![]() ![]() It also requires batters to be in the box and ready to hit when the clock hits eight seconds. The most obvious is the installation of a “ pitch clock,” requiring pitchers to throw within 15 seconds of receiving the ball from the catcher or 20 seconds if runners are on base. The process led to a series of rule changes, some subtle and others more significant, that debuted this season and that MLB hopes will improve the fan experience and the quality of the game. Through 8,000 minor league games over two years, they collected data to measure what each of these changes would produce and to expose unintended consequences. With that clear direction, Epstein and his colleagues set out to develop and beta test a host of ideas to improve the pace and action of play, compress game times and create greater opportunities for players to display their athleticism. ![]() “The things that fans like the least are pitching changes, mound visits and anything that stands around without action.” “If you look at… the actual events in a game that fans like the most, there’s things like stolen bases, base hits, doubles, triples, great defensive plays,” Epstein says. Some common themes emerged loud and clear. The project began by gathering extensive feedback from fans and other stakeholders. The average age of the World Series viewer? 56 years old.” And our numbers as an industry began to suffer a little bit with our younger fans. The way the game was evolving unintentionally was antithetical to the sensibilities of the next generation. “That amount of patience does not necessarily exist in Gen Z. “We got to the point where, on average, a fan had to wait more than four minutes… between balls in play,” Epstein told me on the podcast. For Manfred, the urgency wasn’t just a matter of lost aesthetics, but baseball’s long-term survival. MLB's new rules: Fans wanting a faster pace game are going to get it, says three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlanderīut now Epstein, 49, is wearing a different hat, and hoping to expiate his unintended sins against a sport that has been his lifelong passion.Īs a consultant to Major League Baseball since leaving the Cubs in 2021, Epstein has been part of a group charged by Commissioner Rob Manfred with exploring ways to reclaim and enliven the game without trespassing on its time-honored traditions. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) Norm Hall/Getty Images North America/Getty Images GOODYEAR, AZ - FEBRUARY 25: Jose Trevino #71 of the Texas Rangers catches a warm up pitch as the pitch clock ticks down during the third inning of a spring training game against the Cleveland Indians at Goodyear Ballpark on Februin Goodyear, Arizona. ![]() “The role of the general manager lends itself to thinking about every single thing you can do to squeeze out one more win for your team… You don’t have time to sit back and think about the aesthetic value of the game or even the entertainment value of the game.” “Guilty as charged,” he told me when I asked about his role in inadvertently mucking up the national pastime. But looking back, the high-tech tools Epstein helped develop also may have led to contests that were often greater in length and shorter on action, guided more by computer-dictated stratagems than the instincts, daring or talents of the players on the field. These “optimizations” helped his teams win and spawned many imitators. “We were just looking to optimize the way players were used on the field, optimize strategies, optimize positioning, optimize training,” he told me on a special episode of “The Axe Files” podcast, released Thursday, the opening day of the baseball season. The algorithms he and his crew of baseball-loving math nerds developed touched on every aspect of the game. Judging from the early returns, the answers are yes and yes.Īs a young baseball executive, Epstein became a legend by bringing championships to the title-starved Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs through the use of advanced data analytics, which gave his teams an edge. Can Theo Epstein, the sports whiz who built three World Series champions by mining data, use the same tools to help save Major League Baseball?Īnd will baseball purists like me, stubborn in our ways, embrace the rule changes that Epstein and baseball’s poobahs are installing to pep up the game for a new generation? ![]()
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