OC Register: Angels prepare for second season with MLB’s pitch timer

[AngelsWin.com]

TEMPE, Ariz. — A year ago, major-leaguers were facing a largely unknown world: baseball with a clock.

Now, they may be used to it, but that doesn’t mean they’re all happy about it.

“We don’t like it, but we’ve got to embrace it,” Angels closer Carlos Estévez said.

Major league baseball had been played at an increasingly … deliberate … pace over the past couple decades, slowing to the point that the sport’s leaders adopted a pitch timer in 2023. Pitchers had 15 seconds to begin their delivery with the bases empty, and 20 seconds with at least one runner on base. Hitters had to be in the box and ready for the pitch by the time the timer hit eight seconds.

The result was the average game decreased by 24 minutes.

This year, the time has been cut to 18 seconds with a runner on base.

“I think everybody got used to it,” Angels second baseman Brandon Drury said. “At first, it was weird. Obviously we had never played like that before. I think last spring I got used to it. Nothing you can do it about it, so you’d better get used to it.”

Drury said he ended up with no complaints about the timer. And he even enjoyed it when he was in the field.

“I did like playing defense better with the pace,” Drury said. “Sometimes if you have someone out there who takes forever each pitch, you are less in a rhythm on defense.”

Hitters also had the option of taking a timeout once during an at-bat. Drury said his practice, which seemed to be common among most big-leaguers, was to take a timeout after getting to two strikes.

Pitchers, however, didn’t have the same freedom. A pitcher could step off the rubber or throw a pickoff to stop the clock up to three times with a runner on, but with the bases empty the pitcher could not call a timeout. He would have to use a mound visit.

“It seems kind of unfair, right?” Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval said. “It would be cool if we got at least (timeout). We should get one.”

Sandoval said his toughest adjustment in 2023 was the way he held baserunners. One of his techniques was just to hold the ball longer, so the runner couldn’t easily anticipate when he was going to start his delivery.

Estévez said he had to change his routine between pitches to accommodate the timer.

“I used to be the guy who threw a pitch and then walked a lot, took the ball and rubbed it, thinking about the next pitch,” he said. “Now I have to shorten the steps. Take two steps. Get the baseball. Go again.”

Left-hander Matt Moore, a veteran of 12 big-league seasons, said he feels like he’s starting a tough adjustment all over again.

“In spring training last year, it felt like I was really sped up and I was going to struggle with it,” Moore said. “Once the season got going, I kind of got used to it and forgot about it. Then this year, it’s the same thing. It feels like it’s speeding up a little bit. But I think it’s more just coordinating what the pace of game should be. I’m doing better each time out.”

Sandoval said he didn’t think the timer proved to be more physically demanding, though.

“As the year went on, I got more and more used it and I think my strength got a little better,” he said.

There is a theory that the pitch timer was responsible for an increase in pitching injuries, but it will take more than one year to determine if there’s a correlation.

Whether it caused more injuries, some pitchers definitely would still rather not have a timer on them.

“It affected some pitchers,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “That part of it, I don’t like. That’s hard job on that mound, pitching. But it is what it is and we’ve got to get used to it, but I didn’t like the way that it affected the pitchers. Some took it hard and some weren’t affected at all. I would like our pitchers to get to the point where it didn’t bother them at all.”

NOTES

Third baseman Anthony Rendon (groin) was set to increase his activity again, adding baserunning to hitting and defense. He was set to take live batting practice for the second straight day. Washington reiterated that Rendon would get one more day after the day he says he’s ready, so at this point the soonest he would play is Sunday. Washington said this isn’t how they’d approach the same injury during the season. “In spring training, you want to stop stuff,” Washington said. “During the season, you play through stuff. In spring training, you don’t want that to get worse. During the season, if something like that might happen, we might just tell him, ‘Unless you get a base hit, if you hit a ball that’s an out, just make it down the line.’” …

Infielder Michael Stefanic (quad) has progressed to running at about 80%. He also increased his range on ground balls. Stefanic said he’s been hitting the whole time he’s been hurt. “The swing feels fine right now,” he said, “but if I hit a ball to the right fielder, I’m probably getting thrown out at first.” …

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