Pace of play reaction from Arizona Fall League

Major League Baseball is looking into the length of games and studying to see if there is a way to speed up the contests without affecting the quality of play.

This fall, MLB implemented pace of play rules in select Arizona Fall League games.

There is a 20-second pitch clock and a time limit between innings of 125 seconds. There also are no-pitch intentional walks and only three meetings allowed at the mound.

Mesa Solar Sox coach Patrick Anderson, who is the manager for the low Single-A Hagerstown Suns in the Nationals farm system, believes it is an interesting idea.

"I am intrigued by it," Anderson said, "because I really want to see how it speeds up the game. We were fortunate where we had some pretty good pitching this year. I kept looking at the boxscores of our games and they were like 2 hours, 30 minutes, 2:20, 2:30, 2:35, at the most 2:45.

"Once you start getting into games that are three-plus (hours) and all that type of stuff, I get it with the fans. I understand it. They're trying to do some things."

Anderson has spoken with other coaches in the league who have played games under the new pace of play rules.

"It hasn't been a nuisance really," Anderson said. "They are just kind of going through the trial-and-error phase right now. The umpires are trying to get a feel for how to do it. We haven't played over in Salt River. Because that's the place where they have the time clocks. They really regulate it a little more."

The Solar Sox's first game at Salt River Fields this season will be Oct. 27.

Checking the boxscores for Salt River home games this fall, they have had only four games at home, so it is a small sample size, but they had one game that went 2:14 and another that lasted 2:28. They other two went 2:56 and 3:12 (11 innings).

Other games with no pitch clock have ranged from 2:33 to 2:51 to 3:03. It is still too early to draw a conclusion, but we will see how the Mesa team reacts next Monday following a full game at Salt River.