The pitch clock: Obnoxious and beautiful, it just might save MLB

Major League Baseball's pitch clock made its glorious debut in spring training games over the weekend, and it was not subtle.

A giant digital clock, placed not too far to the side of the catcher along the backstop, started counting down 15 seconds (bases empty) or 20 seconds (runners on) as soon as a pitcher got the ball back from the catcher.

It was an obnoxious reminder of the offseason changes — the other big one is an attempt to curtail shifts by legislating that two infielders must be on each side of second base — MLB is making in an attempt to increase action and pace.

And as someone who grew up a huge baseball fan but has been increasingly frustrated by the progression of the game — an increasingly likely to not watch at all — the pitch clock was a beautiful symbol of hope.

Patrick Reusse and I touched on the subject during Monday's Daily Delivery podcast, with both of us in agreement over the necessity of the clock and the optimism it brings.

The average length of an MLB game has been at least three hours for the past seven seasons, with minimal variance. It clocked in at 3 hours, 3 minutes in 2022.

There are numerous factors for that increase, and a pitch clock will not begin to solve some of them. The game has increasingly evolved into a "three true outcomes" approach; more walks and strikeouts mean more pitches, which mean longer games and fewer balls put in play, neither of which are aesthetically pleasing to most.

But a pitch clock will undoubtedly help with these things: creating a consistently quicker tempo to games, forcing the slowest workers to get up to speed and, yes, shaving precious minutes off of game times.

The average nine-inning MLB game last season had about 291 total pitches. If the pitch clock even takes two seconds off of the between-pitch time, games will be shorter by about 600 seconds (10 minutes).

If games start moving at a more consistent pace and the average game becomes a more reasonable (and consistent) length, it will be much easier to imagine going to a game in person or watching on TV.

Baseball is never going to have the non-stop action of basketball and hockey, the every-game importance of football or the international appeal and two-hour hard stop of soccer.

But it can easily have less dead time without impacting the fundamental quality of how the game is played. This is a great thing, something Commissioner Rob Manfred got very right, and anyone who says otherwise is just afraid of change.