CLARITY OF PACE

In the wake of the new pace of play rules to be implemented this season in the MLB there are a few questions left to be asked. I was hoping to get some more information out of Commissioner Rob Manfred’s press conference from Arizona’s spring training media day but he seemed to skate around the direct questions posed to him. The biggest question for me is what is the penalty for going over the six mound visits that are allowed. Right now there does not seem to be a clear answer to that. Manfred only said today that the umpire will be responsible to “stop” that mound visit from happening. What does that mean? A stern, “Hey, you can’t do that!”? Or physically getting in between a position player and his pitcher? Without a clear penalty I’m not sure the players will obey the rule. One idea is that every mound visit after the sixth will force a pitching change, regardless of intent. This is harsh but will surely deter players from going over the allotted number of visits.