MLB Institutes Pace-of-Game Pitcher Warmup Rule to Prevent Stalling

Q: What do MLB manager Joes Girardi, Maddon and Torre all have in common?

A: They have all employed a strategy that, in 2012, will be illegal in baseball.

Earlier this offseason, MLB's Playing Rules Committee had proposed a modification to OBR 3.05, which governs pitchers and their substitutes. The tweak was recently approved by MLB, the players' and umpires' unions, meaning the new rule will take effect in 2012.

Under MLB's newest rule, managers will be prohibited from "sending his current pitcher out to warm up with no intention of having him pitch because a relief pitcher is not ready to enter the game."

MLB has recently taken a significant interest in finding ways to speed up the pace of the average baseball game, which currently runs about three hours. This Rule 3.05 modification is expected to limit managers' ability to stall in order to allow a cold reliever an opportunity to warm in the bullpen, before entering the game and receiving even more warmup pitches.

In other words, "last minute bullpen managing" will be a thing of the past and skippers will be forced to return to a time during which they had to plan ahead.

Specifically, during a Rays-Brewers game last June, Tampa Bay skipper Joe Maddon sent position player Sam Fuld out to the mound to begin the bottom of the eighth inning. Fuld had pinch hit for reliever J.P. Howell in the top half of the frame.

Fuld—who clearly wasn't going to pitch—threw several warmup tosses before being yanked for reliever Cesar Ramos, who had gotten warm in the Rays' pen as Fuld was completing his allotted warmup pitches.

Had the 3.05 rule change been in effect last season, Ramos would have had to enter the game while he was still cold.

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