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