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Manfred talks Pace of Play plans

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(Photo: John Raoux, AP)

Commissioner Manfred has proposed new "Pace of Play" rules for 2018.

With Spring Training camps due to open in less than three weeks, there could be a new set of rules that players may be playing under.  Speaking earlier today at the Owners Meetings, he suggested a number of proposed rules that would hopefully bring the players association back to the bargaining table, as well as potentially reducing the dragging pace of games.
The rule changes that Manfred is proposing are that rather than implementing a "20 second pitch" clock like he had been rumored to be doing, he is offering  a proposal  that would involve no pitch clock this year or in 2019, provided the average time of a nine-inning game does not exceed 2 hours, 55 minutes.   The other two rule changes, Manfred has proposed are putting a  limit on mound visits as well as reinforcing the rule of keeping batters within the batter's box.
First, In regards to the pitch-clock,  If the procedures work, and the game times are reduced by 10 minutes, to 2:55, Manfred promised that there wouldn’t be a pitch clock in 2019, either. Reduce it to 2:50 in 2019, and there will be no pitch clock in 2020.
The second topic of Manfred's proposal is the constant mound visits by a player or coach.   Mound visits have been a real drain on the pace of play of baseball games, whether it's a pitching coach coming out to talk to a pitcher, or a catcher or other teammate taking time to come to the mound to discuss something.  So by offering to put limits on these visits to six per game, regardless of whoever visited the pitcher, it could speed up the game a little bit.
The final proposed rule, is actually the reinforcing of an already existing rule, that of keeping batters within the batter's box.  This rule was created and implemented prior to start  2016 season.  Yet last season due to whatever reasons, it wasn't as well enforced by the umpires, to keep batters in the box.
Simply put, the players have until the start of spring training camps which open on February 12th, to accept Manfred's proposals. Yet, if the players don’t negotiate an agreement, and dare Manfred to unilaterally implement his rule changes,  Manfred would likely have no other choice then to call the Players associations bluff.
Manfred who under the current CBA, can as commissioner solely implement the new rules with or without consent from the MLBPA, but as stated before, he would rather work with the Players Association and their leader Tony Clark, to find an agreement to these proposals, than forcing this rules without agreement.
Manfred speaking earlier today, announced that he plans on implementing his new "Pace of Play" rules prior to Spring Training Games starting on February 22nd.

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