September Call Ups Ruining Rob Manfred’s Pace of Play Rules

The talk of the 2015 offseason was the new Commissioner of Major League Baseball Rob Manfred and his new pace of play rules that he wanted to implement into the game. Sure the talks between the United States and Cuba and how the new found diplomacy between the two countries and how they would impact the game came up more than once and the potential reinstatement for Pete Rose was a hot ticket item for a minute but pace of play dominated much of the offseason. Pace of play started out great cutting nearly 15 minutes off of every game with attendance steadily climbing across Major League Baseball until the calendar turned to September and September call ups put a big monkey wrench into the whole operation.

More players equal more pitchers, more pitching changes and subsequently longer games unfortunately. That’s where we’re at and no amount of pace of play rules, clocks in the ballpark or anything short of a radical change can stop. Prior to the month of September you could watch an average MLB game in 2:55 but ever since the calendar turned over to September you’re spending at least 3:03 of your life watching a game, and it’s only 9/15. There is always the option of having 40 active players and having to name, just to throw a number out there, 26 active players for the game but that may be something the MLB Players Association fights against tooth and nail.

If Manfred is truly serious about speeding up the process of these games we may see even more radical changes to the game this offseason. I’m neither for nor against these changes to be honest, I am completely indifferent to be frank, as long as I can still recognize this game that I know and love from season to season.