Is the pitch clock causing more injuries? | Baseball Bar-B-Cast
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analysts Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman discuss sparring between the MLBPA and Major League Baseball over the shorter pitch clock and if it makes pitchers more injury-prone. Hear the full conversation on the “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
JAKE MINTZ: There is a belief among some players that the pitch clock implementation last year played a role in pitcher injuries because it allowed pitchers less time to recover in between each pitch. This year, the pitch clock, I believe, what another two seconds was kind of cut off with runners on base from 20 to 18 seconds. And the MLB Players Association issued a statement, along the lines of MLB's unilateral implementation of the pitch clock for 2024 has had some negative result in regards to elbow injuries.
JORDAN SHUSTERMAN: The league is very much looking at this. Now, what that actually means, and what that is actually going to lead to, again, this is not going to be resolved anytime soon. But it does seem like the league is looking into this.
And, unfortunately, the pitch clock is now center stage is like an easy thing to point at and be like, clearly, that's what's making things worse. But as we just said, this has been an issue for 10 years now. It was an issue long before we even knew the pitch clock was ever going to be a reality in Major League Baseball.
I believe that the pitch clock has very little to do with elbow injuries. Again, that's not based upon research I've done for decades. I want to be very clear. Like you should listen to what I just said and say, OK, cool. That's another data point. Let me go read a peer reviewed study or don't.
But I think that the league unilaterally implementing the pitch clock for this season without doing any research on the effects of that. After last season is a bad decision and potentially harmful. And the union has every right to be ticked off about that.
I also think it is somewhat-- I don't want to use the word irresponsible, but like I think it is somewhat shortsighted of the union response like Tony Clark's statement to draw a connection between these two things. Because I do think there is a legitimate argument that the new shorter, even shorter pitch clock is a bad thing. And the way it was implemented is bad. But I don't know if it's connected.
And I think there was a, again, I don't know. I have some skepticism about the connection there. And I think most people you talk to will believe that, too. And before we have any hard evidence on that, I'm skeptical to admit it.
But again, like the union is completely within their rights to be ticked off about the new pitch clock. Like I don't have any issue with that at all.