Corbin Burnes has been very outspoken so far about the addition of the pitch clock this season and has been aggressively pursuing an advantage with the rules.
With opening day two weeks away, Major League Baseball has altered the wording within the pitch clock rules. On Monday, Burnes expressed his frustration after he learned of the new point of emphasis while out on the mound.
When the pitch clock rules first came out, pitchers couldn’t throw the ball until the hitter fully engaged them. Hitters have until eight seconds on the pitch clock to do this. With this wording, a pitcher could be set on the mound prior to the eight second mark and they could immediately throw once the hitter engaged them.
Some pitchers tried to exploit this by throwing as soon as the pitch clock reached eight seconds remaining. In theory, this isn’t a violation on the pitcher because the hitter had to be ready and engaged by that time anyway.
Major League Baseball’s response to this was to change the rule to say that pitchers can’t come set until the batter is fully engaged in the box. Burnes argues that this gives an advantage to the batter because it takes a pitcher a few seconds to become set, which then leaves pitchers with less time to deliver a pitch and less time to pause on the mound and play with a hitters timing.
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