BRADENTON, Fla. — Pirates manager Clint Hurdle expressed no objection to MLB unilaterally employing a pitch clock in spring training games, a move made to get players accustomed to a possible rule change for this season.
“I don’t feel it’s pushing any type of urgency on anybody to get anything done,” Hurdle said Tuesday at Pirate City. “I think that’s a fair allotment of time to get up on the mound and deliver a pitch.”
Hurdle said the Pirates will make a presentation to their pitchers about the proposed 20-second pitch clock, which the MLBPA has resisted as part of commissioner Rob Manfred’s efforts to improve pace of play by reducing mound visits, between-innings breaks and the number of times a batter steps outside the batter’s box.
“We’ve actually been working on an internal clock, but we like our pitchers to fire at 15 seconds or less, so we’ve been talking about this for a long time,” Hurdle. “If they’ve got time, they can do a little bit of thinking. You’re not in a rush. You’re not forcing anything to happen. We felt 15 seconds was a pretty good pause time in which to get a ball back, get yourself together, get back on the mound and start the motion to make another pitch. …
“With 20 seconds, you’ve actually got a little bit more time to work.”
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