EMERSON, Ga. – At first glance, this game – one of four played on Saturday morning in first time slot at Perfect Game Park South-LakePoint – looked fairly typical for a contest between two top upperclass teams competing at an elite 16-team Perfect Game tournament.
The two teams – the East Cobb Astros and the MLB Breakthrough Series squad – combined for seven runs (it was a 4-3 Astros victory) on 12 hits. Five pitchers combined to throw 188 pitches – 85 for the two on the Astros side and 103 for the trio on the Breakthrough side – and the five combined for 10 strikeouts and six walks, with all six walks coming from the Breakthrough hurlers.
But the game was far from typical on any number of fronts. It was being played as part of the 16-team Ways to Play Powered by Major League Baseball and Perfect Game, a tournament that takes MLB’s pace-of-play initiative into territory never previously explored. And remarkably, this seven-run, 12-hit, nine-inning game was played at an eye-opening pace, taking just over 1½ hours from first pitch to last.
“I really enjoyed it,” East Cobb Astros head coach Jamie Crane said at game’s end. “I think the pace keeps the players more actively involved as far as defending the lull of the game. I think that’s something that all of us fall into with as many games as we play, so it’s something that I think they’ve all enjoyed so far.
“To play a nine-inning game in (roughly) an hour-and-a-half was rare, but it was fun; it was something different,” he continued. “The kids seemed to have fun with it and that’s what it’s all about, them having fun and staying involved in the game.”
The 16 games played Saturday and the 16 that will be played Sunday follow these simple but strangely exotic pace-of-play rules:
• Each game will be nine innings in length.
• Three balls will result in a walk for the hitter.
• If a batter takes a called strike the batter will be out.
• No straight or delayed steals will be permitted.
• The batter must keep his foot in the batter’s box at all times.
• There is no throwing the ball around between batters.
• If game is tied after the ninth inning a runner will be placed at second base with one out.
• If game is tied after the 10th inning bases will be loaded with one out.
Tony Reagins, the MLB Senior Vice President of Youth Programs, has been involved with this initiative ever since MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred began prioritizing it in the last year or two. Reagins, who is in attendance at PG Park South this weekend, emphasized that the conversation begins with the pace of the game as opposed to the speed of the game.
It’s a matter of moving things along, he said, creating action and seeing if there aren’t certain elements that can be implemented long-term that may help quicken the pace. MLB wants to look at different ideas and test a variety of ways that will make the game more attractive.
“This was born a little over a year ago, and being here today is a test to see what we can do to make the game … more upbeat, more up-tempo, and with the up-tempo affect the time of the game,” Reagins told PG on Saturday. “We’re going to play nine innings and see if we can do it in a reasonable amount time.”
When asked if some of the rules – especially the one making a called strike an out – could be called radical, Reagins immediately changed the adjective to aggressive. That was, of course, done with intent and Reagins explanation of the rationale behind them seems quite logical.
The thinking goes that a called strike resulting in an out and a three-ball walk will force the pitcher to throw strikes and the batters to swing more, which should result in more contact and the hitters putting the ball in play more frequently.
“It is aggressive and if we need to dial it back we can always dial it back. If we need to make a modification here or there based on the feedback, we can do that,” Reagins said. “This is a testing ground and we’re glad to be able to be in this environment to do it, and we’ll see where it takes us. This is an opportunity to see if some of the things we’re thinking about make sense.”
Reagins explained that the next and perhaps most critical piece in this experiment is receiving feedback from the players, coaches, scouts and other observers on hand so the initiative – and the process of achieving the desired results – can be continually tweaked.
“This is a starting point,” he said. “We know that we don’t have all the answers but if we can create an environment that (encourages) feedback and get to a place where it makes sense to (move forward) with some of the modifications, we’ll see how it goes. We’re excited about what this could lead to.”
If Reagins wanted feedback, there was already a lot coming in by early afternoon Saturday. Cooper Stinson is a 6-foot-6, 225-pound 2018 right-hander from Peachtree Corners, Ga., who is ranked the No. 265 top overall prospect in his class; he carries a 3.96 grade point average and has committed to the Naval Academy.
Stinson made the start for the Astros Saturday against the Breakthrough, and allowed one earned run on four hits with five strikeouts in five innings of work; he threw 53 pitches and flashed a fastball that topped out at 92 mph.
“With the three-ball rule, I obviously had to attack the zone a lot more and earlier in the count then I normally would have, and then that led to throwing more strikes,” Stinson said. “And the looking-strike strikeout, I kind of liked that a lot.”
5 Star National head coach Britt Dobbs enjoyed his team’s fast-paced 3-0 victory over the South Charlotte Panthers Saturday morning. He called the rules of play “definitely different” while acknowledging he had no complaints since both teams were playing under the same rules. Dobbs was then quick to add that he felt like the rules favored the pitchers.
“It puts the hitters at a major disadvantage especially with the type of pitching they’re having to face here this weekend,” he said. “It’s tough to do, and they’re probably going to swing at a lot of pitches that they shouldn’t swing at, but that’s what we’re telling them to do – swing at some ugly strikes. You can’t take a strike or you’re out, so anything close throw your hands at it; it is what it is.”
Dobbs said his first impression just one game into this experiment was the pitchers were pitching backwards. They’re throwing breaking balls early and they’re not one bit worried about getting ahead in the count. If they get behind, they can still snap-off a nasty breaking ball and if the batter takes it for a strike, he’s out.
“(The pitchers) are at an advantage the entire count, in my opinion,” he said. “As good as these pitchers are at this tournament, it’s going to be tough on these hitters. Major pitching advantage, major hitter disadvantage; that’s what it is.”
Owen White is a 6-foot-3, 175-pound 2018 right-hander from Mount Ulla, N.C. who is ranked 102nd nationally and has committed to South Carolina. He was throwing for the South Charlotte Panthers and was the hard-luck loser in their 3-0 loss to 5 Star – he threw seven, five-hit, one-run innings, striking out 8 and walking two while throwing 90 pitches. He didn’t necessarily feel he had an advantage over the hitters but he did make some adjustments right from the get-go.
“I definitely had to change my mindset,” he said. “It’s hard to get into a rhythm when it’s the first game doing it (under different rules). Normally when you strike somebody out you walk around the mound and wait for the ball, but here if you throw a first-pitch (called) strike you’ve got to get right back on the mound and go. That plays into your mind a little bit but after you settle in and get used to it, I liked the rules.”
The pitcher definitely has to be just as aggressive in his approach as the hitter, White maintained. Under the conventional rules, when a pitcher was throwing to a batter with a 2-2 count, he might be able to waste a pitch by nibbling at the corners.
Under these rules, a 2-2 count means the pitcher has to pound the zone. A pitcher with exceptional command can make the rules work to his advantage while, conversely, a pitcher lacking command is going to struggle.
“I feel like with these rules the umpires are tightening down,” White said. “The batters are definitely jumpy – they’re guessing a lot more – so that makes it fun for a pitcher because you can make people look goofy, but it’s hard at the same time because you can’t paint the corners because they’re so tight. But I do like it.”
Glenn Carnes, the Director of the PG Umpires Association, made sure he talked to the umpires before they took the field to make sure they understood the rules, especially the one where a called strike results in the batter being called out. Carnes was direct with his instructions.
“I told them to just not take anything ugly on them,” he said. “I want you to call the proper book strike zone. You can use the black of the plate, but that’s it; I don’t want anything too far off the plate. And if you do happen to take the bat out of kid’s hand, just call timeout, stop it and put him back at the plate.
“This is not about winning and losing here, this is about trying to figure this out, and taking the bat out of a kid’s hand, in my mind, that would be a problem; that was my worry.”
So how about the hitters? Did they feel disadvantaged under these rules? The East Cobb Astros Bryar Hawkins, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound 2018 top-500 shortstop from Cumming, Ga., who has committed to Clemson, singled twice and drove in a run in his team’s win Saturday morning.
“(The rules) definitely get you ready earlier in the count,” he said. “I honestly like it a little bit better because I’m more focused when I get up there. I’m looking to drive the first pitch, so it’s more fast-paced and I liked that better.”
When asked if he agreed with 5 Stars’ Dobbs about the pitchers pitching backwards, Hawkins said that he did: “If you take a called strike you’re out, so I feel like they were trying to get us looking earlier in the count instead of later in the count like they would in a normal game. You just have to be ready for that first pitch, and this is helping us do that. In Jupiter, you’re going to get a lot of first-pitch strikes and this is going to help you get ready for that.”
Stinson backed that notion up, as well: “I was definitely throwing my slider with my first pitch (and) second pitch so I could either get a looking strike or a swinging strike. I had a lot of fun out there, and if I can throw a three-pitch inning and get three looking strikes, that’s pretty good.”
It was interesting that Hawkins brought up Jupiter, because all 16 of these teams PG tournament officials invited to the Ways to Play event will be at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., next weekend. They were invited because MLB wanted to implement these new rules using high school prospects that already play the game at an elite level for their age-group.
East Cobb’s Crane believes that in order for a team to be successful at the PG WWBA World while facing the best high school-aged pitchers in the country, it would be wise for the hitters to take the same approach they’re taking at this event.
“When you go out you have to be in attack-mode from the first pitch to the last pitch,” he said. “That takes out a lot of the slow part out of the game of being able to work counts, but at the same time when (the batter) walks in, the pitcher’s trying to fill the zone up and guys have to be ready to hit. I like it. It gets our hitters more actively involved earlier in the count and makes them more aggressive.”
The Ways to Play Powered by MLB and PG is strictly bracket-play but all 16 teams are guaranteed four games – it is not double-elimination. There will be a winners’ bracket championship game played at 11:15 a.m. (EDT) on Sunday.
It was the general consensus among observers that none of the early time-slot nine inning games exceeded two hours, but that could not be confirmed 100 percent. Even an 11-inning game played Saturday morning barely exceeded two hours.
The pace-of-play initiative may seem extreme to many old-schoolers, but the early results seemed to indicate the pace of the 16 games played Saturday had quickened. MLB officials will assess and analyze the data, consider the comments and take it from here.
“I do think it’s important that (MLB) takes the lead with this, but feedback from the participants and the coaches that are here, and even the media that are here, that’s important, too,” Reagins said. “Having a good feel for what we’re doing and taking input from all the people that are stakeholders in this is important.
“This is where you start if you want effect the game in a positive way,” he concluded. “You have to do things, you have to try things, and this is one of those attempts to see if we can’t do things a little bit better.”