This story from BaseballAmerica is about pitch clocks being used in the minor leagues, but considering pace of play/time of game is not specific to the minor leagues, I figured I would post it here in the MLB forums.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/new-rules-dramatically-sped-up-last-nights-milb-games/
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/new-rules-dramatically-sped-up-last-nights-milb-games/
Last night, a new stricter enforcement of pitch clocks (14 seconds with bases empty and 18 seconds with runners on base) and rules that require hitters to remain in the batter’s box began to be enforced around the minors. And while it’s only day one of a season-long experiment, the results were dramatic.
On their first day of enforcement, the new rules appeared to cut more than 25 minutes from the average game time.
Last night across the minors, the average game time for a nine-inning game was 2:38 and the median game time was 2:34. For the previous week of games, the average game time for a nine-inning game was 3:04 and the median game time was 2:59.
Data on MiLB average time of game goes back to 2005. Last night’s average of 2:38 across the full minors is faster than the average nine-inning game time for any level in any year since measurements began. At the major league level, the last time the average nine-inning game was less than 2:38 was 1985.