CHICAGO -- Gabe Kapler has repeated the mantra so many times in three years that he paused and smiled as he was about to say it again Friday at Wrigley Field.
"One more time," he cracked, before going into the staff's three core pitching philosophies.
"They are 'pound the zone', they are 'know your plan,' and finally, as it relates to this, it's 'push the pace,' he said.
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The last one will be more important than ever moving forward. Major League Baseball announced on Friday that new rules will be implemented for the 2023 season, and they will have a huge impact on the game. A pitch clock is coming for the first time, bases are getting slightly larger to prevent injuries and potentially juice base-stealing, and the shift is being eliminated.
The Giants have about another month of baseball to play under the current rules, but they are already starting to give plenty of thought to how they'll need to adjust. In one key area, they already have a leg up.
When it comes to pace, the Giants currently have four of the top 13 fastest-working pitchers in baseball, including Sam Long who leads the Majors at 12.6 seconds between pitches. That doesn't even include Alex Wood, who ranks 28th and has helped others on staff work faster, but it does include Logan Webb, who ranks 10th. Webb and Camilo Doval are the team's two best young pitchers and both have worked hard to improve their pace on the mound.
"Pushing the pace is something that we believe in strongly as both a way to keep the defense on their toes -- and we've seen the opposite of that at times this year when the game gets a little bit slow and we're not able to make a big play potentially as a result of things moving very slowly -- and I think we've seen that when our guys get on the mound and deliver the baseball, good things tend to happen," Kapler said. "Our pitchers both in our organization and at the Major League level are already trained to push the pace and I think it's a good thing for us."
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Starting next year, pitchers will have up to 15 seconds between pitches when the bases are empty and 20 seconds when there's at least one runner on base. Hitters must be in the batter's box with at least eight seconds remaining on the clock, but they do get one timeout per plate appearance. Slightly tighter rules have been in place in the minors this year and MLB says games have been reduced by 26 minutes while there's also been an increase in action on the field, including an uptick in stolen-base attempts.
According to MLB, the most recent tracking period included just 0.45 pitch timer violations per game. Right-hander Cole Waites, who has spent this entire year in the minors before joining the taxi squad Friday, said he's been called for going over time just once. That was enough.
"When you're on a roll, the pitch clock helps you just continue to go and go and go," he said. "But if you find yourself struggling, there's really no time to take a second and reset. So, there's a balance to it."
The bigger bases -- from 15 square inches to 18 -- are meant for player health, with MLB saying base-related injuries are down 13.5 percent in the minors this season. That rule will also help base-stealers.
The biggest adjustment for teams will be the shift, and the Giants are near the top of the list when it comes to organizations with adjustments to make. They have been awful defensively, but the one area of success has been positioning. They have ranked in the top five nearly all season long in Defensive Runs Saved because of the shift.
Under the new rules, two infielders must be on each side of second base when the pitch is released and all four infielders must have both feet on the infield. Kapler thought the shift rules are "super interesting on so many levels."
"We always say that when new rules come we want to be good within the construct of those rules. It's immediately an opportunity to get a competitive advantage," he said. "How can we be creative with the new things that we have? The shift is a major change in baseball. I think it changes roster construction to some degree, I think it might even change where you decide to place your outfielders as a result of infielders moving spots and not being able to go back and forth across the diamond and because they're not going to be on the outfield grass. It's all really fascinating and exciting."
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The Giants will have to get more athletic, but that was going to be a key this offseason anyway. They also will have to figure out what kind of impact the new rules will have on their hitters, and a lot of the lefties should see an immediate benefit.
Joc Pederson has been shifted on 80 percent of his plate appearances this year. He pointed out that the shift used to be for guys like Barry Bonds or David Ortiz.
"It has turned into everybody, which I think is overload," Pederson said. "If you get that type of hitter to bunt or change their swing (by shifting them) then I would say that you've won because that's a guy who can drive the ball out of the ballpark and you'd be getting them to change their swing and maybe get out, maybe have a single at best case. And if they do do that, then most power hitters are not ones that steal bases, so then it's a base-to-base guy. I think you'd be winning by getting an elite power hitter to change their approach."
Pederson and others will be rewarded much more often next year on hard grounders and liners to the pull side. Teams will adjust and find new ways to position their fielders, but at the very least, there should be a bit more offense and a lot of happy hitters.
"It sucks hitting a line drive to right field and Manny Machado catches it," Pederson said. "It's not fun."