Martinez meets with Torre, learns more about pace of play

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Davey Martinez had sat through meetings with Joe Torre before, but only as a bench coach to Joe Maddon, and thus not as the primary point of contact between Torre (Major League Baseball's chief baseball officer) and his club.

This morning's session at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, then, represented a new dynamic for Martinez, who was responsible for digesting everything Torre revealed regarding MLB's new pace of play rules and making sure any pertinent questions were asked.

"Very informative," Martinez said after emerging from the nearly hour-long meeting. "My first one as manager. Just going over all the rule changes, the pace of play. Got some clarification. It was good."

As a first-time manager, Martinez is going to be at a disadvantage to many of his counterparts this season. But he'll face the exact same challenges as everyone else in every other dugout in trying to understand the pace of play changes and make sure his team doesn't commit any costly violations.

The biggest change enacted by MLB in an attempt to shorten games and keep things moving at a better tempo is the restriction of mound visits to six per team. That includes trips from the dugout by the manager or pitching coach, plus catchers and infielders.

What exactly will happen if someone from one team tries to make a seventh trip to the mound? Martinez doesn't have an answer for that yet.

"They're still working on what the penalty's going to be," he said. "And there's different variations, which we still didn't know about. I think in the next week or 10 days, we're actually going to get the real (final rules). Everything's still a work-in-progress. It's spring training, they're trying to work out the bugs.

"But they think it's going to go well, and I believe it's going to go really well. I don't think the rules itself are that bad, and I think it's going to help."

Martinez said he's not worried about the new rule affecting him or his pitching coach - research, he said, showed an average of four trips per game from someone in the dugout to the mound - but he admits those most affected will be infielders and catchers, who are going to have to constantly remind themselves to avoid a mound conference unless it's absolutely necessary.

"Now with that being said, if the player wants to go get the rosin (bag) or clean his spikes, that's not a mound visit," Martinez said. "It's only stopping the game at any point in time where they're going to (count it). And they'll tell the players: 'Hey, careful, cause this might be considered a trip,' and then they're allowed to go back."

There haven't been too many instances yet this spring that brought the matter to the forefront. Umpires have been signaling to dugouts and the press box whenever there is a mound visit, but teams haven't come close to the six-visit limit yet.

If anything, both sides are still learning from each other how this is all going to work, and what exceptions will be made.

"That's what they're working on right now in spring training," Martinez said. "We've had a great dialogue with umpires so far in the games. And they've been willing to communicate with us and tell us what would be considered a trip or not a trip. So it's been good."