When a batter isn’t ready in time, it’s an automatic strike. When a pitcher fails to throw a pitch in time, the penalty is an automatic ball. “I feel like when you start doing automatic strikes, automatic balls, automatic runners advancing to bases, automatic runs scoring possibly, just based off of a step off, or a pickoff, to me I think that just changes the integrity of the game,” Plawecki said. Velasquez doesn’t like the pitch clock, and his teammate, catcher Kevin Plawecki, has concerns about the punishments. “There’s tons of talent that’s spread around the league, and hitters are doing their homework just as much as we’re doing ours, but I think it takes a little bit more time to kind of strategize and find ways to incorporate those things.” I think that’s the unique thing about baseball nowadays,” Pittsburgh right-hander Vince Velasquez said. “In this game, it’s all about strategizing and really finding ways to get guys out. Still, there’s a difference between compliant minor leaguers and big league veterans who are used to a certain routine - and the amount of information available to major leaguers can make pitcher-batter showdowns a mental battle in addition to a physical one. If big leaguers get used to it that quickly, they should be ready around the end of spring training. When surveyed, about 90% of both pitchers and position players said they adjusted to the pitch timer within about a month. By week 24, that figure was down to 0.41. Games early in the season, in the second week, included an average of 1.73 violations. “What was really removed from the game was that dead time - pitchers walking around the mound, batters fixing their batting gloves, taking extra pitches in the bullpen, walking in from there.” “The games were shortened, but not at the expense of game play,” said Joe Martinez, a former big league pitcher who is now MLB’s vice president for on-field strategy. And other stats like runs per game, batting average and the rate of hit batters were essentially unchanged. According to Major League Baseball, the pitch timer reduced nine-inning games by a whopping 25 minutes last year in the minors, from 3 hours, 3 minutes in 2021 to 2:38.
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