn, etc. That’s less money coming in, meaning less profit. I would argue that ticket prices should be lowered if this is what MLB wants to do. If they want to shorten the game and risk taking away from the product on the field, tickets shouldn’t cost so much. If we’re only getting 2:50 of baseball instead of 3:00, shouldn’t ticket prices be lower?

Let’s face it, the players don’t want the pitch clock, the older fans don’t want the pitch clock, and the younger fans that this is suppose to appeal to, don’t need the pitch clock. No one wants this pitch clock except for the Commissioner’s Office.

A pitch clock is not the way to grow the game of baseball. It’s an unrealistic way to improve a pitcher’s pace, it increases risk of injury, players will find ways to avoid the clock, it messes with player’s jobs, and it’s simply not the way to grow the game of baseball.

Rob Manfred is making a big mistake by pushing this pitch clock through. It’s shortsighted and dangerous as he risks alienating not only the older generations of fans, but the young fans as well, when this pitch clock backfires.

The Milwaukee Brewers have had some of the fastest working pitchers in the league in the last few years. And those pitchers have each seen their share of arm injuries.