The regular season game time has been shortened thanks to the ‘pitch clock’ newly applied to the American professional baseball Major League (MLB) this season, and the effect is also showing up in fall baseball.
The Associated Press said on the 27th (Korean time), “The average game time in this year’s Major League postseason is 3 hours and 2 minutes, which is lower than the average game time of 3 hours and 22 minutes (based on regular innings) until the championship series of the two major leagues last year.” “In 2018, the average postseason game time was 3 hours and 40 minutes, a decrease of 38 minutes in two years.”
Major League Baseball faced major changes ahead of this season. It’s because of the pitch clock. A pitcher must start pitching within 15 seconds when there are no runners and within 20 seconds when there are runners. If the pitcher does not start pitching on time, the umpire will call the ball. For batters, a strike is called if they do not step up to the plate with 8 seconds or less remaining.
Thanks to the introduction of the pitch clock, game times were naturally shortened, and the average game time in this year’s Major League regular season decreased by 25 minutes from 3 hours and 4 minutes last year to 2 hours and 39 minutes this year. There were some players who had difficulties at the beginning of the season, but as the season drew to a close, most players seemed to have adapted to the pitch clock.
In addition to the pitch clock, the Major League introduced hitter-friendly elements such as limiting defensive shifts and increasing base size, and the effects of this are being revealed in fall baseball.
Until last year’s two major league championship series, the number of stolen bases per postseason game increased from 0.8 to 1.4 this year, and the stolen base success rate also increased from 77.8% to 84.5%. The postseason batting average rose from 0.213 last year to 0.241.
The KBO League, which has seen changes in the Major League this season, is also about to change. Starting from the 2024 season, ABS (Automatic Ball Judgment System) will be introduced along with the pitch clock.
On the 18th, the Korea Baseball Organization 온라인카지노(KBO) held the 4th Board of Directors meeting in 2023 and planned the introduction of ABS and Pitch Clock in the KBO league for the 2024 season, which had been discussed in depth by the executive committee and relevant working departments. “We plan to build facilities and systems,” he said. “We plan to stabilize and upgrade the system so that the new system can be stably established and operated, and hold briefing sessions for players and coaching staff to quickly adapt.” In addition, ‘ “We plan to continue to implement the ‘League Level Up Project’ to realize ‘Fan First’ and present more valuable and interesting games to fans,” he said.
In addition, the KBO said about the pitch clock, “We comprehensively analyzed changes in game indicators such as changes in game time and stolen bases in the major leagues that applied this season, and spectator satisfaction,” and added, “We decided that a pitch clock rule appropriate for the KBO league was necessary. “We are reviewing internal implementation details,” he said.