The pitch clock is being enforced in the minor leagues -- and it's working

[Auggie]

This was the first game in the Midwest League where they enforced the pitch clock. Players just got warnings before [Friday]. The time of the full nine-inning game was one hour and fifty-nine minutes. The game was sped up by the strong starting pitching and there were no mid-inning pitching changes, but that’s a fast game even for that.

The Cubs were awarded one automatic ball and were penalized one automatic strike in this game.

Baseball America’s JJ Cooper wrote this detailed wrapup of Friday’s minor league action across all levels and noted that game times dropped “dramatically”:

[Friday] night across the minors, the average game time for a nine-inning game was 2:38 and the median game time was 2:34. For the previous week of games, the average game time for a nine-inning game was 3:04 and the median game time was 2:59.

That 3:04 average game time was right in line with last year’s pace. In 2021, Triple-A nine-inning games took 3:04 on average. Double-A games took 2:57. High-A took 3:04 and Low-A took 3:00.

Data on MiLB average time of game goes back to 2005. Last night’s average of 2:38 across the full minors is faster than the average nine-inning game time for any level in any year since measurements began. At the major league level, the last time the average nine-inning game was less than 2:38 was 1985.

In other words, last night the new rules appeared to turn back the clock on decades of expansion in the length of games.

More at the link: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2022/4/18/23028225/pitch-clock-enforced-minor-leagues-faster-games

Prediction: this will be MLB reality in 2023.