It started out with a tweet I published following Sunday’s Orioles game, which took just two hours and 16 minutes to play, posing a question. What did fans think of the use of the pitch timer thus far?

Twitter didn’t disappoint in that I received a large amount of responses and I did not count up how many were positive or negative but there were plenty of both. It should come as no surprise that there were responses in the extremes – some that thought it was great and others that felt it was just terrible and ruining the game.

I would guess it’s way too soon to pass any real judgment, but I do thus far like the faster pace of play, quicker pace and shorter time of games.

Through Sunday and their first 10 spring training games, the Orioles had played six games lasting 2:40 or more and four that lasted 2:21 or less.

Through the 10 games, the average time of an O’s spring contest is two hours, 36 minutes. The average time of a game last year in the majors was 3:03 and it was 3:10 in 2021. The last year that a game time averaged under three hours was in 2015 at 2:56. So going with last year’s time and this year’s spring thus far, the O’s games are shorter from last year in MLB by 27 minutes.

SAN DIEGO - Angels manager Joe Maddon likes the idea of quickening the pace of the game. He doesn't like the idea of making relievers pitch to three batters or finish an inning before coming out of the game, a rule that Commissioner Rob Manfred might implement for 2020. "I don't like it. I haven't liked it from the beginning," Maddon said during his Winter Meetings press conference. "I don't quite get it. I'm all for messing with the pace of the game. I think that's important. "The...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Davey Martinez had sat through meetings with Joe Torre before, but only as a bench coach to Joe Maddon, and thus not as the primary point of contact between Torre (Major League Baseball's chief baseball officer) and his club. This morning's session at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, then, represented a new dynamic for Martinez, who was responsible for digesting everything Torre revealed regarding MLB's new pace of play rules and making sure any pertinent...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rob Manfred had been to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches only once before. Or, more specifically, he had been to the future site of The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches only once before. On Nov. 9, 2015, Major League Baseball's commissioner joined owners of both the Nationals and Astros to break ground on what at the time was an empty lot and former landfill. Construction crews faced a tight timeline - fewer than 16 months - to build not only the stadium but major and minor...

For six weeks, baseball's new pick-up-the-pace rules have been in place, and while the average time of game has been cut by nine minutes, the real question is this: Has anyone really noticed the quicker pace? "We don't want our players thinking about it,'' Nationals manager Matt Williams said. "But, there haven't been any issues.'' Toronto outfielder Jose Bautista agreed: "There's been no adjustments.'' And Orioles manager Buck Showalter wondered if a family of four who attends a...

Major League Baseball's enhanced pace-of-play initiatives have been in place since spring training, first in the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues and now at ballparks around the American and National leagues. A timer can be seen counting down at the end of each half inning. It is located below the giant video board in right-center field at Nationals Park and is used under these MLB guidelines: "Immediately following the third out of each half-inning, the timer will count down from 2:25 for...