Nobody has been pissing me off more than Rob Manfred. The dead brain commissioner keeps coming up with potential rules that will only ruin baseball. The most pointless one is the pitch clock designed to speed up the game. The concept is nothing but a farce but Manfred is pushing it anyway. You can add Jon Lester to the list of players that hates the pitch clock.
As players are starting to voice their opinions about things at spring training, Lester had some strong words regarding the potential addition of a pitch clock:
“Sure,” Lester said via ESPN with plenty of sarcasm. “Whatever makes people feel better.
“Baseball is baseball. You’re not going to speed it up. You’re not going to change it. You can put the pitch clock there. The game is going to flow the way the game flows.
“If you have a 6-5 game, it’s going to be 3.5 hours. If you have a 2-1 game, it’s going to be 2 [hours], 50 minutes. We have to get over the whole mindset of changing the pace of play as opposed to the product on the field.”
Lester gets it. The whole pitch clock thing is just bullshit and every single player hates it. What the hell is the point?
Lester wasn’t done voicing his opinion on potential rule changes. One that stood out to me was the DH in the NL. Lester is opposed to the NL adding the DH but he has a pretty good reason why.
“Would you rather face David Ortiz or a pitcher?” Lester joked before getting serious. “I think that’s what makes our (NL) game unique. You have to come over here and learn the league. You learn how to pitch more. In the AL it’s just here’s the ball for 120 (pitches).”
“Do I understand what they’re trying to do?” Lester asked. “One hundred percent. Nobody wants to watch me hit. They didn’t pay for a ticket to watch me hit.”
Thank you, Jon. Nobody wants to watch the pitcher hit. It’s a free out. It’s the reason why I can’t bring myself to watch National League games. It’s an outrageous rule. Since Lester is in the NL, I certainly don’t blame him for wanting to face pitchers instead of power hitting DH’s. I would too if I were him. He also understands the fact that watching a pitcher hit just sucks. Jon Lester just gets it. We should probably make him the commissioner, to be honest.
