Add Masahiro Tanaka To The List Of People Who Hates The Idea Of A Pitch Clock

I’ve been talking a lot recently about the inevitable addition of a pitch clock in baseball because it is pissing me off to no end. It’s all bullshit. People that have brains can look at the evidence and piece together rather quickly that foul balls is the number one reason why games are taking longer today than they did years ago. Until you find a way to fix that (Which there is no solution to) the games will still take long. Adding a pitch clock will not have any impact on how long a baseball game takes. It’s just a fact.

The list of players who hate the pitch clock idea keeps growing. Not only is there no point to adding it, the potential rule is only pissing players off. You can add Masahiro Tanaka to that rapidly growing list:

“As players, we have to go by the rules so we do that,” the New York Yankees right-hander said through a translator Tuesday. “With that said, for me personally, I’m not in favor of that.”

“That time lag between a pitch, you’re thinking about what to throw next, what the next pitch is going to be and I think the hitters are thinking about what’s coming,” Tanaka said. “There’s that certain time that makes baseball fun.”

I appreciate the mental warfare that goes on between each pitch. If you’re smart enough, there’s something happening in every second of every baseball game. You just have to have a brain to see it. The common fan/reporter obviously doesn’t fit that description so they will push nonsense like a pitch clock.

I just also want to point out that these comments are coming from Tanaka. This is a player who has pitched in the USA and Japan. The pitch clock isn’t an issue in Japan because nobody complains about how long a game takes. There’s no “old veteran” excuse like Max Scherzer. Tanaka has pitched in two different leagues and has had to adapt to rules before.

This is also coming from someone who is one of the slowest pitchers from pitch to pitch in the big leagues. Tanaka ranked 76th out of 78 qualifying pitchers at 26.1 seconds in between pitches. Only David Price and Justin Verlander take longer. Notice a trend? Price, Tanaka, and Verlander are top tier starting pitchers. Probably the smartest starting pitchers in the league as well who thrive more on location than velocity. Baseball really wants to jeopardize its sport to make up 6 seconds in between pitches? It makes zero sense.

Tanaka, 30, finished the 2018 with a stat line of 2-6 with 3.75 ERA in 27 starts.