Strictly looking at it from a statistical perspective as a whole, the results are staggering. Game times as of this post are averaging 2 hours and 37 minutes, which is a 26 minute reduction from last year. This is the first year since 2015 that games have averaged under 3 hours and is the shortest average time in the last 15 years. In 2022, over 10% of games lasted at least 3 1/2 hours, and this year that number is less than 1%. Average time between plate appearances is also down more than 20 seconds, which if you add that up over even just the minimum 54 PAs amounts to 18 minutes by itself. There have also been only 170 automatic strikes called and 391 automatic balls called in over 264,000 pitches thrown league wide, which tells you that players have adjusted very quickly to the pitch clock. Stolen bases and stolen base attempts are also up a bit as a result of the larger bases and pitcher disengagement rules, but I don't think to the significant amount that was touted. There are on average 0.9 steal attempts per game in 2023, which is fractionally better than last year and the highest amount since 2012. As a point of reference, there has not been a year that averaged greater than 1 attempt per game since 1999, but while the number of attempts has not shifted dramatically, the success rate is up almost 5% which is not insignificant. The last major rule change this year was banning infield defensive shifts, which has resulted in an increase in batting average on ground balls to .250, which is not a huge jump from last year but if you separate out lefties who were the most impacted by the shift previously, their average has jumped over 10 points. Overall, league batting average is still way down in general from historical numbers, which is a greater reflection I think on the dominant pitching in today's game than any sort of shifting. I think it's too early to tell with some of these metrics, but there is no denying that when you add all of this up in total and consider that the overall goal of the rules was to increase pace of play and reduce the amount of time during a game where nothing is happening, I would call the overall package an unmitigated success (unless you ask any team's President of Business Operations about beer sales).
However, as with everything else in baseball, there are two sides to everything - there's the analytical side, but there is also the intuitive/human side. Anybody who has really been paying attention to baseball this year will notice two things immediately - poor defense and greater number of pitcher injuries. This is not a statistical thing I can back up or tie to any of the rule changes directly, but again it is that intuitive side of the game - it can't be a coincidence that defense appears worse and more pitchers seem to be getting injured in a year where there are pace of play and shifting rules implemented. Players seem to like the rules overall, but they are also creatures of habit and routine and undoubtedly they must be particularly taxing to pitchers.
If these rules are to stay around for a long time - and there's no reason to believe they won't - the biggest change of all will be fundamentally changing how the game is taught in the minor leagues. Pitchers today are taught to be max effort guys in short stints and rely on the strikeout. Defenses today are predicated on putting a player in the best spot on the field based on what the data tells you, and players having the "flexibility" to change positions on a regular basis. Hitters are taught today that contact is not important and should sell out for the homerun because that is what wins games, and more importantly, that is the stat that drives salary. Nobody is really taught how to steal bases or even how to run bases properly for that same reason. I think that all of those things are going to change in the coming years, and beyond pace of play, that is really what is at the heart of all of these rule changes - getting baseball back to the game it used to be 40 years ago. Action packed, lots of contact, speed, and defensive wizardry; in other words, athleticism. I can only speak most for my hometown team the Brewers, and they certainly seem to be ahead of the curve on a lot of this already. They are near the top of the league in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and steals, and they are near the bottom in strikeouts as a pitching staff, thanks in large part to a crop of rookies and ground ball pitchers.
It is always interesting to see how baseball evolves year to year and generation to generation as a sport, and I am eager to see how these rules will manifest themselves on the field in the next decade.
touch with baseball when his childhood heroes Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Jim Gantner retired but the Great Home Run Chase of 1998 reignited his passion. As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Erik became involved with the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. With this group Erik traveled to Portland, OR and Baltimore, MD to work on construction projects and help the group raise $25,000 to partially sponsor a house in Milwaukee. Also at UWM, Erik met Peter Nagel. The two attended their first Brewers game together during Opening Weekend 2003. Despite their failure to ignite the coals at their first tailgate, the two had a blast and were soon making weekly trips to the ballpark. Erik has gone on to several colleges and changed careers several times, and has moved all the way out to New Hampshire, but has always stayed true to his baseball roots by holding part-time stadium usher jobs. To this day he looks back fondly on his incredible cross-country journey.
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