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WAITING GAME

As home runs and strikeouts have increased, so has the time it takes players to prepare for every battle within an at bat, resulting in a game that's changed significantly in recent years.

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

YEAR

AVG TIME BETWEEN PITCHES (SECONDS)

TOTAL NUMBER OF PITCHES

TOTAL DEAD MINUTES

GAMES PLAYED

DEAD MINUTES PER GAME

2007

21.5

712,125

255,178.1

2431

104.9

2008

21.6

714,136

257,088.9

2428

105.8

2009

21.4

717,053

255,748.9

2430

105.2

2010

21.5

710,398

254,559.2

2430

104.7

2011

21.6

707,845

254,824.2

2429

104.9

2012

22.1

705,321

259,793.2

2430

106.9

2013

22.6

709,916

267,401.6

2431

109.9

2014

23.0

704,976

270,240.8

2430

111.2

2015

22.1

702,307

2586,83.0

2429

106.4

2016

22.7

715,823

270,819.7

2427

111.5

2017

23.8

293,717

116,507.7

989

117.8

DATA FROM FANGRAPHS, WHICH MEASURES THE SECONDS BETWEEN PITCHES FOR BOTH HITTERS AND PITCHERS BASED ON PITCHF/X TIMESTAMPS

SLOWEST PITCHER

MATT SHOEMAKER

Angels

26.7

SLOWEST HITTER

MARWIN GONZÁLEZ

Astros

29.4