What's the verdict? Has limiting mound visits speeded up the game?

[WeatherWonk]

Or has it been just another occasion to sell time on TV, like replay's have become?

I found evidence that the length of games actually INCREASED, but that was written in the first two weeks of the season. Replay was the main culprit, followed by the ever-increasing use of the bullpen.

Anybody have anything on this?

I did read that the new intentional walk rule had saved 220 pitches over a two week period, for a grand total savings of 36 minutes spread over all the games in that two week period. I guess that's worth it.

I would still like to see a reliever be forced to pitch to 2-3 batters, barring injury, of course. Not so much for the time saving but for the potential increase in runs. I like late inning rallies;  the recent Mariner sweep not withstanding..

[BackUpTheTruck]

I appreciate cutting down commercial time, and allowing automatic intentional walks, but any other attempts to speed up the game seem futile to me.

Baseball will never be a game tailored to those with a short attention span.  Having said that, the condensed games provided on MLB.tv are a great way to watch a game in around 10 minutes in a manner that won't put you to sleep.

If one really wanted to speed up the game, and have more runs scored, that calls for drastic measures. 2 balls is a walk, 2 strikes is a strikeout. That is essentially starting with a 2-1 count. Then, instead of having 9 innings with 3 outs, you have 7 innings with 4 outs. 28 batters would be the minimum instead of 27.

I would never want to see that happen, but that would certainly be entertaining in an ASG, at least initially.

[failos]

It was implemented by someone so far removed from the game. I bet Manfred would fall on his face if he ever threw a baseball, and I think the guy should keep his grubby hands off the game. 

[Taylor]

speeded up?

[Mark68]

Speeded up? Is Josh Hamilton around?

[UndertheHalo]

Where the f**k is @EnglishCop ?

this assault on the English language is a blight on the main board !!!

Edited June 15, 2018 by UndertheHalo

[Stradling]

I’m in favor of speeding the game up.  It’s not really changing the game any more than the game has changed itself.  To answer the OP question the average game is 6 minutes shorter than last year. But go back to 2005 and it was 15 minutes shorter than it is now.