Yesterday Othani had pitch clock violations as both a pitcher and a batter so cross that off the first time list.
Posted by
JD (aka Jason Dean)
Apr 6 '23, 10:55
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Which I'm guessing didn't make Jayson Stark's column only due to timing
Top 10 MLB pitch-clock violations of the 2023 season (so far)
Once upon a time in baseball, we all knew the umpires and their options in life.
Safe or out.
Ball or strike.
That pretty much covered, like, 98 percent of their job. And then came this year, when the wacky world of the pitch timer entered the equation. So now, these umpires need to spend every pitch of every game in baseball’s version of a speed trap.
That pitch timer just keeps on ticking … 300 freaking times a day. And when it ticks one time too many, you know what that means.
Time for a not-speeding ticket. Your license and registration, please?
So in honor of the first week of pitch-clock baseball, here they come … The Top 10 MLB Pitch-Clock Violations of 2023 (so far):
10. Juan Soto managed to cram in a timeout and a clock violation Sunday on the same pitch (which, of course, was never actually thrown).
9. I think Mets pitcher Carlos Carrasco actually topped him, though — by committing a violation before his first pitch of the season!
8. Braves pitcher Collin McHugh issued a walk in which he didn’t know the count, because he was still trying to figure out whether he’d gotten nailed for a timer violation.
7. We’ve had several PitchCom-related misdemeanors. But here’s the best of all: Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah got nabbed with a violation on Opening Day because his catcher, Alejandro Kirk, didn’t insert the PitchCom earpiece in his ear correctly.
6. Camilo Doval’s first save of the season for the Giants included pitch-clock violations in the at-bats that produced all three outs he recorded (one before the first pitch of a strikeout of Aaron Hicks, and another in the middle of an at-bat that wound up producing a game-ending double play).
5. The Mets’ Mark Canha got rung up for a classic Strikeout Not Looking on Monday. And it was a first for him in more ways than one. Why did he not make it back into the batter’s box on time? He said it was because he was waiting for the scoreboard in Milwaukee to put up the velocity of the previous pitch — and instead, as he remembered it, the scoreboard just flashed: GO BREWERS!
4. Colorado’s Elehuris Montero, Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, went down in history as the first Strikeout Not Looking ever awarded for trying to call timeout twice in the same at-bat! Sorry, Elehuris. Only one TO per customer these days, so next time, remember to count to two.
The best part of that bizarre whiff (if “whiff” is the right word for a strikeout in which strike three was never thrown): Dodgers broadcast/quipster Orel Hershiser watched Montero get rung up and asked: “Do they throw the ball around (the infield)?”
3. More great (or not so great) moments in Strikeouts Not Looking:
• Rafael Devers on Opening Day at Fenway (more Fenway history!)
• Oakland’s Seth Brown on Monday in Oakland (more Coliseum history!)
• Miami multi-time offender Avisaíl García (the first hitter in history to rack up multiple clock not-speeding tickets)
• And finally, of course, the most ballyhooed of all, Manny Machado — with the first-ever Strikeout Not Looking/ejection daily double.
So what’s the new scorecard symbol for Strikeout Not Looking? Here’s how Phillies broadcaster Scott Franzke is handling it (with an upside-down K):
2. Another classic moment in Mets versus The Clock: Pete Alonso was such a slowpoke, literally walking back to first base after a foul ball on Opening Day, that his compadre Jeff McNeil was too busy watching him amble to get back in the box on time. So … that’s a non-speeding ticket for you!
1. Finally, it always pays to be friendly … unless there’s a pitch clock ticking! So last Friday, Mets catcher Tomás Nido chatted up Marlins hitter Nick Fortes so long and amiably before his at-bat, he got a first-pitch strike-one clock violation out of it!
And what’s the moral of these stories? It’s so obvious. Now, more than ever, you can’t turn back the hands of time!
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