Did Pitch Tempo within the MLB Change with the Pitch Clock?

By: Matthew Smolik

We’re three years into the pitch clock and there’s no doubt the general size of main league
baseball video games has decreased. The MLB and the Gamers Affiliation have locked themselves
right into a battle over blaming one another for the rise in arm accidents in baseball. Though not
the only real motive, the gamers affiliation partly blames the implementation of the pitch clock.
The MLB blames coaching regimens and highlights arm accidents are growing in youthful gamers.
Both method the argument has a lifetime of its personal and is probably going nicely outdoors of the pitch clock. For
now, attendance is up throughout the league as recreation lengths have shortened and
the pitch clock possible will not be going away because of this. With the pitch clock right here to remain, let’s take a
take a look at the shift in pitch tempo amongst the league averages.

We’ve proven earlier than how the pitch clock has sped video games up, however how does it impression the cadence between pitches? Does the pitch clock impression all pitchers equally? Some greater than others? Is it honest in charge the rise in accidents on the elevated pitch tempo? All troublesome questions, however on this article we’ll begin tackling the core query by how pitch clock impacted the typical time between pitches.

To begin, MLB Statcast defines the pitch tempo because the time between pitch releases which means the
time it takes for a pitcher to launch pitch 1, obtain the ball again from the catcher, after which
launch pitch 2. The longest pitch tempo signifies the pitcher with the longest common pitch
tempo, or the longest time from pitch 1 launch till pitch 2 launch, for that given season.
From 2010 via the tip of the non-pitch clock period in 2022, there may be an growing pattern in
pitch tempo throughout the league median when pitchers are pitching from the windup. In 2010,
the league median for pitch tempo was 16 seconds and reached a excessive of 18.4 seconds in 2021.
The implementation of the pitch clock dropped the league median to fifteen.5 seconds leading to a
lower of two.9 seconds from the excessive in 2021.

Looking on the longest tempo for annually, the pattern remained comparatively stage. The
median for the longest tempo every season previous to the pitch clock was 26.3 seconds. The
implementation of the pitch clock dropped the median tempo of the longest tempos within the
league to 19.3 seconds.

The longest tempos within the league will not be constantly held by one particular person 12 months after 12 months.

The pitch clock might not be drawing an enormous lower throughout the league nevertheless it has made impacts
for these with longer tempos. Whereas these on the high of the listing for longest tempo are probably the most
affected, there’s a small, growing pattern in pitch tempos throughout the league median displaying an
improve since 2023. We’ll see if this pattern continues as pitchers’ inner timers proceed to
settle into the pitch clock.

This knowledge exhibits that the pitch clock impacted the slowest pitchers greater than others. Although this conclusion is apparent or intuitive, it begins to shed some gentle on whether or not the rise in pitcher accidents can really be blamed on the pitch clock. The pitch clock pressured a couple of pitchers to hurry up dramatically whereas the vast majority of the league sped solely a bit. This appears to make is much less possible that the pitch clock is in charge for the accidents because it solely considerably impacted an overwhelmingly small subset of the pitching populace.