Last week, commissioner Rob Manfred said he would like to see the major leagues adopt a pitch clock, something that’s already in place in the minor leagues. While fans and writers have been chiming in, we haven’t heard much from the players.
ESPN’s Eddie Matz caught up with Giants outfielder Hunter Pence and asked him a handful of questions -- some related to baseball, some not. Matz asked Pence what rule he would change if he had the power. Here’s what Pence said:
I think it’s pretty good the way it is. I like the way they have it. I don’t want them to change the strike zone. I think they should keep the strike zone the way it is. I’m not so happy about all the clocks. It’s weird. They want to speed up the game, but then they want more offense. A lot of the drama is in the time in between, the thinking and the process and the chess match. So there’s a lot of that buildup that, if you’re rushing the game, you don’t get the magnificence. I understand the time in between innings, but between pitches and stuff, there’s a lot of process, especially in big moments. There’s something special about the time in between.
Pence makes a convincing and well-stated argument against pitch clocks. That being said, the clocks seem to have been implemented seamlessly in the minors and there haven’t been any complaints.
