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Murphy: Bullpen key to speeding up games

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Want to make Major League Baseball more enjoyable to watch? Want to do it in a way that achieves the commissioner's long-held desire to quicken the pace of its games while also respecting the old-school sensibilities of die-hard traditionalists?

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Want to make Major League Baseball more enjoyable to watch? Want to do it in a way that achieves the commissioner's long-held desire to quicken the pace of its games while also respecting the old-school sensibilities of die-hard traditionalists?

There's a solution, and it's simpler than you believe.

Granted, that might not seem like the case at the moment. Over the last year, MLB's pace-of-game initiative has become like that game where you go into a bathroom and light a candle and attempt to summon a spirit by saying its name a bunch of times. In fact, we might not want to give the players and owners any ideas, considering their latest brainstorm, which aims to speed up games by eliminating the requirement that pitcher throw four balls when issuing an intentional walk.

Considering that an intentional walk occurred only once every 2.6 games in 2016, the move figures to shave a whopping 23 seconds off the average length of a nine-inning game, assuming the league is correct in its assessment that eliminating the courtesy pitches will save about a minute of time. While the owners and players have yet to announce the signal that will be used to issue a free pass, the obvious choice is some sort of wanking motion, because that's pretty much what the new rule will amount to.

In fairness, commissioner Rob Manfred had few options at his disposal for 2017, given the players' union's resistance to the more substantial changes he'd hoped to implement, including a pitch clock that has been credited with making a noticeable dent in the time of game at the minor league level. But even when 2018 arrives, and the league no longer needs the players' permission to install the new rules, the reluctance of both sides to make any significant alterations to the actual structure of games means fans will be watching a product that, at best, saves themselves a couple of extra flicks to whatever Seinfeld rerun happens to be playing.

To make a meaningful impact, baseball should look at where its largest blocks of inaction reside: the bullpen. Specifically, the nonstop shuttling of lefty and righty relief specialists into and out of games, batter by batter, inning by inning, commercial break by commercial break. That might sound like heresy to those who have watched managers such as Tony La Russa, Joe Girardi, Terry Francona and Bruce Bochy work their matchups over the last decade or so. But for the vast majority of baseball's history, the sport was not played this way.

In 1988, the average team finished the season with 282 games in relief (combined appearances by their relievers). In 2016, that number sat at 510, the latest in a steady rise that has seen relief appearances nearly double over the last couple of decades:

1993: 368

1998: 399

2003: 432

2008: 472

2013: 484

Relievers are pitching more frequently than ever, but the length of their appearances has been moving in the reverse direction. In 1988, the average appearance by an individual reliever lasted 4.5 outs. In 2016, it was 3.1.

1993: 3.7

1998: 3.5

2003: 3.4

2008: 3.2

2013: 3.0

In 1988, the average team had only 68 relief appearances in which a pitcher recorded fewer than three outs. In 2016, that number was 142.

1988: 68

1993: 105

1998: 115

2003: 120

2008: 131

2013: 147

One of the initiatives the league would like to implement is a limit on the number of visits to the mounds by catchers. Phillies manager Pete Mackanin gave that one a thumbs-up Wednesday when he met with reporters after practice.

"It's always been a pet peeve of mine, why they go out there so much," he said. "I get it. You want to make sure you have it right. But I think we should be well-versed enough and practiced in giving signs. We shouldn't have to go out there."

But why not take it one step further? Nothing takes longer than the song-and-dance of a pitching change. The manager trots out to the mound, signals to the bullpen, another reliever runs in, kicks the dirt, grips the rosin bag, throws the warmup pitches. Then, one or two batters later, we do it all again.

The solution?

Require any reliever who enters a game to face a minimum of three batters before another pitching change can be made. The only problem I can see is that, from the owners' perspectives, all of those pitching changes mean more commercial breaks, and thus more ad revenue. But, then, if that really is the problem, we're never going to get to where we want to be anyway.

dmurphy@phillynews.com

@ByDavidMurphy