You can expect faster games at American Family Field this season thanks to MLB rule changes.
UW-Madison professor Laura Albert says most significant is the new pitch clock, which has already quickened Minor League and Spring Training games.
“The pitch clock is really trying to compress the time between pitches to what is already in the rulebook. So the historic rules are something like 12 seconds to pitch with no runners on base. And this was never really enforced.”
Albert says it’s an effort by the league to decrease game times, which have grown steadily over the decades.
“The natural evolution of the game has resulted in the average baseball game taking a lot longer than it used to be used to take about 2.5 hours per game and 1970. It’s up to almost three and a half hours.”
The new 30-second clock has shortened spring training games by over 20 minutes. It also speeds up innings in general without long routines on both the mound and in the batter’s box.