Baseball committee to experiment with 20 second pitch clock, could be used in 2016 if approved

[Duggie35]

That means that every ballpark would have to have a clock visible to both the pitcher (behind home plate) and the catcher (out in center field). How are they going then to regulate timeouts? Currently, there's no limit to timeouts, and they're strictly granted by the umpire at his/her discretion. This is going to be an odd rule to enforce. Can you imagine how many baserunners are going to work to distract a pitcher just to get him to go over the 20 second limit? How many more trips to the mound are pitching coaches going to take in order to prevent the clock running out? This is going to be interesting.

There are limits to timeouts. Coaches are only allowed to make 3 visits to the mound during a regulation game. More than one in an inning to the same pitcher requires a pitching change and each visit after the aloted 3 requires a pitching change. So if a team has unlimited pitching, I guess you could say there is an unlimited number of time outs. But I am not aware of any team that has unlimited pitching.

Other than this, it is the umpires discretion as whether a time out is granted or not. Players can only "request" time.

[CajunDreDog]

I am pretty sure this is already a rule in the

SEC

For the past several years, it has been. There is actually a pitch clock on the outfield wall that the ump and catcher can both see in all SEC stadiums.

[CajunDreDog]

The SEC rule has been that the clock was not on if any runners were on base, and was only used when the bases were empty.

[Duggie35]

I am pretty sure this is already a rule in the

SEC

This rule has been in effect for several years now in all of college baseball with no runners on base. However, the SEC has been the only conference with an actual clock visible to everyone. The third base umpire has been responsible for keeping the time (stopwatch) for all other games and conferences.

I can tell you that UL's pitchers have rarely had a problem pitching within these time limits.

[Boomer]

There are limits to timeouts. Coaches are only allowed to make 3 visits to the mound during a regulation game. More than one in an inning to the same pitcher requires a pitching change and each visit after the aloted 3 requires a pitching change. So if a team has unlimited pitching, I guess you could say there is an unlimited number of time outs. But I am not aware of any team that has unlimited pitching.

Other than this, it is the umpires discretion as whether a time out is granted or not. Players can only "request" time.

----Duggie --I played at Jesuit HS under coach Kevin Trower and how many times I heard about "Requesting" a TO!!!