Rozner: Will saving minutes really save baseball?

Twice in two innings Saturday night, Jake Arrieta and Willson Contreras got crossed up, the ball hitting off the catcher's glove each time as he expected a different throw from his pitcher.

It was Game No. 87 and it was in the early innings. Imagine if it were October and the eighth inning with the game on the line.

If commissioner Rob Manfred has his way, catchers will be limited in the number of mound visits beginning next season.

And a mistake in communication could determine a winner or loser in the World Series.

But it will save 20 seconds.

The pace-of-game conversation has taken over the game, with a rule probably in place next season that will limit a catcher to one visit per inning.

There are rumors of several others, like a pitch clock and a return to strikes called just under the knee.

Whatever.

Artificially load the bases in extra innings, start every hitter on a 3-2 count and have pitchers throw off flat ground if you want.

It all misses the point.

The pace of the game has changed because the game has changed.

Pitchers are throwing harder and hitters are taking more pitches.

Pitchers have not been taught to go deeper into games and the bullpen is filled with specialists, so pitching changes are all the rage.

The shift eliminates hits, and hitters - with rare exceptions - are not willing to take what the fielders give them.

Hitters have learned that launch angle means more home runs and they're willing to strike out more and hit more popouts while trying to bash the baseball.

Baseball is going through a cycle where there is less action on the field during a game, and the game times are going up at the same time.

But it's a cycle. It's likely to change as the smartest in the game figure out how to take down the flavor of the day.

In the meantime, Manfred wants immediate solutions, as if fundamental changes will get more young people interested in the game.

Change is fine. In fact, change is good … if the changes are good.

But this seems more like desperation and change for the sake of it. Maybe it saves a few minutes a game, but there's more at stake here.

Ask someone who actually works for a baseball team and they'll tell you that they are frightened by what this could mean to a team in contention at a moment when a pitcher needs a few extra seconds to compose himself, or when a catcher needs to make certain he's on the same page as his pitcher.

There are jobs and dollars at stake.

Tampa's Alex Cobb averages 26 seconds between pitches, and he told The Associated Press that he's not crazy about a pitch clock.

"If you talk about 20 seconds to release the ball, I don't like that," Cobb told the AP. "There's so much that goes on, thinking as a pitcher. It takes time to weigh your options."

The easy answer is to just be better at your job, but that's not something you'll hear from most who play, or have played, the game professionally.

"In some games, the catcher doesn't even go out there," former catcher and longtime Angels manager Mike Scioscia told the AP. "But when it's needed, sometimes you're out there twice in a situation because it's going to help the execution and the decision-making process that a pitcher/catcher go through.

"If you have to go out there and change your signs in a key situation, you should be able to do that."

Said San Francisco's Buster Posey, "Sometimes I'll run out and make sure we're on the same page with the signals if the runner gets on second. I'll usually do that and be back at the plate before the batter's even ready."

Will kids be more likely to watch a game now because the automatic intentional walk saves a minute a week?

"The rhetoric needs to change from, 'How do you speed the game up?' to 'Let's just go back to enjoying the game for what it is,'" said the Giants Jeff Samardzija. "If we can cut out a little bit of the commercial break, then so be it.

"Put some ads on the scoreboard on the TV in the top left corner, cut a minute out from commercials and I think we'll be all right. But other than that, just buy another beer and enjoy the game."

As has been stated here before, you get kids interested in the game by having them play the game, and they'll go to more games if they can afford to go to more games.

The rest of the proposed changes will solve little other than saving a few minutes a game and allowing the commissioner to take credit for it.

Congrats.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.