Report: Proposal to shorten inning breaks being discussed

Last week the news broke that baseball was planning to implement a pitch clock in Double-A and Triple-A next season. Now MLB has come up with another proposal to consider as they continue to look for ways to speed up the game

Here’s the report from Jayson Stark of ESPN.com:

Under a new proposal by Major League Baseball, pitchers would be required to finish their warm-up pitches and be ready to make their first pitch of an inning 30 seconds before the end of all between-inning commercial breaks. Similarly, hitters would have to be in the batter’s box, ready to start their at-bats, 20 seconds before the end of each break.

League officials estimate that a swift return from commercial breaks — supposed to last no more than 2 minutes, 5 seconds for games that aren’t nationally televised — would shorten game times by 10 to 15 minutes.

The pitch clock, a potential change that doesn’t sit well with established players like Jon Lester, was used in 17 games in the Arizona Fall League and games were on average 10 minutes shorter than AFL games from the year before.

With average game lengths reaching a record three hours and eight minutes in 2014, these two ideas are just a starting point for MLB and its “Pace of Game” committee.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr