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Q&A: Walker, Harrison and Glasnow discuss MLB's new pace-of-play rules

Q&A: Walker, Harrison and Glasnow discuss MLB's new pace-of-play rules

BRADENTON, Fla. — Major League Baseball introduced a few new pace-of-play rules yesterday to speed up the game. Fans generally appreciate a quicker game, and executives are interested in keeping the fans, so that’s a win-win.

The rules primarily affect the players, though, so before the rules were officially announced we caught up with Neil Walker, the Pirates’ union rep, Josh Harrison, a serial stepper-out-of-the-batter’s-box, and pitching prospect Tyler Glasnow, who played with some experimental rules put in place for the Arizona Fall League.

Here are their thoughts, with the more interesting points highlighted. Stick around for Glasnow’s comments especially; interesting stuff, since he’s actually played under these rules (and more).

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(Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)

NEIL WALKER

As union rep, what have you heard of the place-of-play initiatives?

“I got an e-mail this morning about it, I didn't get a chance to look over it. But we had a pretty laid-out synopsis of what was going to happen. It seems as though they're just going to try to be more efficient with some of the issues that go on during the course of the day. Hitters in the batter's box, coach's challenges, mound visits, things like that I believe. I don't think it'll change much of the dynamic of the game, but there will be some things that guys that are used to certain things will have to get used to.

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Will these rules help in a cumulative fashion to speed up the pace?

“You look at the normal average length of games and you're talking about three hours. I'm sure that's probably higher than if you look back 15, 20 years ago, it's probably a half-hour shorter, I'd imagine. To be more efficient, to continue to move the game at a good pace is something that's going to help the game.

So, guys will have to start paying attention to box?

“I'm guessing they don't want guys just completely getting out of the batter's box, looking down to third, this and that. But I think that you can remove yourself from the batting position whether you're close to the box. As long as you're not getting out and moseying around I'm sure they're not going to try to enforce it. I imagine it's going to be progressive too because it's going to take a little while for guys to fully get the grasp of that. I think from a hitter's standpoint that's going to be the biggest change.


(Jamie Sabau/Getty)

JOSH HARRISON

What are your thoughts on the new rules?

”To be honest, it's been such a hectic offseason, I really haven't paid any attention to any of pace of play, nor have I generated any thought toward it. If they change something, I'll be all ears. Until anything happens, I'm just going to approach the game the way I always have. I'm sure if there's a new rule in place, they'll spend this spring training talking to us about it and also working at if it is going to be changed. It's not anything that I'm focusing on right now.“

How did you develop your lengthy routine between pitches?

”It's just habit. Some people have certain things that they don't even realize they do just because you've done it so much. Everybody's different but it's not anything that I worry about.“

As a player do you notice the increasing length of a game ?

”I really don't pay attention to it during the course of an actual game. I got one objective, that's trying to win. Generally like to get it done in as short amount of time as possible, but we also understand it's baseball, it's a funny game. You play extra innings. Sometimes games are longer than others. It's not anything that I've ever said, they're longer than they usually have been.“


(Chris Welch/MiLB.com)

TYLER GLASNOW

What takeaways did you have from the experimental league? (AFL had a 20-second pitch clock, a 2:05 between-innings clock, a 2:30 pitching-change clock, a stay-in-batter’s-box rule and a no-pitch intentional walk rule.)

"Things started to speed up with runners on. It was just another thing to think about because it was so new. I work not fast, but 20 seconds is kind of a lot of time anyway. It definitely was a little weird. If I had to choose I would definitely say no to it. There are so many other factors that go into it, like what the catcher has to do. It really speeds up the game when it doesn't seem ... I mean, why change it now? It's been hundreds of years and stuff. It didn't affect me as much as I thought it would. They had it but they didn't [enforce] it [by adding balls or strikes]. I know it's an automatic ball and they didn't have that rule. Once or twice I did run out of time. In that time, if they gave me an automatic ball I'd be like, 'Are you kidding?' It didn't affect me as much as I thought it would — 20 seconds is a lot — but it just seems weird to change now."

Do you see the perspective that games have simply gotten too long?

"When you're playing, especially when you're pitching, you're not trying to get the game over with. It's more for the fans, I guess. It's been like this for hundreds of years, it just seems so weird that they're going to change it now. I guess having games go quicker make sense, but in the fall league they also could challenge and stuff, so it ended up saving like a minute. It ended up not really doing anything."

"You have a routine, and sometimes you've got to hold and there's also these other rules with it where if I'm trying to hold a guy for four seconds and then pick off, the pick-off doesn't start the clock over if you inside move to second. The rules just don't seem very logical for right now."

First Published: March 24, 2016, 5:05 p.m.

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