The US Major League Baseball (MLB) secretariat has decided to introduce a throwing time limit rule to shorten game time.
ESPN, an American sports media outlet, reported on the 7th,The MLB Secretariat is going to introduce a rule that limits the pitching time to 14 seconds when there are no runners and 19 seconds when there are runners.
The throwing time limit rule is a rule that requires a pitcher to start the next pitching motion within a limited time after finishing the previous pitch.If the rules are violated, the ball is automatically declared.
The MLB Secretariat first introduced the time limit for pitching in the Arizona Fall League in 2014, and then implemented it in minor leagues such as Double A and Triple A from 2015.
ESPN analyzed that it was extended to the major leagues when the experimental results showed that the average game time in the minor league last year was shortened by 20 minutes on average due to the time limit on pitching.
According to ESPN, last year's Minor League Single A West 9 innings game time was reduced from 3 hours 2 minutes to 2 hours 41 minutes.
On the other hand, the average game time in the major leagues increased from 2 hours 50 minutes 10 years ago to 3 hours 10 minutes last year by 20 minutes.
The MLB Secretariat proposed introducing a time limit for pitching to the players union, which is under labor-management negotiations, and the union is said to have agreed to this.
Accordingly, it is expected that the new rules will be applied from next season as soon as possible.
ESPN said the players union had agreed to the MLB Secretariat's proposal to change the rules of the game.
