What does Kenley Jansen, the slowest pitcher, think about the pitch clock?
Everyone in MLB is going to have to adjust to the aggressive rule changes that the league is implementing before the beginning of this season. Perhaps no one will have to adjust to the pitch clock rule more than Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen.
Jansen registered as the highest “slow percentage” pitcher in MLB last season, according to Baseball Savant.
Essentially, a slow percentage is a number tallied to determine what percentage of a pitcher’s pitches took 30 seconds or longer from the point he received the ball to the point he released it. A whopping 22.3% of Jansen’s pitches were deemed “slow” in 2022.
Jansen has voiced his displeasure with the rule in the past.
The pitch clock is just one of several rules that MLB is testing in 2023. So, what does the slowest pitcher in baseball think about this rule?
“It’s gonna be challenging on both sides,” Jansen said in an interview at Spring Training. “It’s not only going to be on pitchers but I think hitters are going to be uncomfortable too. Sometimes when they fall behind 0-2 or 0-1 quick, they take their time too. So it’s both ways. So both ways have to adapt. It’s not only pitchers. So it’s gonna feel fast, and we all gotta go figure out how to slow the game down in certain ways to not let the game speed up on you and things get out of hand.”
If you don’t know, MLB instituted a pitch clock for the 2023 season. From the point the pitcher receives the ball from the catcher, they have 15 seconds to release the pitch. With runners on, that number increases to 20 seconds. To go along enforce this rule, if the pitcher doesn’t abide, an automatic ball will be called.
Another wrinkle to the rule that Jansen mentioned is when the situation is reversed: if the batter calls for timeout more than one time in a single at-bat, they will be charged with a strike.
Of course, all of these rule changes are a part of MLB’s pace of play initiative. These rules are looking to grow the game by … speeding it up.
In my opinion, this stuff is pretty ridiculous. While we all hate Pedro Baez taking 45 seconds to throw a pitch, is it really necessary to have pitchers bend the knee to a clock in hopes of making young people want to watch?
Unsurprisingly, Jansen practiced this offseason (along with other notoriously slow pitchers) to fix their mechanics and become compatible with these new rules.
This is going to take some serious time to get used to for MLB players, fans and coaches. Having a pitch clock is a major change. Nothing like this has ever been prevalent in the sport, especially not at this level.
There are going to be major balls and strikes called because of the pitch clock and its surrounding rules. How much will it cost the rule violators?
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