New Major League Baseball rules aimed at speeding up the game and encouraging more action seem to be having an effect after the first week and a half of the season.
The collective batting average is up 16 points, stolen bases have shot up 30% and average game time is down 31 minutes, shaping up to be the lowest in the majors since 1984.
MLB mandated the restrictions on special defensive formations in the infield, the use of the pitch clock and the use of wider bases from the first day of the campaign after a trial period in the minors and another trial in spring training this year.
Pitchers have received two-thirds of the penalties for delays with the stopwatch. Clock infractions were up slightly last week in contrast to the first weekend, but averaged less than one per game.
The batting average in the majors is .249, up from .233 at the start of last season, when cold weather contributed to a poor offensive showing. Last year’s average rose to .24 at the end of the campaign, the lowest since 1968.
Right-handed hitters accumulated a .253 average, up from .236 at the start of last year. Left-handers climbed to .245 after a .228.
Matt Chapman, right-handed hitter for the Toronto Blue Jays, leads the majors with a .475 average. Venezuelan Luis Arráez, the Miami left-hander who won the American League batting title with Minnesota last year, is second at .471,
Paul Goldschmidt and the St. Louis Cardinals lead all teams with a .294 record.
The average length of a nine-inning game fell back to 2 hours and 38 hours after 3:09 in the first 11 days of last year, when the final average was 3:04. The average has remained flat after the first four days and is aiming to be the lowest since 2:35 in 1984.
There have been 125 pitch clock infractions in 141 games, an average of 0.89 per game. The average over the first four days was 0.82.
Eighty-eight of the infractions were by pitchers (68%), 32 by hitters (25.6%) and four by catchers (3.2%). There were also two infractions for improper pauses by batters and two for pitchers leaving the mound.
No penalties were assessed for improper defensive formations.
Stolen bases averaged 1.3 per game, an increase of 1. The effectiveness of the attempt was up 79.5% from 74%.
Despite protests from ballplayers, MLB approved using a pitch clock of 15 seconds with no runners on and 20 seconds with runners on. They also require two infielders on each side of second base and that the infielder be inside the infield boundary when the pitcher is on the mound.
The bases grew to 18 inches (45 centimeters) from the 15 inches (38 centimeters) previously as a safety measure.