The Major League Baseball’s Joint Competition Committee in 2022 voted that a pitch clock be implemented into MLB as of 2023. The pitch clock is a timer set on pitchers and batters, stating that if pitchers do not send the pitch and batters are not in the batter’s box within 20 seconds it is an automatic ball for the pitcher or a strike for the batter. It was implemented with intentions of picking up the pace of plays and has been an experimental rule in the Minor league for 8 years before it was added to MLB.
Now that the pitch clock is officially a part of the MLB rules, it should be implemented to high school level baseball to more accurately provide the baseball experience and better prepare aspiring MLB players for the high level baseball.
High school baseball teams are meant to be a preparation for athletes looking to make it big in the sport of baseball, and should be preparing them for such. With the implementation of the new rules, student-athletes will benefit and be more experienced with the updated rules before graduating. The implementation would give the game a more accurate replication of MLB and better prepare the players for higher leagues.
According to the official MLB website the pitch clock was implemented, “In an effort to create a quicker pace of play” and reduce the length of each game, which has been looked down on by audience and player alike. The average baseball game reached a record 3 hours 10 minutes in 2021, making the issue evident. The pitch clock has actually greatly improved the duration and according to ESPN, the average baseball game has dropped 24 minutes compared to the previous seasons. All college teams have been using pitch clocks since 2011 and have had the same results. High school games are still lengthy, giving reason to implement the new rule to the league. Addition of the pitch clock would increase the pace of plays for the high school team and would give them a more high action game while also reducing the extreme length of the games.
Not only will this change improve duration, it will also highly increase the action per game. Because of the repetitive pitching, the amount of balls put in play will increase and force the defense to see more action consistently. The pitch clock has encouraged baserunners to attempt steals due to the pressure of the clock on the pitcher. As a result of this, steal attempts in major leagues have increased from 1.4 to 1.8 per game. The high action improves the likeliness of the sports for students and parents visiting coming to watch the game with an increase of 9.15% audience attendance, the largest in 30 years.
The possibility of a pitch clock seems possible for upcoming high school seasons and would benefit high school baseball players and their audience alike. It is important to continue to evolve baseball along with the rest of the leagues and avoid becoming outdated. With the implementation of the rule to the Official Major League rule book, we should only expect this change for our high school leagues.
