Pitch clock changes baseball

[Anchor]

The 'pitch clock,' which has been officially introduced to shorten the duration of professional baseball games, is leading to various changes starting from the exhibition games.

Amid positive reviews for its smooth introduction, reporter Lee Mu-hyeong investigated whether there are areas for improvement.

[Report]

On the first day of the exhibition games, SSG veteran Noh Kyung-eun experienced the most bewildering moment in his 23-year professional career.

While the sign exchange device 'PitchCom' malfunctioned and he couldn't decide on a pitch type, time was quickly running out.

[Commentary: "In the meantime, the pitch clock is counting down. 3 seconds, 2 seconds, 1 second, ball!"]

Ultimately, Noh Kyung-eun became the first player to receive a 'pitch clock' penalty for failing to pitch within 25 seconds with a runner on base.

[Noh Kyung-eun/SSG: "Once I got caught for a violation, it made me more alert. The coach said it was okay and it's actually a good thing and joked about why I was avoiding him...I said, 'I never avoided you.']

So far, there have been a total of nine pitch clock violations in the 20 exhibition games held.

Among those, in seven at-bats where the pitcher had a ball, over 40% of those at-bats resulted in walks.

The pitch clock has even eliminated the famous tap dance of Kim Won-jung.

Kim Won-jung completed most of his pitches in about 10 seconds with concise movements during this year's exhibition games, reducing his pitching time by nearly half compared to last year when he violated the pitch clock 154 times.

[Kim Won-jung/Lotte pitcher: "I don't think there will be any problems once the season starts. I think if the tempo speeds up a bit more, it might become a bit more difficult for the batters."]

Currently, the average game time for the exhibition games is 2 hours and 51 minutes, showing a noticeable effect of time reduction, but some issues have also been identified.

In some baseball stadiums, the pitch clocks in the infield have been installed too far off on both sides.

I will personally check the pitchers' view from the mound.

When the pitcher looks towards the catcher to throw the ball, it's inconvenient as the pitch clock is not visible at a glance.

After confirming the opinions from the field, the KBO has decided to relocate the pitch clocks in stadiums like Suwon that have requested adjustments before the start of the regular season.

Additionally, since there is no limit on the number of times pitchers can step off the pitching plate, there are views that we need to observe further whether there will be a practical effect on time reduction in the regular season, where wins and losses are crucial.

This is KBS News, Lee Mu-hyeong.