It was this afternoon that the preseason games took off in major league baseball. There were the Red Sox facing off against a university, sure, but if you look at the matchups in the cacti, there were, for the first time, MLB teams going against each other with a pitching dial.
And the result, my faith, was striking.
You will tell me that we are only talking about two matches and that these are exhibition duels, but still: the longest match lasted 2:33.
The other? 2:29. We are far from the usual three hours.
For those who are visual and weren’t able to see the duels, here’s a look at one of the day’s matches.
We can clearly see that the pace is very strong and the pitchers are not running after time since we often saw guys throwing when there were many seconds left on the clock.
Obviously, humans are resistant to change, which is why many people don’t like it. But when you see the pace increase, you realize its benefits.
Remember that the 24-second dial saved basketball, in time. Sometimes it takes change to change the dynamic.
Obviously, we are only in the first preparatory matches. There are still adjustments to be made, which is completely normal.
Even batters will have to do it. Manny Machado, for example, became the first batter in history to get a strike because he wasn’t ready with eight seconds left.
But as a rule, the guys liked it. They still have a few weeks left to be fully prepared for the season.
I can’t wait to see the results tomorrow, when there are only two games left between Major League opponents on the field. But so far, the people following the ball overwhelmingly like the result on the pitch.
