Major League Baseball: Five pace of play change ideas

Limit the amount of meetings with the pitcher at the mound

This is a big one for me.  There are not many things more frustrating than when a pitcher and a catcher are not on the same page.  When there is a lack of communication between the two – you then see the catcher running out to talk to the pitcher.

This can happen a dozen times in a game.  There needs to be a timeout limit used across baseball.  There are signs that the manager uses to communicate with the catcher.  That communication always happens while the pitcher and the batter are getting ready for their appearance.

If you were to give each team say three timeouts each to use for their digression, this would cut down significantly on wasted meetings.  I know a lot of teams use it as a stalling tactic to get their pitcher in the bullpen ready.  The pitcher in the pen already has more than enough time to get ready and when they enter the game they get a couple more minutes of television break time to use up.

There is plenty of time to get ready.  The manager and catcher don’t need to tell the new pitcher anymore than he’s already heard. The reliever has already heard everything from the bullpen coach with their large index book of every batter they are going to face and what their tendencies are.

The exception to this would be for an injury to the pitcher which then requires the pitcher from the bullpen to be rushed in.  Those are rare cases and can be dealt with accordingly.

Next: Enough pitchers already