Pitch clock concerns? Buck Showalter has a few
The Mets' Tommy Pham stands in the on-deck circle as a pitch clock counts down during the sixth inning of a spring training game against the Nationals on Feb. 26 in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: AP/Jeff Roberson
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — No one in baseball thinks of the permutations of things more deeply than Buck Showalter.
So when the Mets manager watches the changes that are happening to the game in spring training because of the pitch clock, he thinks. He muses. And he frets about how the new rules are going to be applied once the regular season starts.
You’d think adding a pitch clock would be simple. But adapting to the pitch clock has been anything but simple so far.
In the last week, Showalter — often with no prompting from the media — has raised concerns about multiple issues related to the pitch clock:
• The idea of umpires having “discretion” in deciding when to call pitch clock violations to either the batter or pitcher, which has Showalter concerned that different umpires will call things differently.
• Is a pitcher guilty of a “quick pitch” if he delivers the ball before a batter is set? Max Scherzer was called for both a balk and a pitch-clock violation ball in the same inning on March 3 because he supposedly quick-pitched twice. Since then, Showalter has kept a running tab on how many quick-pitch violations he thinks umpires have missed.
• Will batters and baserunners have time to get all their protective gear on before they have to be ready? Showalter cited an instance in which Brandon Nimmo didn’t have time to get his sliding glove on as a runner at first and would have potentially been exposed to injury if he slid headfirst without the glove.
• If a manager wants to hide a potential pinch hitter in the dugout instead of sending him to the on-deck circle to gain a tactical advantage, will that pinch hitter have enough time to get to the plate and be ready to hit if called upon.
• Will pitch-clock operators start the clock uniformly throughout baseball, or will the clock start early some places and late in others?
Trust us, there’s more. A lot more. This is how Showalter approaches everything: He looks at every angle. He said on Friday that MLB has been responsive when he has raised concerns.
“As soon as something might be tweaked a little or they want to verify that we know something, we get it right away,” he said. “They’re on it. They listen. If they don’t pick up the phone right away, they get right back to you with the questions we have. Everybody's been good.”
There’s no doubt the pitch clock has increased the pace of play and reduced game times in spring training. Showalter is hoping the issues will be ironed out by the March 30 season opener.
“We’ll find it,” Showalter said. “Everybody’s still kind of looking for it. I’m hoping the last week [of spring training] we’ve pretty much got it all down.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
