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