MLB Saves their sport by implementing a Pitch Clock

 After a year of testing the idea in triple A, Major League Baseball has a new rule to speed the game up tremendously. 

Pitchers and batters together will work together to continue play with only 15 seconds to get ready in between pitches. 

The clock will take a little getting used to for fans watching on TV but the product that is baseball, has already benefited from it. Last year regular season games lasted 3 hours and 4 minutes on average. Through 3 Spring Training games so far this year, games are averaging 2 hours and 38 minutes. 

MLB is known for it's ridiculous black out restrictions, changing of the game balls, and outrageous number of regular season games, but this is a step in the right direction. Besides, sport fans and the little attentions spans that belong to the younger generation, fans do not care to watch the pitcher pace around the mound or the batter to adjust their batting gloves a hundred times in between pitches. This has already cut 25 minutes of all of that out of the viewing expierence. 

Also notable; MLB is banning shifts which will allow for more singles, base running, and hopefully total runs for over bettors.

P.S. Speaking of bettors, pay attention early in the season if the shift ban will actually help totals go over in the beginning. The trend is to bet under early in the season when the weather is cold and the ball has a hard time leaving the yard. Back the over as the weather heats up and the humidity carries it. 

I have been paying attention to Spring Training because like pre season in other sports, teams will have different motivations for these exhibition games. 

There is great value in recognizing lineups that look more like an opening day lineup vs. the lineups that look like a double or triple A lineup (the backups). Team beat reporters will also tweet about what managers are going to do about starting pitching including pitching their very best pitchers in the same game. 

This is the best edge you are ever going to get going into a game so take advantage of it. Opening Day is March 30th. Play Ball!